numeric
Vancouver style: how to cite anything
Vancouver is the numeric system of medicine and the health sciences. Sources are numbered in the order you first cite them, and the number appears in the text as a superscript, in parentheses, or in brackets, depending entirely on what the journal asks for. The entry format comes from Citing Medicine, the NLM manual behind PubMed: surname then initials with no periods, sentence-case titles, journal names abbreviated to their NLM form, and a tightly punctuated year-volume-page tail. There is no single Vancouver rulebook — every journal publishes its own variant — so the instructions to authors always outrank a general guide, including this one.
- Citation system
- numeric
- Reference list is called
- References
- Common in
- Medicine and clinical research, Nursing and allied health, Public health and epidemiology, Dentistry and pharmacy, Biomedical and laboratory sciences
- Authority
- Citing Medicine (NLM), 2nd ed. — the reference standard behind Vancouver
- Formatted automatically by Copyeditor
- Not yet. Copyeditor formats APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE today; this guide is here regardless.
THE RULES THAT CARRY
What Vancouver expects of every entry
- Number by first appearance
- A source takes its number the first time it appears in the text and keeps it throughout. The reference list follows that numeric order, not the alphabet. Cite the same source again and you reuse its original number.
- The in-text marker is a journal decision
- Superscript numerals, parentheses, and square brackets are all Vancouver. Superscripts are the most common in clinical journals. Check the instructions to authors before you commit, and never mix two forms in one manuscript.
- Surname, then initials, no periods
- Write “Halpern SD” — surname, space, initials run together with no periods and no internal spaces. Authors are separated by commas and the last name is not preceded by “and”. This is the single clearest visual difference from IEEE, which writes “S. D. Halpern”.
- Six authors, then “et al.”
- The ICMJE convention lists the first six authors and then adds “et al.” Citing Medicine itself permits listing every author, and some journals cut at three. This is the most journal-variable rule in Vancouver, so confirm it before you build the list.
- NLM journal abbreviations, no italics
- Journal names are abbreviated per the NLM Catalog — “N Engl J Med”, “Br J Anaesth”, “BMJ Qual Saf” — with no periods after the abbreviated words. Strict NLM style italicizes nothing at all. Many journals add italics back in production, which is a house choice rather than a Vancouver rule.
- The tail runs together
- The end of a journal reference is punctuated tightly and without spaces: Year;Volume(Issue):Pages. A semicolon after the year, parentheses around the issue, a colon before the pages. “2024;33(4):241-9”, never “2024; 33 (4): 241-249”.
- Contract the closing page number
- NLM drops the repeated leading digits of the final page: 241-9 rather than 241-249, 1123-31 rather than 1123-1131. The separator is a hyphen, not the en dash APA and IEEE use.
BY SOURCE TYPE
Every Vancouver format, one page each
Each page carries the pattern, a worked entry, both in-text forms, and the exceptions that apply to that source.
Journal article
#. Author AA, Author BB, Author CC, Author DD, Author EE, Author FF, et al. Title of the article. Abbrev Journal Title. Year Mon;Volume(Issue):Pages. doi: 10.xxxx/xxxxx
Book
#. Author AA, Author BB. Title of the book: subtitle. Edition. Place: Publisher; Year. ### p.
Chapter in an edited book
#. Chapter Author AA. Title of the chapter. In: Editor AA, Editor BB, editors. Title of the book. Edition. Place: Publisher; Year. p. ##-##.
Website
#. Author AA or Organization. Title of the page [Internet]. Place: Publisher; Year [updated Year Mon DD; cited Year Mon DD]. Available from: URL
Thesis or dissertation
#. Author AA. Title of the thesis [dissertation]. Place: Institution; Year.
Conference paper
#. Author AA, Author BB. Title of the paper. In: Editor AA, editor. Title of the proceedings; Year Mon DD-DD; City, Country. Place: Publisher; Year. p. ##-##.
Report
#. Issuing Organization. Title of the report [Internet]. Place: Publisher; Year [cited Year Mon DD]. Report No.: XXX. Available from: URL
Newspaper article
#. Author AA. Title of the article. Newspaper Name. Year Mon DD;Sect. A:## (col. #).
