Vancouver printable guide

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

• When referencing your work in the Vancouver style, it is very important that you use the right punctuation and that the order of details in the reference is also correct.
• This guide is based on Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers (2nd edition), with supplementary guidance from AMA manual of style.

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.

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.

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

• consult the Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors and publishers (2nd edition) guide
• 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 the New England Journal of Medicine
• adapt the rules of a similar publication type to the item
• consult other institutions’ style guides
• consult the Instructions to authors, if writing for a journal
• consult with your tutor or course coordinator.

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 30 June 2023.

Download the EndNote referencing style

Our Output styles page has the Vancouver style for UQ to format references according to this guide.

This style will appear with the name Vancouver Superior (1) in the Style box of EndNote and Word.

The styles Vancouver and Sage Vancouver that come automatically with EndNote will create references that will vary slightly from this guide.

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
• Place family designations of rank after the initials without punctuation
  • 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 al²⁴ reports...

No author

• 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)

• p. S10-8

Roman numerals

• Keep roman numerals when they are used as page numbers
• Given them in upper or lower case as they appear in the publication
  • p. XXI-XXII
  • p. xv

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.

• A citation is an acknowledgement in your text of references that support your work.  It is in the form of a number that correlates with a source in your reference list.
• In the Vancouver Style, citations within the text of the essay/paper are identified by Arabic numbers in round brackets or Arabic numbers in superscript with no brackets.  This applies to references in text, tables and figures.
• The identification of references within the text of the essay/paper may vary according to the preferred style of the journal or the preferred style of the department or lecturer.  For example superscript may be preferred when referencing. eg. Example²;
• The Vancouver sequential number system assigns a number to each reference as it is cited.  A number must be used even if the author(s) is named in the sentence/text. e.g. Smith¹⁰ has argued that...
• A number is allocated to a source in the order in which it is first cited in the text. If the source is referred to again, the same reference number is reused. For example, if a reference by Moir is the first one to be referred to in the text, then Moir's reference number is number 1 in the list. If you refer to this work by Moir again later in the text, you reuse number 1. You can add a page number to your reference number to indicate the exact location in the original source. 
• For citing and/or reproducing/adapting charts, tables, figures, maps and other illustrative materials from a source, please refer to this guide's Tables/Figures/Images/Appendices section.
• When multiple references are cited at a given place in the text, use a hyphen to join the first and last numbers that are inclusive. Use commas (without spaces) to separate non‐inclusive numbers in a multiple citation e.g. (2,3,4,5,7,10) is abbreviated to (2‐5,7,10).
• Do not use a hyphen if there are no citation numbers in between that support your statement e.g. (1‐2). Use instead (1,2)
• 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
  • should be placed inside colons and semicolons
  • the citation number can be place next to the author name where emphasis is placed on the author eg. Smith²
  • check with your faculty/school or journal publisher to determine their requirements

Examples without page numbers:

• There have been efforts to replace mouse inoculation testing with invitro tests, such as enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (57,60) or polymerase chain reaction.
• Numerous studies^20‐22 have.....
• Moir and Jessel maintain “that the sexes are interchangeable”.(1)
• Moir and Jessel maintain “that the sexes are interchangeable”.¹

Examples with page numbers:

• Patients showed no signs of diabetes.^1(p23),9
• Smithers^2(pp3,6) reported no sign of... (more than one page cited)
• Jones (10 pp23‐27) states that...

Examples with authors names in the text of the document

• Smith's research .......²¹
• Smith and Jones²² research .....
• Up to 3 authors eg. Smith, Jones and McDonald reported that .........²³
• More than 3 authors eg. Smith et al²⁴ reports..

A secondary source/indirect citation is when the ideas of one author are published in another author’s text but you have not read or accessed the original author’s work.

• In the reference list, provide the details of the author of the work in which you found the quotation or idea - the actual source you looked at.
• Make it clear in the text of your document that you are quoting a secondary source.
• If possible always try and find the original work.

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.

Confirm with your course coordinator or check your course profile before using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your assessment. Some assessment pieces do not permit the use of AI tools, while others may allow AI with some limitations.

