Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples (2024)

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:

Davies et al. state that the data is ‘unreliable’ (1, p. 15).

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:

1. Davies B, Jameson P. Advanced economics. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2013.

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.

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Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples (1)

Table of contents

  1. Vancouver in-text citations
  2. Creating a Vancouver reference list
  3. Vancouver reference examples
  4. Missing information in Vancouver references
  5. Frequently asked questions about Vancouver referencing

Vancouver in-text citations

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:

Parentheses numberingSuperscript numbering
Levitt (2) argues that …Levitt2 argues that …

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:

This phenomenon is increasingly relevant to the discipline (3).

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.’:

Davies et al. (1) argue that …

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:

Another study (13) explores the concept of …

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:

Collins et al. (1) argue that this technique is highly effective. However, another study (2) conducted into the technique has raised doubts about the replicability of these results. Collins et al.’s conclusion that the technique is ready for ‘large-scale application’ (1, p. 15) in medical practice should therefore not be accepted without further investigation.

Citing multiple sources

You can also cite multiple sources in the same place:

Several studies (8, 12) indicate a similar effect.

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

There is a large body of research (1, 4–7) exploring this phenomenon.

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.’:

Bute refers to his project as ‘a madcap journey through America’s disciplinary institutions’ (4, p. 499).

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

… ‘a madcap journey through America’s disciplinary institutions’.4 (p. 499)

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Creating a Vancouver reference list

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

Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples (4)

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.’

1 authorShields G.
2–6 authorsJohnson FH, Singh J.
7+ authorsJames F, Pieters J, Deptford G, Harrison R, Bregman E, Empson A, et al.

Source titles

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

The Cambridge companion to the philosophy of biology.

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

Vancouver reference examples

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
  • Book chapter
  • Journal article
  • Website
Formatx. Author(s). Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher; Year.
Example1. Wilkinson IB, Raine T, Wiles K, Goodhart A, Hall C, O’Neill H. Oxford handbook of clinical medicine. 10th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2017.
Notes
  • Editions are given (in abbreviated form) only when referring to an edition other than the first.
Formatx. Author(s). Title of chapter. In: Editor(s), editors. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher; Year. Page range.
Example2. Darden L. Mechanisms and models. In: Hull DL, Ruse M, editors. The Cambridge companion to the philosophy of biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2008. p. 139–159.
Notes
  • The first name given is that of the author, while the editor’s name appears later, followed by ‘editors’.
  • The page range indicates the location of the chapter in the book, and is preceded by ‘p.’
Formatx. Author(s). Article title. Journal Name (abbreviated). Year Month Day; Volume(Issue):page range. Available from: URL DOI
Example3. Bute M. A backstage sociologist: Autoethnography and a populist vision. Am Soc. 2016 Mar 23; 47(4):499–515. Available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12108-016-9307-z doi:10.1007/s12108-016-9307-z
Notes
  • Use the abbreviated form of the journal’s name, which should be provided in the citation information for the article.
  • Include a URL and DOI when citing an online journal. End with the page range if you cite a print journal.
  • Note the lack of spacing between the volume, issue and page range.
  • The names of months are abbreviated.
  • Page numbers for journals are not preceded by ‘p.’.
Formatx. Author(s). Title [Internet]. Year [cited Date]. Available from: URL
Example4. Cancer Research UK. Current research into breast cancer [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Feb 14]. Available from: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/our-research-by-cancer-type/our-research-into-breast-cancer/current-breast-cancer-research
Notes
  • Web pages often won’t have a clearly identified author; in this case, you can usually name a corporate author.
  • The date used is the year when the website was last updated. The date in square brackets is when you accessed the site.

Missing information in Vancouver references

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

No author

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:

5. Breast cancer [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Feb 14]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer

No date

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:

6. Scribbr. How to structure a dissertation [Internet]. [cited 2020 Feb 14]. Available from: https://www.scribbr.co.uk/category/thesis-dissertation/

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:

NASA calls the telescope ‘the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope’ (5, para. 5).

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Frequently asked questions about Vancouver referencing

What’s the difference between Harvard and Vancouver referencing styles?

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.

Harvard styleVancouver style
In-text citationEach referencing style has different rules (Pears and Shields, 2019).Each referencing style has different rules (1).
Reference listPears, R. and Shields, G. (2019). Cite them right: The essential referencing guide. 11th edn. London: MacMillan.1. Pears R, Shields G. Cite them right: The essential referencing guide. 11th ed. London: MacMillan; 2019.
When should I use an in-text citation in Vancouver style?

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.

How do I reference a source with multiple authors in Vancouver style?

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.’.

