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Vancouver citation generator

Format references in Vancouver style — the numeric system required by most medical and biomedical journals. Enter the details once or paste BibTeX/RIS, and copy the finished reference.

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Who uses Vancouver style

Vancouver style comes from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations and is the house style of most medicine, nursing and biomedical journals, including those indexed in PubMed. Like IEEE it is numeric: superscript or bracketed numbers in citation order, with the reference list ordered to match.

Vancouver style at a glance

Reference-list example

Chen M, Okafor J. Sleep deprivation and working memory. Cognitive Science. 2023;47(2):112-39.

In-text citation

Working memory declines under sleep loss (1). Some journals use superscripts instead.

The rules that trip people up

  • Authors as surname + initials with no periods or commas between initials (Chen M), separated by commas; list up to six, then "et al."
  • Article titles in sentence case with no quotation marks; journal names abbreviated per PubMed (Cogn Sci) — no italics required.
  • The compact numeric locator: Year;Volume(Issue):Pages with no spaces — 2023;47(2):112-39 — and page ranges shortened.
  • Citations are numbers in order of first appearance — (1) or superscript, per journal — and the list follows that order.
  • DOIs are increasingly required: append "doi: 10.xxxx/xxxx" when available.

Frequently asked questions

Is Vancouver the same as the AMA style?
They are close relatives — both numeric, both from the medical publishing world — but AMA (JAMA’s manual) has its own details (superscript numbers, italicized abbreviated journal names). If your journal says "Vancouver" or "ICMJE recommendations", this generator’s output is the right baseline; always check the journal’s instructions for authors.
How are journal names abbreviated in Vancouver?
Per the NLM catalog used by PubMed (Cognitive Science → Cogn Sci). The generator keeps the journal name as entered — paste the NLM abbreviation if your target journal requires it, or export from your reference manager which abbreviates automatically.
What does "et al." mean in a Vancouver reference list?
For seven or more authors, list the first six followed by "et al." — the generator applies this automatically. In-text, Vancouver cites by number, so author names only appear if you mention them narratively.

Other citation styles

APAMLAChicagoHarvardIEEEAll styles

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Citing while you write?

Inside Kahubi the AI cites papers from your own library as it drafts — in Vancouver or any other style, with the bibliography always in sync.

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Citations that manage themselves

In Kahubi, your library carries the metadata: the agent cites papers as it writes in Vancouver style, and the bibliography always matches the in-text citations — in LaTeX or rich text.

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