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Turabian to AMA converter

Paste Turabian references, get AMA. Free, no sign-up.

Paste references written in Turabian and get them back in AMA, 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.

Turabian vs AMA: the same sources side by side

Each example below was formatted by CiteSwap’s engine, exactly as the converter outputs it.

Journal article

Turabian

Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack. “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money.” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 2016): 1288–92. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

Footnote: Tavneet Suri and William Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money,” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 2016): 1290, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

AMA

Suri T, Jack W. The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science. 2016;354(6317):1288-1292. doi:10.1126/science.aah5309

In-text: 1(p1290)

Book

Turabian

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

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

AMA

Achebe C. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann; 1958.

In-text: 1(p1290)

Web page

Turabian

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

Footnote: World Health Organization, “Malaria,” December 4, 2023, 1290, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria.

AMA

World Health Organization. Malaria. December 4, 2023. Accessed October 1, 2026. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria

In-text: 1(p1290)

Key differences between Turabian and AMA

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleTurabianAMA
Reference list headingBibliographyReferences
In-text citationssuperscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliographysuperscript numbers, e.g. ¹, 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 rest in normal orderSurname and initials without full stops or spaces, e.g. Suri T, Jack W
Many authorsList up to ten authors; for more, the first seven followed by “et al.”Seven or more authors: first three followed by “et al”
DateNear the end: in parentheses after the issue for journals, after the publisher for booksAfter the journal name: 2016;354(6317):1288-1292
Title capitalisationTitle caseSentence case
Article titlesIn quotation marks, title casePlain text, sentence case
Journal namesFull journal name, volume, then “no.” for the issueAbbreviated journal name (NLM abbreviations), in italics
Page rangesShortened range after a colon, e.g. 1288–92Full page range with a hyphen, e.g. 1288-1292
DOIs and linksDOI as a link: https://doi.org/…DOI written as “doi:10.1126/…”
Italics(same)Journal and book titlesJournal and book titles

When to use AMA

AMA is used by medical journals such as JAMA and by many medicine, pharmacy and public-health programmes. It is published by the American Medical Association; CiteSwap follows the 11th edition (2020).

Turabian is more common in history, theology, the humanities, while AMA is usual in medicine, health sciences, pharmacy. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

Turabian to AMA: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Turabian citations to AMA?

Paste your Turabian reference list into the box above (one reference per line, numbered, or separated by blank lines), check that “From” says Turabian or Auto-detect and “To” says AMA, 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 Turabian to AMA?

Turabian uses superscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliography. AMA uses superscript numbers, e.g. ¹, in the order sources are first cited. For the same article and page: Turabian gives Tavneet Suri and William Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money,” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 2016): 1290, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309., AMA gives 1(p1290).

What is the reference list called in AMA?

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

Does the order of my references change in AMA?

Yes. Turabian: alphabetical by first author’s surname. AMA: 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 AMA?

Yes. AMA 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 Turabian to AMA 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.