Vancouver style
How to cite a clinical trial registry in Vancouver style
Trial registrations require official registry identifiers (NCT, EudraCT) and registration dates rather than standard publication volumes.
THE FORMAT
A clinical trial registry in Vancouver, at a glance
#. Sponsor Name. Title of clinical trial. Identifier: NCTxxxxxx. ClinicalTrials.gov; Year [cited Year Mon DD]. Available from: URL
4. World Health Organization. International trial of candidate Ebola therapeutics. Identifier: ISRCTN12345678. ICTRP Registry; 2023 [cited 2024 Mar 15]. Available from: https://trialsearch.who.int/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=ISRCTN12345678
The multinational therapeutic trial is registered on WHO ICTRP.⁴
In prose: The World Health Organization⁴ coordinated the trial registration.
Copyeditor formats APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE automatically — cite a source once and the references builds itself. See how citations work .
BEFORE YOU FORMAT
What Vancouver needs from a clinical trial registry
Elements to collect
- Sponsor or principal investigator name
- Registration year
- Title of the clinical trial
- Registry name (ClinicalTrials.gov, EU Clinical Trials)
- Registry identifier number (e.g., NCT04368728)
- URL of the trial record
Rules specific to this entry
- Clinical trial registries require explicit registry identifiers (e.g. Identifier: NCT04368728 or ISRCTN12345678).
- The trial registry database name functions as the publication title in Vancouver style.
- List the primary trial sponsor or principal investigator in the author position.
- Include the full URL pointing directly to the public trial registry entry page.
Building the entry, step by step
Collect the details
Before you format anything, gather every element Vancouver needs for a clinical trial registry: Sponsor or principal investigator name; Registration year; Title of the clinical trial; Registry name (ClinicalTrials.gov, EU Clinical Trials).
Build the references entry
Arrange those details in the Vancouver order: #. Sponsor Name. Title of clinical trial. Identifier: NCTxxxxxx. ClinicalTrials.gov; Year [cited Year Mon DD]. Available from: URL
Add the in-text citation
In the body of your paper, cite it as The multinational therapeutic trial is registered on WHO ICTRP.⁴ — or work the same reference into your sentence as The World Health Organization⁴ coordinated the trial registration..
Check it against the exceptions
Clinical trial registries require explicit registry identifiers (e.g. Identifier: NCT04368728 or ISRCTN12345678).
Vancouver RULES
The conventions behind every Vancouver entry
Citing Medicine (NLM), 2nd ed. — the reference standard behind Vancouver is the authority. Where a journal or department publishes its own house rules, those win — check your submission guidelines before the references is final.
The rules that apply across every source — author order, capitalization, how the references is sorted, and where Vancouver entries most often go wrong — are collected on the Vancouver style guide.
The same clinical trial registry in another style
Switching styles late in a draft is normal. Here is the same source formatted five other ways.
Questions about Vancouver and clinical trial registries
What if the clinical trial registry has no author?
Start the entry with the title and keep the number you already assigned it. A numeric references never re-sorts for a missing author, so the entry stays exactly where it is.
What do I need before I can cite a clinical trial registry?
Sponsor or principal investigator name, Registration year, Title of the clinical trial, and the rest of the elements listed above. Trial registrations require official registry identifiers (NCT, EudraCT) and registration dates rather than standard publication volumes.
Is there anything unusual about a clinical trial registry in Vancouver?
Clinical trial registries require explicit registry identifiers (e.g. Identifier: NCT04368728 or ISRCTN12345678).
What else catches people out here?
The trial registry database name functions as the publication title in Vancouver style.
Can I reformat this clinical trial registry in another style later?
By hand, you would retype the entry — the element order, punctuation and italics all differ between styles. In Copyeditor, sources are stored as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole reference list at once.
Cite it once
and never reformat it again
Copyeditor keeps sources as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole references at once.
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