Skip to content
CiteSwap

OSCOLA to Vancouver converter

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

Paste references written in OSCOLA and get them back in Vancouver, 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 Vancouver: 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>.

Vancouver

Suri T, Jack W. The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science. 2016 Dec 9;354(6317):1288–92. doi:10.1126/science.aah5309

In-text: (1)

Book

OSCOLA

Achebe C, Things Fall Apart (Heinemann 1958)

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

Vancouver

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

In-text: (1)

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.

Vancouver

World Health Organization. Malaria [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2026 Oct 1]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria

In-text: (1)

Key differences between OSCOLA and Vancouver

12 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleOSCOLAVancouver
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 round brackets, square brackets or superscript, e.g. (1), 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)Surname and initials without full stops, e.g. Suri T, Jack W
Many authorsMore than three authors: first author followed by “and others”Seven or more authors: first six followed by “et al.”
DateIn brackets: after the title for journal articles, (2016), and with the publisher for books, (Heinemann 1958)After the journal name, with abbreviated month: 2016 Dec;354(6317):1288–92
Title capitalisationTitle caseSentence case
Article titlesIn single quotation marks, title casePlain text, sentence case
ItalicsBook titles (and case names); article titles and journal names are not italicisedNothing: titles and journal names are plain text
Journal namesFull journal name (or its standard abbreviation) after the volume number, not italicisedAbbreviated journal name (NLM abbreviations), not italic
Page rangesFirst page only, e.g. 1288; pinpoint pages go in the footnoteShortened range, e.g. 1288–92
DOIs and linksURLs in angle brackets, followed by the date you accessed them: <https://…> accessed 1 October 2026“Available from:” before URLs, “[cited date]” for web pages, “doi:” for DOIs

When to use Vancouver

Vancouver is the standard numbered style in medicine, nursing, dentistry and biomedical sciences, especially at UK, Australian and African universities. It is published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, following the US National Library of Medicine; CiteSwap follows the NLM Citing Medicine, 2nd edition.

OSCOLA is more common in law, law schools in the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and other common-law countries, while Vancouver is usual in medicine, nursing, dentistry. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

OSCOLA to Vancouver: frequently asked questions

How do I convert OSCOLA citations to Vancouver?

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 Vancouver, 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 Vancouver?

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”. Vancouver uses a number in round brackets, square brackets or superscript, e.g. (1), 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>., Vancouver gives (1).

What is the reference list called in Vancouver?

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

Does the order of my references change in Vancouver?

Yes. OSCOLA: secondary sources alphabetically by first author’s surname, with cases and legislation in separate lists. Vancouver: 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 Vancouver?

Yes. Vancouver 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 Vancouver 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.