Vancouver style
The Vancouver referencing style guidance below has been cited from: Pears, R. & Shields, G. (2016) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide, 10th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Please note your school may have specific referencing requirements; to ensure you are using the preferred referencing style please check with your school office.
Click on the headers below to find information about how to cite a particular source in this style.
In-text citations
Vancouver style uses numeric citations in-text, using numbers in brackets (1) or superscript numbers linked to full citations in footnotes.
Follow these conventions when using Vancouver referencing style:
- use the same citation number whenever a source is cited in your text.
- match in-text numbers to full numbered references for each publication in a reference list.
- list publications in the order they appeared in the text, not alphabetically, in the reference list.
- use well-established abbreviations in place of full journal titles.
- if you have multiple cutitations in a section of text, separate the reference numbers by commas. e.g. "(3, 12, 21) have shown that"
- do not put a comma between the surname and initials, nor any full stop after the initials, or spaces between initials of authors names.
- romanise all author names.
- remove accents and diacritics from letters in authors' names.
- spell out the names of organisations in full.
- list six authors or fewer by separating each author with a comma. For more than six, cite the first six followed by et al.
- abbreviate edition to ed.
- format dates as follows: year, month (abbreviated) day.
- capitalise the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns or acronyms in titles, which do not require italics.
- follow non-English titles with a translation of the title placed around square brackets.
Chapter in a book
When you want to quote a chapter or section of text within a book written by someone other than the author or editor listed on the cover page of the book, use the format below:
Citation order and format
Author of the section / chapter - Surname, Initials. ‘chapter title’ in followed by the book's author / editor surname, first name. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher; year of publication. X p.
Example:
Smith, C. 'Feminism in Jane Eyre', in Brennan, Z. Brontë's Jane Eyre a reader's guide. London: Continuum International Pub. Group; 2006. 12-16 pp.
Web page
Citation order and format
Author Surname, Initials. Title of Internet site. [Internet]. Year that the cite was published / last updated. [cited year month day]; [number of screens or pages] Available from: URL
Example:
Cancer-Pain.org [Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16]; [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/
Journal article
Citation order and format
Author Surname, Initials. Article title. Title of Journal. Date of publication: year month day; volume (issue) X p.
Example:
Meydani SN, Leka LS, Fine BC, Dallal GE, Keusch GT, Singh MF, et al. Vitamin e and respiratory tract infections in elderly nursing home residents: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2004 Aug 18; 292(7): 828-36.
Government document
Citation order and format
Author Surname, Initial. Title of document. Place of publication: publisher; year of publication. X p.
Example:
NHS Executive. Clinical governance: quality in the new NHS. London: Department of Health; 1999. 23 p.
Newspaper article
Citation order and format
Author Surname, Initials. Article title. Newspaper title. (Edition) if applicable. Date of publication year month day. Section. page and column.
Example:
Charter D. Patients die after wrong transplant. The Times. 2001 Sep 13. 12 (col. 2).
*for column number
