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OSCOLA to IEEE converter

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

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

OSCOLA 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

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>.

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

OSCOLA

Achebe C, Things Fall Apart (Heinemann 1958)

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

IEEE

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

In-text: [1, 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.

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 OSCOLA and IEEE

12 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleOSCOLAIEEE
Reference list headingBibliographyReferences
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”a number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned in the order sources are first cited
List orderSecondary sources alphabetically by first author’s surname, with cases and legislation in separate listsNumbered in the order of first citation
Author namesFootnotes give the name as written (Tavneet Suri); the bibliography gives surname and initials without full stops (Suri T)Initials before the surname, e.g. T. Suri and W. Jack
Many authorsMore than three authors: first author followed by “and others”Seven 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)Near the end, after the volume, issue and pages, with abbreviated month
Title capitalisationTitle caseSentence case
Article titlesIn single quotation marks, title caseIn quotation marks, sentence case
ItalicsBook titles (and case names); article titles and journal names are not italicisedJournal and book titles
Journal namesFull journal name (or its standard abbreviation) after the volume number, not italicisedJournal name (abbreviated in IEEE journals) with vol. and no.
Page rangesFirst page only, e.g. 1288; pinpoint pages go in the footnoteFull 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 2026DOI 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).

OSCOLA is more common in law, law schools in the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and other common-law countries, while IEEE is usual in engineering, computer science, electronics. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

OSCOLA to IEEE: frequently asked questions

How do I convert OSCOLA citations to IEEE?

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 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 OSCOLA to IEEE?

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”. IEEE uses a number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned in the order sources are first cited. 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>., IEEE gives [1, p. 1290].

What is the reference list called in IEEE?

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