Vancouver Style Referencing Guide

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This guide provides examples of different types of reference (journal articles, books, web sites etc), showing features of the Vancouver style such as layout and punctuation. 

Background to Referencing

Vancouver Style
   Introduction
   Articles in Journals
   Books and Other Individual Titles, Chapters
   Other Published Material
   Unpublished Material
   Electronic Material
   Additional Reference Types

Example of text and references in the Vancouver style

"Cited by" References
Example of a "cited by" reference

Using the Vancouver Style with EndNote

Philson Library Information Services Staff


Background To Referencing

When writing essays or articles, you must support your statements and opinions with references to the work and research of others on which your statements are based. This is important because failure to attribute (reference) your sources of information may be seen as plagiarism. In addition, those reading your work who wish to follow up this previous research need complete and accurate references in order to do so.

There are many different styles of identifying and setting out references. The Vancouver style (its full title is now Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals but it was previously known as Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals) is recommended by the International Committee of Biomedical Journal Editors, and is used when submitting an article for publication in a range of biomedical journals. Vancouver is a "numbered" style i.e. each reference you cite in the text of your document is identified by a consecutive number, with a full description of each reference in a numbered list at the end. This list may be called by a variety of terms - common ones are: "Literature Cited"; "List of References"; "References"; or "Bibliography".

This guide provides examples of different types of reference (journal articles, books, book chapters etc), showing layout and punctuation of the Vancouver style; it is based on the publication “International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals: sample references” (1). Additional information on the conduct, reporting and writing up of biomedical research is available in “Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals” (2). The sample references in (1) are in turn based on the US National Library of Medicine's style guide, "Citing Medicine" (3).

Philson Library staff have provided addtional sample references and other material. For further general information on referencing in the Vancouver style, see the References section under Manuscript preparation and submission in the “Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals” at: http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf

References:
1. US National Library of Medicine. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing and publication of scholarly work in medical journals: sample references [Internet] [updated 2013 Aug 20; cited 2014 Apr 30]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

2. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. [Internet] [updated 2013 Dec; cited 2008 Sep 3]. Available from: http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf

3. Patrias K. Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers [Internet]. 2nd ed. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2007. [updated 2009 Oct 21; cited 2014 Apr 30]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine

Other Referencing Styles
Students in some sections of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences may be asked to use another referencing style, the APA 6th (American Psychological Association) style. Library staff can give assistance with this style also.

Vancouver Style 

Introduction: 

The International Committee of Biomedical Journal Editors in its Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals (see 2 above) gives these general guidelines about references in the References section under Manuscript preparation and submission:

  • References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text
  • Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses (see this example).
  • References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure
  • The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used for MEDLINE (see how to find correct abbreviations)

Notes:

  • Vancouver style specifies numbers in parentheses (round brackets) for the in-text citations (see example). However, some journals use superscript numbers in the text.
  • Vancouver style does not specify whether in-text reference numbers should be placed before or after subsequent punctuation. In the example below, the numbers are placed before subsequent punctuation (eg, a full stop).
  • Please check with your lecturers to see if they have a preference for either of these features. Whichever options you use, it is important to apply them consistently to the whole document.

To find correct abbreviations:

  • Go to www.pubmed.gov
  • Select Journals in NCBI Databases (under More Resources)
  • For best results, type the full journal title in quotation marks into the Search box (e.g. "new zealand medical journal"); click Search
  • From the results, find and click on the title you want; the correct abbreviation is given in the NLM Title Abbreviation section

Sample References

Note: Most of these examples are taken from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals: sample references ((see 1 above), maintained by the US National Library of Medicine and available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html.

Articles in Journals  (see also #36. Journal article on the Internet)

Note:

The basic elements needed for a reference to a journal article in the Vancouver style are:

. Author(s) name(s)
. Title of article
. Title of journal (abbreviated according to Medline journal title abbreviations)
. Year of publication
. Volume number (if the journal has volume numbers)
. Issue number (if the volume has individual issues; there is an option not to include this, see no. 1 in the examples below)
. Page numbers (first and last)

1. Standard journal article

List up to the first six authors; if the article has more than six authors, list the first six, followed by et al.

