How to Cite in Vancouver Style (NLM / ICMJE)
Vancouver-style references are numbered in the order first mentioned. Current ICMJE guidance points authors to NLM Citing Medicine for reference formatting and to MEDLINE/NLM journal abbreviations.
Method
- Number references consecutively in the order they first appear in the manuscript.
- For journal articles, verify every author name, article title, MEDLINE/NLM journal abbreviation, publication date, volume, issue and inclusive pages.
- Use all authors by default when following NLM practice; shortening to a fixed number plus et al. is an acceptable space-saving option, not the NLM default.
- For books and chapters, include the place of publication, publisher and publication year; for websites, include the access date and full Available from URL.
- Compare the final entry with the original source and the target journal instructions before submission.
Worked example
Journal pattern: Author(s). Article title. Abbreviated Journal Title. Year Mon;volume(issue):pages. doi:DOI.
Book pattern: Author(s). Book title. Edition. Place: Publisher; Year.
Website pattern: Author/organization. Title [Internet]. Place: Publisher; date [cited date]. Available from: URL
Notes
- ICMJE recommends NLM Citing Medicine and NLM Sample References rather than maintaining a separate citation-format manual.
- ICMJE says references should be numbered consecutively in order of first mention and journal titles abbreviated according to MEDLINE.
- NLM journal examples list all authors by default; et al. truncation is an allowed option rather than standard NLM practice.
- Journal-specific author instructions can override generic Vancouver/NLM defaults.
Treat Vancouver as a numbered system with a specific biomedical lineage
Vancouver-style references are commonly used in medicine and health sciences, but the practical formatting usually follows NLM and ICMJE conventions. A numbered reference list does not by itself make a citation Vancouver. Author formatting, journal abbreviations, date structure, page compression and source-specific fields all need to match the target guidance.
For journal articles, verify the MEDLINE or NLM journal abbreviation when one exists. For websites, include the publication or update information that is actually available and the cited or accessed date when required by the chosen convention.
Keep source verification separate from identifier formatting
A DOI or PubMed record can reduce manual typing, but it does not guarantee that every field is publication-ready. Online-first dates, corrected articles, journal abbreviations and author names can require review. Open the source and confirm that the imported record describes the version you used.
The numbered in-text citation should point to one stable reference-list entry. When the same source appears multiple times in the manuscript, reuse its number according to the required Vancouver convention instead of generating a new number for each mention.
Authoritative references
Primary or authoritative references for the external standard, scoring rule or identifier convention used on this page.
Editorial review and limitations
Continue with the related tools
Use the linked tools for your own inputs and scenarios.
- AMA Citation Generator — Generate AMA 11 references for journal articles, webpages, books and chapters, with DOI import and PubMed/NLM journal-abbreviation checks.
- CSE Citation Generator — Generate CSE Manual 9th edition Citation-Sequence references for scientific journal articles, webpages, books and book chapters.
- IEEE Citation Generator — Generate numbered IEEE references for journal articles, webpages, books and book chapters using current IEEE reference-guide conventions.