Any permitted use of AI for assessment must be acknowledged appropriately. Your course coordinator will provide guidance on how to reference the use of AI tools. Some possible examples include:  

• citing or referencing in the text or list of references
• inclusion in your methodology
• an appendix including a full transcript of any prompts and AI-generated responses.

Note: Information about using and referencing ChatGPT and other generative AI tools in assignments and publications will continue to be updated. Check this page regularly to keep up with any changes (last updated 17 April 2023).

AI models sometimes produce incorrect, biased or outdated information. Verify the accuracy of AI-generated content using reliable sources before including it in your work.

Additionally, there may be legal or ethical issues to consider when using AI. Works created by non-humans are not eligible for copyright protection under Australian law. If you intend to publish work incorporating AI-generated content, check the publisher guidelines about what is allowed.

When interacting with AI models, you should be cautious about supplying sensitive information, including personal, confidential or propriety information or data.

Find out more about using AI tools in your studies.

Where an assignment requires ChatGPT to be cited, you must reference all the content from Generative AI tools that you include. Failure to reference externally sourced, non-original work can result in Academic misconduct.

References should provide clear and accurate information for each source and should identify where they have been used in your work.

Citing generative AI content for specific referencing styles

For many referencing styles, there are no specific guidelines for citing ChatGPT or other generative AI.

Content from generative AI is a nonrecoverable source as it can't be retrieved or linked.

We recommend that you base the reference for generative AI content on the reference style for personal communication or correspondence, unless the referencing style has specific guidelines.

Check the referencing style used in your course for how to cite generative AI or follow the format of the following examples for different styles.

Based on APA Style guidance.

In-text

Author of generative AI model, Year of version used

Example:

(OpenAI, 2022)

OpenAI (2022)

Reference list

Author of AI model used. (Year of AI model used). Name of AI model used (Version of AI model used) [Type or description of AI model used]. Web address of AI model used

Example:

OpenAI. (2022). ChatGPT (Dec 20 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/

The full transcript of a response can be included in an appendix or other supplementary materials.

Visit How to cite ChatGPT for more information.

Interim advice and guidance

Essentially use rule 7.12 that covers written correspondence. This is included in the bibliography (rule 1.13). Include the name of the creator and recipient first.

OpenAI, ChatGPT to Fred Jones, Output, 24 February 2023.

Note:

^Number Output from [program], [creator] to [recipient], [full date].

¹Output from ChatGPT, OpenAI to Fred Jones, 24 February 2023. 

Text explaining the prompt that was used can be included in the footnote. The full detail can also be included in an appendix.

¹ Output from ChatGPT, OpenAI to Fred Jones, 24 February 2023. The output was generated in response to the prompt, ‘What is the history of the Law School at The University of Queensland’: see below Appendix C.

In-text citation or note

^Number.Originator of the communication, medium, Day Month, Year.

¹ OpenAI's ChatGPT AI language model, response to question from author, 7 February, 2023.

Guidance based on How do I cite generative AI in MLA style? from the official style website.

In-text citation

(Short form Title of source) 

(“Describe the symbolism”) 

Work cited

“Title of source” prompt. Name of AI Tool, version, Company, Date content was generated, General web address of tool. 

“Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat. 

In-text citation

(Communicator, personal communication, Day Month Year) 

(OpenAI's ChatGPT AI language model, personal communication, 7 February 2023) 

The text of your document must include:

• Type of communication
• Communicator
• Date in this format (Day Month Year)

In an online chat with OpenAI's ChatGPT AI language model (7 February 2023) ...

If you use ChatGPT or other generative AI to help you generate ideas or plan your process, you should still acknowledge how you used the tool, even if you don’t include any AI generated content in the assignment.

Provide a description of the AI tool used, what you did and the date accessed.

Save a copy of the transcript of your questions and responses from the generative AI tool. You can:

• Take a screenshot
• Right click and select Save as to save the webpage file.

Different publishers are taking different approaches to whether generative AI is allowed.

If you are writing for publication, you should check the publisher's information for authors.

The titles of journals must be abbreviated according to the style used in the the National Library of Medicine's - NLM Catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI databases.

If you cannot find a particular journal title in the NLM catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI databases try:

CAS Source Index (CASSI) search tool
Index Medicus - abbreviations of journal titles

Endnote: Journal title abbreviations
To show abbreviated journal titles in your EndNote Vancouver reference list you need to download the Journals Terms List.

