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IEEE to Harvard converter

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

Paste references written in IEEE and get them back in Harvard, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: numbered in-text citations become author–date citations, your “References” list becomes “Reference list” and the list is alphabetical by first author’s surname. 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.

IEEE vs Harvard: the same sources side by side

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

Journal article

IEEE

T. Suri and W. Jack, “The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money,” Science, vol. 354, no. 6317, pp. 1288–1292, Dec. 2016, doi: 10.1126/science.aah5309.

In-text: [1, p. 1290]

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)

Book

IEEE

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

In-text: [1, p. 1290]

Harvard

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

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

Web page

IEEE

World Health Organization, “Malaria.” Accessed: Oct. 01, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria

In-text: [1, p. 1290]

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)

Key differences between IEEE and Harvard

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleIEEEHarvard
Reference list headingReferencesReference list
In-text citationsa number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned in the order sources are first citedauthor and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016)
List orderNumbered in the order of first citationAlphabetical by first author’s surname
Author namesInitials before the surname, e.g. T. Suri and W. JackSurname and initials, joined with “and”, e.g. Suri, T. and Jack, W.
Many authorsSeven or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”Four or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”
DateNear the end, after the volume, issue and pages, with abbreviated monthStraight after the authors, in parentheses, with no full stop: (2016)
Article titlesIn quotation marks, sentence caseIn single quotation marks, sentence case
ItalicsJournal and book titlesJournal names and book titles
Journal namesJournal name (abbreviated in IEEE journals) with vol. and no.Full journal name in title case
Page rangesFull range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292Full page range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292
DOIs and linksDOI written as “doi: 10.1126/…”“Available at:” before the DOI or URL, and “(Accessed: date)” for web pages
Title capitalisation(same)Sentence caseSentence case

When to use Harvard

Harvard is the most common referencing style at universities in the UK, Australia, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya. Cite Them Right is the version most of those universities follow. It is published by Cite Them Right (Bloomsbury); CiteSwap follows the Cite Them Right 12th edition.

IEEE is more common in engineering, computer science, electronics, while Harvard is usual in business, economics, the social sciences. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

IEEE to Harvard: frequently asked questions

How do I convert IEEE citations to Harvard?

Paste your IEEE reference list into the box above (one reference per line, numbered, or separated by blank lines), check that “From” says IEEE or Auto-detect and “To” says Harvard, 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 IEEE to Harvard?

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

What is the reference list called in Harvard?

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

Does the order of my references change in Harvard?

Yes. IEEE: numbered in the order of first citation. Harvard: alphabetical by first author’s surname. CiteSwap sorts the converted list for you.

How are author names written in Harvard?

Harvard: Surname and initials, joined with “and”, e.g. Suri, T. and Jack, W. IEEE: Initials before the surname, e.g. T. Suri and W. Jack. 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 IEEE to Harvard 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.