The Vancouver (Numbering) Referencing Handbook

Introduction

The Vancouver style, also known as the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, is the most widely used numbered citation system in the health and life sciences. It provides a clear, concise format for referencing sources and ensures that readers can locate the original material quickly. This handbook summarises the essential rules, offering a quickreference tool for anyone preparing a manuscript, thesis or dissertation.

Key Principles

• Numbered citations citations are assigned a number in the order they appear in the text.
• Numerical sequence the reference list follows the same numbering sequence as the intext citations.
• Consistency each type of source (journal article, book, website, etc.) has a specific format that must be applied uniformly.
• Abbreviation of journal titles use the NCBI PubMed Journals List for the correct ISO4 abbreviation.
• Punctuation periods, commas and colons have defined positions; avoid extra spaces.

Intext Citation

Insert the citation number in parentheses or superscript, depending on the journals preference. The number appears at the point of reference, immediately after the quoted or paraphrased material.

Examples

• According to recent studies, the prevalence of hypertension is rising worldwide (1).
• Recent studies have shown a rise in hypertension prevalence worldwide.²

If multiple sources support the same statement, separate the numbers with commas or use a hyphen for a range:

• Several trials have examined this effect (3,5,7).
  or
  Several trials have examined this effect (37).

Reference List

The reference list appears at the end of the document, ordered numerically. Each entry should contain the following core elements, in the order specified:

1. Author(s) surname followed by initials without periods (e.g., Smith J). List up to six authors; for more than six, list the first six followed by et al.
2. Title of the article or chapter sentence case, no quotation marks.
3. Title of the journal or book journal titles abbreviated, book titles in sentence case and italicised.
4. Place of publication (for books) city, followed by a colon and the publisher.
5. Year of publication.
6. Volume number (for journals) bold or plain, followed by a colon.
7. Page range first and last page separated by a hyphen.
8. DOI or URL (for online resources) preceded by doi: or Available from:.

General Formatting Rules

• Use a hanging indent of 0.5in (or 1.27cm) for each reference.
• Do not place a period after the final DOI or URL.
• Capitalize only the first word of article titles and proper nouns.
• For electronic articles without pagination, use the elocation identifier (e.g., e12345).

Examples by Source Type

Journal Article

1. Smith J, Lee K, Patel R, et al. Impact of diet on blood pressure: a systematic review. J Hypertens. 2022;40(3):215222. doi:10.1097/HJH.0000000000000245

Book

2. Brown A, Green B. Principles of Epidemiology. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 2019.

Book Chapter

3. Chen L. Nutrition and metabolic syndrome. In: White R, editor. Handbook of Clinical Nutrition. London: Springer; 2020. p. 85102.

Conference Proceedings

4. Davis M, Kumar S. Advances in telemedicine. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Health Informatics; 2021 Oct 1215; Toronto, Canada. p. 210215.

Website

5. World Health Organization. Hypertension. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hypertension. Accessed 2023 Sep 10.

Online PDF without DOI

6. National Institute of Health. Guidelines for clinical trials. 2021. Available from: https://www.nih.gov/sites/default/files/2021-nih-guidelines.pdf. Accessed 2022 Jan 5.

Multiple Authors (more than six)

7. Patel R, Kim H, Li Y, Singh D, AlMansour M, Zhao L, et al. Genetic markers of response to antihypertensive therapy. Pharmacol Rev. 2020;78(4):567580. doi:10.1124/pr.120.018

Article Ahead of Print

8. O'Neil T, Garcia M. Emerging biomarkers in cardiovascular disease. Cardiovasc Res. 2023;doi:10.1093/cvr/cvad072

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Using et al. for fewer than seven authors.
• Including periods after author initials (e.g., Smith J. is incorrect).
• Capitalising every word in article titles.
• Omitting the DOI when it is available.
• Mixing numbered and authordate citation styles in the same document.
• Not updating the reference list after adding or deleting citations.

Consistency is the backbone of a reliable reference list. Small detailslike a missing period or an extra spacecan undermine the professionalism of an entire manuscript.

Further Resources

For detailed guidance, consult the following official documents and tools:

• Vancouver Consolidated Refencing Guidelines (ICMJE)
• Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (PDF)
• Reference management software with Vancouver output: EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley.
• Journalspecific style sheets always check the Instructions for Authors of the target journal.