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Turabian to Vancouver converter

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

Paste references written in Turabian 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.

Turabian 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

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.

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

Turabian

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

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

Vancouver

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

In-text: (1)

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.

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 Turabian and Vancouver

12 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleTurabianVancouver
Reference list headingBibliographyReferences
In-text citationssuperscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliographya number in round brackets, square brackets or superscript, 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, 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 six followed by “et al.”
DateNear the end: in parentheses after the issue for journals, after the publisher for booksAfter the journal name, with abbreviated month: 2016 Dec;354(6317):1288–92
Title capitalisationTitle caseSentence case
Article titlesIn quotation marks, title casePlain text, sentence case
ItalicsJournal and book titlesNothing: titles and journal names are plain text
Journal namesFull journal name, volume, then “no.” for the issueAbbreviated journal name (NLM abbreviations), not italic
Page rangesShortened range after a colon, e.g. 1288–92Shortened range, e.g. 1288–92
DOIs and linksDOI as a link: https://doi.org/…“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.

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

Turabian to Vancouver: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Turabian citations to Vancouver?

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 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 Turabian to Vancouver?

Turabian uses superscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliography. 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: 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., Vancouver gives (1).

What is the reference list called in Vancouver?

In Turabian 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. Turabian: alphabetical by first author’s surname. 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 Turabian 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.