1-6-authors:

Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7.

More than six authors:

Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002;935(1-2):40-6.

Options:

a) If a journal carries continuous pagination throughout a volume, the month and/or issue number may be omitted.

Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

b) Optional addition of a database's unique identifier for the citation:

Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7. PubMed PMID: 12140307.

Forooghian F, Yeh S, Faia LJ, Nussenblatt RB. Uveitic foveal atrophy: clinical features and associations. Arch Ophthalmol. 2009 Feb;127(2):179-86. PubMed PMID: 19204236; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2653214.

c) Optional addition of a clinical trial registration number:

Trachtenberg F, Maserejian NN, Soncini JA, Hayes C, Tavares M. Does fluoride in compomers prevent future caries in children? J Dent Res. 2009 Mar;88(3):276-9. PubMed PMID: 19329464. ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT00065988.

2. Organization as author

Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension. 2002;40(5):679-86.

3. Both personal authors and an organization as author (List all as they appear in the byline)

Vallancien G, Emberton M, Harving N, van Moorselaar RJ; Alf-One Study Group. Sexual dysfunction in 1,274 European men suffering from lower urinary tract symptoms. J Urol. 2003;169(6):2257-61.

Margulies EH, Blanchette M; NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, Haussler D, Green ED. Identification and characterization of multi-species conserved sequences. Genome Res. 2003;13(12):2507-18.

4. No author given

21st century heart solution may have a sting in the tail. BMJ. 2002;325(7357):184.

5. Article not in English

Ellingsen AE, Wilhelmsen I. Sykdomsangst blant medisin- og jusstudenter. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2002;122(8):785-7.

Optional translation of article title (MEDLINE/PubMed practice):

Ellingsen AE, Wilhelmsen I. [Disease anxiety among medical students and law students]. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2002;122(8):785-7. Norwegian.

6. Volume with supplement

Geraud G, Spierings EL, Keywood C. Tolerability and safety of frovatriptan with short- and long-term use for treatment of migraine and in comparison with sumatriptan. Headache. 2002;42 Suppl 2:S93-9.

7. Issue with supplement

Glauser TA. Integrating clinical trial data into clinical practice. Neurology. 2002;58(12 Suppl 7):S6-12.

8. Volume with part

Abend SM, Kulish N. The psychoanalytic method from an epistemological viewpoint. Int J Psychoanal. 2002;83(Pt 2):491-5.

9. Issue with part

Ahrar K, Madoff DC, Gupta S, Wallace MJ, Price RE, Wright KC. Development of a large animal model for lung tumors. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2002;13(9 Pt 1):923-8.

10. Issue with no volume

Banit DM, Kaufer H, Hartford JM. Intraoperative frozen section analysis in revision total joint arthroplasty. Clin Orthop. 2002;(401):230-8.

11. No volume or issue

Outreach: bringing HIV-positive individuals into care. HRSA Careaction. 2002 Jun:1-6.

12. Pagination in roman numerals

Chadwick R, Schuklenk U. The politics of ethical consensus finding. Bioethics. 2002;16(2):iii-v.

13. Type of article indicated as needed

Tor M, Turker H. International approaches to the prescription of long-term oxygen therapy [letter]. Eur Respir J. 2002;20(1):242.

Lofwall MR, Strain EC, Brooner RK, Kindbom KA, Bigelow GE. Characteristics of older methadone maintenance (MM) patients [abstract]. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2002;66 Suppl 1:S105.

14. Article containing retraction or partial retraction*

15. Article retracted or partially retracted*

16. Article republished with corrections *

17. Article with published erratum*

* Examples 14-17 have been omitted to save space. For sample references of these types, see International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Sample References

18. Article published electronically ahead of the print version

Yu WM, Hawley TS, Hawley RG, Qu CK. Immortalization of yolk sac-derived precursor cells. Blood. 2002 Nov 15;100(10):3828-31. Epub 2002 Jul 5.

