Skip to content
CiteSwap

IEEE to Turabian converter

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

Paste references written in IEEE and get them back in Turabian, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: numbered in-text citations become footnotes, your “References” 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.

IEEE vs Turabian: 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]

Turabian

Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack. “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money.” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 2016): 1288–92. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

Footnote: Tavneet Suri and William Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money,” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 2016): 1290, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

Book

IEEE

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

In-text: [1, p. 1290]

Turabian

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, 1958.

Footnote: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (London: Heinemann, 1958), 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]

Turabian

World Health Organization. “Malaria.” December 4, 2023. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria.

Footnote: World Health Organization, “Malaria,” December 4, 2023, 1290, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria.

Key differences between IEEE and Turabian

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleIEEETurabian
Reference list headingReferencesBibliography
In-text citationsa number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned in the order sources are first citedsuperscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliography
List orderNumbered in the order of first citationAlphabetical by first author’s surname
Author namesInitials before the surname, e.g. T. Suri and W. JackFirst author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order
Many authorsSeven or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”List up to ten authors; for more, the first seven followed by “et al.”
DateNear the end, after the volume, issue and pages, with abbreviated monthNear the end: in parentheses after the issue for journals, after the publisher for books
Title capitalisationSentence caseTitle case
Article titlesIn quotation marks, sentence caseIn quotation marks, title case
Journal namesJournal name (abbreviated in IEEE journals) with vol. and no.Full journal name, volume, then “no.” for the issue
Page rangesFull range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292Shortened range after a colon, e.g. 1288–92
DOIs and linksDOI written as “doi: 10.1126/…”DOI as a link: https://doi.org/…
Italics(same)Journal and book titlesJournal and book titles

When to use Turabian

Turabian is Chicago adapted for students’ papers, theses and dissertations, and is common in history and theology programmes. It is published by the University of Chicago Press; CiteSwap follows the 9th edition (2018).

IEEE is more common in engineering, computer science, electronics, while Turabian is usual in history, theology, the humanities. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

IEEE to Turabian: frequently asked questions

How do I convert IEEE citations to Turabian?

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 Turabian, 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 Turabian?

IEEE uses a number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned in the order sources are first cited. Turabian uses superscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliography. 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,” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 2016): 1290, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

What is the reference list called in Turabian?

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

Does the order of my references change in Turabian?

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

Do titles need different capitalisation in Turabian?

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

Is the IEEE to Turabian 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.