referencing a website vancouver style

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🤔 What is a Vancouver Citation Generator?

A Vancouver citation generator is an online tool that creates citations in the Vancouver citation style. It does this automatically by taking in an identifier for a document, such as a website URL, book ISBN, or journal DOI, and then locating the remaining details to format the full citation.

🤓 What is the Vancouver citation style?

The Vancouver citation style is a citation style used in the fields of biomedicine, health, and physical sciences. It is used to correctly attribute the authors of work cited within your paper.

The Vancouver style uses numbers within the article body that refer to formatted citations in the reference list at the end of the paper. The complete collection of rules for citing in Vancouver style are documented in the official handbook: Citing Medicine , by authors Karen Patrias and Dan Wendling.

👩‍🎓 Who uses a Vancouver Citation Generator?

The Vancouver style is used broadly across the physical sciences--especially health and medicine. If you are studying health or medicine, or you are writing to be published in a journal that uses the Vancouver style (such as The Lancet and Revista MÉDICA de Chile ), then you will need to cite your sources using the Vancouver style.

🙌 Why should I use a Vancouver Citation Generator?

Every academic field, not just the sciences, will recommend using a tool to record references to others' work in your writing. A citation generator like MyBib can record this data, and can also automatically create an accurate reference list from it.

A referencing tool can also keep a list of the sources you have used as you are writing your paper, so is great for organization too.

⚙️ How do I use MyBib's Vancouver Citation Generator?

MyBib's Vancouver citation generator was designed to be accurate and easy to use (also it's FREE!). Follow these steps:

• Search for the article, website, or document you want to cite using the search box at the top of the page.
• Look through the list of results found and choose the one that you referenced in your work.
• Make sure the details are all correct, and correct any that aren't. Then click Generate!

The generator will produce a formatted Vancouver citation that can be copied and pasted directly into your document, or saved to MyBib as part of your overall reference list (which can be downloaded fully later!).

MyBib supports the following for Vancouver style:

Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.

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• Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples

Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples

Published on 18 February 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 19 August 2022.

Vancouver is a system of referencing commonly used in biomedicine, among other scientific disciplines. In Vancouver style, you place a reference number in the text wherever a source is cited:

This number corresponds to an entry in your reference list – a numbered list of all the sources cited in your text, giving complete information on each:

This quick guide presents the most common rules for Vancouver style referencing. Note that some universities and journals have their own guidelines for the formatting of Vancouver references.

Table of contents

Vancouver in-text citations, creating a vancouver reference list, vancouver reference examples, missing information in vancouver references, frequently asked questions about vancouver referencing.

In Vancouver style, citations are marked in your text with numbers. These numbers appear either in parentheses or in superscript – choose one option and stick to it consistently:

The numbers usually appear after the name of the author or after a direct quote. They may also appear at the end of the sentence:

Naming authors

You will often need to mention the author when referring to a work or introducing a quote. Only use the author’s last name in your text. If a source has multiple authors, name only the first author followed by ‘et al.’:

It’s not always necessary to mention the author’s name in your text – but always include the reference number when you refer to a source:

Numbering references

Sources are numbered based on the order in which they are cited in the text: the first source you cite is 1, the second 2, and so on.

If the same source is cited again, use the same number to refer to it throughout your paper. This means that the numbers might not appear in consecutive order in your text:

Citing multiple sources

You can also cite multiple sources in the same place:

To cite several sources that appear consecutively in your numbered list, you can use an en dash to mark the range.

In this case, the citation refers the reader to sources 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Citing page numbers

You must specify a page number or range when you directly quote a text, and it can be helpful to do so when you are paraphrasing a particular passage.

Place the page number after the reference number inside the same parentheses, preceded by ‘p.’:

If you’re using superscript numbers, the page number also appears in superscript, in parentheses after the reference number:

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Your reference list is where you provide the information your readers will need in order to look up the sources cited in your text. It consists of a numbered list of all your sources, providing key information including the author, title and publication date of each source.

The list appears in numerical order at the end of your paper. Each entry ends with a full stop, unless the last element is a DOI or URL.

Vancouver reference list example

Author names

Each entry starts with the author’s last name and initials.

When a source has more than one author, their names are separated by commas. If a source has more than six authors, list the first six followed by ‘et al.’

Source titles

Only the first word of the title and subtitle, along with any proper nouns, are capitalised:

Titles in Vancouver referencing are consistently written in plain text. Do not use italics or quotation marks.

The information you provide differs according to the type of source you’re citing, since different details are relevant in different cases. Formats and examples for the most commonly cited source types are given below.

• Book chapter
• Journal article

Some sources will be missing some of the information needed for a complete reference. See below for how to handle missing elements.

As shown in the website example above, when no individual author is named, you can usually name the organisation that produced the source as the author.

If there is no clear corporate author – for example, a wiki that is created and updated collaboratively by users – you can begin your reference with the title instead:

Sources such as websites may lack a clear publication date. In these cases you can omit the year in your reference and just include the date of your citation:

No page numbers

You may want to show the location of a direct quote from a source without page numbers, such as a website. When the source is short, you can often just omit this, but where you feel it’s necessary you can use an alternate locator like a heading or paragraph number:

Harvard referencing uses an author–date system. Sources are cited by the author’s last name and the publication year in brackets. Each Harvard in-text citation corresponds to an entry in the alphabetised reference list at the end of the paper.

Vancouver referencing uses a numerical system. Sources are cited by a number in parentheses or superscript. Each number corresponds to a full reference at the end of the paper.

A citation should appear wherever you use information or ideas from a source, whether by quoting or paraphrasing its content.

In Vancouver style , you have some flexibility about where the citation number appears in the sentence – usually directly after mentioning the author’s name is best, but simply placing it at the end of the sentence is an acceptable alternative, as long as it’s clear what it relates to.

In Vancouver style , when you refer to a source with multiple authors in your text, you should only name the first author followed by ‘et al.’. This applies even when there are only two authors.

In your reference list, include up to six authors. For sources with seven or more authors, list the first six followed by ‘et al.’.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, August 19). Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 3 November 2023, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/vancouver-style/

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Vancouver Style Guide: Home

Introduction to vancouver.

The Vancouver Style is formally known as  Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals  (ICMJE Recommendations). It was developed in Vancouver in 1978 by editors of medical journals and well over 1,000 medical journals (including ICMJE members BMJ, CMAJ, JAMA & NEJM) use this style. This user guide explains how to cite references in Vancouver Style, both within the text of a paper and in a reference list, and gives examples of commonly used types of references.

Refer to the left hand column for written directions about how to cite Vancouver and refer to the right hand column for examples and formatting.

ICMJE Recommendations has many optional areas. This guide has been created for The Michener Institute and may differ from styles at other educational institutes and those required by individual journals.

• APA Citation Guide While Vancouver is one citation style, your professor may request that you use APA style for citations instead. Please see the Michener LRC APA Citation guide for information about using this citation style.
• Zotero A helpful tool for collecting resources and creating citations is Zotero software. Please see the Michener LRC Zetero guide to learn more.
• Plagiarism: How to Avoid it For more information on avoiding plagiarism and using other sources in your work, please visit the LRC's Plagiarism guide.

In-Text Citations

• Placement of citations:  In-text citation numbers should be placed after the relevant part of a sentence. The original Vancouver Style documents do not discuss placement of the in-text citation in regards to punctuation, so it is acceptable to place it before or after the period. Be consistent.
• References are numbered  consecutively in the order they are first mentioned. Place each reference number in parentheses or square brackets throughout the text, tables, and legends. Superscripts may also be used instead of square brackets or parentheses. Be consistent. If the same reference is used again, re-use the original number. To cite multiple references in one sentence, separate the numbers using a comma, eg. (2, 7), for non-consecutive reference numbers, and a hyphen, eg. (3-5), for consecutive reference numbers.
• Tables are numbered  consecutively. Supply a brief title for each table and give each column a short heading. Be sure that the table is mentioned in the text. If the data is taken from another source, include the source in the list of references at the end of the paper. Place explanatory matter in a note, not in the heading.
• Personal communication  used as a reference should be avoided, unless it provides essential information not available from a public source. These can be emails, personal interviews, telephone conversations, class notes, class handouts that are not posted, etc. Do not include them in the reference list as they are not recoverable by others; instead cite the name of the person, the type of communication, and the date of communication in parentheses in the text, eg. "In a conversation with A. Jones (January 2020)..."
• Internet sources  may, in time, be deleted, changed, or moved, so it is a good idea to keep a hard copy for your records. Also, take care to critically evaluate the reliability of the information.

Reference Page

• The last page  of your paper is entitled References. References are single spaced, with double-spacing between references.
• Numbering : List all references in order by number, not alphabetically. Each reference is listed once only, since the same number is used throughout the paper.
• Authors : In the order they appear on the resource, list each author’s last name followed by a space and then initials without any periods; there is a comma and space between authors and a period at the end of the last author. If the number of authors exceeds six, give the first six followed by “et al.” For edited books, place the editors’ names in the author position and follow the last editor with a comma and the word editor (or editors). For edited books with chapters written by individual authors, list the authors of the chapter first, then the chapter title, followed by “In:”, the editors’ names, and the book title.
• Title : Capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title. The rest of the title is in lower-case, with the exception of proper names. Do not underline the title; do not use italics. If there is an edition for a book, it appears after the title, abbreviated and followed by a period, for example: 3rd ed.
• Publication information: Books:  After the title (and edition if applicable), place a period and space, then enter the cit y. If the city is not well known or there could be confusion,  enter the postal abbreviation for the state (U.S.) or province (Canada), or enter the country (elsewhere) of publication, followed by a colon. Give the name of the publisher as it appears in the publication followed by a semicolon. If the author is also the publisher, it is acceptable to use part of the name as the publisher, e.g., The Association for publisher if the author is Canadian Medical Association. Give the year of publication followed by a period. If no date of publication can be found, but the publication contains a date of copyright, use the date of copyright preceded by the letter “c”, e.g. c2015.
• Publication information: Journals : List the abbreviated journal title, place a period and a space, year, (and abbreviated month and day if applicable), semi-colon, volume, issue number in parentheses, colon, page range, and a period. For example, Brain Res. 2002;935(1-2):40-6. (The issue number may be omitted if the journal is paginated continuously through the volume.) To find the journal title abbreviation, go to  Medline’s Journals Database  and search by journal title. If the title is not found, abbreviate according to the style used for similar titles in Medline.
• Pages : For journals, the entire page range of an article is given,  not  the specific page on which the information was found; usage is 124-7 (pages 124 to 127) or 215-22 (pages 215 to 222). For books, no page numbers are given, with two exceptions: the page number of a dictionary entry is included, as well as the page range of a chapter with its own author.
• Place the word Internet in square brackets after the book title or abbreviated journal title.
• Indicate date of retrieval, preceded by the word “cited”, in square brackets after the date of publication. When possible, include the most recent update date before the date of retrieval within the square brackets, followed by a semicolon and a space.
• Add retrieval information at the end of the citation using the full URL. There is no punctuation at the end of the URL unless it ends with a slash or if additional information such as a DOI follows it in the entry, in which case a period is added.
• If a DOI exists, it is optional to add it after the retrieval information.
• Include a short note after the URL if special access information is required.

