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i know how to use the vancouver citation style with bibtex, but i use biber in my project, but i don't know how to use the vancouver citation style there?

i configured my tex file like this and added my bib file:

\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{bibliography.bib}

I tried it with the commands but did not work:

style=vancouver 
citestyle=vancouver

I got only an error that the \cite command is not defined. So it seems that the citation style could not be found or loaded. So can someone help me to get the vancouver style working?

Thanks!

Guido
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Opa114
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    As far as I know there is no fully-fledged "Vancouver" style for biblatex out there. There is a BibTeX (.bst) style (here on CTAN). See also Vancouver citation style in LaTex. If you don't have a .bbx/.cbx pair the style=vancouver option cannot help you. – moewe Jan 31 '16 at 14:05
  • Here are the bibtex style: https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/contrib/vancouver?lang=de and here general information about the vancouver style: https://blackboard.swan.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/institution/LibraryISSResources/Referencing%20Guides/brief%20referencing%20guide%20for%20Vancouver%20oct%202012.pdf – Opa114 Jan 31 '16 at 14:10
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    The style you link to cannot be used with biblatex it is a BibTeX style. Note also that what is considered Vancouver style may vary quite a bit from institution to institution. – moewe Jan 31 '16 at 14:24
  • yes i know that i can not use the bibtex style i posted with biblatex. My question is how to use it with biblatex or is there a predefined style i can use? yes right the style vary a bit from institution to institution – Opa114 Jan 31 '16 at 14:28
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    If with "it" you mean the .bst style the answer is you cannot use it with biblatex, if you refer to the general concept of the "Vancouver style", then my comment above applies that I don't know about a full implementation of that style for biblatex. The pre-defined numeric style might come close to what you want, but you will probably have to apply (quite) some modifications. You could of course stop using biblatex and go for good old BibTeX and use vancouver.bst. – moewe Jan 31 '16 at 14:54
  • okay. yes bibtex could be an alternative, but i thought i use biblates/biber because they more up2date and could better handle utf8, etc. – Opa114 Jan 31 '16 at 15:05
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    Normally, I recommend biblatex over BibTeX, but if you have a .bst style that suits your needs (and you are mainly writing in English), you can stick to BibTeX. If you want to use biblatex you need to accept that currently there is no ready-to-use Vancouver style out there, so you will have to roll your own (starting from numeric I suppose). – moewe Jan 31 '16 at 15:24
  • ok, i will try it with numeric and will see and maybe made some changes to it. thanks. – Opa114 Jan 31 '16 at 15:31
  • Vancouver style just means numeric citations, just like Harvard style usually means author date; without any specifics. So, that being said, Vancouver is biblatexs default. – Johannes_B Jan 31 '16 at 15:52
  • oh good to know that numeric likes Vancouver style. As i said it before i will try it and maybe modify it. – Opa114 Jan 31 '16 at 16:00

1 Answers1

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The term "Vancouver style" or "Vancouver system" seems to be slightly more variable than say, APA style or Chicago style. Often institutions have their own modifications to the general idea of the style. (Much like "Harvard style" often just means an author year style.)

According to Wikipedia the home of the "official Vancouver style" is the NLM's Citing Medicine.

From what I can see there, it is essentially a numerical style.

For BibTeX there is vancouver.bst.

For biblatex a quick search on the web only turned up https://github.com/fluffels/biblatex-vancouver, the styles there haven't been updated in years though and the redefinitions of the drivers are indeed quite rough. See also Vancouver citation style in LaTex.

I think your best bet with biblatex is to start from a numeric style and modify it as needed. One prominent feature is the name format which can be reproduced with terseinits=true, firstinits=true and 

\DeclareNameAlias{default}{last-first}
\renewcommand*{\revsdnamepunct}{}

As Johannes_B points out in the comments, there is Biblatex style file for New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) which lead to biblatex-nejm. And indeed what Marco Daniel implements there seems quite close to the Vancouver style requirements linked to above.

The package has been last updated in November 2011 though, and so some of the code might not work that smoothly. From what I could see most of it is still absolutely the right code for the job. The \renewbibmacro*{name:last-first} block, however, can be replaced by the code above.

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moewe
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