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MLA to Chicago N-B converter

Paste MLA references, get Chicago N-B. Free, no sign-up.

Paste references written in MLA and get them back in Chicago N-B, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: author–page in-text citations become footnotes, your “Works Cited” list becomes “Bibliography” and author names are written as in Chicago N-B (first author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order). 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.

MLA vs Chicago N-B: the same sources side by side

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

Journal article

MLA

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

In-text: (Suri and Jack 1290)

Chicago N-B

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

Book

MLA

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

In-text: (Achebe 1290)

Chicago N-B

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

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

Web page

MLA

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

In-text: (World Health Organization 1290)

Chicago N-B

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

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

Key differences between MLA and Chicago N-B

9 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleMLAChicago N-B
Reference list headingWorks CitedBibliography
In-text citationsauthor and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290)superscript note numbers linked to footnotes or endnotes that give the source
Author namesFirst author inverted with full names, the second in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William JackFirst author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack
Many authorsThree or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”List up to six authors; for seven or more, the first three followed by “et al.”
DateNear the end, after the journal or publisher detailsNear the end: in parentheses after the issue for journals, after the publisher for books
ItalicsContainers: journal, website and book titlesJournal and book titles
Journal namesFull journal name in title case, followed by vol. and no.Full journal name, volume, then “no.” for the issue
Page rangesShortened range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–92Shortened range after a colon, e.g. 1288–92
DOIs and linksDOI written as https://doi.org/… at the end; URLs without “https://” are also acceptedDOI as a link: https://doi.org/…
List order(same)Alphabetical by first author’s surnameAlphabetical by first author’s surname
Title capitalisation(same)Title caseTitle case
Article titles(same)In quotation marks, title caseIn quotation marks, title case

When to use Chicago N-B

Chicago notes and bibliography is the standard in history and much of the humanities, where footnotes let you comment on sources as well as cite them. It is published by the University of Chicago Press; CiteSwap follows the 18th edition (2024).

MLA is more common in literature, languages, cultural studies, while Chicago N-B is usual in history, the arts, philosophy. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

MLA to Chicago N-B: frequently asked questions

How do I convert MLA citations to Chicago N-B?

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

MLA uses author and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290). Chicago N-B uses superscript note numbers linked to footnotes or endnotes that give the source. 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 (2016): 1290, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

What is the reference list called in Chicago N-B?

In MLA the list is headed “Works Cited”; in Chicago N-B it is “Bibliography”. Change the heading when you paste the converted list into your document.

How are author names written in Chicago N-B?

Chicago N-B: First author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack. MLA: First author inverted with full names, the second in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack. When a reference is matched in Crossref, CiteSwap uses full first names from the publisher’s record, so it can produce either form.

How are DOIs and URLs written in Chicago N-B?

Chicago N-B: DOI as a link: https://doi.org/…. MLA: DOI written as https://doi.org/… at the end; URLs without “https://” are also accepted. The converter rewrites DOIs in Chicago N-B format for you.

Is the MLA to Chicago N-B 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.