Citation Examples

Journal article, up to 6 personal author(s):

1. Al-Habian A, Harikumar PE, Stocker CJ, Langlands K, Selway JL. Histochemical and immunohistochemical evaluation of mouse skin histology: comparison of fixation with neutral buffered formalin and alcoholic formalin. J Histotechnol. 2014 Dec;37(4):115-24.

Electronic journal article:

2. Poling J, Kelly L, Chan C, Fisman D, Ulanova M. Hospital admission for community-acquired pneumonia in a First Nations population. Can J Rural Med [Internet]. 2014 Fall [cited 2015 Apr 27];19(4):135-41. Available from: http://www.srpc.ca/14fal.html by selecting PDF link in table of contents.

Electronic journal article, 7 or more personal authors, optional DOI information:

3. Aho M, Irshad B, Ackerman SJ, Lewis M, Leddy R, Pope T, et al. Correlation of sonographic features of invasive ductal mammary carcinoma with age, tumor grade, and hormone-receptor status. J Clin Ultrasound [Internet]. 2013 Jan [cited 2015 Apr 27];41(1):10-7. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcu.21990/full. DOI: 10.1002/jcu.21990

Book, personal author(s):

4. Buckingham L. Molecular diagnostics: fundamentals, methods and clinical applications. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis; c2012.

Book or pamphlet, organization as both author and publisher:

5. College of Medical Radiation Technologists of Ontario. Standards of practice. Toronto: The College; 2011.

Book, editor(s):

6. Kumar V, Abbas AK, Aster JC, editors. Robbins basic pathology. 16th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders; c2013.

Book,editor(s), specific chapter with individual author(s) :

7. Altobelli N. Airway management. In: Kacmarek R, Stoller JK, Heuer AJ, editors. Egan’s fundamentals of respiratory care. 10th ed. St. Louis: Saunders Mosby; c2013. p. 732-86.

Electronic book, personal author(s), requiring password :

8. Martin A, Harbison S, Beach K, Cole P. An introduction to radiation protection [Internet]. 6th ed. London: Hodder Arnold; 2012 [cited 2015 May 28]. Available from: http://lrc.michener.ca:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=466903&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_iii with authorized username and password.

Electronic book, organization as author, freely available:

9. OpenStax College. Anatomy & physiology [Internet]. Version 7.28. Houston: The College; 2013 Apr 25 [Updated 2015 May 27; cited 2015 May 28]. Available from: http://cnx.org/content/col11496/latest/.

Dictionary entry:

10. Stedman’s medical dictionary for the health professions and nursing. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; c2012. Hematoma; p. 756.

Entry in a print reference work:

11. Canadian Pharmacists Association. CPS 2013: compendium of pharmaceuticals and specialties. 48th ed. Ottawa: The Association; c2013. Atropine: Systemic; p. 297-9.

Entry in an online reference work:

12. Canadian Pharmacists Association. eCPS. [Internet]. Ottawa: The Association; 2015. Methimazole; [revised 2012 Mar; cited 2015 May 28]; [about 6 screens]. Available from: http://lrc.michener.ca:2048/login/ecps with authorized username and password.

Wiki entry:

13. Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia [Internet]. St. Petersburg (FL): Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2001 –   Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa; [modified 2015 May 28; cited 2015 May 28]; [about 34 screens]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_epidemic_in_West_Africa

Newspaper article:

14. Carville O. Health ‘snooping’ cases on the rise. Toronto Star. 2015 May 27;Sect. GT:1 (col. 3).

Electronic newspaper article:

15. Wisniewski M. Five babies at Chicago daycare diagnosed with measles. Globe and Mail [Internet]. 2015 Feb 5 [cited 2015 Feb 6];Life:[about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/five-babies-at-chicago-daycare-diagnosed-with-measles-report/article22805944/.

Legal material (note: this is not addressed in Vancouver Style):

16. Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, S.O. 2005, c.11 [Internet]. 2009 Dec 15 [cited 2015 May 29]. Available from: http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_05a11_e.htm

Report available on a web page:

17. Canadian Institute for Health Information. Depression among seniors in residential care [Analysis in brief on the Internet]. Ottawa: The Institute; 2010 [cited 2015 May 29]. 18 p. Available from: https://secure.cihi.ca/free_products/ccrs_depression_among_seniors_e.pdf

Page on a website:

18. Alzheimer Society of Canada [Internet]. Toronto: The Society; c2015. Benefits of staying active; 2013 Jan 28 [cited 2015 May 29];[about 1 screen]. Available from: http://www.alzheimer.ca/en/kfla/Living-with-dementia/Day-to-day-living/Staying-active/Benefits-of-staying-active

Streaming video:

19. Allen S, Waerlop I. The Gait Guys talk about great toe dorsiflexion [video on the Internet]. [place unknown]: The Gait Guys; 2014 May 11 [cited 2015 May 29]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8O8TLtunUQ

Electronic image:

20. Bickle I. Swallowed foreign body [radiograph]. 2014 Jul 14 [cited 2015 May 29]. Available from: http://radiopaedia.org/cases/swallowed-foreign-body-1

Blog post (no given name, so screen name used as author):

21.  Munkee. In-111 pentetreotide imaging. 2013 Mar 19 [cited 2015 May 29]. In: Nuclear Munkee [Internet]. [place unknown]:[Munkee]; [date unknown] [about 3 screens]. Available from:  http://nuclearmunkee.blogs pot.ca/2013/03/in-111-p entetreotide-imaging.html

Poster presentation/session presented at a meeting or conference:

22. Chasman J, Kaplan RF. The effects of occupation on preserved cognitive functioning in dementia. Poster session presented at: Excellence in clinical practice. 4th Annual Conference of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology; 2006 Jun 15-17; Philadelphia, PA.

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• Last Updated: Aug 23, 2022 9:19 AM
• URL: https://guides.hsict.library.utoronto.ca/vancouver-style

• University of Newcastle Library
• Referencing Guides
• Vancouver Referencing Style

Web resources

Vancouver referencing style:  web resources.

• About Vancouver
• In-text citations
• Reference list
• Books & eBooks
• Book chapters
• Govt documents
• Course material
• Conferences
• Images & tables
• Health specific
• Personal comm
• Other sources
• Secondary sources
• What are DOIs? This link opens in a new window
• Referencing Guide This link opens in a new window
• General rules - Web resources

Online documents

Press releases.

• Twitter & Facebook
• YouTube & online videos

General rules:

• For specific type of web resources see the tabs above. 

Author Names

• List up to 6 author names in the reference. Add et al. after the 6th author for more than 6 authors.
• Web sites with an organization  as both author and publisher,  place the organization in the publisher position.
• If the web content does not have an author, move the title to the author position.
• Reproduce the title of a homepage as closely as possible to the wording on the screen, duplicating capitalization, spacing, punctuation, and special characters when possible
• Use a colon followed by a space to separate a title from a subtitle, unless some other form of punctuation (such as a question mark, etc.) is already present.
• Add ‘Internet’ in square brackets directly after the web page title. Follow with a full-stop.
• Do not italicize, underline or use quotation marks for web page titles.

Place of Publication

• Use the city where  the headquarter of the publisher is located.  
• If no place of publication can be found or inferred, use [place unknown].
• Omit an initial "The" from a publisher’s name
• The  publisher name can be abbreviated when the title is the same as the publisher. 
• If no publisher can be found, use [publisher unknown].

Date of Publication

• Add date  of publication  in the format of year month day, e.g. 2021 May 4. 
• If no date of publication can be found, but the webpage contains a date of copyright, use the date of copyright preceded by the letter "c"; for example c2020.
• Include   the date the web page was updated/revised, and the date the page was cited  i n square brackets, eg. [updated 2018 Jun 24; cited 2019 May 19]. 
• For webpages without any date information, you may omit the date element and use date of citation only, e.g. [cited 2021 May 4]. 
• At the end of the reference, add the phrase ‘Available from:’ followed by the URL. Do not include a full-stop at the end.
• Do not insert a hyphen if you need to break a URL across lines. Break the URL before a slash or dash or at another logical division point.
• Remove the University proxy  (ezproxy.newcastle.edu.au) from any link used.

Secondary Sources

For citations taken from secondary sources, see the  Secondary Sources  page.

Websites and webpages 

For web resources other than websites and webpages, see the tabs above. 

An entire website can be cited by the homepage of the site (see example 1 below). For websites within other websites, cite the most specific identifiable site used. 

To cite only one component of a Web site, such as a specific page or pages, first determine whether or not the component can stand alone and be cited separately. If not, cite the part of a Web site under the site. 

For webpages of a website under the same corporate author, begin the reference with information about the entire site, and follow it with the information about the webpage (see examples 2-5 below). 

See the  general rules for web resources  for more details. 

Reference list entry: homepages or stand alone webpages

Citation No.   Author/s of website.  Title of website: subtitle [Internet].   Place of publication:   Publisher; Date of publication  [updated date; cited date].  Available from: URL

1.           University of Newcastle, Australia [Internet]. Callaghan (NSW): The University; 2020 [cited 2020 Mar 24]. Available from: https://www.newcastle.edu.au

2.           Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.  International collaboration [Internet]. Canberra: AIHW; 2020, Feb 21 [cited 2020 Sep 30]. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/our-services/international-collaboration

Reference list entry: webpages as part of a website

Citation No.   Author/s of website.   Title of website : subtitle  [Internet].   Place of publication:   Publisher;  Date of publication  [updated date].  Title of webpage; Date of publication [updated date; cited date];  [ length of webpage].   Available from: URL

3.           National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): The Center; [modified 2019 Apr 2]. Complementary, alternative, or integrative health: what’s in a name? [updated 2018 Jul 12; cited 2020 Mar 29]; [about 5 screens]. Available from: https://nccih.nih.gov/health/integrative-health

4.           Profiles in Science [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 1998 - . Visual Culture and Health Posters; [cited 2021 May 4]. Available from: https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/vc

The publisher name can be abbreviated when the title is the same as the publisher.

This information is for general documents found online, that are not covered elsewhere in this guide.

N.B. For the following document types, refer to their specialist pages:

• Journal articles
• Documents and reports from government agencies
• Research and technical reports (plus white papers)
• Conference papers

Citing online documents is similar to citing websites and webpages. 

The following is the general format of a reference to an online document.  See the  general rules for web resources  for more details. 

Reference list entry: format and example

Citation No.   Author/s of document.  Document  title: subtitle [Internet].  Place of publication:   Publisher;  Date of publication  [updated date; cited date].  Pagination of document.  Available from: URL

1.          Moore B. The vocabulary of Australian English [Internet]. Canberra: Australian National University, Australian National Dictionary Centre; [cited 2019 Jul 23]. Available from: http://www.slll.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/andc/vocab_aussie_eng.pdf

2.          Influenza vaccine: who should get it, and who should not [Internet]. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2018 Oct 16 [cited 2019 Jul 23]. 2p. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pdf/freeresources/updated/who-should-vaccinate-update.pdf

A press release, also called news release, or media release, is an official statement on a particular matter by a news agent or organisation. 

