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The Lancet Citation Generator
Generate references in The Lancet from a DOI or link in seconds. CitApp renders this style with citeproc, the same engine as Zotero and Mendeley, so every comma matches the spec. Free for students, no sign-up to try.
What The Lancet reference looks like
The Lancet is a numeric style: sources are cited with a bracketed or superscript number in the order they first appear, and the reference list is numbered to match.
Rendered live from the same engine CitApp uses in the app:
Journal article
1 Babonis LS, Martindale MQ. A novel regulatory gene network in cnidarians. PNAS 2022; 119: e2113701119.
Book
1 Kuhn TS. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, 1970.
Web page
1 IPCC. Climate change 2021: the physical science basis. 2021; published online Aug 9. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/ (accessed July 15, 2026).
Journal article with 26 authors
1 Harris CR, Millman KJ, van der Walt SJ, et al. Array programming with NumPy. Nature 2020; 585: 357–62.
The Lancet at a glance
Read from the style file and checked against the examples above.
- Used mainly in medicine.
- In the text, sources are cited with superscript numbers.
- For a paper with 26 authors, the reference list names the first 3 authors and shortens the rest.
- First names are shortened to initials.
- The reference leaves the DOI out.
- Web pages include the date you accessed them.
- The reference list is numbered in the order sources are first cited.
- The style file was last updated in September 2012.
The guide this style follows: download.thelancet.com
How The Lancet compares with NLM/Vancouver: Citing Medicine 2nd edition (citation-sequence, brackets)
Where The Lancet differs:
- For a paper with 26 authors, the reference list names the first 3 authors and shortens the rest.
- The reference leaves the DOI out.
- In the text, sources are cited with superscript numbers.
The same journal article in NLM/Vancouver: Citing Medicine 2nd edition (citation-sequence, brackets)
1. Babonis LS, Martindale MQ. A novel regulatory gene network in cnidarians. PNAS. 2022 May 3;119(19):e2113701119. doi:10.1073/pnas.2113701119
Frequently asked questions
How many authors does The Lancet list?
For a paper with 26 authors, the reference list names the first 3 authors and shortens the rest.
How does The Lancet handle DOIs and web pages?
The reference leaves the DOI out. Web pages include the date you accessed them.
How is the reference list ordered in The Lancet?
The reference list is numbered in the order sources are first cited.
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