Books and Other Individual Titles; Chapters 

Note:

The basic elements needed for a reference to a book in the Vancouver style are:

. Author(s) or editor(s) name(s)
. Title of book
. Edition number (if other than first edition)
. Place (city) of publication
. Publisher’s name
. Year of publication
. If the reference is to a specific part of a book (e.g. a single chapter, or one paper in a conference proceedings), the author(s) of the chapter/paper, the title of the chapter/paper and the pages of the chapter/paper are also given (see examples 23 and 25 below).

19. Personal author(s)

Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.

20. Editor(s), compiler(s) as author

Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, VanDorsten JP, editors. Operative obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.

21. Author(s) and editor(s)

Breedlove GK, Schorfheide AM. Adolescent pregnancy. 2nd ed. Wieczorek RR, editor. White Plains (NY): March of Dimes Education Services; 2001.

22. Organization(s) as author

Advanced Life Support Group. Acute medical emergencies: the practical approach. London: BMJ Books; 2001.

American Occupational Therapy Association, Ad Hoc Committee on Occupational Therapy Manpower. Occupational therapy manpower: a plan for progress. Rockville (MD): The Association; 1985.
NB: Here, the Ad Hoc Committee is a section of the American Occupational Therapy Association, not a separate organisation.

National Lawyer's Guild AIDs Network (US); National Gay Rights Advocates (US). AIDS practice manual: a legal and educational guide. 2nd ed. San Francisco: The Network; 1988.
NB: Here, there are two separate organisations which are joint authors of this publication.

23. Chapter in a book

Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.

24. Conference proceedings

Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumours V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002.

25. Conference paper

Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza's computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, Lutton E, Miller J, Ryan C, Tettamanzi AG, editors. Genetic programming. EuroGP 2002: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3-5; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer; 2002. p. 182-91.

26. Scientific or technical report

a) Issued by funding/sponsoring agency:

Yen GG (Oklahoma State University, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stillwater, OK). Health monitoring on vibration signatures. Final report. Arlington (VA): Air Force Office of Scientific Research (US), Air Force Research Laboratory; 2002 Feb. Report No.: AFRLSRBLTR020123. Contract No.: F496209810049.

b) Issued by performing agency:

Russell ML, Goth-Goldstein R, Apte MG, Fisk WJ. Method for measuring the size distribution of airborne Rhinovirus. Berkeley (CA): Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Environmental Energy Technologies Division; 2002 Jan. Report No.: LBNL49574. Contract No.: DEAC0376SF00098. Sponsored by the Department of Energy.

27. Dissertation (or Thesis)

Borkowski MM. Infant sleep and feeding: a telephone survey of Hispanic Americans [dissertation]. Mount Pleasant (MI): Central Michigan University; 2002.

28. Patent

Pagedas AC, inventor; Ancel Surgical R&D Inc., assignee. Flexible endoscopic grasping and cutting device and positioning tool assembly. United States patent US 20020103498. 2002 Aug 1.  

Other Published Material

29. Newspaper article

Tynan T. Medical improvements lower homicide rate: study sees drop in assault rate. The Washington Post. 2002 Aug 12;Sect. A:2 (col. 4).

30. Audiovisual material

Chason KW, Sallustio S. Hospital preparedness for bioterrorism [videocassette]. Secaucus (NJ): Network for Continuing Medical Education; 2002.

Origins of human aggression: the other story [DVD]. Maher JP, director. [Montreal (QC)]: National Film Board of Canada; 2005.

