Skip to Main Content

 

King's Guide to Referencing

Vancouver is a numbered citation style, commonly used in used in biomedical and health publications.

In-text citations

As works are cited they are assigned a number, either in brackets (1) or superscript1. The same citation number is used if a work is cited more than once.

Reference list

The reference list is ordered by the order in which the citations appear, rather than alphabetically. This page provides examples of how to lay out the information required for citing different sources.

Abbreviations

In Vancouver style, journal titles are abbreviated. For example, International journal of prison health becomes Int J Prison Health. If you are unsure how to abbreviate a journal title you can look it up in Journals referenced in the NCBI Databases. Simply search the full journal title or ISSN, and use the NLM Title Abbreviation listed under the title.

A full guide to abbreviating titles can be found in The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers.

Book

  1. Ridley M. Genome: the autobiography of a species in 23 chapters. London: Fourth Estate Ltd; 1999.
  2. Hart I. The spread of tumours. In Knowles MA, Selby PJ, editors. Introduction to the cellular and molecular biology of cancer. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2005. p. 278-88.

Journal article

  1. Consonni D, De Matteis S, Lubin JH, Wacholder S, Tucker M, Pesatori AC, et al. Lung cancer and occupation in a population-based case-control study. Am J Epidemiol 2010 Feb 1;171(3):323-33
  2. Starr SR, Kautz JM, Sorita A, et al. Quality Improvement Education for Health Professionals: A Systematic Review. Am J Med Qual. 2016; 31(3):209–216. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1062860614566445

See the note above on Abbreviations in Vancouver style referencing.

Book chapter

  1. Kone BC. Metabolic basis of solute transport. In: Brenner BM, Rector FC, editors. Brenner and Rector’s the kidney. 8th ed. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier; c2008. p. 130-55.
  2. Hart I. The spread of tumours. In Knowles MA, Selby PJ, editors. Introduction to the cellular and molecular biology of cancer. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2005. p. 278-88.

Webpage

  1. Macmillan Cancer Support. Lung cancer. [internet]. 2010 [cited 2010 Jan29]; [14 screens]. Available from: http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/ Lung/Lungcancer.aspx
  2. AMA: helping doctors help patients [Internet]. Chicago: American Medical Association; c1995-2007. AMA launches exclusive partnership with the ReachMD Channel for medical professionals; 2007 Mar 26 [cited 2007 Mar 28]; [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/17469.html

Generative AI

King's has produced new student guidance on the use of generative AI tools. Students are not expected to reference generative AI but are expected to acknowledge its use through a statement. Please see the central Student Guidance for details. 

Full guide to Vancouver

Referencing e-learning course

Journal abbreviations