Vancouver (AMA) referencing style

The Vancouver style of referencing is a numbered style predominantly used in the medical field. Originally put forward by the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) in Vancouver (hence the name), there are different variations of Vancouver that you might find online.

This guide is based on the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style. 

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

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:

• consult the AMA Manual of Style
• type the title of the item into Library Search to see if it has a suggested citation
• view the reference lists of articles in publications that use Vancouver such as JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) 
• adapt the rules of a similar publication type to the item
• consult other Vancouver style guides online (choose guides also based on the AMA Manual of Style)
• consult the Instructions to authors, if writing for a journal
• consult with your tutor or course coordinator.

Further resources

It is important to understand the basics of referencing and why it is important. 

A referencing style is a set of rules on how to acknowledge the thoughts, ideas and works of others in a particular way. Different types of sources eg. books, articles, each have a specific format, determined by the referencing style you are using.

Referencing is a crucial part of successful academic writing, avoiding plagiarism and maintaining academic integrity in your assignments and research.

Watch Introduction to referencing (YouTube 3m43s) to learn about the basics of referencing.