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Vancouver 2022

Articles

General notes

Include the following bulleted elements for journal articles in your reference list.

  • Author surname and initials are not separated by any punctuation. Include all author names unless there are more than 6, in which case only name the first 3 followed by "et al" - see the Manual of Style for rules around hyphenated names or names with prefixes in Chapter 3.8
  • Abbreviate and italicise the name of the journal (use the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) catalog). Do not make up your own abbreviations. If the journal is not in the catalog, use the full title

Journal articles (online)

Reference list

Format

Number.      Author A. Article title. Abbreviated Journal Title. Year;volume number(issue number):page-page. doi:10.xxx

Example

2.     Evangelopoulos DS, Tobel MV, Cholewa D, et al. Impact of Lodox Statscan on radiation dose and screening time in paediatric trauma patients. Eur J Pediatr Surg. 2010;20(6):382-386. doi:10.1055/s-0030-1261941

Tips

  • Include the title of the article, and subtitle if present. Only the first word of the article title and words that normally begin with a capital letter is capitalised. Don't capitalise the first letter after a colon

Online-only journals may have an article number rather than page numbers, these can be substituted in the reference

Format

Number.      Author A. Article title. Abbreviated Journal Title. Year;volume number(issue number):article number. doi:10.xxx

Example

4.     Maloney S, Nicklen P, Rivers G, et al. A cost-effectiveness analysis of blended versus face-to-face delivery of evidence-based medicine to medical students. J Med Internet Res. 2015;17(7):e182. doi:10.2196/jmir.4346

5.     Chapman E, García Diéguez M. Radiotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2006;(3):CD003880. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003880.pub4 

Tips

  • Not all articles will have every part of the required information for a complete reference (e.g. no volume number). Include as much information as you are given in the article
  • DOIs sometimes take the form of a URL. If so, you don’t need to include the HTTP, etc., start at doi:10.xxx (etc).

Journal articles without Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)

Many journal articles published online have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Include DOIs in your reference list if they exist, as they are more stable than a URL. If there is no DOI, include the URL instead and the date accessed. Do not add a full stop to URLs.

Reference list

Format

Number.      Author A. Article title. Abbreviated Journal Title. Year;volume number(issue number):page-page. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

Example

6.     Gusenbauer M, Haddaway NR. What every researcher should know about searching – clarified concepts, search advice, and an agenda to improve finding in academia. Res Synth Methods. 2021;12(2):136-147. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jrsm.1457

Journal articles published early online

Increasingly, journals publish articles online before being allocated to a particular issue or volume. Terms you may come across include 'online early', 'online first', or 'advance online publication'. 'Forthcoming' usually means the article has been accepted for publication. The term 'in press' is generally no longer used. Section 3.11.4 explains more about early online journal articles


Occasionally, you may want to cite other versions of articles that you've found, usually via search engines like Google or Google Scholar. Researchers may opt to make their articles openly accessible online via repositories like arXiv, platforms like ResearchGate, or other servers. Pre-prints, post-prints, or author manuscripts are common terms, but always investigate whether a final published version or 'version of record' exists and use it instead. Otherwise, indicate the version you are citing.

Reference list

Format

Number.      Author A. Article title. Abbreviated Journal Title. Published online Month Day, Year. doi:10.xxx

Example

7.     Nnama-Okechukwu C, McLaughlin H, Okoye U, et al. Indigenous knowledge and social work education in Nigeria: challenges and need for sustainable development. Int Soc Work. Published online May 25, 2022. doi:10.1177/00208728221098511

Format

Number.      Author A. Article title. Abbreviated Journal Title. Preprint posted online Month Day, Year. doi:10.xxx

Example

8.     Awaya N, Ma L. Tree boosting for learning probability measures. arXiv. Preprint posted online June 7, 2022. doi:arxiv:2101.11083

Tips

  • List the authors names in the same order as they appear in the article.
  • 'Author' can be a director, producer, creator, etc. depending on the work.
  • Go to Getting started > In-text citation to view other examples such as multiple authors.

Newspaper articles

Reference list

Format (print)

Number.      Author A. Article title. Newspaper Title. Month Day, Year:page.

Example (print)

9.     Kirkham, R. Support for children. The Ballarat Courier. August 17, 2019:4.

Format

Number.      Author A. Article title. Newspaper Title. Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

Example

10.     Ilanbey, S. Andrews dumps young offender reforms.The Sunday Age. June 5, 2022. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://tinyurl.com/2p94jbx5

Tips

  • Add a city name to the newspaper title if this clarifies the correct newspaper eg. The Ballarat Courier as opposed to The Mansfield Courier
  • See the chapter on News Publications 3.13.1 under Special Materialsof the Style Manual for more information

Refer to the AMA Manual of Style Chapter 3.11 for more guidance and examples related to references for journal articles.