How to cite a journal article in Vancouver
A peer-reviewed paper published in an academic journal. Numbered style used across biomedical journals.
Quick answer
To cite a journal article in Vancouver, include the author(s), year, title, and container or publisher details. A concrete example is below.
Example
1. Sweller J. Cognitive load during problem solving: A reinterpretation. Cognitive Science. 1988;12(2):257–285.
This example is rendered with the official CSL definition for Vancouver. For the exact style required by your journal, paste your references into DEEPNOTIS and pick that style from the dropdown — the app covers 2,800+ variants.
What you need
For a journal article, Vancouver expects these fields at minimum:
- Author(s)
- Year of publication
- Article title
- Journal name
- Volume and issue number
- Page range
- DOI (if available)
Common mistakes
- Writing out author first names. Vancouver uses initials without periods ('Smith J').
- Italicizing the journal name. Vancouver uses Index Medicus abbreviation without italics.
- Forgetting the DOI. When a DOI exists, most styles now require it (usually as a full https://doi.org/… URL).
- Inconsistent capitalization. APA uses sentence case for titles; MLA and Chicago use title case. Mixing them is the single most common style error.
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Last updated: 5 May 2026