How to Cite a Preprint or Working Paper in Vancouver

Preprints on servers such as arXiv, SSRN or bioRxiv, and working papers.

Example in Vancouver

Perelman G. The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications [Internet]. arXiv; 2002. Available from: https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0211159

In-text (1)

Numbered by order of appearance in your document.

Fix by hand: Fill in Date Accessed so the date you read it follows the year as [cited …]. Then delete [Internet] after the title, and change “arXiv;” to “arXiv:math/0211159 [Preprint].”

What Vancouver includes

These are the details of the example above that the style prints, so they are the ones to collect for your own source.

Title
Author(s)
Server or Repository
Date Published
URL

Check whether the paper has since come out in a journal or proceedings. If you read that version, cite it as a journal article or a conference paper. Otherwise note the server, the date of the version you read and the DOI on its page. For a working paper, note its series and its number too.

The formatting comes from the style's own file, so check the finer points against your guide. What to check by hand in Vancouver.