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MLA to OSCOLA converter

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

Paste references written in MLA and get them back in OSCOLA, 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 the list is secondary sources alphabetically by first author’s surname, with cases and legislation in separate lists. 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 OSCOLA: 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)

OSCOLA

Suri T and Jack W, ‘The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money’ (2016) 354 Science 1288 <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309>

Footnote: Tavneet Suri and William Jack, ‘The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money’ (2016) 354 Science 1288, 1290 <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309>.

Book

MLA

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

In-text: (Achebe 1290)

OSCOLA

Achebe C, Things Fall Apart (Heinemann 1958)

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

OSCOLA

World Health Organization, ‘Malaria’ (4 December 2023) <https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria> accessed 1 October 2026

Footnote: World Health Organization, ‘Malaria’ (4 December 2023) 1290 <https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria> accessed 1 October 2026.

Key differences between MLA and OSCOLA

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleMLAOSCOLA
Reference list headingWorks CitedBibliography
In-text citationsauthor and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290)footnotes: a superscript number in the text points to a footnote with the full citation; later notes use a short form or “ibid”
List orderAlphabetical by first author’s surnameSecondary sources alphabetically by first author’s surname, with cases and legislation in separate lists
Author namesFirst author inverted with full names, the second in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William JackFootnotes give the name as written (Tavneet Suri); the bibliography gives surname and initials without full stops (Suri T)
Many authorsThree or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”More than three authors: first author followed by “and others”
DateNear the end, after the journal or publisher detailsIn brackets: after the title for journal articles, (2016), and with the publisher for books, (Heinemann 1958)
Article titlesIn quotation marks, title caseIn single quotation marks, title case
ItalicsContainers: journal, website and book titlesBook titles (and case names); article titles and journal names are not italicised
Journal namesFull journal name in title case, followed by vol. and no.Full journal name (or its standard abbreviation) after the volume number, not italicised
Page rangesShortened range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–92First page only, e.g. 1288; pinpoint pages go in the footnote
DOIs and linksDOI written as https://doi.org/… at the end; URLs without “https://” are also acceptedURLs in angle brackets, followed by the date you accessed them: <https://…> accessed 1 October 2026
Title capitalisation(same)Title caseTitle case

When to use OSCOLA

OSCOLA is the standard for law essays, dissertations and journals in the UK and many common-law countries. CiteSwap formats secondary sources (articles, books, chapters and websites); cite cases and legislation by hand following the OSCOLA guide. It is published by the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford; CiteSwap follows the 4th edition (2012).

MLA is more common in literature, languages, cultural studies, while OSCOLA is usual in law, law schools in the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and other common-law countries. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

MLA to OSCOLA: frequently asked questions

How do I convert MLA citations to OSCOLA?

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 OSCOLA, 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 OSCOLA?

MLA uses author and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290). OSCOLA uses footnotes: a superscript number in the text points to a footnote with the full citation; later notes use a short form or “ibid”. 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’ (2016) 354 Science 1288, 1290 <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309>.

What is the reference list called in OSCOLA?

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

Does the order of my references change in OSCOLA?

Yes. MLA: alphabetical by first author’s surname. OSCOLA: secondary sources alphabetically by first author’s surname, with cases and legislation in separate lists. CiteSwap sorts the converted list for you.

How are author names written in OSCOLA?

OSCOLA: Footnotes give the name as written (Tavneet Suri); the bibliography gives surname and initials without full stops (Suri T). 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.

Is the MLA to OSCOLA 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.