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CiteSwap

Vancouver to MLA converter

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

Paste references written in Vancouver and get them back in MLA, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: numbered in-text citations become author–page citations, your “References” list becomes “Works Cited” and titles switch to title 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.

Vancouver vs MLA: the same sources side by side

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

Journal article

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)

MLA

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

In-text: (Suri and Jack 1290)

Book

Vancouver

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

In-text: (1)

MLA

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

In-text: (Achebe 1290)

Web page

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)

MLA

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

In-text: (World Health Organization 1290)

Key differences between Vancouver and MLA

12 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleVancouverMLA
Reference list headingReferencesWorks Cited
In-text citationsa number in round brackets, square brackets or superscript, e.g. (1), in the order sources are first citedauthor and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290)
List orderNumbered in the order of first citationAlphabetical by first author’s surname
Author namesSurname and initials without full stops, e.g. Suri T, Jack WFirst author inverted with full names, the second in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack
Many authorsSeven or more authors: first six followed by “et al.”Three or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”
DateAfter the journal name, with abbreviated month: 2016 Dec;354(6317):1288–92Near the end, after the journal or publisher details
Title capitalisationSentence caseTitle case
Article titlesPlain text, sentence caseIn quotation marks, title case
ItalicsNothing: titles and journal names are plain textContainers: journal, website and book titles
Journal namesAbbreviated journal name (NLM abbreviations), not italicFull journal name in title case, followed by vol. and no.
Page rangesShortened range, e.g. 1288–92Shortened range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–92
DOIs and links“Available from:” before URLs, “[cited date]” for web pages, “doi:” for DOIsDOI written as https://doi.org/… at the end; URLs without “https://” are also accepted

When to use MLA

MLA is the usual choice for English literature, modern languages and other humanities subjects, where quoting and pinpointing pages matters more than dates. It is published by the Modern Language Association; CiteSwap follows the 9th edition (2021).

Vancouver is more common in medicine, nursing, dentistry, while MLA is usual in literature, languages, cultural studies. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

Vancouver to MLA: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Vancouver citations to MLA?

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

Vancouver uses a number in round brackets, square brackets or superscript, e.g. (1), in the order sources are first cited. MLA uses author and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290). For the same article and page: Vancouver gives (1), MLA gives (Suri and Jack 1290).

What is the reference list called in MLA?

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

Does the order of my references change in MLA?

Yes. Vancouver: numbered in the order of first citation. MLA: alphabetical by first author’s surname. CiteSwap sorts the converted list for you.

Do titles need different capitalisation in MLA?

Yes. MLA uses title case for article and book titles, so words like “Poverty” and “Gender” are capitalised. CiteSwap applies this automatically.

Is the Vancouver to MLA 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.