A press release published on an  organisation's  web site may be cited as part of their web site. If the text of 'Press release' appears on the page before the page title, include it in the citation preceding the press release title. 

The following is the general format of a reference to a press release. 

See also the  general rules for web resources  for more details. 

Citation No.   Author/s of website.   Title of website : subtitle  [Internet].   Place of publication:   Publisher;  Date of publication  [updated date]. Title of press release; Date of Publication   [updated date; cited date];   pagination/length of press release.   Available from: URL

1.           Australian Bureau of Statistics  [Internet]. Canberra: ABS; 2018 Aug 9 [updated 2019 Jul 5 ]. P ress release cat. no. 6226.0,  More than one million Australians change jobs  [cited 2020 Mar 29]; [about 5 screens]. Available from: https://www.abs.gov.au/ ausstats /[email protected]/lookup/6226.0Media% 20Release5February %202018

2.           AAMC : Association of American Medical Colleges  [Internet].  Washington: The Association; 2019. Press release, t he m a jority of U.S. m edical s tudents a re w omen, n ew d ata s how ; 2019 Dec 10 [cited 2020 Jan 8]; [about 3 screens]. Available from: https://www.aa mc.org/news-insights/press-releases/majority-us-medical-students-are-women-new-data-show

1. The publisher name can be abbreviated when the title is the same as the publisher.

Citing blogs, blog posts, and comments

A blog is a web-based forum that consists of posted entries organized by date or topic, and usually accompanied by readers’ comments. 

Note that the distinction between a blog and a website is often unclear; when in doubt, treat the title like that of a website. 

​It is often sufficient to cite blogs/posts/comments entirely within the running text unless a reference list entry is needed.

The following is the general format of a reference to a blog and a reference to a blog post. Comments on a blog/post  can usually be cited in the text, in reference to the related blog/post, unless a formal reference list is needed, see example 3 below.   Use [blog on the Internet] if the word 'blog' is not part of the blog title.

Reference list entry for a blog: format and example

Citation No.   Blog Author.  Blog  title [Internet] .  Place of publication:   Publisher.  Date of publication  [c ited date].     Available from: URL

1.           Bernstein M. Bioethics Discussion Blog [Internet]. Los Angeles: Maurice Bernstein. 2004 Jul - [cited 2020 Jan 6]. Available from: https://bioethicsdiscussion.blogspot.com       

Reference list entry for a blog post: format and example

Citation No.   Blog Author.  Blog  title  [Internet] .  Place of publication:   Publisher.  Date of publication.  Post title;  Date of post  [c ited date];  [screen no].  Available from: URL

2.           Doctor CBB.  CodeBlueBlog  [Internet]. [Florida]: [Thomas Boyle]. [2004 May] -   .  i-Mammo  part II: breasts, lies and videotapes; 2005 Apr 15 [cited 2007 May 23]; [about 4 screens]. Available from: http://codeblueblog.blogs.com/ codeblueblog /2005/04/part_ii_and_the.html

Reference list entry for a comment on a blog: format and example

Citation No.   Comment Author.  Comment  title. Date of comment [date cited]. In: Blog Author. Blog Title  [Internet] .  Place of publication:   Publisher.  Date of publication.  page/screen no .  Available from: URL

3.           Campbell A. Diabetes and alcohol: do the two mix? (Part 2). 2008 Jan 28 [cited 2020 Feb 14]. In: Diabetes Self-Management Blog [Internet]. New York: Diabetes Self-Management. [2006 Aug 14] -   . 2 p. Available from: http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/Amy_Campbell/Diabetes_and_Alcohol_Do_the_Two_Mix_Part_2

Twitter, Facebook and other social media contents

• Unless a more formal citation is needed, citations of social media content can often be limited to the text, e.g. The UON Student Central Facebook page (www.facebook.com/UONStudentCentral) lists a number of options for students ...
• Private content via social media, such as personal and friends-only content s , is considered a form of personal communication and should be cited as such. 
• Comments can usually be cited in the text, in reference to the related post. 

To cite publicly available content shared via social media in reference  list, include the following elements:

• Author of the post. Real name and/or screen name if available.
• Title or text of the post. 
• Type of post. List the name of the social media service and include a description if relevant (photo, video, etc.).
• Date (Year Month Day) of the post. Time stamps as needed to differentiate a post or comment from others on the same day.
• A URL. A URL for a specific item can often be found via the date stamp, click the date/time underneath the post to be taken to an individual update page with its own URL.

 Also note:

• Because social media content is subject to editing and deletion, authors are advised to retain a copy of anything they cite.

Citation No.   Author.  T itle  [Internet] .  Place of publication:   Publisher;  Date of publication.  Post title; Date of post  [c ited date];  [screen no].  Available from: URL

1.           JAMA. JAMA Oncology Twitter page [Internet]. Chicago: American Medical Association; 2014 Sep. Patient information: jaundice in cancer; 2016 Jul 17 [cited 2016 Jul 20]; [about 1 screen]. Available from: https://twitter.com/JAMAOnc/status/754752541582356480

YouTube and other free online videos

Streaming or other online video is digital video content made available through online/networked means. The information here is for the various free video hosting platforms such as YouTube, TED talks,  VEVO, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc. For video content made available through subscription services such as Netflix, Kanopy, or ClickView, see the information under the source type of Films & TV  on the left. 

Notes to cite free online videos:

• If the author's real name is not available use the screen name.
• Include the full URL as the final element of the citation. The 'Share' feature on YouTube can provide a shortened, usable link.
• If the material is a recording of a speech or performance, or if it is a digital version of a published source, include information about the original performance or source if needed.
• Copies of sources that are under copyright and which have been posted without ties to any publisher or sponsor should be cited with caution. 
• Comments on the videos  can usually be cited in the text, in reference to the related video. 

Citation No.   Author.  Video  title  [Internet] .  Place of publication:   Publisher;  Date of publication  [cited date].  Video: time length.  Available from: URL

1.           James and the peanut allergy [Internet]. Salt Lake City (UT): University of Utah, Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library; 2011 Mar 31 [cited 2020 Jan 7]. Video: 52 sec. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoCAizDEKlM

2.          Vsauce. Is your red the same as my red? [Internet]. [place unknown]:Vsauce; 17 Feb. 2013 [cited 2020 Jan 7]. Video: 9:34. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08

Podcasts and streaming audio

Citations of online audio content follow the same rules for citing online videos. See more details under the YouTube and online videos tab. 

The following is the general format of a reference to a podcast. See the  general rules for web resources  for more details.

Citation No.   Author.   T itle  [Internet] .  Place of publication:   Publisher;  Date of publication  [cited date].  Podcast: time length.  Available from: URL

1.           Van Nuys D. Growing your resilience with Rick Hanson PhD [Internet]. [place unknown]: Shrink Rap Radio; 2018 Apr 5 [cited 2020 Jan 7]. Podcast: 1:10:51. Available from: https://shrinkrapradio.com/592-growing-your-resilience-with-rick-hanson-phd

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References, citations and avoiding plagiarism

• Vancouver referencing
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• Further help

Vancouver referencing conventions

Vancouver uses numbers in the text and a references list.

In-text citation

At every point in the text where a particular work is referred to by quoting or paraphrasing, include the number which identifies the reference used, in brackets. References are numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first cited in the text. 

References list

References are presented in numerical order by the order in which they appear in the document.

You should only include sources that you have referenced in your work. 

If you are asked to include a bibliography (in addition to, or in place of, a references list) you can include further items that were read that informed your research and thinking for the assignment, in addition to those that you directly referenced . 

How to reference using Vancouver style

Examples on how to reference particular sources using Vancouver style:

Act of Parliament

Book chapter from an edited book.

• Conference proceeding

Journal article

Newspaper article, radio broadcast, television broadcast, thesis or dissertation.

• Website / webpage

Country. Title of Act and year. Chapter. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Great Britain. Environment Act 1995. Chapter 25. London: The Stationery Office.

Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of blog entry. Date blog entry written. Title of blog [online]. Year. [Accessed date]. Available from: URL.

Welle K. Impressions from the Stockholm World Water Week. 25 August. ODI blog: commentary from leading development experts [online]. 2006. [Accessed 9 July 2007]. Available from:  http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/main/archive/category/1020.aspx

Author surname Initial(s). Title: subtitle. Edition (if it is not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Cooke A. A guide to finding quality information on the Internet: selection and evaluation strategies. 2nd ed. London: Library Association Publishing; 2001.

Two to six authors:

First author surname Initial(s), second author surname Initial(s), third author surname Initials. Title: subtitle. Edition (if it is not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Feldman RS, Meyer JS, Quenzer LF. The American Psychiatric Press textbook of psychopharmacology. 2nd ed. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association; 1998.

Seven or more authors/editors:

If there are 7 or more authors/editors, only the first 6 are listed followed by et al.

First author surname Initial(s), second author surname Initial(s), third author surname Initial(s), fourth author surname Initial(s), fifth author surname Initial(s), sixth author surname Initial(s), et al., editors.  Title: subtitle. Edition (if it is not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Fauci AS, Braunwald E, Isselbacher KJ, Wilson JD, Martin JB, Kasper DL, et al., editors. Harrison's principles of internal medicine. 14th ed. New York: McGraw Hill; 1998.

Book with organisation as author:

SCONUL Advisory Committee on Information Literacy.   Learning outcomes and information literacy. London: SCONUL; 2004.

Edited book:

Editor(s) surname Initial(s), editor(s). Title: subtitle. Edition (if it is not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Ennis F, editor. Infrastructure provision and the negotiating process. Aldershot: Ashgate; 2003.

Editors should have editor or editors after their name or list of names. If there are no authors or editors given, the title should be listed first, followed by place of publication.

Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of chapter: subtitle. In: Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. p. page numbers.

Haefner H. Negative symptoms and the assessment of neurocognitive treatment response. In: Keefe RSE, McEvoy JP, editors. Negative symptom and cognitive deficit treatment response in schizophrenia. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2004. p. 85-110.

When the author's name is the same for the chapter as for the book it does not need to be repeated.

Greenhalgh T. Checklists for finding, appraising, and implementing evidence. In:   How to read a paper: the basics of evidence based medicine. London: BMJ Publishing Group; 2000. p. 177-9.

Page numbers should be preceded by p.

Conference proceedings

Individual conference paper.

Author(s) Initial(s). Title of contribution. In: Editor(s) surname Initial(s). editor(s). Title of conference proceedings, date, place of conference. Place of publication: publisher; Year. p. page numbers.

Nelmes G. Container port automation. In : Corke P., Sukkarieh S. editors. Field and service robotics: results of the 5th international conference, 29-31 July 2005, Port Douglas. Berlin: Springer; 2006. p. 3-8.

If conference proceedings are published in a journal, the article/contribution should be cited as for a journal article.

If the proceedings have been published as chapters in a book, treat the entire proceedings as a book, and individual presentations as a book chapter. Add details of the conference to the book title.

Conference proceedings as a whole

Editor(s) surname Initial(s). editor(s). Title of conference proceedings, date, place of conference. Place of publication: publisher; Year.

