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Harvard to OSCOLA converter

Paste Harvard references, get OSCOLA. Free, no sign-up.

Paste references written in Harvard and get them back in OSCOLA, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: author–date in-text citations become footnotes, your “Reference list” list becomes “Bibliography” and titles switch to title case. CiteSwap looks each reference up in the open Crossref catalogue, so authors, years and page numbers come from the publisher’s record rather than being rewritten by hand.

Harvard vs OSCOLA: the same sources side by side

Each example below was formatted by CiteSwap’s engine, exactly as the converter outputs it.

Journal article

Harvard

Suri, T. and Jack, W. (2016) ‘The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money’, Science, 354(6317), pp. 1288–1292. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

In-text: (Suri and Jack, 2016, p. 1290)

OSCOLA

Suri T and Jack W, ‘The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money’ (2016) 354 Science 1288 <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309>

Footnote: Tavneet Suri and William Jack, ‘The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money’ (2016) 354 Science 1288, 1290 <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309>.

Book

Harvard

Achebe, C. (1958) Things fall apart. London: Heinemann.

In-text: (Achebe, 1958, p. 1290)

OSCOLA

Achebe C, Things Fall Apart (Heinemann 1958)

Footnote: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Heinemann 1958) 1290.

Web page

Harvard

World Health Organization (2023) Malaria. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria (Accessed: 1 October 2026).

In-text: (World Health Organization, 2023, p. 1290)

OSCOLA

World Health Organization, ‘Malaria’ (4 December 2023) <https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria> accessed 1 October 2026

Footnote: World Health Organization, ‘Malaria’ (4 December 2023) 1290 <https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria> accessed 1 October 2026.

Key differences between Harvard and OSCOLA

12 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleHarvardOSCOLA
Reference list headingReference listBibliography
In-text citationsauthor and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016)footnotes: a superscript number in the text points to a footnote with the full citation; later notes use a short form or “ibid”
List orderAlphabetical by first author’s surnameSecondary sources alphabetically by first author’s surname, with cases and legislation in separate lists
Author namesSurname and initials, joined with “and”, e.g. Suri, T. and Jack, W.Footnotes give the name as written (Tavneet Suri); the bibliography gives surname and initials without full stops (Suri T)
Many authorsFour or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”More than three authors: first author followed by “and others”
DateStraight after the authors, in parentheses, with no full stop: (2016)In brackets: after the title for journal articles, (2016), and with the publisher for books, (Heinemann 1958)
Title capitalisationSentence caseTitle case
Article titlesIn single quotation marks, sentence caseIn single quotation marks, title case
ItalicsJournal names and book titlesBook titles (and case names); article titles and journal names are not italicised
Journal namesFull journal name in title caseFull journal name (or its standard abbreviation) after the volume number, not italicised
Page rangesFull page range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292First page only, e.g. 1288; pinpoint pages go in the footnote
DOIs and links“Available at:” before the DOI or URL, and “(Accessed: date)” for web pagesURLs in angle brackets, followed by the date you accessed them: <https://…> accessed 1 October 2026

When to use OSCOLA

OSCOLA is the standard for law essays, dissertations and journals in the UK and many common-law countries. CiteSwap formats secondary sources (articles, books, chapters and websites); cite cases and legislation by hand following the OSCOLA guide. It is published by the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford; CiteSwap follows the 4th edition (2012).

Harvard is more common in business, economics, the social sciences, while OSCOLA is usual in law, law schools in the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and other common-law countries. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

Harvard to OSCOLA: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Harvard citations to OSCOLA?

Paste your Harvard reference list into the box above (one reference per line, numbered, or separated by blank lines), check that “From” says Harvard or Auto-detect and “To” says OSCOLA, then press Convert. You can also paste DOIs, BibTeX or RIS. Copy the result or download it for Word.

How do in-text citations change from Harvard to OSCOLA?

Harvard uses author and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016). OSCOLA uses footnotes: a superscript number in the text points to a footnote with the full citation; later notes use a short form or “ibid”. A first footnote for the Suri and Jack article reads: Tavneet Suri and William Jack, ‘The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money’ (2016) 354 Science 1288, 1290 <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309>.

What is the reference list called in OSCOLA?

In Harvard the list is headed “Reference list”; in OSCOLA it is “Bibliography”. Change the heading when you paste the converted list into your document.

Does the order of my references change in OSCOLA?

Yes. Harvard: alphabetical by first author’s surname. OSCOLA: secondary sources alphabetically by first author’s surname, with cases and legislation in separate lists. CiteSwap sorts the converted list for you.

Do titles need different capitalisation in OSCOLA?

Yes. OSCOLA uses title case for article and book titles, so words like “Poverty” and “Gender” are capitalised. CiteSwap applies this automatically.

Is the Harvard to OSCOLA converter accurate?

Each reference is matched against the Crossref catalogue (over 150 million records) and only accepted automatically when the title, year and first author agree. Anything uncertain is marked “Needs review” so you can pick the right match, and references that aren’t in the catalogue, like websites or local journals, are parsed from your text and marked so you can check them.