31. Legal Material

a) Public law:

Veterans Hearing Loss Compensation Act of 2002, Pub. L. No. 107-9, 115 Stat. 11 (May 24, 2001).

b) Unenacted bill:

Healthy Children Learn Act, S. 1012, 107th Cong., 1st Sess. (2001).

c) Code of Federal Regulations:

Cardiopulmonary Bypass Intracardiac Suction Control, 21 C.F.R. Sect. 870.4430 (2002).

d) Hearing:

Arsenic in Drinking Water: An Update on the Science, Benefits and Cost: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Environment, Technology and Standards of the House Comm. on Science, 107th Cong., 1st Sess. (Oct. 4, 2001).

e) NZ legal material:
Note: The above examples of US legal material can be used as models for NZ legal material e.g. a NZ statute can be modelled on (a) above; since it was consulted online, details for Cited: (date) and Available from: (url) are also given:

Civil Aviation Act 1990 [NZ]. Pub. Act 1990 No. 98 (Aug 8, 1990) [cited 2011 Sep 9]. Available from: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0098/latest/DLM214687.html

32. Map

Pratt B, Flick P, Vynne C, cartographers. Biodiversity hotspots [map]. Washington: Conservation International; 2000.

33. Dictionary and similar references

Dorland's illustrated medical dictionary. 29th ed. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders; 2000. Filamin; p. 675.
(NB: This example shows how to reference a specific dictionary entry, in this case the word “Filamin”).  

Unpublished Material

34. In press or Forthcoming
NB: the US National Library of Medicine prefers “Forthcoming” to “In press” as not all items will be printed.

Tian D, Araki H, Stahl E, Bergelson J, Kreitman M. Signature of balancing selection in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad
Sci U S A. Forthcoming 2002.

Electronic Material 

Note:

The basic elements to be included for a reference to electronic material in the Vancouver style are listed below. The rules for electronic material are not as clear as those for print material; and details of all these different elements may not always be given in the electronic item. Include as many as are possible/appropriate for the specific electronic item you are referencing.

. Primary responsibility (who produced the electronic material - person or organisation)
. Title
. Type of medium (given in square brackets e.g. [CD-ROM], [Internet] )
. Subordinate responsibility (other person(s) or organization(s) involved in producing the material)
. Edition
. Volume/issue (for serials)
. Place of publication
. Publisher’s name
. Date of publication
. Date last updated or revised
. Cited date (i.e. the date on which you accessed the material; very important with material found on the Web, which may be there one day and gone the next - either completely removed, shifted somewhere else, or completely rewritten)
. Series
. Notes (e.g. approx. number of pages or screens; details on accompanying material, system requirements etc; publication frequency; language; notes on other details)
. Available from: url (web address from which the material is available )

35. CD-ROM

Anderson SC, Poulsen KB. Anderson's electronic atlas of hematology [CD-ROM]. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2002.

36. Journal article on the Internet

Notes:
Cite an Internet journal article as you would a print article, with these major differences:

  • Use the word "Internet" in square brackets after the abbreviated journal title.
  • Include a date of citation in square brackets following the date of publication.
  • When the location (pagination or article number) of the article is not provided, as often occurs, calculate the length of the article using the best means possible, e.g., in terms of print pages, screens, paragraphs, or bytes.
  • Provide the URL or other electronic address the article is available from.

(a): Standard journal articles on the Internet:

Polgreen PM, Diekema DJ, Vandeberg J, Wiblin RT, Chen YY, David S, Rasmus D, Gerdts N, Ross A, Katz L, Herwaldt LA. Risk factors for groin wound infection after femoral artery catheterization: a case-control study. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol [Internet]. 2006 [cited 2007 Jan 5];27(1):34-7. Available from: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ICHE/journal/issues/v27n1/2004069/2004069.web.pdf

Poole KE, Compston JE. Osteoporosis and its management. BMJ [Internet]. 2006 [cited 2007 Jan 4];333(7581):1251-6. Available from: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/333/7581/1251?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexactfulltext=
and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&volume=333&firstpage=1251&resourcetype=HWCIT

(b): Article published on the Internet ahead of the print version:
See # 18.

