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Vancouver Referencing: Citing in Vancouver Style

What is Citation?

A citation is a way of giving credit to individuals for their creative and intellectual works that you utilized to support your research. It can also be used to locate particular sources and combat plagiarism.

Including page or figure numbers:

  • Only about 1% of patients (1, p17)….

  • The purpose of Anesthesia is to allow patients to undergo surgical or investigative procedures in a safe and paining free way. (3,pp68-70)

  • Urinary Catheters (12, fig11.12) are usually….

 

Why should I Cite?

Citations help others find the information you used in your research paper.

Citing your sources accurately helps establish the credibility of your research.

Citations connect your work to the work of other scholars.

Citations are one way to honor and acknowledge the work of others who have made your own research possible.

How do I write citations using the Vancouver style?

  • A number in superscript format eg. 7 or enclosed in round brackets, eg. (7), placed in the text of the essay, indicate the relevant reference.

  • Citations are numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text

  • Each citation corresponds to a numbered reference containing publication information about the source cited in the reference list at the end of the publication, essay or assignment.

  • Once a source has been cited, the same number is used in all subsequent references.

  • No distinction is made between print and electronic references when citing within the text.

    • For multiple references use hyphen to join first and last numbers that are inclusive, e.g. 3-6 or (3-6) and use commas without spaces to separate non inclusive numbers, e.g. 3,9,17 or (3,9,17).
  • Place citations at the point of most relevance within the sentence

 

Examples

  • It is commonly believed that the best way to change people’s behavior is to warn them of its frightening consequences. (6)

  • In the study on doctor-patient relationships Tuckett(10-13) showed that consultations were most likely to break down and patients were most likely to be dissatisfied and non-complaint, when doctors failed to elicit and respond empathetically to patients’ beliefs and expectations.

  • Anxiety (4, 5) refers to an emotional……