Vancouver

A large number of journals within the field of Medicine adhere to the Vancouver style, which is named after a meeting in 1978, when a group of editors of journals within the field of Medicine met in Vancouver, Canada, to agree on guidelines for authors wishing to submit articles to their journals. This collaboration later developed into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Vancouver is a numbered style. In the running text, sources are indicated by Arabic numbers within square brackets, and the reference list consists of full biographical references to the sources in numbered order (and thus in the order in which they appear in the text).

The guidelines provided below cover only basic text types; for other kinds of sources and for more detailed information, we provide links to online resources at the bottom of this page:

In-text references

In-text references supply information of the source within the text. Full information about the source is then provided in the reference list. In-text references are provided with Arabic numerals within brackets or in superscript that refer to the list of references at the end of the text.

References

In Vancouver style, the reference list is called References. In this list, the sources are listed in the order in which they appear in the text. Preceding the reference is the numeral identifying the reference.  Note that for Vancouver reference lists, there is some variation in the way in which entries are written. A basic pattern is provided below. Some publishers suggest slightly different formats - for instance, that full first names are provided, or that a comma is inserted in between the author's last name and first name. Writers have to make sure they follow the format required by supervisors or publishers, paying close attention to details such as punctuation in the reference list.

Book

Book entries in the Reference list look like this in Vancouver style:

One author:

Author's last name Initial(s). Title of book. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Two or more authors:

First author's last name Initial(s), Second author's last name Initial(s). Title of book. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.
Publication guidelines may differ regarding the number of authors that should be listed; some journals state that if the number of authors exceed a certain limit, the phrase "et al." should be used. Unless such guidance is given, all authors should be listed.

Edited book

In an edited volume, "editor" or "editors" is inserted after the name(s) of the editor(s):

Author's last name Initial(s), editor. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Chapter in edited book

The Vancouver style format for reference list entries of chapters from edited books looks like this:

Last name Initial of first name(s).  Title of chapter. In: Name of editor(s), editor/s, Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. p. Inclusive page numbers of chapter.
For book entries, Vancouver style, note that
  • Only initials of author's first name(s) are provided.
  • Initials are written with no punctuation (for instance, LA for Louisa Anne).
  • For sources by more than one author, authors' names should be given in the order in which they appear on the book's title page.
  • Only the first letter of the title of a book is capitalised.
  • "Year of publication" refers to the edition that has been used (if there have been several editions, state which edition).
  • "Place of publication" means city + abbreviated name of state for US publications and city + country for non-US publications.
  • "Publisher" is the name of the publishing company.

Journal article

The Vancouver format for journal articles entries in the list of References looks like this:

Last name Initial of first name(s). Title of article. Abbreviated title of journal. Year Month;Volume(Issue):Inclusive page numbers.

If no month is stated, the format looks like this:

......Year;Volume(Issue):Inclusive page numbers.

If there are several authors, they should be listed in the same order as in the article and a comma is inserted between their names:

Last name Initial of first name(s), Last name Initial of first name(s), ...

Publication guidelines may differ regarding the number of authors that should be listed; some journals state that if the number of authors exceed a certain limit, the phrase "et al." should be used. Unless such guidance is given, all authors should be listed.

Identifiers (DOI/PMID)

If there is an identifier, such as DOI, this is added at the end of the reference.

For journal article entries, Vancouver style, note the following:
  • With the exception of proper nouns (like names), only the first word of the article title is capitalised.
  • The titles of journals are capitalised, however, and abbreviated according to the journal's practice.
  • Inclusive page numbers cover the whole article, not only the part of the article to which you refer. Note that in Vancouver, page numbers are written in a brief style, for instance, "20-7" (not "20-27") and "312-8" (not "312-318").

Vancouver style online resources

The style adapted by the United States National Library of Medicine is available online:

Many universities have their own guidelines. The following guide is from Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm). Please note that it is primarily intended for students at Karolinska Institutet. If you have questions on how to use Vancouver in your writing, check with your supervisor or with your library.

Page Manager: aweluluse | 2022-03-11