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References, citations and avoiding plagiarism

An introduction to the function and practice of referencing your sources

Vancouver referencing conventions

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

Act of Parliament

Country. Title of Act and year. Chapter. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Great Britain. Environment Act 1995. Chapter 25. London: The Stationery Office.

Blog

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

Book

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.

Two to six authors:

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.

Seven or more authors/editors:

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.

Book with organisation as author:

SCONUL Advisory Committee on Information Literacy. Learning outcomes and information literacy. London: SCONUL; 2004.

Edited book:

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.

Book chapter from an edited book

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.

Conference proceedings

Individual conference paper

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.

Conference proceedings as a whole

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

DVD

Title. [DVD]. Place of production: Production company; year.

Acland's DVD atlas of human anatomy: the lower extremity. [DVD]. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2004.

E-book

online

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

e-book reader format, e.g. Kindle

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.

Film

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.

Journal article

Journal article (print)

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.

Journal article (electronic)

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>

Newspaper article

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

Radio broadcast

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.

Television broadcast

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.

Thesis or dissertation

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.

Twitter

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

Website or webpage

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

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