Corke P., Sukkarieh S. editors. Field and service robotics: results of the 5th international conference, 29-31 July 2005, Port Douglas. Berlin: Springer; 2006

Title. [DVD]. Place of production: Production company; year.

Acland's DVD atlas of human anatomy: the lower extremity. [DVD]. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2004.

Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title: subtitle [online]. Edition (if not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication [Accessed Date]. Available from: URL of database / location in which the book is held

Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper: the basics of evidence based medicine [online]. London: BMJ Publishing Group; 2000 [Accessed 8 September 2008]. Available from:  http://www.netlibrary.com/AccessProduct.aspx?ProductId=66703

e-book reader format, e.g. Kindle

Author(s)/Editor(s) surname Initials(s). Title: subtitle. Edition (if not the first edition). [Name of e-book reader]. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Llewelyn H, Ang HA, Lewis KE, Al-Abdullah A. Oxford handbook of clinical diagnosis. 2nd ed. [Kindle DX e-book]. Oxford: OUP; 2009.

Title of film. [film]. Directed by: Full name of director. Place of production: Production company; year.

An inconvenient truth. [film]. Directed by: Davis Guggenheim. USA: Paramount; 2006.

If the film is a video recording (on DVD or VHS) use the same format but change [film] to the relevant media.  This is because video recording may contain extra footage not shown in the film.

Journal article (print)

Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of article. Abbreviated title of journal. Year of publication;volume number(issue number):page numbers.

Meric F, Bernstam EV, Mirza NQ, Hunt KK, Ames FC, Ross M I, et al. Breast cancer on the world wide web: cross sectional survey of quality of information and popularity of websites. BMJ. 2002;324(7337):577-81.

Journal article (electronic)

Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of article. Abbreviated title of journal [online]. Year of publication;volume number(issue number):page numbers. [Accessed date]. Available from: URL

Ross CTF. A conceptual design of an underwater vehicle. Ocean engineering [online]. 2006;33(16):2087-2104. [Accessed 6 July 2007]. Available from:  http://www.sciencedirect.com/

When citing online journal articles, it is now widely preferred to include a DOI (Direct Object Identifier) where available rather than a URL.

De Pinto, M., Jelacic, J., Edwards, W.T. Very-low-dose ketamine for the management of pain and sedation in the ICU. Acute Pain [online]. 2008;10(2):100. [Accessed 8 September 2008]. Available from:<doi:10.1016/j.acpain.2008.05.023>

Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of article: subtitle of article. Newspaper title (in full) Year Month and date of publication; section name (if applicable):page numbers of contribution.

Rowbottom M. The Big Question: how prevalent is the use of drugs in sport, and can it be defeated? The Independent 2006 Aug 1;Sect. Sport:5

Title of programme/Series title, Episode number, Episode title. Transmitting organisation/channel. Date and year, Time of transmission.

Desert island discs, Lily Allen. BBC Radio 4. 29 June 2014, 11:15.

Yes, Prime Minister, Episode 1, The Ministerial Broadcast. BBC2. 16 January 1986, 20:30.

News at ten. ITV. 27 January 2001. 22:00.

Author's surname Initial(s). Title: subtitle. Award level of thesis, Awarding institution; Year of publication.

Deb S. Psychopathology of adults with a mental handicap and epilepsy. MA thesis, University of Leicester; 1991.

Croser C. Biochemical restriction of root extension under mechanical impedance. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham; 1997.

Surname(s), Initial(s) (or organisation). Full text of tweet. [Twitter]. Date and year tweet posted [Date accessed]. Available from: URL

Cruciform Library. MedTech Week 2014 at UCL Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME)16-20 June via @UCL_IBME  http://bit.ly/1pbWe53   pic.twitter.com/pzXx3P4DlP [Twitter]. 9 June 2014 [Accessed 2 July 2014]. Available from:  https://twitter.com/ucl_crucitwit

Website or webpage

Author(s)/Editor(s) surname Initial(s). Title. [online]. Publisher: place of publication; Year [Accessed date]. Available from: URL

SukYin A. Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene and breast cancer. [online]. Human Genome Epidemiology Network, National Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Atlanta GA; 2002 Jun [Accessed 8 September 2008]. Available from:  http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/hugenet/factsheets/FS_COMT.htm

Year can include month if preferred.

If a specific author cannot be found, attribute to the organisation or corporation.

Overseas Development Institute, Humanitarian Policy Group. Welcome to HPG. [online]. ODI: London; 2007 [Accessed 9 July 2007]. Available from:  http://odi.org.uk/hpg/index.html

Wiki name. Title of article .  [online]. Year [Date accessed]. Available from: URL

Wikipedia. Jeremy Bentham .  [online]. 2014 [Accessed 2 July 2014]. Available from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_bentham

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Vancouver Style Citations: Introduction

The Vancouver Island University (VIU) Dental Hygiene Program, like most dental hygiene programs, uses the ‘Vancouver Style’ referencing style for citing sources within academic work. The complete guide to the Vancouver style referencing is  Citing Medicine  by the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

Giving credit to the origin of the information is a sign of respect and an expectation of your academic integrity and professionalism. Additionally, citations allow the reader the ability to find the article quickly and easily. The VIU Dental Hygiene Program uses a modified version of the 2 nd edition of Citing Medicine. VIU dental hygiene students should follow the guidelines and examples provided below.

Please keep in mind each scholarly journal or publisher sets standards for referencing expectations. Modifications in style may occur for reasons such as editorial board preferences or limitations in publication space. As such, when seeking publication always refer to the specific guidelines for the journal or publisher.

Vancouver Style: In-text References

The Vancouver style uses the citation-sequence system, meaning that references at the end of your paper are numbered in the order in which the corresponding citations appear in your text, rather than listed alphabetically by author. 

In-text references consist of consecutive numbers formatted in superscript  and placed after the period.

Let's say the first citation in your research paper is a sentence paraphrasing this online article .  In Vancouver style, your in-text reference would look like this: 

Recent analysis suggests that  marijuana use is associated with increases in oropharyngeal cancer cases, but decreases in oral tongue cancer. 1

The corresponding entry in the reference list at the end of your paper would look like this:

• Marks MA, Chaturvedi AK, Kelsey K, Straif K, Berthiller J, Schwartz SM, Smith E, Wyss A, Brennan P, Olshan AF, Wei Q, Sturgis EM, Zhang ZF, Morgenstern H, Muscat J, Lazarus P, McClean M, Chen C, Vaughan TL, Wunsch-Filho V, Curado MP, Koifman S, Matos E, Menezes A, Daudt AW, Fernandez L, Posner M, Boffetta P, Lee YC, Hashibe M, Souza G. Association of marijuana smoking with oropharyngeal and oral tongue cancers: pooled analysis from the INHANCE Consortium. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2014 Jan;23(1):160-71.

If your text requires the citing of more than one source, separate the numbers with a comma (no spaces), or indicate a range by separating the first and last numbers in the range with a hyphen, e.g.:

Recent analysis suggests that marijuana use is associated with increases in oropharyngeal cancer cases, but decreases in oral tongue cancer. 1,2

Recent analysis suggests that marijuana use is associated with increases in oropharyngeal cancer cases, but decreases in oral tongue cancer. 3-5

If you are quoting directly from your source, include the page number for the quoted passage in brackets following the reference number, and precede the page number with "p", e.g.:

Marks et al. "observed that marijuana use was strongly inversely associated with oral tongue cancer specifically, which is similar to what has been reported previously among oral cavity cancers in general." 1(p167)

Vancouver Style References: Journal Articles

Journal article references contain the following elements in order: Author(s), Article title, Journal Title Abbreviation, Date of Publication, Volume and Issue number, Location (Pagination).

• List names in the order they appear in the text
• Convert given (first) names and middle names to initials, for a maximum of two initials following each surname
• Include all the authors listed for the article
• Article title in  sentence case  followed by a period.
• Journal title abbreviation  followed by a period.
• Four-digit year of publication followed by semi-colon.
• Journal volume number followed by issue number in brackets, followed by a colon.
• Page range, hyphenated, followed by a period. (Page numbers are not repeated. For example, 452-468 would become 452-68 or 241-248 would become 241-8).

Loesche WJ, Bromberg J, Terpenning MS, Bretz WA, Dominguez BL, Grossman NS, Langmore SE. Xerostomia, xerogenic medications and food avoidances in selected geriatric groups. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1995;43(4):401-7.

Abrams AP, Thompson LA. Physiology of aging of older adults: systemic and oral health considerations. Dent Clin North Am. 2014;58(4):729–38.

Batchelor P. The changing epidemiology of oral diseases in the elderly, their growing importance for care and how they can be managed. Age Ageing. 2015;44(6):1064–70.

Vancouver Style References: Books

Entire book, written or compiled by the same author(s).

Author(s). Title of book. Edition. Place of Publication: Publisher; Date.

• List all author names in the order they appear in the text
• Include all author(s) contributors listed for the chapter
• Book title in  sentence case  followed by a period.
• Edition number (if applicable) followed by "ed." 
• Place of publication (if more than one city is listed, use the first one) followed by a colon and a space.
• Publisher name followed by a semi-colon and a space.
• Four-digit year of publication followed by a period.

Malamed SF. Handbook of local anesthesia. 7 th ed. St. Louis: Elsevier; 2020.

Chapter of book compiled by an editor with various chapter contributors

Author(s) of Contribution. Title of contribution. Connective Phrase: Editor(s) of Book. Title of book. Place of Publication. Edition. Place of Publication: Publisher; Date of Publication. Location of Contribution (page numbers).

• Title of chapter in  sentence case  followed by a period.
• Connector phrase followed by a colon and a space ‘In: ’
• List all editor(s) names in the order they appear in the text
• Include all editor(s) of the book.
• Edition number (if applicable) followed by period "ed." 
• Place of publication (if more than one city is listed, use the first one) followed by a colon and a space
• Publisher name followed by a semi-colon and a space
• Page range, hyphenated, followed by a period. (Page numbers are not repeated. For example, 452-468 would become 452-68 or 241-248 would become 241-8)

Forrest JL, Miller SA. Evidence-based decision making. In: Bowen DM, Pieren JA, editors. Darby and Walsh dental hygiene theory and practice. 5 th ed. Maryland Heights: Elsevier; 2020. p. 25-33.