YouTube video
#. Creator AA or Channel. Title of the video [video on the Internet]. Place: Publisher; Year Mon DD [cited Year Mon DD]. ## min., ## sec. Available from: URL
Podcast episode
#. Host AA, host. Title of the episode. Title of the Series [podcast on the Internet]. Place: Publisher; Year Mon DD [cited Year Mon DD]. Episode ##; ## min. Available from: URL
Interview
#. Interviewee AA. Title of the interview. Interviewed by Interviewer BB. Publication Name. Year Mon;Volume(Issue):Pages.
Dataset
#. Creator AA, Creator BB. Title of the dataset [dataset on the Internet]. Version #.#. Place: Repository; Year [cited Year Mon DD]. Available from: DOI or URL
Where Vancouver entries usually go wrong
- Putting periods between initials. “Halpern S.D.” is not Vancouver, and neither is “Halpern, S. D.” The correct form is “Halpern SD”.
- Writing the page range out in full. NLM contracts it: 284-7, not 284-287.
- Spacing out the year-volume-page cluster. It is “2024;58(4):301-9” with no spaces anywhere in the run.
- Giving the journal’s full name. Vancouver expects the NLM Catalog abbreviation, and that abbreviation carries no periods.
- Title-casing article and book titles. Vancouver uses sentence case throughout — first word and proper nouns only.
- Alphabetizing the reference list, or renumbering it alphabetically after the draft is finished. The order is the order of first citation.
- Assuming there is one Vancouver. Superscript against bracket, six authors against all authors, DOI included against DOI omitted — all of it varies by journal. Read the instructions to authors before formatting anything.
Questions about Vancouver
Does Copyeditor format Vancouver automatically?
Not today. Copyeditor formats APA, MLA, Chicago, and IEEE automatically, and Vancouver is not among them. This page gives you the patterns so you can format by hand or check what a reference manager produced. If you only need consistent numbering while drafting, IEEE is the closest supported numeric style, though the entries themselves look different enough that you will need to convert them before submission.
Superscript, brackets, or parentheses?
All three are used, and the journal decides. Superscript numerals are the most common in clinical journals; parentheses and brackets are equally acceptable where a journal specifies them. Pick one from the instructions to authors and apply it consistently — a manuscript that mixes forms reads as unproofed even when every entry is correct.
Is Vancouver the same as IEEE?
No, though both are numeric and both number by order of first appearance. Vancouver writes “Halpern SD” with no periods, uses sentence-case titles with no quotation marks, abbreviates journals per the NLM Catalog without italics, and compresses the tail into “2024;33(4):241-9”. IEEE writes “S. D. Halpern”, quotes article titles, italicizes the abbreviated journal name, and spells out “vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 241–249, Apr. 2024”. Medical journals want Vancouver; engineering journals want IEEE.
How many authors do I list before “et al.”?
The ICMJE recommendation is six, then “et al.” — so six names are printed in full and the rest are dropped. Citing Medicine itself allows listing all authors regardless of number, and a minority of journals cut at three. Count the printed names in a recent issue of your target journal if the instructions to authors are silent.
What do I do when an online article has no page numbers?
Use the article’s e-locator in the page slot — “2023;18(9):e0291744” — which is what open-access journals issue in place of pagination. If there is no e-locator either, give the DOI and stop there rather than inventing a range. An article number and a DOI together identify the paper more precisely than pages ever did.
Other citation styles
Departments change their minds. Here is the rest of the set.
APA citation guide
Author–date. Used in Psychology, Education, Nursing and the health sciences.
MLA citation guide
Author–page. Used in Literature and literary studies, Languages and linguistics, Composition and rhetoric.
Chicago citation guide
Notes–bibliography. Used in History, Art history and visual culture, Literature and literary studies.
Harvard citation guide
Author–date. Used in Business and management, Economics, Nursing and allied health.
IEEE citation guide
Numeric. Used in Electrical and electronic engineering, Computer science and software engineering, Robotics, control, and systems engineering.
Stop reformatting
your reference list by hand
Cite as you write and let the bibliography build itself in APA, MLA, Chicago or IEEE. Copyeditor is in beta — apply and we’ll reach out as spots open.
