Clinical Practice Guideline Citation Generator

Your citations

Enter the guideline's title and its author to see your citations.

How to Use the Clinical Practice Guideline Citation Generator

1. 1. Say where you read it. On the issuing body's website, such as NICE, WHO or USPSTF, or printed in a journal. The two are cited differently.
2. 2. Enter the author and the title. Name the organization that wrote the guideline in full. Type the title as it appears, with a lowercase letter after a colon; APA capitalizes it for you.
3. 3. Add the dates and the address. For a web guideline: the dates it was published and last updated, the date you viewed it and its URL. For a journal guideline: the journal, year, volume, issue, pages and DOI.
4. 4. Add the guideline number. NICE prints one, such as NG136. Copy it as the document prints it.
5. 5. Copy the style you need. The APA entry copies with its italics intact; AMA and Vancouver are numbered styles, so your text cites the reference number.

Web Guideline or Journal Guideline?

Many guidelines exist twice: as a document on the issuing body's site and as an article in a journal. Cite the one you read. Guidelines from NICE and the WHO are usually web documents; guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, KDIGO and similar societies are usually printed in journals too. The old National Guideline Clearinghouse closed in 2018, so never cite it; cite the issuing body's own document, with the date of the version you used.

APA 7 has no guideline type of its own. A web guideline is a report by a group author, so the organization is spelled out in the reference list and abbreviated in the text after its first citation — (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2026), then (NICE, 2026). The site name is left out when it is the author's own name. AMA 11 and Vancouver both cite a guideline printed in a journal as a journal article. For a web guideline, AMA follows its website pattern and Vancouver follows the NLM pattern for an Internet document with an organization as author. AMA has no example of a guideline number; the generator puts it in a sentence after the title, and Vancouver puts it in parentheses after the date. Treat those two placements as conventions and follow your instructor if they differ.

Clinical Practice Guideline Citation Examples

NICE guideline NG136, Hypertension in adults: diagnosis and management, first published on August 28, 2019 and last updated on February 26, 2026, as the NICE page showed it on October 16, 2026.

The 2017 high blood pressure guideline of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, printed in Hypertension in 2018. It has 21 authors, which is where the styles' author rules differ.

Which Version Do You Cite?

Living guidelines change. NICE updates a guideline in place and keeps its history, so the date you cite should match the version you read. APA takes the year of the latest update, and AMA and Vancouver give the published date, the update date and the date you viewed the page. If you need the earlier text, cite the dated version in the guideline's history. For a journal guideline, the volume and pages already pin down the version.

When a Field Is Missing

• No date. APA uses n.d. AMA and Vancouver leave the date out; give the date you viewed the page.
• No guideline number. Leave the box empty. Not every body numbers its guidelines.
• No named organization. Look at the first page and the footer; a guideline always has an issuing body. Individual authors can go in the author box instead.
• A compound surname. Enter it as Last, First (Dennison Himmelfarb, Cheryl) so the initials are right.
• No DOI. Leave it blank; the entry ends at the pages.

Common Mistakes

• Citing the retired National Guideline Clearinghouse. Cite the organization's own current document.
• Abbreviating the organization in the reference list. Spell it out there and abbreviate it in the text.
• Capitalizing every word of the title. All three styles want sentence case.
• Citing a summary instead of the guideline. A news item or a slide deck about the guideline is a different source.
• Listing every author of a long journal guideline. AMA stops after three names, Vancouver after six, and APA after 19.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cite a clinical practice guideline in APA 7?

Treat a web guideline as a report by a group author: the organization spelled out, the year, the title in italics, the guideline number in parentheses, and the URL. For NICE: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2026). Hypertension in adults: Diagnosis and management (NICE guideline NG136). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng136. In text: (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2026), then (NICE, 2026).

How do I cite a clinical guideline in AMA style?

If the guideline is printed in a journal, cite it as a journal article: Whelton PK, Carey RM, Aronow WS, et al. followed by the title, the italic journal abbreviation, the year, volume, issue, pages and the DOI. A guideline on a website follows AMA's website pattern: the organization, the title, the published, updated and accessed dates, and the URL. In the text, cite it by superscript number.

How do I cite a clinical guideline in Vancouver style?

A guideline in a journal is cited as a journal article, with the first six authors and et al. For an online guideline, NLM's pattern for an Internet document gives the organization, the title, [Internet], the place and publisher, the dates in brackets, and Available from: with the URL. In the text, cite it by reference number.

Who is the author of a guideline?

The organization or committee that issued it, such as NICE, the WHO or the US Preventive Services Task Force. Use the people's names only when the guideline is printed in a journal with an author list, or when the document names individual authors.

Do I cite the guideline or the journal article about it?

Cite the one you read. If you used the issuing body's own document, cite that. If you read the version printed in a journal, cite the journal article. A review or commentary that discusses the guideline is a different source and needs its own citation.

How do I cite a guideline that has been updated?

Cite the version you read, and give its date. APA uses the year of the update. AMA and Vancouver give the published date, the update date and the date you viewed the page, so a reader can tell which version you used.