Vancouver referencing style

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.