Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Web references
As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

References in a special issue
Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

Reference management software
Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript. More information on how to remove field codes from different reference management software.
Users of Mendeley Desktop can easily install the reference style for this journal by clicking the following link:
http://open.mendeley.com/use-citation-style/journal-of-traditional-chinese-medical-sciences
When preparing your manuscript, you will then be able to select this style using the Mendeley plug-ins for Microsoft Word or LibreOffice.

Reference style (‘Vancouver’ System with numbers in text)
Text: All citations in the text should refer to:
Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.
Examples: Because the accretion model is based mainly on nonmetric traits [5], our analysis…
List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order which they appear in the text.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
[1] Van der Geer J, Hanraads, JAJ., Lupton, RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun 2000;163: 51-59.
Reference to a book:
[2] Strunk Jr W, White, EB. The Elements of Style, third ed. New York : Macmillan; 1979.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] Mettam, GR, Adams, LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. in: Jones BS, Smith , RZ, editors. Introduction to the Electronic Age. New York: E-Publishing Inc; 1999, pp. 281-304.