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Vancouver (AMA) referencing style

A guide to referencing in the Vancouver (American Medical Association - AMA) style. Includes tips for using EndNote.

URLs

When providing URLs:

  • where possible provide a direct link to the item you're referencing, rather than a link to the homepage of the website where the item is located.
     
  • avoid long links that contain temporary data such as the words you used to search, e.g. 
    https://www.uptodate.com/contents/femoral-nerve-block-procedure-guide?search=fascia&source=search_result&selectedTitle=4%7E150&usage_type=default&display_rank=4 

    Look for a shorter, more stable link, e.g.:
    https://www.uptodate.com/contents/femoral-nerve-block-procedure-guide
     
  • verify that the link still works as close as possible to finalising your document.

Missing date information

Partial date information

Use the best information you can find to indicate dates, in the format Month DD, YYYY. If some information is missing, it can be omitted. For example if full detail is available you can present it, e.g. June 7, 2018. if only a year is available you can use 2018, if a month and a year is available you can use June, 2018.

No updated date available

If there is no updated date available, omit that part of the reference completely.

No published date available

All references require a date published, and you should always make your best effort to identify this. For some online sources (and in rare cases other sources such as books) there will be no publication date available. In this situation use "date unknown", e.g.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. Preoperative intravenous iron therapy. Centre for Perioperative Care. Date unknown. Accessed September 24, 2024. https://cpoc.org.uk/sites/cpoc/files/documents/2022-07/1.%20Cardiff%20and%20Vale%20Patient%20Information.docx

Number of authors

This information applies to all reference types.

Reference list

For 1 to 6 authors list all authors, e.g.

  1. Skalsky K, Yahav D, Bishara J, Pitlik S, Leibovici L, Paul M. Treatment of human brucellosis: systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ. 2008;336(7646):701-704. doi:10.1136/bmj.39497.500903.25

For more than 6 authors list the first 3 authors, followed by 'et al', e.g.

  1. Hanna JN, McBride WJ, Brookes DL, et al. Hendra virus infection in a veterinarian. Med J Aust. 2006;185(10):562‐564. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00692.x

No authors

If there are no authors listed, it's often reasonable to attribute authorship to the organisation responsible for the item. If you can't determine either individual or organisational authorship, omit the the author from the front of the reference.

In-text citations

If you use authors' names in the text:

  • 1 author: Snowdon's research ...2-5
  • For 2 authors use 'and': McInnes and Bollen3 suggest that...
  • For 3 or more authors use the first author and 'et al': Skalsky et al1 report that...