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Referencing style - Vancouver (based on Citing Medicine): Journal article

A guide to using the Vancouver citation style for in text citations and reference lists.

Journal article

Note on journal titles:

The titles of journals must be abbreviated according to the National Library of Medicines NLM catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI database.

If using EndNote you can install the Medical Terms List, which includes over 14,000 journal title abbreviations. 

If you cannot find a particular journal title in the NLM catalog, try the CAS Source Index (CASSI) search tool.

For additional sources for journal title abbreviations see Citing Medicine Appendix B.

Lastly, as per Citing Medicine Appendix A, it is also acceptable to build a journal title abbreviation from common word abbreviations listed on ISSN’s List of Title Word Abbreviations. 

Note on authors/editors:

Citing Medicine lists all authors/editors in the reference list, however they do state “The following formats are not NLM practice for citing authors, but are acceptable options: If space is a consideration, the number of authors may be limited to a specific number, such as the first three authors or first six authors. Follow the last named author with a comma and “et al.” or “and others”. Check with your Unit Coordinator for more information.

 

Material Type Reference List Example (based on Citing Medicine 2nd edition) 

EndNote (Citing Medicine 2 UWA)

The following instructions are based on using the Citing Medicine 2 (UWA) style with EndNote 20 and 21. 
Journal article [print]

 

Petitti DB, Crooks VC, Buckwalter JG, Chiu V. Blood pressure levels before dementia. Arch Neurol. 2005 Jan;62(1):112-6.

Reference Type - Journal Article

Author - if more than one author, enter each on a separate line. (See note above re number of authors listed).

Title - Article title

Journal - Journal title. Download EndNote's Medical Journal Terms List for the required abbreviations.

Year

Volume

Issue

Pages 

Journal article [print]

No author

 Pelvic floor exercise can reduce stress incontinence. Health News. 2005 Apr;11(4):11.

Reference Type - Journal Article

Begin reference with title of the article if no person or organisation can be identified as the author and no editors or translators are given.

Journal article

In Press or Forthcoming 

O'Rourke E, Hussain R, Buscombe JR, Hilson AJ. Overlying urostomy bag simulating urinary leak in a postrenal transplant MAG3 study. Clin Nucl Med. Forthcoming 2006.

 

Reich T, Gefen A. Effect of trabecular bone loss on cortical strain rate during impact in an in vitro model of avian femur. Biomed Eng Online [Internet]. Forthcoming 2006.

Type - Journal Article

Year - add Forthcoming and expected publication date if known, eg. Forthcoming 2019 Dec 10. (Forthcoming is preferred term of NLM).

 

Electronic journal article with DOI

Harrison JJ, Ceri H, Yerly J, Stremick CA, Hu Y, Martinuzzi R, Turner RJ. The use of microscopy and three-dimensional visualization to evaluate the structure of microbial biofilms cultivated in the Calgary Biofilm Device. Biol Proced Online [Internet]. 2006 [cited 2019 Jan 10];8(1):194-215. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1779619. doi: 10.1251/bpo127

Reference Type -Electronic Article

Authors - Add each author on new line in the format last name comma first initial. (If author has two initials, separate with a period. e.g. Harrison, J.J

Title - Article title

Periodical Title - abbreviated journal title (see top of page). If using the downloaded Medical Journal Terms List, you can also input as full journal title and EndNote will abbreviate. 

Year - of publication

Year Cited

Date Cited - Format as 'abbreviated month day', e.g. Jan 10

Volume

Issue

Pages - format e.g. 194-215

   URL – copy and paste 

   DOI – add the DOI number (not the whole DOI link). 

NB DOI is optional, but URL is required. You can also use the DOI link in the URL field and omit the DOI field. 

Electronic journal article without DOI

 As above, leave out DOI.

Reference Type - Electronic Article

More examples

For more article examples see Citing Medicine Ch. 1 Journals

For more electronic article examples see Citing Medicine Ch. 23 Journals on the Internet

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