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MLA to IEEE converter

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

Paste references written in MLA and get them back in IEEE, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: author–page in-text citations become numbered citations, your “Works Cited” list becomes “References” and titles switch to sentence 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.

MLA vs IEEE: 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)

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]

Book

MLA

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

In-text: (Achebe 1290)

IEEE

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

In-text: [1, p. 1290]

Web page

MLA

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

In-text: (World Health Organization 1290)

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]

Key differences between MLA and IEEE

12 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleMLAIEEE
Reference list headingWorks CitedReferences
In-text citationsauthor and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290)a number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned in the order sources are first cited
List orderAlphabetical by first author’s surnameNumbered in the order of first citation
Author namesFirst author inverted with full names, the second in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William JackInitials before the surname, e.g. T. Suri and W. Jack
Many authorsThree or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”Seven or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”
DateNear the end, after the journal or publisher detailsNear the end, after the volume, issue and pages, with abbreviated month
Title capitalisationTitle caseSentence case
Article titlesIn quotation marks, title caseIn quotation marks, sentence case
ItalicsContainers: journal, website and book titlesJournal and book titles
Journal namesFull journal name in title case, followed by vol. and no.Journal name (abbreviated in IEEE journals) with vol. and no.
Page rangesShortened range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–92Full range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292
DOIs and linksDOI written as https://doi.org/… at the end; URLs without “https://” are also acceptedDOI written as “doi: 10.1126/…”

When to use IEEE

IEEE is standard in electrical and electronic engineering, computer science and IT, including most engineering final-year projects and conference papers. It is published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; CiteSwap follows the IEEE Reference Guide (2023).

MLA is more common in literature, languages, cultural studies, while IEEE is usual in engineering, computer science, electronics. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

MLA to IEEE: frequently asked questions

How do I convert MLA citations to IEEE?

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 IEEE, 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 IEEE?

MLA uses author and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290). IEEE uses a number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned in the order sources are first cited. For the same article and page: MLA gives (Suri and Jack 1290), IEEE gives [1, p. 1290].

What is the reference list called in IEEE?

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

Does the order of my references change in IEEE?

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

Do titles need different capitalisation in IEEE?

Yes. IEEE uses sentence case, capitalising only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns. CiteSwap keeps titles as the publisher’s record has them, so check that capitals on ordinary words are lowered, because catalogues often store titles in title case.

Is the MLA to IEEE 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.