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Harvard to Vancouver converter

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

Paste references written in Harvard and get them back in Vancouver, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: author–date in-text citations become numbered citations, your “Reference list” list becomes “References” and the list is numbered in the order of first citation. 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 Vancouver: 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)

Vancouver

Suri T, Jack W. The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science. 2016 Dec 9;354(6317):1288–92. doi:10.1126/science.aah5309

In-text: (1)

Book

Harvard

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

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

Vancouver

Achebe C. Things fall apart. London: Heinemann; 1958.

In-text: (1)

Web page

Harvard

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

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

Vancouver

World Health Organization. World Health Organization [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2026 Oct 1]. Malaria. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria

In-text: (1)

Key differences between Harvard and Vancouver

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleHarvardVancouver
Reference list headingReference listReferences
In-text citationsauthor and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016)a number in round brackets, square brackets or superscript, e.g. (1), in the order sources are first cited
List orderAlphabetical by first author’s surnameNumbered in the order of first citation
Author namesSurname and initials, joined with “and”, e.g. Suri, T. and Jack, W.Surname and initials without full stops, e.g. Suri T, Jack W
Many authorsFour or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”Seven or more authors: first six followed by “et al.”
DateStraight after the authors, in parentheses, with no full stop: (2016)After the journal name, with abbreviated month: 2016 Dec;354(6317):1288–92
Article titlesIn quotation marks, sentence casePlain text, sentence case
ItalicsJournal names and book titlesNothing: titles and journal names are plain text
Journal namesFull journal name in title caseAbbreviated journal name (NLM abbreviations), not italic
Page rangesFull page range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292Shortened range, e.g. 1288–92
DOIs and links“Available at:” before the DOI or URL, and “(Accessed: date)” for web pages“Available from:” before URLs, “[cited date]” for web pages, “doi:” for DOIs
Title capitalisation(same)Sentence caseSentence case

When to use Vancouver

Vancouver is the standard numbered style in medicine, nursing, dentistry and biomedical sciences, especially at UK, Australian and African universities. It is published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, following the US National Library of Medicine; CiteSwap follows the NLM Citing Medicine, 2nd edition.

Harvard is more common in business, economics, the social sciences, while Vancouver is usual in medicine, nursing, dentistry. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

Harvard to Vancouver: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Harvard citations to Vancouver?

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 Vancouver, 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 Vancouver?

Harvard uses author and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016). Vancouver uses a number in round brackets, square brackets or superscript, e.g. (1), in the order sources are first cited. For the same article and page: Harvard gives (Suri and Jack, 2016, p. 1290), Vancouver gives (1).

What is the reference list called in Vancouver?

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

Does the order of my references change in Vancouver?

Yes. Harvard: alphabetical by first author’s surname. Vancouver: numbered in the order of first citation. CiteSwap keeps the order you pasted, so paste them in the order you first cite them.

How are author names written in Vancouver?

Vancouver: Surname and initials without full stops, e.g. Suri T, Jack W. Harvard: Surname and initials, joined with “and”, e.g. Suri, T. and Jack, W. When a reference is matched in Crossref, CiteSwap uses full first names from the publisher’s record, so it can produce either form.

Is the Harvard to Vancouver 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.