Vancouver Style References: Websites

Website references contain the following elements in order: Author(s). Title [Internet]. Place of Publication: Publisher; Date of Publication [Date of Citation]. Available from: URL

• If a personal author(s), list last name(s) and initial(s) separated by commas and ending with a period.  If a corporate author, provide the organization name followed by a period.
• Title in  sentence case  followed by [Internet], ending with a period.
• Place of publication, if available, followed by a colon.
• Publisher (this will often be the same as the corporate author) followed by a semi-colon.
• Date of Publication - Four-digit year of publication, Month, Day (if available) as follows YYYY Month DD (use three-letter month abbreviations rather than the full month name). 
• Followed by the date you referenced the material as follows: [cited YYYY Month DD] (use three-letter month abbreviations rather than the full month name).  End with a period.
• Available from: URL

Marchildon GP, DiMatteo L. Health care cost drivers: the facts [Internet]. Canadian Institute for Health Information; 2011 Oct [cited 2015 Jan 15]. Available from: https://secure.cihi.ca/free_products/health_care_cost_drivers_the_facts_en.pdf

Statistics Canada. The Canadian population in 2011: age and sex [Internet]. Ottawa: Statistics Canada; 2015 [cited 2016 Dec 30]. Available from: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/censusrecensement/2011/as-sa/98-311-x/98-311-x2011001-eng.cfm

Canadian Dental Hygienists Association. Our history [Internet]. Ottawa: CDHA; 2018 [cited 2019 Sep 16]. Available from: https://www.cdha.ca/cdha/About_folder/History_folder/CDHA/About/History.aspx?hkey=065b136f-72d3-4a84-a7aa-51cc7b519cd5

Journal Title Abbreviations

Another characteristic of Vancouver style references is the use of  journal title abbreviations  rather than full titles.  Journal title abbreviations are standardized and can be looked up in the  NLM Catalogue  or the  Web of Science List of Journal Title Abbreviations .  

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention is abbreviated as  Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev

Clinical Advances in Periodontics is abbreviated as  Clin Adv Periodontics

Vancouver Style: Resources

Examples and help for using Vancouver style:

• Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (2nd Edition)
• Journal Title Abbreviations from the National Library of Medicine
• Web of Science List of Journal Title Abbreviations
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• Referencing styles

General style notes

About Vancouver

Vancouver is a numbered referencing style often used in medicine and health sciences. It was developed by the American Medical Association for use in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

There are two elements:

• Citations in the text, indicated by a number.
• A reference list at the end of the document providing full details of the in-text citations, keeping the original numbering.

There are other variations of this style that may be referred to as the Vancouver style.

2023 Re:cite Vancouver update Style updated 30 June, 2023

Vancouver style has been updated based on the AMA Manual of Style, 11th Edition. The main changes:

• in-text citations use superscript numbers, eg:   Several studies have shown 1,2
• no need for a URL if DOI present
• [Internet] not needed for web resources
• old = 123-9
• updated = 123-129
• no restrictions on number of author initials (previously limit of 2)
• place of publication no longer required for books

Style notes

Here are some notes on the Vancouver style to get you started. For more specific instructions check the style notes on each reference type.

Salmonella infections are common worldwide with an estimated 150 million cases and 60,000 deaths annually. 1 The "Can I Eat That?" app 2 is a valuable tool for travellers in assessing the safety of consuming local food. References 1. Plumb I, Fields P, Bruce B. Salmonellosis, Nontyphoidal. CDC Yellow Book 2024. Updated May 1, 2023. Accessed June 23, 2023. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2024/infections-diseases/salmonellosis-nontyphoidal 2. Seed SM, Khov SL, Binguad FS, Abraham GM, Aungst TD. Identification and review of mobile applications for travel medicine practitioners and patients. J Travel Med . 2016;23(4):taw034. doi:10.1093/jtm/taw034

• numbered consecutively in the order they appear in the text
• superscript Arabic numerals Example Several studies have shown 1,2 ...
• After a comma and before colons and semicolons. Example Previous research shows, 4 … The data were as follows 5 :
• Try to avoid putting numbers at the end of the sentence. If needed put after the full stop. Example The design was informed by the need for bodily communication. 6
• Use commas without spaces to separate two sources Example The case studies 7,8 indicated...
• For three or more references in numerical order, use a hyphen to join the first and last numbers. Example Meta-analysis of research shows, 9–14 …

The reference list contains all the citations you have referred to in your text.

They appear in the same numerical order as the citations.

• References are listed in numerical order, and in the same order in which they are cited in the text.
• The reference list appears at the end of your paper, before appendices
• Begin your reference list on a new page with the title 'References'.
• Can be indented or not, your choice.
• No year of publication = date unknown 
• No publisher = Publisher unknown
• No author =  do not replace it with  Anonymous. This is only used if the author is specifically credited as Anonymous

Use the   NLM (National Library of Medicine) Catalog abbreviations, don’t make up your own.

• Provide initials for all of the given names for each author with no spaces or punctuation.

Using the information on Re:cite should be enough to create citations and references, however if you need further information you can review the full style manual online.

AMA Manual of Style, 11th Edition (ebook).

Reference Management tools

Access Vancouver style in Endnote and Zotero and a quick export from PubMed.

The JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) output style can be added to your list of styles.

Tools > Output styles > New style (choose JAMA) and add to your frequently used styles.

You can download the style from the repository .

You can output the text of a reference in Vancouver style from PubMed.

This is suitable for placing directly in documents, not for use in reference management software.

Click Cite > Format (choose AMA)

Journal articles

Format for in-text citation.

Recent research 1 has revealed heterogeneous aging across multiple organ systems is a prediction of chronic disease.

Format for Reference List

Elements, punctuation and capitalisation, print journal article.

1. Author. Article title. Journal Title . Year;Volume(Issue):Page numbers.

Online journal article with doi

1. Author. Article title. Journal Title . Year;Volume(Issue):Page numbers. doi:xxxxx

Online journal article with no doi, use an accessible URL

1. Author. Article title. Journal title. Year;Volume(Issue):Page numbers. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. Tian YE, Cropley V, Maier AB, Lautenschlager NT, Breakspear M, Zalesky A. Heterogeneous aging across multiple organ systems and prediction of chronic disease and mortality. Nat Med . 2023;29(5):1221-1231. doi:10.1038/s41591-023-02296-6

Permanent link (journal articles):  https://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite/referencing-styles/vancouver/journal

Style notes for journal articles

• Leave author blank.
• Don't use Anonymous unless the author is specifically credited as Anonymous

Nobel lectures in physiology or medicine 1922-1941. World Scientific 1999.

• Use initials for all of the given names of the author.
• No punctuation in between surname and initials.

Doherty P. An insider's plague year . Melbourne University Press; 2021.

2–6 authors

• Use a comma to separate authors.

Lo Bianco J, Slaughter Y. Second languages and Australian schooling . Australian Education Review. ACER Press; 2009.

• After 3 authors use et al

Lacy-Nichols J, Nandi S, Mialon M, et al. Conceptualising commercial entities in public health: beyond unhealthy commodities and transnational corporations. Lancet . 2023;401(10383):1214-1228. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00012-0

Further help

Formatting in-text citations and reference lists in the Vancouver style.

Referencing FAQs

Referencing FAQs not specific to a style.

Books & book chapters

Reference type.

Uses in 19th century medicine included 3 …

1. Author. Title of book: subtitle . Edition. Publisher; Year.

Ebook with doi

1. Author. Title of book: subtitle . Edition. Publisher; Year. doi:xxxxx

Ebook with no doi, use accessible URL

1. Author. Title of book: subtitle . Edition. Publisher; Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. Doherty P. An insider's plague year . Melbourne University Press; 2021 2. Glenn RW. Come hell or high fever: readying the world's megacities for disaster . ANU Press; 2023. doi:10.22459/CHHF.2023 3. Martindale W. Coca and cocaine: their history, medical and economic uses, and medicinal preparations . H. K. Lewis; 1892. Accessed 2 June, 2023. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70643

Permanent link (books):  https://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite/referencing-styles/vancouver/book/books

Carew and Flynn 1 suggest this is under-represented in the literature because…

Print  book chapter

1. Author (of chapter). Title of chapter. In: Editors (of book). Title of Book . Edition. Publisher; Year.

Ebook chapter with doi

1. Author (of chapter). Title of chapter. In: Editors (of book). Title of Book . Edition. Publisher; Year. doi:xxxxx

Ebook chapter with no doi, use accessible URL

1. Author (of chapter). Title of chapter. In: Editors (of book). Title of Book . Edition. Publisher; Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. Carew P, Flynn T. Hearing and language. In: Law J, Reilly S, McKean C, eds. Language Development: Individual Differences in a Social Context . Cambridge University Press; 2022. doi:10.1017/9781108643719

Permanent link (book chapters):  https://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite/referencing-styles/vancouver/book/bookchapter

Style notes for books & book chapters

• Do not use Anonymous for no author. This is only used if the author is specifically credited as Anonymous

For book chapters in authored book (rather than a book with editors and different authors for book chapters) refer to whole book.

Include edition number if it's not the first edition.

Use 'Forthcoming' after publisher. 'In press' is no longer used.

Newspaper articles

Devlin reports 1 that chefs have been introducing ambient odours to enhance the olfactory environment of a specific dish.

Print newspaper article

Author. Article title. Newspaper Title . Month Day, Year:Page or Section number.

Online newspaper article

Author. Article title. Newspaper Title . Month Day, Year:Page or Section number. Accessed Month Day, Year. doi:xxxxx or URL

1. Devlin H. Tasteful aroma: should restaurants ban diners from wearing strong perfumes? The Guardian . June 16, 2023. Accessed 23 June, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jun/16/tasteful-aroma-should-restaurants-ban-diners-from-wearing-strong-perfumes

Permanent link (newspaper articles): https://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite/referencing-styles/vancouver/newspaper/

Style notes for newspaper articles

Add a city name if necessary for clarification.

The design was informed by the need for bodily communication. 1

Print theses

Author. Title . Type of thesis. University that awarded the degree; Year of completion.

Online theses

Author. Title . Type of thesis. University that awarded the degree; Year of completion. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. Aggarwal D. Supporting bodily communication in video consultations of physiotherapy . Dissertation. The University of Melbourne; 2018. Accessed 21 June 2023. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/216259

Permanent link (theses): https://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite/referencing-styles/vancouver/theses

Style notes for theses

Web and social media.

The website 1 details the process before, during and after a screening.

1. Author. Title of specific section. Name of website. Date published Month Day, Year. Updated Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. BreastScreen Victoria. What Happens at Your Screening. 2023. Accessed June 23, 2023. https://www.breastscreen.org.au/what-happens

Permanent link (webpage):  https://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite/referencing-styles/vancouver/electronic-source/webpage

WHO Europe 2   is using AI to monitor industries promoting health-harming products in online ads.

Social media

Author. Post. Published Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Facebook page. #NationalHydrationDay As summer temps rise, staying hydrated is important to combat heat-related illnesses. Here are some ways to beat the heat this summer: https://sportsmedicine.mayoclinic.org/news/staying-hydrated-healthy-during-extreme-heat . Accessed June 28, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/mayoclinicsportsmedicine

2. @WHO_Europe. Let's leverage #AI to protect children! WHO AI tool allows consumers to monitor industries promoting health-harming products in online ads - such as 🚬🍺 & 🍔. Submit a photo/screenshot of a harmful ad & become an online space protector! https://who.int/europe/news/item/23-06-2023-new-who-ai-tool-invites-people-to-counter-online-promotion-of-unhealthy-products . June 24, 2023. Accessed June 28, 2023. https://twitter.com/WHO_Europe/status/1672270822638010372

2. BreastScreen Victoria Instagram. Can you Screen with BSV Once you are 74 years old?. May 16, 2023. Accessed June 23, 2023.   https://www.instagram.com/p/CsSzKNYskZY/?hl=en

3. Osmosis from Elsevier YouTube page. Schizophrenia - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment & pathology. 9 March, 2016. Accessed June 28, 2023. https://youtu.be/PURvJV2SMso

Permanent link (social media):  https://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite/referencing-styles/vancouver/electronic-source/web/social-media/

Mewburn states 1 ...