(c): Article with document number in place of traditional pagination:

Williams JS, Brown SM, Conlin PR. Videos in clinical medicine. Blood-pressure measurement. N Engl J Med [Internet]. 2009 [cited 2010 Oct 31];360(5):e6. Available from: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMvcm0800157

(d): Article with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) - DOI may be included as an option:

Zhang M, Holman CD, Price SD, Sanfilippo FM, Preen DB, Bulsara MK. Comorbidity and repeat admission to hospital for adverse drug reactions in older adults: retrospective cohort study. BMJ [Internet]. 2009 [cited 2011 Jan 9];338:a2752. Available from: http://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.a2752.full. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a2752.

(e): Article with no pagination or document number - calculate number of pages or screens:

Happell B. The influence of education on the career preferences of undergraduate nursing students. Aust Electron J Nurs Educ [Internet]. 2002 Apr [cited 2007 Jan 8];8(1):[about 12 p.]. Available from: http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/nhcp/aejne/vol8-1/refereed/happell_max.html

37. Books and Other Individual Titles on the Internet; Chapters on the Internet

Note:

An Internet book is cited the same way that a print book is cited, with these exceptions:

  • Use the word "Internet" in square brackets after the title.
  • Include any date of update/revision and a date of citation in square brackets following the date of publication. Use the dates for the individual book being cited, not the dates of the Internet site as a whole unless no dates can be found for the individual item.
  • When the pagination of the book is not provided, as often occurs, calculate it using the best means possible, e.g., in terms of print pages, screens, paragraphs, or bytes.
  • Provide the URL or other electronic address the book is available from.
  • Some parts of a citation may be difficult to locate when citing Internet books. For example, some poorly constructed sites do not give dates, and authorship or publishing responsibility may be unclear or absent. It may also be difficult to discern the exact title from the collage of graphics presented. The person doing the citing can only work with the information given.

(a): Standard books/individual titles on the Internet

Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/

Richardson ML. Approaches to differential diagnosis in musculoskeletal imaging [Internet]. Version 2.0. Seattle (WA): University of Washington School of Medicine; c2000 [revised 2001 Oct 1; cited 2006 Nov 1]. Available from: http://www.rad.washington.edu/mskbook/index.html

Collins SR, Kriss JL, Davis K, Doty MM, Holmgren AL. Squeezed: why rising exposure to health care costs threatens the health and financial well-being of American families [Internet]. New York: Commonwealth Fund; 2006 Sep [cited 2006 Nov 2]. 34 p. Available from: http://www.cmwf.org/usr_doc/Collins_squeezedrisinghltcarecosts_953.pdf

Fact sheet: AIDS information resources [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2003 May 2 [updated 2005 Jul 14; cited 2006 Nov 15]. [about 3 screens]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/aidsinfs.html

(b): Chapter/section in a book on the Internet

Kesselheim AS. The current state of patient and family information about end-of-life care. In: Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. p. 132-52. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/

38. Homepage/Web site

Cancer-Pain.org [ Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/

Complementary/Integrative Medicine [Internet]. Houston: University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center; c2007 [cited 2007 Feb 21]. Available from: http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/CIMER/

AMA: helping doctors help patients [Internet]. Chicago: American Medical Association; c1995-2007 [cited 2007 Feb 22]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/.

Medsafe [Internet]. Wellington: New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority. [Cited 2008 Sep 3]. Available from: http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/

