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This guide © 2024 by UCL - Library Skills is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
Vancouver uses numbers in the text and a references list.
In-text citation
At every point in the text where a particular work is referred to by quoting or paraphrasing, include the number which identifies the reference used, in brackets. References are numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first cited in the text.
References list
References are presented in numerical order by the order in which they appear in the document.
You should only include sources that you have referenced in your work.
If you are asked to include a bibliography (in addition to, or in place of, a references list) you can include further items that were read that informed your research and thinking for the assignment, in addition to those that you directly referenced.
Examples on how to reference particular sources using Vancouver style:
Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of blog entry. Date blog entry written. Title of blog [online]. Year. [Accessed date]. Available from: URL.
Welle K. Impressions from the Stockholm World Water Week. 25 August. ODI blog: commentary from leading development experts [online]. 2006. [Accessed 9 July 2007]. Available from: http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/main/archive/category/1020.aspx
Author surname Initial(s). Title: subtitle. Edition (if it is not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.
Cooke A. A guide to finding quality information on the Internet: selection and evaluation strategies. 2nd ed. London: Library Association Publishing; 2001.
First author surname Initial(s), second author surname Initial(s), third author surname Initials. Title: subtitle. Edition (if it is not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.
Feldman RS, Meyer JS, Quenzer LF. The American Psychiatric Press textbook of psychopharmacology. 2nd ed. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association; 1998.
If there are 7 or more authors/editors, only the first 6 are listed followed by et al.
First author surname Initial(s), second author surname Initial(s), third author surname Initial(s), fourth author surname Initial(s), fifth author surname Initial(s), sixth author surname Initial(s), et al., editors. Title: subtitle. Edition (if it is not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.
Fauci AS, Braunwald E, Isselbacher KJ, Wilson JD, Martin JB, Kasper DL, et al., editors. Harrison's principles of internal medicine. 14th ed. New York: McGraw Hill; 1998.
SCONUL Advisory Committee on Information Literacy. Learning outcomes and information literacy. London: SCONUL; 2004.
Editor(s) surname Initial(s), editor(s). Title: subtitle. Edition (if it is not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.
Ennis F, editor. Infrastructure provision and the negotiating process. Aldershot: Ashgate; 2003.
Editors should have editor or editors after their name or list of names. If there are no authors or editors given, the title should be listed first, followed by place of publication.
Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of chapter: subtitle. In: Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. p. page numbers.
Haefner H. Negative symptoms and the assessment of neurocognitive treatment response. In: Keefe RSE, McEvoy JP, editors. Negative symptom and cognitive deficit treatment response in schizophrenia. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2004. p. 85-110.
When the author's name is the same for the chapter as for the book it does not need to be repeated.
Greenhalgh T. Checklists for finding, appraising, and implementing evidence. In: How to read a paper: the basics of evidence based medicine. London: BMJ Publishing Group; 2000. p. 177-9.
Page numbers should be preceded by p.
Author(s) Initial(s). Title of contribution. In: Editor(s) surname Initial(s). editor(s). Title of conference proceedings, date, place of conference. Place of publication: publisher; Year. p. page numbers.
Nelmes G. Container port automation. In : Corke P., Sukkarieh S. editors. Field and service robotics: results of the 5th international conference, 29-31 July 2005, Port Douglas. Berlin: Springer; 2006. p. 3-8.
If conference proceedings are published in a journal, the article/contribution should be cited as for a journal article.
If the proceedings have been published as chapters in a book, treat the entire proceedings as a book, and individual presentations as a book chapter. Add details of the conference to the book title.
Editor(s) surname Initial(s). editor(s). Title of conference proceedings, date, place of conference. Place of publication: publisher; Year.
Corke P., Sukkarieh S. editors. Field and service robotics: results of the 5th international conference, 29-31 July 2005, Port Douglas. Berlin: Springer; 2006
Title. [DVD]. Place of production: Production company; year.
Acland's DVD atlas of human anatomy: the lower extremity. [DVD]. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2004.
Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title: subtitle [online]. Edition (if not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication [Accessed Date]. Available from: URL of database / location in which the book is held
Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper: the basics of evidence based medicine [online]. London: BMJ Publishing Group; 2000 [Accessed 8 September 2008]. Available from: http://www.netlibrary.com/AccessProduct.aspx?ProductId=66703
Author(s)/Editor(s) surname Initials(s). Title: subtitle. Edition (if not the first edition). [Name of e-book reader]. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.
Llewelyn H, Ang HA, Lewis KE, Al-Abdullah A. Oxford handbook of clinical diagnosis. 2nd ed. [Kindle DX e-book]. Oxford: OUP; 2009.
Title of film. [film]. Directed by: Full name of director. Place of production: Production company; year.
An inconvenient truth. [film]. Directed by: Davis Guggenheim. USA: Paramount; 2006.
If the film is a video recording (on DVD or VHS) use the same format but change [film] to the relevant media. This is because video recording may contain extra footage not shown in the film.
Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of article. Abbreviated title of journal. Year of publication;volume number(issue number):page numbers.
Meric F, Bernstam EV, Mirza NQ, Hunt KK, Ames FC, Ross M I, et al. Breast cancer on the world wide web: cross sectional survey of quality of information and popularity of websites. BMJ. 2002;324(7337):577-81.
Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of article. Abbreviated title of journal [online]. Year of publication;volume number(issue number):page numbers. [Accessed date]. Available from: URL
Ross CTF. A conceptual design of an underwater vehicle. Ocean engineering [online]. 2006;33(16):2087-2104. [Accessed 6 July 2007]. Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/
When citing online journal articles, it is now widely preferred to include a DOI (Direct Object Identifier) where available rather than a URL.
De Pinto M, Jelacic J, Edwards WT. Very-low-dose ketamine for the management of pain and sedation in the ICU. Acute Pain [online]. 2008;10(2):100. [Accessed 8 September 2008]. Available from:<doi:10.1016/j.acpain.2008.05.023>
Author(s) surname Initial(s). Title of article: subtitle of article. Newspaper title (in full) Year Month and date of publication; section name (if applicable):page numbers of contribution.
Rowbottom M. The Big Question: how prevalent is the use of drugs in sport, and can it be defeated? The Independent 2006 Aug 1;Sect. Sport:5
Title of programme/Series title, Episode number, Episode title. Transmitting organisation/channel. Date and year, Time of transmission.
Desert island discs, Lily Allen. BBC Radio 4. 29 June 2014, 11:15.
Title of programme/Series title, Episode number, Episode title. Transmitting organisation/channel. Date and year, Time of transmission.
Yes, Prime Minister, Episode 1, The Ministerial Broadcast. BBC2. 16 January 1986, 20:30.
News at ten. ITV. 27 January 2001. 22:00.
Author's surname Initial(s). Title: subtitle. Award level of thesis, Awarding institution; Year of publication.
Deb S. Psychopathology of adults with a mental handicap and epilepsy. MA thesis, University of Leicester; 1991.
Croser C. Biochemical restriction of root extension under mechanical impedance. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham; 1997.
Surname(s), Initial(s) (or organisation). Full text of tweet. [Twitter]. Date and year tweet posted [Date accessed]. Available from: URL
Cruciform Library. MedTech Week 2014 at UCL Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME)16-20 June via @UCL_IBME http://bit.ly/1pbWe53 pic.twitter.com/pzXx3P4DlP [Twitter]. 9 June 2014 [Accessed 2 July 2014]. Available from: https://twitter.com/ucl_crucitwit
Author(s)/Editor(s) surname Initial(s). Title. [online]. Publisher: place of publication; Year [Accessed date]. Available from: URL
SukYin A. Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene and breast cancer. [online]. Human Genome Epidemiology Network, National Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Atlanta GA; 2002 Jun [Accessed 8 September 2008]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/hugenet/factsheets/FS_COMT.htm
Year can include month if preferred.
If a specific author cannot be found, attribute to the organisation or corporation.
Overseas Development Institute, Humanitarian Policy Group. Welcome to HPG. [online]. ODI: London; 2007 [Accessed 9 July 2007]. Available from: http://odi.org.uk/hpg/index.html
Wiki name. Title of article. [online]. Year [Date accessed]. Available from: URL
Wikipedia. Jeremy Bentham. [online]. 2014 [Accessed 2 July 2014]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_bentham
