The Vancouver citation style is a reference system that is required for publications within Pharmacy and Medicine.
The name Vancouver style is confusing. It was developed by the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors), which in turn now refers to the NLM rules (see box below).
The examples in this libguide are based on:
You will find several Vancouver libguides on the internet that may differ from the examples used in this libguide.
Special characteristics of the Vancouver style:
Example: "New England Journal of Medicine" is abbreviated as "N Engl J Med".
The abbrevations that are used are the same as in PubMed;
The Vancouver citation style is a numerical citation style.
The numbers are put in the text between (square or round) brackets or in superscript:
... the theory was first propounded by Wolf [1], but ...
... the theory was first propounded by Wolf1, but ...
In the case of pictures, illustrations, diagrams, tables or photographs: in the text directly below the picture in question you briefly state where you have found it.
In your reading list you give the entire reference. The style you use depends on the type of source you consult!
Is the picture from a printed book, check the box about books, is the picture from a website, check the box about websites etc.
For instance: you include a diagram from a book by Monné and Jansen. If you do it correctly, you not only write down what the diagram represents, but you also give a brief reference.
Example 1 in-text reference:
'Diagram representing the course of the average daytime temperature in Maastricht between 1900 and 2000 (Monné and Jansen, 2013: p.22)'.
In your reading list you include the full reference:
Example 1 full reference:
Monné, M, Jansen T. Climate control in the Netherlands. 3rd ed. Noorbeek: Limburg Press; 2013.
If it is a picture from the internet, it may look as follows:
Example 2 full reference:
McCourtie SD, World Bank. SDM-LK-179 [Internet]. 2009 Apr 13 [cited 2009 Jun 14]. Available from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/3487488094
NB: When publishing a picture, please check if it is copyrighted!
More information about copyright can be found on the Copyright Information Office of Utrecht University.
There is currently (2024) no known authorized source of the Vancouver style that says anything about how to refer to AI-generated content.
In principle, you can assume that this type of material can be considered a form of personal communication or non-traceable data. You must refer to the source in the text, but you do not have to include a reference in the bibliography.
In the running text, state the type of communication, the AI tool used and the time at which you generated the content (day month year).
Examples:
In an online chat with Microsoft Copilot (1 June 2024) the following text was generated ...
A chat generated a potentially useful script for making pizza dough (ChatGPT response, prompt for "How to make pizza dough", January 24, 2022).
Note to students: teachers may request additional information from you when using GenAI, such as an explanation of what you did and why or even your specific prompts. Check with your teacher if, how and where you need to add this information.
Last name initial. Title article: Sub title. Abbreviated journal title. Year Month Day;volume(issue):page.
Example:
Greenhalgh T. Publishing your medical research paper: What they don't teach you at medical school. BMJ. 1999 Feb 27;318(7183):610.
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7.
Sometimes there is more than one author. Only the first six authors are given: the rest is summarised by; 'et al.'
Also volume and issue are not always known, in most cases there are more pages. That is why we give some extra examples:
Examples :
Jagosh J, Macaulay AC, Pluye P, Salsberg J, Bush PL, Henderson J, et al. Uncovering the benefits of participatory research: Implications of a realist review for health research and practice. Milbank Q. 2012 June;90(2):311-46.
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.
Organisation as author:
Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension. 2002;40(5):679-86.
NB: If there is a DOI (Digital Object Identfier) or a PubMed ID present, you could add it as a last element.
Author initial(s) [no dots]. Book title. Edition. Place of publication: publisher; year of publication.
Example:
Wolf K, Allen R, Saavedra AP. Fitzpatrick's color atlas and synopsis of clinical dermatology. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2013.
In the case of books there may be no authors but an organisation responsible for the publication. For instance: American Veterinary Medical Association. This comes instead of the author(s).
Example:
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.
There may no author at all. For instance: The Oxford concise medical dictionary. In that case you leave out the authors.
NB1: No edition is given of first editions. For second or more editions name the edition after the title of the book.