39. Part of a Homepage/Web site

Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britian. Royal Pharmaceutical Society [Internet]. London: The Society; 2012. History of pharmacy [cited 2012 Feb 28]; [about 4 screens]. Available from: http://www.rpharms.com/about-pharmacy/history-of-pharmacy.asp
Note: In this example, the author is the organisation whose full name is Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. The title of the Society's home page is just "Royal Pharmaceutical Society", and the title of the page is followed by the word [Internet] in square brackets. All the pages on the website give a publication date of 2012; you looked at (cited) this specific section (on history of pharmacy) of the website on 28 Feb 2012; and this section is about 4 screens long.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Index to drug-specific information [Internet]. Silver Spring (MD): U.S. Food and Drug Administration; [updated 2009 Jun 4]. Sleep disorder (sedative-hypnotic) drug information; [updated 2009 May 21; cited 2010 Jun 10]; [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/ucm101557.htm
Note: In this example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research is the author; the website title is "Index to drug-specific information", followed by [Internet] in square brackets; the website as a whole does not have a date of publication, but does give an update date of June 4, 2009; the specific section you are referring to also has no date of publication, but does give an update date of May 21, 2009; you looked at (cited) this specific section of the website on June 10, 2010; and this section is about 2 screens long.

Medsafe [Internet]. Wellington: New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority. Datasheet: Voltaren Rapid 25 tablets; 2007 Jul 10 [cited 2008 Sep 3]; [about 20 screens]. Available from: http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/Profs/Datasheet/v/voltarentab.htm
Note: This example shows how to refer to a single datasheet on the MedSafe website, the one for Voltaren Rapid 25 tablets. Here, the website as a whole has no date of publication; but the specific datasheet has a publication date of July 10, 2007; you looked at (cited) the datasheet on Sep 3, 2008; and it is about 20 screens long.

40. Database on the Internet

a) Open database (i.e. a database which is being actively updated and maintained):

Who's Certified [Internet]. Evanston (IL): The American Board of Medical Specialists. c2000 - [cited 2001 Mar 8]. Available from: http://www.abms.org/newsearch.asp

PeriStats [Internet]. White Plains (NY): March of Dimes Perinatal Data Center. c2007 -   [cited 2007 Feb 1]. Available from: http://www.marchofdimes.com/peristats/

Jablonski S. Online Multiple Congenital Anomaly/Mental Retardation (MCA/MR) Syndromes [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US), Medical Subject Headings Section; 2001 Apr [updated 2001 Nov 20; cited 2007 Jan 31]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/archive//20061212/mesh/jablonski/syndrome_db.html

b) Closed database (i.e. a database which is no longer being updated or maintained):

EARSS: the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System [Internet]. Bilthoven (Netherlands): RIVM. 2001 - 2005 [cited 2007 Feb 1]. Available from: http://www.rivm.nl/earss/

DocFinder [Internet]. [place unknown]: Administrators in Medicine. c1997 - c2005 [cited 2007 Feb 2]. Available from: http://www.docboard.org/docfinder.html

41. Parts of /contributions to a database on the Internet

(a): Parts of a database

Individual records, tables, datasets, and the like are considered parts of databases when they do not have individual authorship, i.e., they are written or compiled by the authors of the database (compare 41(b), Contributions to a database).

Jablonski S. Online Multiple Congenital Anomaly/Mental Retardation (MCA/MR) Syndromes [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US), Medical Subject Headings Section; 2001 Apr. Tariverdian syndrome; [cited 2007 Mar 13]; [about 1 screen]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/archive/20061212/mesh/jablonski/cgi/jablonski/syndrome_cgi87d6.html?term=Tariverdian+syndrome&field=name

Cornell University Poisonous Plants Informational Database [Internet]. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University, Department of Animal Science. [date unknown] -   . Pyridine alkaloids; [updated 2001 Oct 4; cited 2007 Feb 16]; [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/toxicagents/pyridine.html

MeSH Browser (2011 MeSH) [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US), Medical Subject Headings Section. [1999] -  . Heart failure, systolic; [cited 2011 Jul 8]; [about 1 screen]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/mesh/2011/MB_cgi?mode=&index=24306

Drugdex [Internet]. Thomson Healthcare; c 1974 - . Drugdex evaluations: Rivastigmine [cited 2008 Sep 3]; [about 50 screens]. Available from: http://micromedex.hcn.net.au/aucklanduni-nz/ by entering rivastigmine in the Search box, clicking the link to Results for Drugdex Evaluations, then clicking the link to RIVASTIGMINE in the Titles and Synonyms section.

