Introduction - The Vancouver Referencing Method
Introduction
Referencing is a method of recording and acknowledging the sources of information that you have used in your assignments. The Vancouver referencing style is specified by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and is used widely in medical and health related disciplines.
Make sure to check your departments' specific guidance for any preferred formats.
Accurate Referencing ensures that you practice good academic integrity and avoid plagiarism. It also gives credit to the original authors of the information you have used.
Vancouver referencing has two main parts:
In-Text Citations
When writing a piece of academic work, you must acknowledge any sources which you have used. You do this by including a brief in-text ‘citation’ within the main body of your writing, next to the material you have used. The Vancouver style is a numeric style, where citations are numbered either in brackets (#) or Superscript1 in the order of appearance. It is important to be consistent throughout. This citation leads your reader to a full reference to the source in the list of references at the end of your work. Each citation number should be enclosed in brackets on the same line as the text, before any punctuation, with a space before the bracket (#). Once a source has been cited, the same number is re-used for all subsequent citations to the same source
The Reference List
This is a detailed list of all of the sources that you have cited in your text. The list should be placed at the back of your assignment. The details provided with each entry will enable the readers of your assignment to be able to locate your original sources should they wish. For example, Reference List entries will include the names of publishers for printed work, and web site addresses for online sources. The reference list gives publications in the order they appear in the text, not alphabetically.
This guide
This guide provides examples of the way in which common types of information sources should be referenced.