Author. Title of post. Title of Blog. Published Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. Mewburn I. Mind the gap (in the literature). The Thesis Whisperer blog. May 26, 2023. Accessed June 28, 2023. https://thesiswhisperer.com/2023/05/26/literaturereviewpain

Permanent link (newspaper articles): https://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite/referencing-styles/vancouver/electronic-source/blog-post

Style notes for websites and social media

It is common for element to be missing from web references. Only include the details you can see on the resource.

Artificial Intelligence Software (eg ChatGPT)

There are no specific guidelines for citing ChatGPT or other generative AI in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, which is used as the basis for Vancouver style. In the interim, references from AI chat generators are being treated as personal communications. Use this resource to guide you on how to appropriately acknowledge the use of AI tools and technologies in your assessments.

Check with your lecturers and tutors whether artificial intelligence (AI) text generators are permitted in your assessment tasks. For more information, see the Academic Integrity Statement on Artificial Intelligence Tools and Technologies.

In-text citation

(Type of communication, Communicator, Month Day, Year)

according to an online chat with OpenAI's ChatGPT AI language model (February 24, 2023). or In a chat response from OpenAI's ChatGPT (February 24, 2023) …

If you are unsure about which referencing style to use, check with your tutor, lecturer or supervisor for the style preferred by your Faculty, School or Department.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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How to Cite Web Sources in Vancouver Style

World Wide Web page general format:

Author A, Author B. Title [Internet]. City and publisher details; [cited Year Month Date]. Available from: URL

Note: a two-letter ISO code of an organization’s country should be put in brackets after its name (if it is not already present it the title). See the list of ISO country codes here .

In our citation examples we use the following color coding:

• Red – Author
• Blue – Title of book/article/charter/webpage
• Pink – Date
• Orange – Website/Publisher
• Turquoise – Place of publication
• Gray – URL/database/website where the source is retrieved
• Peach – Additional information about the source (i.e. its type, specific features etc.)

General Format

If some data are not available, please omit it.

Download Citation

Further study

• Effective Tips for Writing an Annotated Bibliography
• How to Write Bibliography for Assignment
• American Antiquity Citation Style Guide

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Referencing guide: Vancouver

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Vancouver referencing style

The Vancouver referencing style is a numeric system used in biomedical, health and some science publication. This referencing guide is to be used in conjunction with the Library's General guide to citing and referencing .

The information in this guide is based on the following manual:

You may also find useful: ​

EndNote users can format their references using the  Vancouver-NIH  style file available in EndNote online/desktop.

Example of references using Vancouver

• References examples (A-Z)
• Reference list

There are standard reference formats for most types of document. Below are examples of the most common types of document you might want to reference. Each of the following gives a suggested standard format for the reference followed by examples for the different document types.

Author’s Surname INITIALS. Book Title. Edition (if not first). Place of publication: Publisher; Date.

• Glover IA, Grant PM. Digital communications. 3rd ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall; 2009.

Note : If there are no authors, only editors, use the same format as above and follow the last named editor with a comma and the word editor or editors.

Chapter in edited book

Author of chapter's surname INITIALS. Title of chapter. In: Editor's surname INITIALS, editor(s). Book Title. Edition (if not first). Place of publication: Publisher; Date. Pages

• Li CW, Wang GJ. Mems manufacturing techniques for tissue scaffolding devices. In: Bhansali S, Vasudev A, editors. Mems for biomedical applications. Cambridge: Woodhead; 2012. p. 192-217.

Note:  Pagination is always shortened to the fewest numbers necessary. For example you would write 23–5, not 23–25.

Conference paper

Author of paper's Surname INITIALS. Title of paper. In: Editor of proceedings' surname INITIALS, editor(s). Conference Title; Conference date; Place of conference. Place of publication: Publisher; Publication date. Pages.

• Rice AS, Farquhar-Smith WP, Bridges D, Brooks JW. Cannabinoids and pain. In: Dostorovsky JO, Carr DB, Koltzenburg M, editors. Proceedings of the 10th World Congress on Pain; 2002 Aug 17-22; San Diego, CA. Seattle (WA): IASP Press; 2003. p. 437-68.

Electronic Book

Author’s Surname INITIALS. Book Title [Internet]. Edition/version. Place of publication: Publisher; Date of original publication [Date cited]. Available from: URL.

• Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/10149/improving-palliative-care-for-cancer.

Note: The dates in Vancouver are in the format: year month day (the month is abbreviated to 3 letters). For example [cited 2018 Oct 10]

Electronic Journal article

Author’s Surname INITIALS. Title of article. Title of journal (abbr) [Internet]. Date of publication [Date cited];volume number(issue):pages. Available from: URL

• Hulka BS, Stark AT. Breast cancer: cause and prevention. Lancet [Internet]. 1995 Sep 30 [cited 2022 Nov 22];346(8979):883-7. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673695927131
• Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2018 Sep 12];102(6):23. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3522839
• Li Y, Li S, Meng X, Gan R-Y, Zhang J-J Li, H-B. Dietary natural products for prevention and treatment of breast cancer. Nutrients [Internet]. 2017 Jul 8 [cited 2022 Nov 14]; 9(7): [38 p.]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5537842/pdf/nutrients-09-00728.pdf

Note:  

- If there are more than 6 authors, list the first six then add et al. - Journal titles are abbreviated. You can use the NLM Catalog ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals ) to find the correct journal abbreviation. - Give the date as Year Month (abbreviated) Day - Do not repeat page numbers unless they are followed by a letter. For example 123-125 becomes 123-5 but 124A-126A is correct. - If no numbers appear on the pages of the article, it is usual to give an estimation of the length in square brackets. For example [20 p.] or [10 paragraphs].

Journal article

Author’s Surname INITIALS. Title of article. Title of journal (abbr). Date of publication;volume number(issue):pages.

• Pollack CV, Reilly PA, Eikelboom J, Glund S, Verhamme P, Bernstein RA, et al. Idarucizumab for Dabigatran reversal. N Engl J Med. 2015 Aug 6;373(6):511-20.

Rowe SM, Miller S, Sorscher, EJ. Cystic Fibrosis. N Engl J Med. 2005 May 12;352(19):1992-2001.

- If there are more than 6 authors, list the first six then add et al. - Journal titles are abbreviated. You can use the NLM Catalog ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals ) to find the correct journal abbreviation. - Give the date as Year Month (abbreviated) Day - Do not repeat page numbers unless they are followed by a letter. For example 123-125 becomes 123-5 but 124A-126A is correct

Newspaper article

Author's Surname INITIALS. Title of article. Newspaper title. Date;Section: (column).

• Levine S. Obesity increase creating special needs. Miami Herald. 2006 Jan 4;Sect. A:1 (col. 1).
• Tynan T. Medical improvements lower homicide rate: study sees drop in assault rate. The Washington Post. 2002 Aug 12;Sect. A:2 (col. 4).

- Name of newspapers are never abbreviated, although a leading "The" may be dropped if desired - If the article is unsigned, begin the reference with the title of the article - Sections may be named, for example 'Metro Section', 'Holiday Extra', etc. Use these names in a reference only when the section lacks a number or letter.

Newspaper article on the Internet

Author's Surname INITIALS. Title of article. Newspaper title [Internet]. Date of publication [Date cited];Section (if applicable). [pages]. Available from: URL

• Carey B. Psychiatrists revise the book of human troubles. New York Times [Internet]. 2008 Dec 17 [cited 2018 Oct 16];Health [about 3 p.]. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/health/18psych.html?_r=1&em 

Note: When a location (pagination) for the article is not provided, as often occurs, calculate the length of article using the best means possible, e.g. in terms of print pages, screens, or paragraphs.

Inventor's Surname INITIALS, inventor(s); Assignee's name, assignee. Patent title. Patent country and document type Country code and patent number. Date issued.

• Pagedas AC, inventor; Ancel Surgical R&D Inc., assignee. Flexible endoscopic grasping and cutting device and positioning tool assembly. United States patent US 20020103498. 2002 Aug 1.

Reference book entry on the Internet

A reference book is usually known by its title, and can be referenced as a dictionary. This would be the case for the majority of key reference books in medicine, e.g. BNF and BNFC. The template given below is to reference a particular entry from the online version of a reference book:

Book title [Internet]. Publication place: Publisher; year. Entry title; [date updated; date cited]. Available from: URL.

British National Formulary [Internet]. London: Royal Pharmaceutical Society; 2019. Aspirin; [updated 2019 Nov 12; cited 2019 Nov 27]. Available from: https://www.medicinescomplete.com/#/content/bnf/_456850132.

We have compiled examples taken from other reference books in a Word document. Click here to download it .

Author's Surname INITIALS. Title of report. Place of publication: Publisher; Date published. Report No.:

Page E, Harney JM. Health hazard evaluation report. Cincinnati (OH): National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (US); 2001 Feb. Report No.: HETA2000-0139-2824.

Barker B, Degenhardt L. Accidental drug-induced deaths in Australia 1997-2001. Sydney (Australia): University of New South Wales, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre; 2003.

Note : When a division or other subsidiary part of a publisher appears in the publication, enter the publisher name first. For example: Harvard Medical School, Department of Genetics.

Thesis/Dissertation

Author's Surname Initials. Title [publication type]. Place of publication: Publisher; year. 

• Roberts S. Studies of the origins and control of occupational exposure to cytotoxic drugs [PhD thesis] Bath: University of Bath; 2008.
• Harston DN. Formation of cancer cells [MRes dissertation]. London: University of London; 2014.

Unpublished material/personal communication

Emails, letters, conversations, interviews and lecturer's presentations  are examples of sources that are often unpublished. Documents generally available to scholars in an archive or a depository can usually be included in a reference list. However, many publishers do not permit placing any form of unpublished material in the end references. Most authorities recommend placing references to personal communications such as letters and conversations within the running text, not as formal end references . Include the nature and source of the cited information, using a term or terms to indicate clearly that no corresponding citation is in the reference list. Place the source information in parentheses.

For example:

… and most of these meningiomas proved to be inoperable (2003 letter from RS Grant to me; unreferenced, see "Notes") while the few that …

Author(s)/Organisation. Title of webpage [Internet]. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of original publication OR Year of Copyright [updated year month day; cited year month day]. Available from: URL.

• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Antiplatelet treatment: management [Internet]. London: NICE; c2018 [updated 2018 Jun; cited 2018 Sep 28]. Available from: https://cks.nice.org.uk/antiplatelet-treatment.

- Use the date that the page was first placed on the Internet. If it cannot be found, use the date of copyright, preceded by the letter ‘c’. - If neither a date of publication nor a date of copyright can be found, use the date of update/revision and/or the date cited.

Vancouver is a  numeric style , where citations are numbered (1) in the order of appearance. This citation leads your reader to a full reference to the source in the list of references at the end of your work. Each citation number should be enclosed in round brackets on the same line as the text, before any punctuation, with a space before the bracket (2). Once a source has been cited, the same number is re-used for all subsequent citations to the same source. 