(NB: This example indicates how to refer to the document for a single drug (Rivastigmine) in the Drugdex Evaluations part of the Drugdex database. There is no specific url for each separate Evaluation document, so you give instructions on how to search for and find the information for the specific drug.)

(b): Contributions to a database

When the records or other components of a database have individual authorship, these are called contributions, and the references follow a different pattern (compare 41(b), Parts of a database).

Bunyavejchevin S, Phupong V. Laparoscopic surgery for presumed benign ovarian tumor during pregnancy. 2006 Oct 18 [amended 2007 Jun 14; cited 2007 Feb 20]. In: The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews [Internet]. Hoboken (NJ): John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. c1999 -   . 129K. Available from: http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD005459/pdf_fs.html Record No.: CD005459.

Rotchford JK. Single-use acupuncture needles: scanning electron-microscopy of needle-tips [review]. 2002 Apr [cited 2007 Mar 9]. In: Rotchford JK, editor. Acubriefs.com [Internet]. Port Townsend (WA): Best of Both Worlds Foundation. [date unknown] - . [about 3 screens]. Available from: http://www.acubriefs.com/wkstone/webkeystone.py?Profile=ABarticles/ search_whole_review.prof&ReviewID=146&UserID=biz_acubriefs Review ID: 146.

British Cardiovascular Intervention Society. Number of coronary bypass operations and percutaneous coronary interventions per year 1980-2004, United Kingdom. 2005 [cited 2007 Mar 9]. In: Allender S, Peto V, Rayner M, Scarborough P, Boxer A. heartstats: British Heart Foundation Statistics Database [Internet]. London: British Heart Foundation. c2003 - [updated 2006 Nov 3]. [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.heartstats.org/temp/Figsp3.3spweb06.xls

Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC. Ambien cr (zolpidem tartrate) tablet, coated. 2007 [rev. 2007 Sep; cited 2009 Apr]. In: DailyMed [Internet]. [2005] - . [about 20 p.]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US). Available from: http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=5420

NOTE: Examples to here have been updated according to the most recent Vancouver style guidelines (2011).

Additional Reference Types

Students frequently wish to reference a variety of other sources of information for which the Vancouver style does not give examples. In this section, Philson Library staff have given some guidance, applying what seem to be the underlying principles of the Vancouver style; however, we cannot vouch for the complete accuracy or acceptability of this guidance. Check with the person who will be marking your assignment about whether it is acceptable to use these types of sources as references for your assignment.

Also see the general guidelines in the Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) - see the References section under Manuscript preparation and submission.

 

Type of source you wish to reference:

a) Abstract (short summary) of a journal article

The general guidelines noted above state:
 "Avoid using abstracts as references" - i.e. the style expressly indicates that if the full text of the article has been published, you should not reference its abstract.

b) Emails and other personal communications - includes notes you have written down yourself during a lecture

The general guidelines noted above state:
"Avoid citing a "personal communication" unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, authors should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication."

This means that all details of the communication should be provided in the text of your document, and you do not provide a numbered reference at the end. It would also be wise to ask your assignment marker if it is acceptable to reference this type of material; and check with the lecturer whose lecture or other personal communication you are quoting that your notes accurately reflect what he/she said. Some possible ways of providing the in-text details would be:

The head is connected to the spine by the neck (Professor John B Smith, lecture on anatomy of the head and neck, 2005 May 18).

OR

The head is connected to the spine by the neck (Professor John B Smith, emailed personal communication, 2005 May 18.)

c) Lecture notes and other print material provided by lecturers during a lecture, or as course notes

In this case, you have the actual printed words produced by the lecturer (the same would apply to notes in electronic format e.g. on CD), so it seems likely that you should be able to cite these in the text of an assignment and provide a reference in the list of references at the end. However, check with the assignment marker; if s/he says it is acceptable to reference this type of material, this format should be adequate:

Smith JB. Anatomy of the head and neck [unpublished lecture notes]. University of Auckland, NZ; notes provided at a lecture given 2005 May 18.
(In this example, the lecturer provided a lecture title on the notes).

