The Vancouver Protocol
Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals ("The uniform requirements"). Issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Most medical journals use the Vancouver recommendations for publishing scientific papers. They provide both practical and ethical guidelines for authors.
The document, previously known as the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (URMs), was first published in 1978 as a way of standardizing manuscript format and preparation across journals. Over the years, the scope of the document became broader and a new name was adopted to reflect this.
The updated version is available at the ICMJE website.