Multiple citations

If you need to reference several sources at the same point in your text, indicate each source separated by a comma. A hyphen should be used to link numbers which are inclusive. For example:

Several drug trials (3, 6-8, 12) proved...

Unpublished material

Emails, letters, conversations, interviews and lecturer's presentations  are examples of sources that are often unpublished. Documents generally available to scholars in an archive or a depository can usually be included in a reference list. However, many publishers do not permit placing any form of unpublished material in the end references. Most authorities recommend placing references to personal communications such as letters and conversations  within the running text, not as formal end references . Include the nature and source of the cited information, using a term or terms to indicate clearly that no corresponding citation is in the reference list. Place the source information in parentheses.

At the end of your work, list full details of all of the sources which you have cited in your text in a section headed References, in numeric order. References listed must follow Vancouver's formatting guidelines (see reference examples from the first tab). Your reference list should allow anyone reading your work to identify and find the material to which you have referred. 

Reference list example

The references are listed in the order they appeared in the text, not alphabetically.

1.   Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Careers information [Internet]. London: Royal Pharmaceutical Society; c2018 [cited 2018 Sep 28]. Available from: https://www.rpharms.com/resources/careers-information.

2.   Newman RD. Malaria control beyond 2010. BMJ. 2010 Jun 11;341(7765):182-3.

3.   Rang HP, Dale MM, Ritter JM. Pharmacology. 4th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1999.

Referencing an item not covered in this guide?

Citing Medicine

The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers

Cite Them Right Online

This guide to referencing for students and authors provides detailed examples for all print and electronic sources, business, government, technical and legal publications, works of art and images.

Extra examples

• Referencing medicine - Vancouver examples A compilation of key reference medicine books formatted using the Vancouver referencing style.
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• Last Updated: Oct 20, 2023 4:48 PM
• URL: https://library.bath.ac.uk/referencing

• Subject guides
• Referencing and Citation Styles

Referencing and Citation Styles: Vancouver

• Chicago 17th A

Recommended manual for Vancouver referencing style

Vancouver is a term used to describe the referencing style developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME).  The following publication provides a comprehensive set of examples of application of the style;

• Citing Medicine (2nd ed.) (2007) National Library of Medicine Available online

References in the body of your essay

The Vancouver referencing style is a numeric style used in the medical sciences.

Single Reference

References in text, tables, and legends should be numbered consecutively in the order they are cited in the text using Arabic numbers in parentheses. The use of Arabic numbers in superscript format is also acceptable, but is dependent on the requirements of individual journals and/or academic departments.

• Weber (16) reported that....

Multiple references

When multiple references are cited at the same place in the text of a document, use a hyphen to join the first and last references if they are inclusive. Use commas without spaces to separate exclusive references.

• ...on the discipline and profession and management many studies (1-4) reported that...
• A number of studies reported that the treatment was ineffective. (1,5,8)

Consideration should be taken on the location of numbers within the text of a document. Use Arabic numbers outside periods and commas, inside colons and semi-colons.

• Methodologic guidelines for studies of etiology,(5,7) diagnosis,(8) prognosis,(9) and therapy(10-11) are available.
• ...such as an intra -class correlation co-efficient (49) or Χ statistic.(50)

Citing Specific Pages

If an author needs to cite different page numbers from a single reference at different places within the text of a document the formatting used in the example should be used. Please note that the source needs to appear only one in the reference list.

• Weber 23(p56) found that...

Reference List

In the Vancouver style references should appear at the end of the text of your essay/paper listed numerically in the order that they were cited in the text.

Journal article:

• Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. Ann Intern Med 2009;151(4):264-9, W64.

Book (1-6 authors):

• Arens AA. Auditing in Australia : an integrated approach. 5th ed. Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education Australia; 2002.

Book (More than 6 authors):

• Goering RV, Dockrell HM, Wakelin D, Zuckerman M, Chiodini PL, Roitt IM, et al. Mims' medical microbiology. 4th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Mosby Elsevier; 2008.

Book chapter:

• Thomas, G. Medicinal Chemistry. 2nd ed. Chichester: John Wiley; 2007. Chapter 8.2, The chemical nature of the binding of ligands to receptors; p.252-254.

Newspaper article:

• Beale, B. Our apocalypse now. Biodiversity and the threat to it from environmental destruction. Sydney Morning Herald 1989 Jul 15:71,6.

Report (Online):

• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Drinking patterns in Australia, 2001-2007. Cat. no. PHE133. [Internet]. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2010 [cited 2021 Jan 19]. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/29697ff8-c90d-45e4-979d-39672d95ffd5/11895.pdf.aspx?inline=true.
• Evans PR. Motor and sensory function of the upper digestive tract in health and in irritable bowel syndrome [Ph.D Thesis]. Sydney, NSW: University of Sydney; 1998.

Conference Paper:

• Passey M, Gale J, Stirling J, Sanson-Fisher R. Caring for pregnant Aboriginal women: provider views on managing tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use. In: 2017 Primary Health Care Research Conference, 2017 Aug 7 - 9; Brisbane.
• Queensland University of Technology. Writing literature reviews. [Internet] 2010 [updated 2020 Jun 23; cited 2020 Dec 6]; Available from: http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/write/litreviews.jsp.

Journal Title Abbreviations

• PubMed Journals in the NCBI Databases Journal titles in the Vancouver style are abbreviated. To locate the abbreviation of a journal title in NLM Catalog: Journals in the NCBI Databases.

More Resources

Here are some additional resources for citing in the Vancouver style.

• American Medical Association. Manual of style: a guide for authors and editors. 11th ed. 2019
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)

EndNote comes installed with a Vancouver output style for your use. Additional resources are available from the following external sites.

• University of Queensland Endnote Output Styles Download the appropriate Vancouver style into your EndNote Styles folder. The UQ Vancouver style uses an Arabic numbers in parenthesis stye for in-text citations.
• University of Western Australia Endnote Output Styles Download the UWA Vancouver (2011) edition into your EndNote Styles folder. The UWA Vancouver style uses a superscript format for in-text citations.
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• Writing Tips

Vancouver – Citing a Website

3-minute read

• 17th May 2018

Soon enough, all of humanity will be constantly plugged into the internet and able to link to a website with a mere thought. But until that terrible dystopian future comes to pass, you still need to reference online sources the old-fashioned way. Here, then, are the rules for citing a website in an essay when you’re using Vancouver referencing.

In-Text Citations for a Website

Vancouver referencing uses a number–endnote system. This means that citations are given via numbers in the main text, with source information saved for the reference list.

To cite a source, then, you simply give a number in brackets at the end of the sentence. Alternatively, if the author is named in the text, you should give the number immediately afterwards:

Human consciousness will eventually merge with AI (1). Some thinkers warn against this possibility, but Dr Statt (2) speaks positively of it.

Sources are numbered in the order they first appear in the text. They are then listed in the same order in the reference list. In the passage above, for example, the numbers show us that the author is citing the first and second sources in the reference list.

Websites in the Reference List

As mentioned above, Vancouver requires all cited sources to be added to a reference list at the end of your document. Sources are listed in the same order that they are cited in the text.

The format for a website in a Vancouver reference list is:

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(Citation Number) Author Surname and Initial/Organisation. Web Page Title . Available from: URL [Accessed date].

There is quite a bit of information here, so let’s break it down:

• Author/Organisation – Ideally, you will find the name of the person who wrote the article or page you’re citing and use that. If not, you can use the organisation that publishes the site.
• Web Page Title – This should be the title of the specific page you’re citing.
• URL – The web address for the page you’ve cited.
• Accessed Date – The date of when you last visited the page.

In practice, then, a Vancouver website reference would look like this:

(1) Statt N. Elon Musk launches Neuralink, a venture to merge the human brain with AI . Available from: https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15077864/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-computer-interface-ai-cyborgs [Accessed 2 April 2019].

Watch Out! Vancouver Variations

There are several variations of Vancouver referencing. Most use a format similar to the one shown above, but you should check your style guide in case your university/publisher has specific requirements. These may include how citations are presented (e.g. round vs. square brackets).

If you cannot find a style guide, your main priorities should be clarity and consistency. And don’t forget to get your work proofread to make sure that all of your references are in order.

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If you're trying to determine what source to choose or what you should cite, read on for FAQs and helpful answers.

I'm citing a book, article, video, photo, etc., that I found online. Does that mean it's a "website"?

If you can classify your source as something other than a website/web page, choose that as your source. Be as specific as possible. Most times, the source citation form will give you the option to cite the source as something found online (see tabs at the top of the citation form).

• E-book -- choose "Book"
• Online newspaper article -- choose "Newspaper"
• Digital photo -- choose "Photo"

What's the difference between an "Online database" and a "Journal"?

In research, a journal is a scholarly or academic periodical featuring articles written by experts. These articles are reviewed by fellow experts (peer-reviewed) before being published.

An online database is an electronic collection of information. They are searchable and most databases found at your library provide credible, published content. Depending on the database, it might also let you access information in various formats (e.g., journals, videos, books, newspapers, etc.).

This means an online database could have several journals.

• Journals -- Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), PLOS One, New Scientist, Ecology Letters
• Online databases --- Academic One File, Britannica Academic, EBSCOHost, Facts on File

I'm still not sure what source I have. What should I do?

Scroll through our long list of source options and make your best educated guess. If you're still unsure, choose "Miscellaneous."

If there is no author, can I still cite a source?

Yes! It's always better to cite a source, even if you're unsure of all the source details. Also, not everything has an indicated author so it's ok to leave an author out in those cases. When this happens, most citation styles will list the source by its title instead of the author's last name.

I only need to cite one source, right?

A well-balanced paper usually cites several sources; often in different formats (e.g., books, journals, interviews, etc.). There isn't an exact number of sources that is ideal, but try to have more than a couple sources listed.

Also, you should cite everything you've consulted or mentioned in your paper. It's the ethical thing to do.

If I have a full citation at the end of my paper, do I really need to make in-text citations (e.g., parenthetical citations, footnotes, etc.)?

Yes, absolutely! Showing where you got certain ideas or points in your paper will help support any arguments you make. Including in-text citations is also ethical — give credit where it is due.

I heard that "common knowledge" does NOT need to be cited. What is it?

Common knowledge is general information that you can assume a normal individual would know without needing to consult a source. Yes, you do not necessarily need to cite common knowledge. However, if you are unsure if you should cite a fact or source, err on the side of caution and cite it.

• London is the capital of England
• A penguin is a bird
• The moon orbits the Earth
• Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius
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Vancouver referencing style

• About Vancouver referencing style
• Additional referencing information
• EndNote and Vancouver referencing

Difference between a reference list and a bibliography

Publication date and copyright date, place of publication, example reference list.

• In-text citations
• Indirect citation / Secondary source
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• Dictionaries / Encyclopaedias
• Specialised health resources
• Journal articles
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• Government / Reports
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• Other Internet sources
• Social media
• Pamphlets / Brochures / Package inserts
• Lecture notes
• Audiovisual material
• Personal communication
• Legal material
• Tables / Figures / Images / Appendices

Reference list:

• A reference list contains details only of those works cited in the text of the document. (e.g. book, journal article, pamphlet, internet site, cassette tape or film).  These details must include sufficient detail so that others may locate and consult your references.
• A reference list should appear at the end of your essay/report with the entries listed numerically and in the same order that they have been cited in the text.

