Citation formatting
Upload a Word manuscript and convert its citations between APA and IEEE in one run. In-text citations and the reference list are rewritten together, and alerts flag citations without a matching reference when the converted file is ready.
The Free plan converts an 800-word preview; Premium converts the full document.
Overview
Assistemia's reference converter rewrites the citations in a finished Word manuscript from APA to IEEE or from IEEE to APA, so you do not have to retype every entry when a journal or conference asks for a different style. A typical reference formatter styles one entry at a time from details you type in. This module works on the document itself: it reads the in-text citations and the reference list, then converts both into the target style in the same run, turning author–date citations into numbered ones or the reverse. It is useful when you resubmit a paper to a venue with another style, adapt a thesis chapter into an article, or prepare a manuscript for a final formatting check. The converted file still needs your review against the target journal's author guidelines.
Explore the Reference Converter tutorialCapabilities
Choose a source and a target style and the conversion runs in either direction: numbered IEEE citations such as [3] become APA author–date citations, and citations such as (Abiodun & Ekström, 2021) become IEEE numbers. MLA, Chicago, Harvard and Vancouver appear in the style menus but cannot be selected yet, so APA and IEEE are the supported pair today.
Once the .docx file is uploaded, the document is scanned to identify whether its citations follow APA or IEEE, and the detected style is pre-selected as the source format. If the scan cannot decide, it says so and leaves the choice to you. You can also override a detected style before converting.
When a conversion finishes, Missing References lists in-text citations that have no matching entry in your reference list. Uncited References lists entries that no citation points to; these are left out of the converted document, so the alert is your chance to restore a citation you forgot. Neither alert adds or corrects sources for you.
How it works
Drop a single .docx file of up to 20 MB into the upload area; the upload starts as soon as the file lands. The layout is checked on arrival, and a multi-column layout triggers a warning because columns can scramble the order of references.
Check the detected source style, change it if needed, and choose the target style. Select Convert & Download to start. A progress bar and elapsed time show the job's status, and the conversion is listed in Conversion History while it runs.
When the job finishes, the converted .docx downloads automatically. Review any Missing References or Uncited References alerts, compare the result with your target journal's guidelines, and reopen the job from Conversion History to download the same file again later.
Inputs, outputs & coverage
The converter is built for finished academic manuscripts in Word. Here is what it accepts, what it returns, and the cases that need extra care.
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Try the upload, style detection and conversion workflow on a preview of your manuscript before converting the complete document.
Convert the complete manuscript, in-text citations and reference list together, when you are preparing a submission.
Frequently asked questions
Answers to common questions about formats, styles, detection and plan scope before you convert a manuscript.
Contact our teamThe converter accepts one Word .docx file of up to 20 MB per conversion and converts between APA and IEEE in either direction. PDF files are not accepted by the upload. If your manuscript exists only as a PDF, work from the original Word file instead, because PDF-to-Word exports can break paragraphs and reference entries apart. MLA, Chicago, Harvard and Vancouver appear in the style menus but are not available yet.
After upload, a short detection pass looks at the document's citations and decides whether it is written in APA or IEEE. When it reaches a result, that style is filled in as the source format and announced on screen. When it cannot, the indicator says the style could not be detected and you select it yourself. Detection only supplies a starting value, so check it before converting, particularly in documents that mix numbered and author–date citations.
Yes. Both citation locations are rewritten in the same run, so the in-text citations and the reference list in the downloaded file follow the target style together. The two are also compared: citations without a matching entry appear under Missing References, and entries that are never cited appear under Uncited References and are left out of the converted file. Citations inserted with Word's built-in citation manager may not convert correctly, so plain-text citations work best.
On the Free plan, a conversion covers the in-text citations in the first 800 words of text outside the reference list, and only references cited within that preview are included. The result screen states the scope that was processed. Premium converts the full document. A saved Free-plan result stays a preview, so after upgrading you upload and convert the manuscript again. Free plan use is also subject to monthly usage limits; see Pricing for current details.
Reference Converter
Upload a Word file, confirm APA or IEEE, and review the alerts before you submit.