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Vancouver referencing style

Vancouver - numbered referencing style

What is Vancouver referencing style?

The Vancouver style of referencing is predominantly used in the medical field.

Before you write your list of references, check with your lecturer or tutor for the referencing style preferred by the school. There may be differences in the style recommended by the school.

What is referencing?

Referencing is a standardised way of acknowledging the sources of information and ideas that you have used in your assignments and which allows the sources to be identified.  It is important to be consistent when you are referencing.

Why reference?

Referencing is important to avoid plagiarism, to verify quotations and to enable readers to follow up what you have written and more fully understand the cited author’s work.

Steps in referencing:

  • Record the full bibliographic details and relevant page numbers of the source from which information is taken.
  • Punctuation marks and spaces in the reference list and citations are very important. Follow the punctuation and spacing exactly.
  • Insert the citation at the appropriate place in the text of your document.
  • Include a reference list that includes all in-text citations at the end of your document.

About referencing

This referencing style guide provides a set of rules on how to acknowledge the thoughts, ideas and works of others when you use them in your own work.

Many types of publication examples have been provided in this guide. If you cannot find the example you need, you can:

Further resources

Print or save this guide

To save or print this guide:

  1. Go to the print version of the Vancouver referencing style guide.
  2. Click Print Page at the end of this guide or use your browser's Print tool​

Note: This guide was updated on November 11, 2021.