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. For more detailed guidance, see Patrias K. Citing medicine. 2nd ed. National Library of Medicine; 2007. Please note your school may have specific referencing requirements; to ensure you are using the preferred referencing style please check with your school office.

How to reference a particular source in Vancouver style

Click on the appropriate header below to expand the section and find information about how to reference a particular source in Vancouver 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.

  • Webpage

    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