Vancouver Citation Generator
Paste a DOI, PubMed ID or reference and get it in Vancouver, built from the real Crossref or PubMed record so the details are right.
Vancouver example
The paper Deep learning by LeCun, Bengio and Hinton (Nature, 2015), formatted by this tool from DOI 10.1038/nature14539:
In text: (1)
Who uses Vancouver
Medicine, nursing, public health and most biomedical journals (ICMJE recommendations, NLM style).
Vancouver reference rules
- Number references in the order they are first cited, not alphabetically.
- Write authors as surname followed by initials with no full stops: LeCun Y, Bengio Y, Hinton G.
- List up to six authors; with more, give the first six followed by "et al."
- Abbreviate journal titles as in the NLM catalogue (Nature, N Engl J Med) without italics.
- Write year;volume(issue):pages with the page range shortened: 2015;521(7553):436–44.
In-text citations
Numbers in the order sources are first cited, in square brackets or superscript: …deep networks [1].
Common mistakes
- Sorting the list alphabetically, which breaks the numbering.
- Using full journal names where the journal expects NLM abbreviations.
How this generator avoids wrong references
Every reference is looked up in Crossref, PubMed and OpenAlex before it is formatted. When the database record disagrees with what you pasted (a year off by one, a missing co-author, pages from a different issue) the citation is built from the record and you see what changed. A paper that cannot be found is still formatted, exactly as typed, but marked as unverified, and a retracted paper is flagged in red. Always check your institution's or journal's own guidance: many add small house rules on top of the official style.
Other styles
APA 7 · MLA 9 · Chicago author-date · Harvard · IEEE · AMA 11
Frequently asked questions
Is this Vancouver citation generator free?
Yes, with no sign-up. Anonymous use covers 30 reference checks a day; a free Phở account raises that to 300 a month.
How do I cite a journal article in Vancouver?
Paste its DOI or PubMed ID above and choose Vancouver. For example, 10.1038/nature14539 becomes: 1. LeCun Y, Bengio Y, Hinton G. Deep learning. Nature. 2015;521(7553):436–44. doi:10.1038/nature14539
What does an in-text citation look like in Vancouver?
Numbers in the order sources are first cited, in square brackets or superscript: …deep networks [1].
Why does the tool change details I typed?
Because it looked the paper up and the publisher’s record disagrees. The warnings under each citation list exactly what changed, so you can check.