Bibliography:

• A bibliography is a separate list from the reference list and should be arranged alphabetically by author or title (where no author is given) in the Vancouver style.
• A bibliography lists sources not cited in the text but which are relevant to the subject and were used for background reading.

Spacing between references in a reference list or bibliography:

• Double line spacing between each citation
• EndNote only puts a single line space between each citation
• Check with your school/lecturer what spacing they require
• Journals using the Vancouver style may also have their own line spacing requirements

Authors/Editors

• List all the authors names in the order they appear in the document, webpage or book.
• Family name is followed by the initials of the authors' first names
• Each other is separated by a comma
• Omit degrees, titles and honors following a personal name
• Convert roman numbers to arabic ordinals
• eg. Vince T. DeVita, Jr becomes DeVita VT Jr
• eg. John A. Adams III becomes Adams JA 3rd​

​Multiple authors

• List all the authors in the order they appear
• Alternatively list the first three authors and add  - et al. eg. Smith AB, Jones CD, McDonald EF, et al.
• Endnote will list the first six authors and then add  - et al.
• Always check with your lecturer or the journal's instructions to authors.

 In text citation   - when authors names used:

• Up to 3 authors eg. Smith, Jones and McDonald reported that ......... 23
• More than 3 authors eg. Smith et al 24 reports ...
• do not use  - anonymous
• use editors or translators if present
• use title of the item if no authors, editors, translators or organisation can be found​

Corporation/Organisation as author Enter the organisation name in full eg. World Health Organization

The copyright date is identified by the symbol ©, the letter "c" or the word copyright before the date. If no publication date can be found use the copyright date. Precede the copyright date with the letter "c" eg. c2017 ​If a publication has a publication date and a copyright date:

• use publication date 
• if three or more years separate the publication date and copyright date - use both dates but begin with the publication date eg. 2017, c2007​

URL's should be entered as they appear on the website. Do not put a full stop after a URL unless it ends on a forward slash - /,  or it is followed by the DOI number. In EndNote add the full stop after the URL in the URL field only if it ends in a forward slash.

Place of Publication

• Place is the city where the book was published
• Follow US and Canadian cities with the two letter abbreviation for the state or province in brackets eg. Palm Springs (CA). See Appendix E of Citing medicine
• Follow cities in other countries with the name of the country written out or using the two letter ISO country code in brackets eg. Cambridge (GB); Berlin (DE); Sydney (AU). See Appendix D in Citing medicine.

Multiple places of publication

If more than one place of publication is given, use the first one or the one set in the largest type or in bold. Do not give multiple places.

Reference List:

Begin page numbers with a "p." followed by a space.

•  p. 123 and p. 123-9

​Do not repeat page numbers unless followed by a letter. 

• p. 131-139 should be p. 131-9
• p. 131A-139A  is correct

Include a letter when it precedes a page number (S for Supplement or A for Appendix)

Roman numerals

• Keep roman numerals when they are used as page numbers
• p. XXI-XXII

1.     Cheers B, Darracott R, Lonne B. Social care practice in rural communities. Sydney (AU): The Federation         Press; 2007.

2.     Hofmeyr GJ, Neilson JP, Alfirevic Z, Crowther CA, Gulmezoglu AM, Hodnett ED et al. A Cochrane         pocketbook: Pregnancy and childbirth. Chichester (GB): John Wiley & Sons; 2008

3.     Murtagh J. John Murtagh’s General practice. 4th ed. Sydney (Australia): McGraw‐Hill Australia; 2007.

4.     Darwin C. On the origin of species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favoured races         in the struggle for life [Internet]. London (England): John Murray; 1859. Chapter 5, Laws of variation.         [cited 2010 Apr 22]. Available from:  http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin/chapter5.html

5.     Australian medicines handbook online [Internet]. Adelaide (AU): Australian Medicines          Handbook Pty Ltd;  2000. Paracetamol; [updated 2017 Jul; cited 2017 Nov 10];         Available from: https://amhonline-amh-net-au/ .

6.     MIMS online [Internet]. Crows Nest (AU): MIMS Australia; 2017. Betamin; [updated 2017 Nov;          cited 2017 Nov 10]. Available from: https://www-mimsonline-com-au.ezyproxy.library.         au/Search/AbbrPl.aspx?ModuleName=Product%20Info&searchKeyword=vitamin+b&         PreviousPage=~/Search?QuickSearch.aspx&SearchType=&ID=21830001_2

7.     Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical         informatics. In: Lun KC. Degoulet P. Piemme TE, Reinhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of         the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics. 1992 Sep 6‐10; Geneva, Switzerland. Amsterdam: North Holland;         1992. p. 1561‐5. 

8.     Australia. Parliament. Senate. Select Committee on Climate Policy. Climate policy report.         Canberra (AU): The Senate; 2009.

9.     Diabetes Australia. Gestational diabetes [Internet]. Canberra (AU): Diabetes Australia; 2015 [updated          2015; cited 2017 Nov 23]. Available from:  https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/gestational-diabetes

10.   The medical profession in the 1990’s [television broadcast]. The MacNeil/Lehrer news hour.          New York, Washington (DC): Public Broadcasting Service; 1993 Oct 11.

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BibGuru Vancouver Citation Generator

Cite websites, books, articles, ...

What is a Vancouver citation generator and how can it help you?

Getting citations and reference lists correctly done can be very confusing and time-consuming.

The Vancouver citation style is very complex, as it has many different variations within the style, which opens the door for confusion and mistakes.

The good news is that our Vancouver citation generator can do it automatically for you and it is FREE to use! 🎉

Not convinced yet? Here are 5 reasons why you are going to love the BibGuru Vancouver citation maker :

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With BibGuru we have made a citation tool that truly helps students to focus on the content of their work instead of worrying about how to get their reference list correctly done.

Those days of wasting time entering data manually or losing grades on incorrect bibliographies are finally gone!

If you need to know more about Vancouver citations check out our How do I cite in Vancouver style? section.

Why, when, and what do I have to cite?

Why The broad scientific knowledge we have today is the accomplishment of many researchers over time. To put your own contribution in context , it is important to cite the work of the researchers who influenced you. Cited sources can provide key background information, support or dispute your thesis, or offer important definitions and data. Citing also shows that you have personally read the work.

When In addition to crediting the ideas of others that you used to build your own argument, you need to provide documentation for all facts and figures that are not common knowledge. Common knowledge is knowledge that is known by everyone, or nearly everyone, and can basically concern any subject. An example for common knowledge would be "There are seven days in a week".

What The number of sources you cite in your work depends on the intent of the paper. In most cases, you will need to cite one or two of the most representative sources for each key point. However, if you are working on a review article, the aim is to present to the readers everything that has been written on a topic, so you will need to include a more exhaustive list of citations.

What is the Vancouver citation style?

The Vancouver citation style is a numeric citation system used in biomedical, health and some science publications. It uses numbers within the text that refer to numbered entries in the reference list.

Hundreds of scientific journals use author-number systems, which essentially follow the same logic (numbered citations pointing to numbered list entries), but are different in trivial details such as punctuation, casing of titles and italic.

The Vancouver style is pretty new amongst these citation styles, it was first defined in 1978 at the conference of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in Vancouver, Canada.

The Vancouver style is now published in Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (NLM), and is mainly focused on citation style and bibliographic style.

How do I cite in Vancouver style?

These are the main conventions when using the Vancouver style for your paper:

• Numeric references are used in the text, mostly numbers in brackets, e.g. (1)
• The same citation number is used whenever the same source is cited in the text
• These in-text numbers are matched to full, numbered references for each publication in the reference list
• The reference list is sorted in the order the citations appeared in the text, not alphabetically
• Very little punctuation is used
• Abbreviations which are already well-established are used for journal titles
• If you have written a section of your text with several references, you can indicate that by listing each source separated by a comma
• Authors should be cited by last name, then initials (e.g. Levoy G.), with no comma between last name and initials, nor full stop after the initials or spaces between the initials. Indicate the end of the author's name with a full stop
• If there are more than 6 authors, cite the first six followed by et. al. or 'and others'

This is how you would cite a book with one author:

Reference list:

1. Cox T. Cultural diversity in organizations. San Francisco, Calif: Berrett-Koehler; 2005.

And this is how you would cite a journal article:

2. Leach P. James Paine's Design for the South Front of Kedleston Hall: Dating and Sources. Architectural History. 1997;40:159.

The list above summarizes the essential rules of Vancouver referencing, but there are many variations within the style which can make it very complicated. But you don't need to worry about getting your Vancouver citations wrong with BibGuru.

Use our Vancouver citation generator above to create the fastest and most accurate Vancouver citations possible.

You can create a reference list in the BibGuru Vancouver citation generator by entering all of your sources (one by one) into the main search box, choose the source category of each, click enter, and that's it. BibGuru organizes your references according to Vancoucer style’s guidelines. All you have to do after is copy and paste the list into your paper.

Yes, you can have different lists of references in your BibGuru Vancouver citation generator. You only need to create a 'new project' for a different list of references.

Yes, the BibGuru Vancouver citation generator creates in-text citations for every reference. All you have to do is click the 'Bibliography and in-text citations' view option, and this will automatically create an accurate in-text citation for each source.

The Vancouver style was defined in 1978 at the conference of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in Vancouver, Canada. Therefore, the style took the name of its birth place.

Yes, one of the citation systems of Vancouver style is to make in-text references with superscript numbers. These numbers are then listed sequentially in a reference list at the end of the paper.

Yes, one of the citation systems of Vancouver style is to make in-text references with numbers in round brackets. These numbers are then listed sequentially in a reference list at the end of the paper.

Every source referenced in-text is given a number according to the order in which they are introduced. The same citation number is used whenever the same source is cited throughout the text. These in-text numbers are matched to full, numbered references for each publication in the reference list. Finally, the reference list is sorted sequentially, meaning: in the order the citations appeared in the text, not alphabetically.

Yes, the official Vancouver style is now published in Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (NLM) .

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Don't let plagiarism errors spoil your paper, consider your source's credibility. ask these questions:, contributor/author.

• Has the author written several articles on the topic, and do they have the credentials to be an expert in their field?
• Can you contact them? Do they have social media profiles?
• Have other credible individuals referenced this source or author?
• Book: What have reviews said about it?
• What do you know about the publisher/sponsor? Are they well-respected?
• Do they take responsibility for the content? Are they selective about what they publish?
• Take a look at their other content. Do these other articles generally appear credible?
• Does the author or the organization have a bias? Does bias make sense in relation to your argument?
• Is the purpose of the content to inform, entertain, or to spread an agenda? Is there commercial intent?
• Are there ads?
• When was the source published or updated? Is there a date shown?
• Does the publication date make sense in relation to the information presented to your argument?
• Does the source even have a date?
• Was it reproduced? If so, from where?
• If it was reproduced, was it done so with permission? Copyright/disclaimer included?
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Citing and referencing: Vancouver

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• Government and Organisation Publications
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