Vancouver style is the standard citation system for biomedical and health sciences research. Used by thousands of journals including The Lancet, JAMA, and BMJ, it assigns a number to each source in the order it first appears in the text — and those numbers stay with that source throughout the paper. This guide covers the format for every major source type with complete examples.
How Vancouver In-Text Citations Work
Each source receives a number when first cited. That number appears in the text as a superscript or in parentheses/brackets, depending on the journal’s house style. Once assigned, the same number is reused every time that source is cited again.
| Format variant | Example |
|---|---|
| Superscript (most common) | …as previously reported.¹ |
| Brackets | …as previously reported [1]. |
| Parentheses | …as previously reported (1). |
The punctuation mark (period, comma) goes after the citation number, not before it. Multiple sources in one location are listed together: ¹·²·³ or [1,2,3].
Journal Article
1. Patel RA, Chen M, Singh LP. Deep learning for early detection of diabetic retinopathy: a systematic review. Lancet Digit Health. 2024;6(4):e312-e325. doi:10.1016/S2589-7500(24)00045-2Structure: Author(s). Title. Journal abbreviation. Year;Volume(Issue):Pages. doi
| Field | Format |
|---|---|
| Authors | Last name + initials, no periods after initials; up to 6 authors listed, then «et al.» |
| Article title | Sentence case; no italics, no quotes |
| Journal name | Standard abbreviation, italicized (or as the journal specifies) |
| Year;Volume(Issue) | No space before semicolon or colon |
| Pages | First and last page; abbreviated if same hundreds |
| DOI | doi: or https://doi.org/ |
Book
2. Greenhalgh T. How to Read a Paper: The Basics of Evidence-Based Medicine and Healthcare. 6th ed. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell; 2019.Chapter in an Edited Book
3. Sackett DL. Bias in analytic research. In: Rothman KJ, Greenland S, Lash TL, editors. Modern Epidemiology. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2008. p. 54-79.Website
4. World Health Organization. Global tuberculosis report 2023 [Internet]. Geneva: WHO; 2023 [cited 2025 Mar 12]. Available from: https://www.who.int/teams/global-tuberculosis-programme/tb-reports/global-tuberculosis-report-2023Thesis or Dissertation
5. Okonkwo SK. Machine learning approaches for predicting sepsis outcomes in ICU patients [dissertation]. London: University College London; 2023.Conference Paper
6. Kim J, Park S, Lee H. Federated learning for privacy-preserving clinical NLP. In: Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Health Informatics; 2024 May 14-16; Seoul, South Korea. Seoul: KHIA; 2024. p. 112-118.Vancouver vs. APA vs. IEEE: Quick Comparison
| Feature | Vancouver | APA | IEEE |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-text format | Superscript number (¹) or [1] | (Author, year) | [1] |
| Reference order | Order of first citation | Alphabetical by author | Order of first citation |
| Author format | Last name + initials (Smith AB) | Last name, initials (Smith, A. B.) | Initials + last name (A. B. Smith) |
| Article title case | Sentence case, no quotes | Sentence case, no quotes | Sentence case, in quotes |
| Journal name | Abbreviated, italicized | Full name, italicized | Abbreviated, italicized |
| Primary field | Medicine, nursing, health sciences | Psychology, social sciences | Engineering, CS |
Common Mistakes
- Restarting the numbering — numbers run consecutively through the whole paper; never reset for a new section
- Using more than 6 authors before «et al.» — Vancouver lists up to 6 authors, then adds «et al.»
- Putting the citation number before the punctuation — in Vancouver, the number comes after the period or comma¹, not before
- Italicizing article titles — in Vancouver, only journal names are italicized; article titles are plain text
For a full guide to Vancouver citations including clinical trial reports and grey literature, see the Vancouver citation center.