The Vancouver Style (also referred to as ICMJE and Uniform Requirements Style) is a citation style used in the health and biomedical sciences. It was developed in Vancouver in 1978 by editors of medical journals and well over 1,000 medical journals (including ICMJE members BMJ, CMAJ, JAMA & NEJM) use this style. Vancouver style uses a number to mark in-text citations, and the reference list is in numerical order according to the order in which the reference appears in the paper.
A quick printable guide to answer most of your Vancouver Style formatting questions
Samples of Formatted References for Authors of Journal Articles -- authoritative short reference guide that contains examples of most types of references (NLM)
Vancouver Style (BCIT) -- Introductory information as well as quick reference examples
You can access the complete style manual here:
Citing Medicine, 2nd Edition
How do I find abbreviated journal titles?
To find the abbreviated title of a journal, use the NLM Catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI Databases https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals/
When I create an in-text citation, do I need to include the author or source title?
In general, you do not need to cite the author or title of the source in the text of your paper, but in certain situations you may decide it is important to mention them.
If I cite a source more than once in the text, do I need to list it again in the reference list?
No. The reference list is a numbered list of all the sources cited in the paper, in the order in which they were first cited. Each reference is only listed once, since the same number is used throughout the paper. If you cite the same source more than once, reuse the original number from the reference list for the in-text citation.
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