Free Vancouver Referencing Generator
Build a numbered Vancouver reference list for nursing, medicine and health science work, in the order you cite your sources. Our nursing assignment help experts reference care plans and case studies in Vancouver every week.
What are you referencing?
Details come from Crossref. Check them against the source before you use them.
Preview · Vancouver (NLM Citing Medicine)
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Your reference list
References you add appear here, sorted the way Vancouver sorts them. They stay in this browser until you clear them.
How to use the Vancouver referencing generator
- Add sources in the order you first cite them in your assignment. Each gets the next number.
- Paste a DOI and press Look up, or type the details yourself.
- Put the number shown, such as (1), in your text where you use that source.
- Reuse the same number every time you cite that source again.
- Copy the numbered list into your document as your reference list.
What is Vancouver referencing?
Vancouver is a numbered system used across medicine, nursing and the health sciences. Each source gets a number the first time you cite it, and the reference list is in number order, not alphabetical. It grew out of the requirements medical journal editors agreed in Vancouver in 1978.
The detailed rules most universities follow come from the US National Library of Medicine's Citing Medicine guide. This generator follows Citing Medicine (2nd edition).
Vancouver in-text citations
Cite with the source's number in round brackets, square brackets or superscript, depending on your university's guide. Place it straight after the fact or the author's name. If you cite the same source again, use its original number.
- One source: Early mobilisation reduces length of stay (1).
- Several sources: (2,3) or a range (4-7)
- Naming the author: Grady et al. (1) found that…
Tips for accurate Vancouver references
Author names are written surname first with initials and no full stops, such as Grady JS. Journal titles are normally abbreviated in the NLM style, such as J Adv Nurs for Journal of Advanced Nursing. If your guide asks for abbreviations, look up the journal in the NLM Catalog and type the abbreviation into the Journal name field.
Keep the list in citation order. If you remove a source while editing, renumber the rest. For more help with nursing assignments, see our nursing and health sciences services.
Vancouver referencing examples
Numbered references produced by the generator. Numbers follow the order sources are added.
Journal article
Reference list entry
1. Grady JS, Her M, Moreno G, Perez C, Yelinek J. Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. 2019;8(3):207–217. doi:10.1037/ppm0000185
In-text number
(1)
Book
Reference list entry
1. Jackson LM. The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; 2019.
In-text number
(1)
Book chapter
Reference list entry
1. Dillard JP. Currents in the study of persuasion. In: Oliver MB, Raney AA, Bryant J, editors. Media effects: Advances in theory and research. 4th ed. New York: Routledge; 2020. p. 115–129.
In-text number
(1)
Web page
Reference list entry
1. Bologna C. HuffPost [Internet]. 2019 [cited 2026 Oct 27]. Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. Available from: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e
In-text number
(1)
Report
Reference list entry
1. World Health Organization. Global tuberculosis report 2023 [Internet]. World Health Organization; 2023. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240083851
In-text number
(1)
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