Vancouver Referencing Guide
Vancouver referencing is commonly used in medical sciences. It is usually a numbered referencing guide where someone else’s work is cited by the use of numbers. As you already know, you should always include some in-text citation whenever you are directly quoting or paraphrasing content written by someone else. In Vancouverreferencing style in particular, the in-text citation is denoted by Arabic numerals. Each reference is given a unique identification number depending on the order of citation. If you are referencing the same work more than once, then the same number should be used each time. How the numbers are placed within the text is up to the author or the specific journal. Numbers can be put before more after the text or even after the period. Parentheses or brackets are both fine to use. Superscripts can be used too. The only thing you need to be keen on is inconsistency. For instance, if you are going to use brackets, use these throughout the paper. Here are a few correct examples:
- Recent research (2) shows that running is an effective way to burn belly fat.
- Recent research 2 shows that running is an effective way to burn belly fat.
- Recent research shows that running is an effective way to burn belly fat (2).
If you are going to use the name of the author in the text, you will still need to include the citation number.
Example:
Bruce (3) argues that you can only lose belly fat by taking the right diet.
If you are using a print source and quoting from it directly, only single quotation marks should be used and following these should be the page number from which you got your information.
Example:
According to Humphrey [5], ‘combining exercise with the right diet is the most effective way to lose belly fat (p.18).’
Kindly note that if you are citing different work done by the same person in the same year every work should be given its own reference number.
Multiple source and multiple author citations
If you got your information form a publication with more than one author and would like to include the names of these authors in the content, you are going to use the first author’s last name followed by “et al”. If you are citing work written by Jenny, Mike, and Burrows, your in-text citation will look as follows:
Jenny et al. [7] found that people who exercised more but ate the wrong food did not lose as much weight than those who exercise less but ate the right food.
If you are citing more than one source in a sentence, reference numbers for every source must be included. These numbers must be separated by commas.
Example:
Previous study [2,5,8] also suggests that people who are looking to lose weight should avoid meals high in sugar.
Numbers that are consecutive to each other must be separated using a dash.
Example:
Obesity is as a result of poor diet and lack of exercising (3-8-15).
It is worth noting that in-text citations in Vancouver referencing are not determined by the type of work that is being cited. Whether you are quoting information from a book, journal article, report, URL, or DOI, the in-text citation will always be a number.
There is an exception, though, for work that is not published like an email, interview, correspondence, etc. In these cases, you will mention the person’s name and include the date the communication was done in brackets inside the text.
Example:
Losing weight is a journey that calls for patience and commitment but the most important thing to do when you take your first stepis to believe that you can do it, (Mario Stuart, August 3, 2010) which will give you the motivation to keep working (9).
This type of citation should NOT be included in the final reference list.
How to compose your reference list
Once you are done with writing your content you must create your reference list. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Names of journals and books should not be put in quotation marks or italics. These should only be abbreviated.
- Never use the symbol (&) between author names
- Capital letters should only be used in the most commonly capitalized words and in the beginning of a sentence
- Abbreviate the page numbers to “p”. For instance, for information derived from pages 40-45, cite the pages as p.40-45.
- “et al” should be used only when citing multiple authors
Vancouver referencing is not as difficult as many college goers may have been made to believe. However, it requires one to be extremely careful and follow the right consistency in order to do it correctly. If you are still not sure about how to do your referencing even after reading this guide, kindly contact us for assignment help. Our experts are well versed with the dos and don’ts of Vancouver referencing style and all other citation formats used today and will cite your work according to your institution’s guide. Just upload your paper’s instructions and we will do the rest.