Vancouver Citation Style Guide

A reference guide for biomedical and health sciences manuscripts.

Overview In-Text Citations Reference List Journal Articles Books Online Sources

Overview

Vancouver style is the citation system recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and is widely used in biomedical, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health sciences research. Like IEEE, it is a numbered system in which references are cited in the order they appear in the text.

  • Used in: Medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, physiotherapy, public health, and related life sciences.
  • Citation format: Superscript numerals1 or numerals in parentheses (1), according to journal preference.
  • Reference list: Numbered in order of first appearance (not alphabetical).
  • Journal title abbreviations: Use NLM/MEDLINE abbreviations (e.g., N Engl J Med).

In-Text Citations

Superscript: Numerous studies have confirmed this finding.1,2
Parenthetical: The association was established in randomised trials (3,4).
Range: This meta-analysis drew on data from multiple sources.5–9
Author as subject: Brown et al.6 demonstrated that mortality rates declined significantly when…
Same source cited again: Always use the original number; do not renumber.

Reference List Rules

  • Titled References.
  • Numbered sequentially in the order references first appear in the text.
  • List up to 6 authors; if 7 or more, list the first 6 followed by "et al."
  • Surnames first, then initials (no periods after initials).
  • Journal titles are abbreviated using NLM style (searchable at NLM Catalog).
  • Year;volume(issue):pages — note the semicolon and colon positioning.
  • Do not italicise anything in Vancouver references (unlike APA/IEEE).

Journal Articles

Up to 6 authors

Surname AB, Surname CD, Surname EF. Title of article. Abbreviated Journal Title. Year;vol(issue):pages.

1. Patel RK, Singh MN, Thomas JA, Kumar AK, Osei E, Huang L. Cardiovascular outcomes after bariatric surgery. N Engl J Med. 2022;386(14):1321–33.

7 or more authors

Surname AB, Surname CD, Surname EF, Surname GH, Surname IJ, Surname KL, et al. Title of article. Journal Abbrev. Year;vol(issue):pages.

With DOI

Surname AB, Surname CD. Title of article. Journal Abbrev. Year;vol(issue):pages. doi:10.xxxx/xxxxxxxx.

Online ahead of print (epub)

Surname AB. Title of article. Journal Abbrev. Epub Year Month Day. doi:10.xxxx/xxxxxxxx.

Books

Entire book

Surname AB. Title of Book. Xth ed. City: Publisher; Year.

2. Robbins SL, Kumar V. Basic Pathology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier; 2017.

Chapter in edited book

Chapter Author AB. Title of chapter. In: Editor AB, editor. Title of Book. Xth ed. City: Publisher; Year. p. xx–xx.

Organisation as author

World Health Organization. Title of Book. Geneva: WHO; Year.

Online Sources

Web page

Author AB. Title of page [Internet]. City: Organisation; Year [cited Year Month Day]. Available from: URL

Database (e.g., PubMed)

Surname AB. Title of article. Journal Abbrev [Internet]. Year;vol(issue):pages [cited Year Month Day]. Available from: URL

Clinical guideline

Organisation Name. Title of Guideline [Internet]. City: Publisher; Year [cited Year Month Day]. Available from: URL

Key Differences from APA

FeatureVancouverAPA 7
Citation typeNumbered [1] or superscript1Author–date (Smith, 2021)
Reference orderOrder of appearanceAlphabetical by author
Journal titlesAbbreviatedFull title, italicised
Author namesSurname + initials, no punctuationSurname, A. A.
ItalicsNot usedUsed for book/journal titles

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