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OSCOLA to Harvard converter

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

Paste references written in OSCOLA and get them back in Harvard, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: footnotes in-text citations become author–date citations, your “Bibliography” list becomes “Reference list” 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.

OSCOLA 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

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>.

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

OSCOLA

Achebe C, Things Fall Apart (Heinemann 1958)

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

Harvard

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

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

Web page

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.

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 OSCOLA and Harvard

12 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleOSCOLAHarvard
Reference list headingBibliographyReference list
In-text citationsfootnotes: a superscript number in the text points to a footnote with the full citation; later notes use a short form or “ibid”author and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016)
List orderSecondary sources alphabetically by first author’s surname, with cases and legislation in separate listsAlphabetical by first author’s surname
Author namesFootnotes give the name as written (Tavneet Suri); the bibliography gives surname and initials without full stops (Suri T)Surname and initials, joined with “and”, e.g. Suri, T. and Jack, W.
Many authorsMore than three authors: first author followed by “and others”Four or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”
DateIn brackets: after the title for journal articles, (2016), and with the publisher for books, (Heinemann 1958)Straight after the authors, in parentheses, with no full stop: (2016)
Title capitalisationTitle caseSentence case
Article titlesIn single quotation marks, title caseIn single quotation marks, sentence case
ItalicsBook titles (and case names); article titles and journal names are not italicisedJournal names and book titles
Journal namesFull journal name (or its standard abbreviation) after the volume number, not italicisedFull journal name in title case
Page rangesFirst page only, e.g. 1288; pinpoint pages go in the footnoteFull page range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292
DOIs and linksURLs in angle brackets, followed by the date you accessed them: <https://…> accessed 1 October 2026“Available at:” before the DOI or URL, and “(Accessed: date)” for web pages

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.

OSCOLA is more common in law, law schools in the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and other common-law countries, while Harvard is usual in business, economics, the social sciences. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

OSCOLA to Harvard: frequently asked questions

How do I convert OSCOLA citations to Harvard?

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

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”. Harvard uses author and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016). For the same article and page: OSCOLA gives 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>., Harvard gives (Suri and Jack, 2016, p. 1290).

What is the reference list called in Harvard?

In OSCOLA the list is headed “Bibliography”; 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. OSCOLA: secondary sources alphabetically by first author’s surname, with cases and legislation in separate lists. Harvard: alphabetical by first author’s surname. CiteSwap sorts the converted list for you.

Do titles need different capitalisation in Harvard?

Yes. Harvard 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 OSCOLA 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.