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Vancouver to Turabian converter

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

Paste references written in Vancouver and get them back in Turabian, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: numbered in-text citations become footnotes, your “References” list becomes “Bibliography” 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 Turabian: 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)

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.

Book

Vancouver

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

In-text: (1)

Turabian

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

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

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.

Key differences between Vancouver and Turabian

12 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleVancouverTurabian
Reference list headingReferencesBibliography
In-text citationsa number in round brackets, square brackets or superscript, e.g. (1), in the order sources are first citedsuperscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliography
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 rest in normal order
Many authorsSeven or more authors: first six followed by “et al.”List up to ten authors; for more, the first seven followed by “et al.”
DateAfter the journal name, with abbreviated month: 2016 Dec;354(6317):1288–92Near the end: in parentheses after the issue for journals, after the publisher for books
Title capitalisationSentence caseTitle case
Article titlesPlain text, sentence caseIn quotation marks, title case
ItalicsNothing: titles and journal names are plain textJournal and book titles
Journal namesAbbreviated journal name (NLM abbreviations), not italicFull journal name, volume, then “no.” for the issue
Page rangesShortened range, e.g. 1288–92Shortened range after a colon, e.g. 1288–92
DOIs and links“Available from:” before URLs, “[cited date]” for web pages, “doi:” for DOIsDOI as a link: https://doi.org/…

When to use Turabian

Turabian is Chicago adapted for students’ papers, theses and dissertations, and is common in history and theology programmes. It is published by the University of Chicago Press; CiteSwap follows the 9th edition (2018).

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

Vancouver to Turabian: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Vancouver citations to Turabian?

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 Turabian, 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 Turabian?

Vancouver uses a number in round brackets, square brackets or superscript, e.g. (1), in the order sources are first cited. Turabian uses superscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliography. A first footnote for the Suri and Jack article reads: 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.

What is the reference list called in Turabian?

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

Does the order of my references change in Turabian?

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

Do titles need different capitalisation in Turabian?

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

Is the Vancouver to Turabian 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.