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Caulfield, J. (2022, August 19). Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 24 June 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/vancouver-style/

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Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples (5)

Jack Caulfield

Jack is a Brit based in Amsterdam, with an MA in comparative literature. He writes for Scribbr about his specialist topics: grammar, linguistics, citations, and plagiarism. In his spare time, he reads a lot of books.

Vancouver Referencing | A Quick Guide & Reference Examples (2024)

FAQs

How to write references in Vancouver style example? ›

Vancouver Style References: Journal Articles
  1. Author or Authors, last name and initial(s) separated by a comma and space and ending with a period. ...
  2. Article title in sentence case followed by a period.
  3. Journal title abbreviation followed by a period.
  4. Four-digit year of publication followed by semi-colon.
Jun 6, 2024

How do you reference a Vancouver guide? ›

Vancouver - Referencing Guide

Citations are numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text and each citation corresponds to a numbered reference, containing publication information about the source cited, in the reference list at the end of the publication, essay or assignment.

What is the difference between a bibliography and a reference list in Vancouver? ›

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.

How do I arrange references in Vancouver style in Word? ›

Reference list in Vancouver style
  1. Number all references.
  2. Arrange your list in the order in which the references appear in your text.
  3. If there are more than 6 authors, list the first 6 authors followed by “et al.”
  4. Use official abbreviations for titles of journals (if available)

How do you reference nice in Vancouver style? ›

Vancouver referencing guide (Online): NICE Guidelines

Author. e.g. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Title: subtitle [Internet]. [Date of update/revision (if applicable); Date of citation].

How to reference figures in Vancouver style? ›

In text
  1. Give the figure a number in your text e.g. if it's the first figure you have included in your writing, give it a name and number, e.g. Figure X. ...
  2. Insert citation with a number like with any other citation, e.g. Figure X: Pathogenesis of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children: a hypothesis.(3)
Dec 7, 2020

How do you cite someone in Vancouver style? ›

If the information is retrievable, use this format for the reference list:
  1. Author's name(s) Surname then first name. ...
  2. (Author's place of occupation).
  3. Connective Phrase: e.g. Conversation with:
  4. Recipient name(s) Surname then first name. ...
  5. (Recipient's occupation).
  6. Date year month date.
  7. If a document also add.
Jun 19, 2024

Does Vancouver referencing require footnotes? ›

Vancouver referencing is a citation style, also known as author–number referencing, often used in the physical sciences. While most systems use in-text citations or footnotes, along with a reference list or bibliography alphabetised by author surname, Vancouver uses numbers and endnotes.

Does Vancouver referencing have an indent? ›

Formatting the References Page

Indent the hanging line(s) of each citation (0.5" or 1.27 cm). The first line of a reference should be flush with the left hand margin, with all subsequent lines in that reference should be indented by half an inch.

Is a Vancouver reference list in alphabetical order? ›

When using the Vancouver style of referencing, both the bibliography and the reference list are arranged in the order in which they are referenced in the text, not alphabetical order.

How do I write references? ›

Elements to include:
  1. Author, initials.
  2. Year (in round brackets)
  3. Title of document.
  4. Date (if avaialble)
  5. Collection name.
  6. Document number.
  7. Name of archive.
  8. Location of archive.

What is another name for Vancouver referencing? ›

The Vancouver system, also known as Vancouver reference style or the author–number system, is a citation style that uses numbers within the text that refer to numbered entries in the reference list.

How do you arrange references examples? ›

Simply alphabetize the entries letter by letter. More specifically, reference list entries are arranged using the author's last name first, then their first name initials. Often you will find the names of the same researchers and writers, as they specialize in specific fields.

Do references go before or after full stop in Vancouver? ›

The placement of citation numbers within text should be carefully considered. A particular reference may be relevant to only part of a sentence. As a general rule reference numbers: should be placed outside full stops and commas.

How do you format references correctly? ›

APA: Formatting Your References List
  1. Center the word “References” in bold font at the top of a new page.
  2. Double spacing is used throughout this page.
  3. Alphabetize entries by authors' last names.
  4. Create a hanging indent for each individual source you add to the list.

How to write a reference in a thesis in Vancouver style? ›

The elements common to references to an entire thesis/dissertation are:
  1. Author Name.
  2. Thesis Title.
  3. Thesis Type. Use 'master's thesis' for work at the master's level and 'dissertation' for the doctorate.
  4. Academic Institution /University.
  5. Date. The year the degree was granted.
  6. DOI or URL.

How do you indent references in Vancouver? ›

Formatting the References Page

Indent the hanging line(s) of each citation (0.5" or 1.27 cm). The first line of a reference should be flush with the left hand margin, with all subsequent lines in that reference should be indented by half an inch.

How do you add references to a book in Vancouver style? ›

Author(s) of book – Family name and initials. Title of book. edition (if not first) - ed. Place of publication: Publisher name; Year of publication.

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