OR

Smith JB. [Unpublished lecture notes on anatomy of the head and neck]. University of Auckland, NZ; notes provided at a lecture given 2005 May 18.
(In this example, the lecturer did not provide a title on the notes, so you have indicated the subject of the lecture).

d) Unpublished reports of various types - e.g. summer studentships, elective reports

Bagrie EM, Jessop S, Khan K, Johnson N. Accuracy of diagnostic tests of ovarian reserve for predicting fertility outcomes: protocol for a systematic review [unpublished report of a summer studentship in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Auckland]. Auckland (NZ): The University of Auckland; 2005.

Example Of A Piece Of Text And References In The Vancouver Style

Blood levels of total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol have well-established relationships to the future risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) (1, 2). Also, they are related to other important risk factors for heart disease such as alcohol consumption (3), cigarette smoking (4) and obesity (5).

References:  
1. Martin MJ, Hulley SB, Browner WS, Kuller LH, Wentworth D. Serum cholesterol, blood pressure, and mortality: implications from a cohort of 361,662 men. Lancet. 1986;2:933-6.  

2. Gordon DJ, Probstfield JL, Garrison RJ, Neaton JD, Castelli WP, Knoke JD et al. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol and cardiovascular disease; four prospective American studies. Circulation. 1989;79:8-15.  

3. Gordon T, Ernst N, Fisher M, Rifkin BM. Alcohol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Circulation. 1981;4 (Suppl III):63-7.  

4. Craig WY, Palomaki GE, Haddow JE. Cigarette smoking and serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations: an analysis of published data. BMJ. 1989;298:784-8.  

5. Anderson AJ, Sobocinski KA, Freedman DS, Barboriak JJ, Rimm AA, Gruchow HW. Body fat distribution, plasma lipids and lipoproteins. Arteriosclerosis. 1988;8:88-94.     

“Cited By” References

When citing an author’s work, you should have read the original. On occasions, this will not be possible, and you will only have access to another author’s interpretation of the original. In this case, you must make it clear that you are relying on someone else’s interpretation, so that you are not held responsible for any errors in that interpretation. Note that the authors of the Vancouver style do not allow this type of reference, and so do not give any examples of it. The example below has been provided by library staff.

Example of a “cited by” reference:

Wahlberg JA, Southard JH, Belzer FO. Development of a cold storage solution for pancreas preservation. Cryobiology. 1986;23:477-82. (Cited by: Stein DG, Drinkwater DC, Laks H, Permut LC, Sangwan S, Chait HI et al. Cardiac preservation in patients undergoing transplantation. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 1991;102:657-65.)

In this example, you have read the article by Stein et al, in which you have found a description of Wahlberg et al's technique. Because you are unable to get access to the journal Cryobiology to read Wahlberg's original article, you give a full reference to Wahlberg's article, but indicate that you are relying on Stein's description by use of the "Cited by" technique.

Using The Vancouver Style With Endnote or RefWorks

All Styles supplied with EndNote, including the Vancouver style, may have problems with the correct output of some reference types - in particular references to materials found on the Web. Please consult a Philson Library subject librarian if references to web-based or other items do not look correct when formatted with Endnote's or RefWorks' Vancouver style.

 

Philson Library Subject Librarians:

Sue Fogginsm.foggin@auckland.ac.nz ph.(09)3737599 ext.86123
Lorraine Nielsenlm.nielsen@auckland.ac.nzph.(09)3737599 ext.86158
Anne Wilsona.wilson@auckland.ac.nzph.(09)3737599 ext.86126
Fran Clementsf.clements@auckland.ac.nz ph.(09)3737599 ext.89121
   

 
 

Contact: Sue Foggin
Updated: 12 November, 2014

 
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