Vancouver citation guide
Used in: Medicine, nursing, and the biomedical sciences (the ICMJE standard).
Vancouver style numbers sources in the order they appear in the text, with a matching numbered reference list. It’s the standard across biomedical journals, where journal names are abbreviated to their NLM form.
In-text citations
In sequence
as reported previously (1)A number in order of appearance (parentheses or superscript, per the journal).
Multiple sources
(1,3,5–7)List or range the numbers.
Reference list examples
Generated by Folio's citation engine, the same one that formats your bibliography as you write.
Journal article
[1] Smith J, Lee R. Working memory capacity and the control of attention. J Cogn Sci 2021;12:210–25. https://doi.org/10.1000/jcs.2021.0123.
Book
[1] García M. The architecture of memory. Academic Press; 2019.
Book chapter
[1] Chen L. Attention and encoding. In: Park D, editor. Handbook Cogn., University Press; 2020, p. 88–110.
Website
[1] Khan A. Understanding research methods 2023. https://example.org/research-methods (accessed March 15, 2024).
Quick checklist
Do
- Number references in citation order; reuse the number for repeats.
- Abbreviate journal names to their NLM/ISO form.
- Include a DOI or PMID where available.
Don't
- Don’t alphabetize the reference list.
- Don’t use author–date citations.
Cite in Vancouver automatically
Paste a DOI into the free generator, or cite as you write in Folio.