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Turabian to APA converter

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

Paste references written in Turabian and get them back in APA, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: footnotes in-text citations become author–date 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 APA: 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.

APA

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

In-text: (Suri & Jack, 2016, p. 1290)

Book

Turabian

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

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

APA

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

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

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.

APA

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

In-text: (World Health Organization, 2023, p. 1290)

Key differences between Turabian and APA

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleTurabianAPA
Reference list headingBibliographyReferences
In-text citationssuperscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliographyauthor and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri & Jack, 2016), with a page number for quotations
Author namesFirst author inverted with full names, the rest in normal orderSurname and initials for every author, e.g. Suri, T., & Jack, W.
Many authorsList up to ten authors; for more, the first seven followed by “et al.”List up to 20 authors; for 21 or more, give the first 19, an ellipsis, then the last author
DateNear the end: in parentheses after the issue for journals, after the publisher for booksStraight after the authors, in parentheses: (2016).
Title capitalisationTitle caseSentence case
Article titlesIn quotation marks, title casePlain text, no quotation marks, sentence case
ItalicsJournal and book titlesJournal name and volume number; book and report titles
Journal namesFull journal name, volume, then “no.” for the issueFull journal name in title case
Page rangesShortened range after a colon, e.g. 1288–92Full page range, e.g. 1288–1292
DOIs and linksDOI as a link: https://doi.org/…DOI as a link: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309
List order(same)Alphabetical by first author’s surnameAlphabetical by first author’s surname

When to use APA

APA is the default in psychology, education, nursing, business and most social sciences, and many universities use it as their house style for coursework and dissertations. It is published by the American Psychological Association; CiteSwap follows the 7th edition (2020).

Turabian is more common in history, theology, the humanities, while APA is usual in psychology, education, nursing. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

Turabian to APA: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Turabian citations to APA?

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 APA, 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 APA?

Turabian uses superscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliography. APA uses author and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri & Jack, 2016), with a page number for quotations. 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., APA gives (Suri & Jack, 2016, p. 1290).

What is the reference list called in APA?

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

Do titles need different capitalisation in APA?

Yes. APA 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.

How are author names written in APA?

APA: Surname and initials for every author, e.g. Suri, T., & Jack, W. Turabian: First author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order. 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 Turabian to APA 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.