The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) includes a number of editors of general medical journals who first met in 1978 in Vancouver (Canada) with the goal to establish common formats for submitted manuscripts. Since then this group (membership is by invitation only) met annually and produced several statements on topics beside manuscript format, that were revised since the publication in 1979 of the time-honored (but not universally adopted) Vancouver style for article references.