NB2: In the case of ebooks: put the word [internet] after the title . Put after publication year: [Accessed on: year-month-day]. Then put: Available via: ... (URL).
Example:
Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/10149/improving-palliative-care-for-cancer.
Last name initial(s). Title of artice. Title of edited volume. Place of publication: publisher; year of publication.
Example:
Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, VanDorsten JP, editors. Operative obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.
In the case of ebooks: Put [Internet] after the chapter title. Put after the page numbers at the end; [ Accessed on: year-month-day]. Then put; Available via: ... (URL).
Example:
Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/10149/improving-palliative-care-for-cancer.
NB1: Of first editions no edition is given. For second or more editions mention the edition after the title of the edited volume.
Chapter in a book:
Last name initial(s). Title of artice. In: Last name initial(s), editors. Title of edited volume. Place of publication: publisher; year of publication. page numbers.
Example:
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; 2012. p.93-113.
Try to find as much information as possible. If you can't find anything, leave it out of the description.
Examples:
eatright.org [Internet]. Chicago: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics; c2016 [cited 2016 Dec 27]. Available from: https://www.eatright.org/.
International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Recommendations on Biochemical & Organic Nomenclature, Symbols & Terminology etc. [Internet]. London: University of London, Queen Mary, Department of Chemistry; [updated 2006 Jul 24; cited 2007 Feb 22]. Available from: http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iubmb/.
American Medical Association [Internet]. Chicago: The Association; c1995-2016 [cited 2016 Dec 27]. Office of International Medicine; [about 2 screens]. Available from: https://www.ama-assn.org/about/office-international-medicine
NB. Make sure that the links you include are working links! The best thing to do is to use a permanent hyperlink, for instance the DOI (Digital Object Identifier). Never use hyperlinks from searches. They often come with a (search) session code. Once the search session is over, the hyperlink no longer works.
Examples:
Holt M. The Health Care Blog [Internet]. San Francisco: Matthew Holt. 2003 Oct - [cited 2009 Feb 13]. Available from: http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/category/matthew-holt/.
Mantone J. Head trauma haunts many, researchers say. 2008 Jan 29 [cited 2009 Feb 13]. In: Wall Street Journal. HEALTH BLOG [Internet]. New York: Dow Jones & Company, Inc. c2008 - . [about 1 screen]. Available from: https://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/01/29/head-trauma-haunts-many-researchers-say/.
Datasets
Examples:
RxNorm [dataset]. April 4, 2016 Full Monthly Release. 2016 Apr 4 [cited 2016 Apr 18]. Available from: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/rxnorm/docs/rxnormfiles.html
Coin L. Genomics of development and disease [dataset]. 2014 Jun 1 [cited 2017 Jun 9]. The University of Queensland. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.14264/uql.2016.583.
Software
Examples:
Publisher is optional and place of publication is not needed. Strive to include an Available from: note with a URL or a doi: xxxxxxx note.
Hayes B, Tesar B, Zurow K. OTSoft: Optimality Theory Software. Version 2.3.2 [software]. 2013 Jan 14 [cited 2015 Feb 14]. Available from: https://linguistics.ucla.edu/people/hayes/otsoft/.
Golda TG, Hough PD, Gay G. APPSPACK (Asynchronous Parallel Pattern Search). Version 5.0.1 [software]. Sandia National Laboratories. 2007 Feb 16 [cited 2016 Apr 4; downloaded 2010 Jan 5]. Available from: https://dakota.sandia.gov/packages/hopspack
Examples:
Alvarez R. Near optimal neural network estimator for spectral x-ray photon counting data with pileup. arXiv:1702.01006v1 [Preprint]. 2017 [cited 2017 Feb 9]: [11 p.]. Available from: https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.01006
Kalita R, Flanagan W, Lightley J, Kumar S, Alexandrov Y, Garcia E, et al. Single-shot phase contrast microscopy using polarisation-resolved differential phase contrast. BioRxiv [Preprint] 2021. doi: 10.1101/2021.04.14.437846 [cited 2021 July 6].