Free Vancouver Citation Generator
Generate correctly formatted Vancouver-style citations for journal articles, books, and websites. Enter a DOI to auto-fill the details, or use manual entry — then copy the formatted citation straight into your reference list.
Our team can help format your full reference list and prepare your manuscript for submission.
How Vancouver Referencing Works
Vancouver is a numbered citation style used mainly in medicine and the biomedical sciences (it's the style used by the ICMJE and many major medical journals). Instead of author-date, sources are numbered in the order they're first cited, and the same number is reused every time that source appears again.
Vancouver Journal Article Citation
Smith JA, Lee K. Understanding academic motivation in graduate students. J Educ Psychol. 2021;14(2):112-128.
Format: Author(s) initials. Title of article. Journal abbreviation. Year;Volume(Issue):pages.
Vancouver Book Citation
Smith JA. Research methods in social science. 3rd ed. London: Academic Press; 2020.
Format: Author(s). Title of book. Edition. Place: Publisher; Year.
Vancouver Website Citation
Smith JA. How to write a literature review [Internet]. Tezyar Research Blog; 2022 [cited 2024 Mar 4]. Available from: https://example.com/article
Format: Author. Title [Internet]. Publisher; Year [cited date]. Available from: URL.
Vancouver In-Text Citations
Vancouver uses numbers in the text, usually in square brackets or superscript: "...this pattern is well documented [1]." Multiple sources are listed together, e.g. [1,3,5] or as a range [1-3], and each number always corresponds to the same numbered reference-list entry.
Vancouver Reference List Order
Unlike APA or Harvard, the Vancouver reference list is NOT alphabetical — it's ordered by the sequence in which sources first appear in the text. Reference 1 is whichever source you cited first, reference 2 is the next new source, and so on, even if a source is cited again later in the paper.
Frequently asked questions
That's correct for Vancouver style — references are numbered and ordered by first appearance in the text, not alphabetically. This is a key difference from APA and Harvard.
Both are used across different journals — check your target journal's author guidelines. This tool provides the reference-list entry; how you format the in-text number is a formatting choice your journal will specify.
Most follow the ICMJE recommendations closely, but some journals have small variations (e.g. abbreviated vs full journal names). Always check your target journal's specific author guidelines before final submission.