A citation to a web site is made mainly from the information found on the homepage.

The URL does not have a full stop after it unless in ends in a forward slash - / or more information follows it such as a DOI number.

Personal communication:

• is entered manually in the text of your document. It cannot be done through EndNote
• should be included in the text of your document – cited in text only
• should not be included in your reference list when unpublished unless it is available as archived material, e.g. through the author's website, library, archive, repository, etc. 
• Date is formatted YYYY MMM DD for reference list if all 3 parts are known, use year only if not or [date unknown] when date can't be located. For online sources also use [cited YYYY MMM DD

Personal communication in the text of your document must include:

• Date of communication​
• ​Type of communication – oral, written (eg. Letter, written communication) or email (include email address)
• ​Affiliation (university, organisation, City, State or Country) ‐ optional and highest academic degree​

It is recommended you get permission from the source/author of your personal communication.

Conversation:
In a conversation with a A. B. Smith, MD (April 2010)...

Letter:
According to a letter by C. D. Jones (Assoc. Prof., Dept of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, PA, unreferenced) in November 2010...
According to C.D. Jones , PhD (written communication, November 2010)...

E‐mail:
In‐text: In an email from E. Ferguson, PhD (efergus@uq.edu.au) in August 2010...

It is important to keep a copy of the email.

Reference list for archived personal communication:

Author Last Name, First Name (Author Affiliation). Letter (Email, Telegram, etc.) to: Recipient (Recipient Affiliation). YYYY MMM DD ([cited YYYY MMM DD] if needed). Pagination. Located at: Library, City, State/Country; Box number, Folder number. Language other than English or Note (if available). OR Available from: URL

Examples:

Kerr, J. Auston (Chevy Chase, MD). Letter to: Ramon Cordoba Palacio (Medellin, Colombia). 1974 Nov 11. 11 p. Located at: Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 456. 

Hennen, John (Edinburgh, Scotland). Letter to: Dr. Duncan. [date unknown]. 9 p. Located at: History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; W6 P3 v.1575. Observations on the cure of syphilis without mercury.

Michaels, Kristin (Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia, Collingwood, AU). Letter to: Kate Thomann (Department of Health, Canberra, AU). 2019 Jul 17 [cited 2021 Sep 16]. 5 p. Available from: https://www.shpa.org.au/sites/default/files/uploaded-content/website-content/Submissions/shpa_submission_to_doh_-_review_of_pip_ihi.pdf

Pina, Luciano (Santiago, Chile). Letter to: D.M. Arroyo de Veracruz ([Mexico]). 1845 Jun 26. 4 leaves. Located at: Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS F 196. Spanish.

Source for reference list:

Patrias K. Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers [Internet]. 2nd ed. Wendling DL, technical editor. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2007 [updated 2009 Oct 21; cited 2019 Jan 8]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine

Legislation:

• Short title of the Act or Regulations in italics – (if no short title use the long title)
• Year in italics or underlined
• (Jurisdiction) abbreviated and in round brackets
• Pinpoint reference to the relevant section or subsection if applicable

Format for Legislation

Title Year (Jurisdiction Abbreviation) Pinpoint.

Case Law 

• Case Name in Italics or underlined if unable to italicise
• Year in brackets eg. (2012) for reports with sequential volume numbers and therefore the year is not essential for locating the correct volume in the series OR use square brackets eg. [2012] where the year is essential to locate the correct volume
•  Volume number
• Abbreviation of the law report
• Commencing page number of the case,
• Pinpoint page number, separated from the commencing page number by a comma (only when referring to a specific statement in the judgement)
• Name of the court – only used when it is not obvious from the citation what the deciding court was

Format for reported cases

Case Name (Year) Volume Law Report Abbreviation Page, Pinpoint (Court).

NOTE: where a case has been reported in the ‘authorised” reports for that court, you should use that citation in preference to any other citation which you may have.

Further information about citing legal resources:

• Australian guide to legal citation 4th ed. (PDF, 3.71MB)
• AGLC 4th ed. Library how to guide (PDF, 169KB)
• AGLC and EndNote - EndNote for legal referencing