The CSMLS would like to thank the University of Western Australia Library for the use of their Web page. UWA Library (online). 2004 (cited 2004 Nov 30). Available from: www.library.uwa.edu.au/guides/citingsources/vancouver.html

• Journals
• Books and other monographs
• Chapter or article in book
• Other published material
• Electronic material
• World Wide Web
• Personal communication

Acknowledging the sources of information and ideas you have used when writing your essays or assignments is important whether you have quoted them directly or indirectly. This is done by referencing or citing your sources and there are a number of different ways you can do this.

The Vancouver style of referencing is predominantly used in the medical field. The CSMLS uses Vancouver Style. In this format a consecutive number is allocated to each source as it is referred to for the first time (this appears as a superior number in the text or as a number in brackets). This number becomes the unique identifier of that source and if the source is referred to again the same number is repeated.

When referencing your work it is important that you use the right punctuation and that the order of elements in the citation are also done correctly. The journal titles used in the citations are abbreviated. A list of abbreviations for the titles is available online. Connect to PubMed, (www.ncbi.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi) click on "Journals Database" and then enter the full journal title to view its abbreviation.

• American Medical Association manual of style: a guide for authors and editors. 9th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 1998.
• Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Writing and Editing for biomedical Publications (International committee of Medical Journal Editors)

The identifying number is used each time that a reference is cited in the text. It is possible to list more than one number at a single reference point. The numbers are then separated by commas. This process is the same for both print and electronic sources. The list of references at the end of the text is arranged in numerical order. Examples of how this referencing is done are found below. You can use either format, but remember to apply your choice consistently.

Example 1

Information has been published on treatment of breast cancer in premenopausal women(5,12)

Example 2

Information has been published on treatment of breast cancer in premenopausal women^5,12

Example 1

Murtagh(14) (p.530) notes that "some people experience a severe transient pain with factors such as coughing"

OR

Example 2

"Some people experience a severe transient pain with factors such as coughing" (Murtagh(14) p.530)

Journals

Format:

Author(s) of article (surname initials). Title of article. Journal title abbreviated Year of publication; volume number(issue number):page numbers.

Standard journal article (If more than six authors, list the first six followed by et al.)

For journal articles

Collum JL, Kaplan HS, Merkley LL, Pinkerton PH, Fastman BR, Romans RA, et al. Reporting near-miss events for transfusion medicine: improving transfusion safety. Transfusion 2001; 41:1204-11

Organisation as author
The Royal Marsden Hospital Bone-Marrow Transplantation Team. Failure of syngeneic bone-marrow graft without preconditioning in post-hepatitis marrow aplasia. Lancet 1977;2:242-4.

No author given
Cancer in South Africa [editorial]. S Afr Med J 1994;84:15.

Issue with supplement
Mastri AR. Neuropathy of diabetic blander. Ann Intern Med 1980; 92(2pt): 316-8.

Volume with supplement
Frumin AM, Nussbaum J, Esposito M. Functional aspenia: demonstration of splenic activity by bone marrow scan. Blood 1979;59 Suppl 1:26-32.

Books and other monographs

Format:

Author(s) of book (surname initials). Title of book. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Personal author(s)
Eisen HN. Immunology: an introduction to molecular and cellular principles of the immune response. 5th ed. New York: Harper and Row; 1974.

Editor, compiler, as author
Dausser J, Colombani J, editors. Histocompatibility testing 1972. Copenhagen: Munksgaard; 1973.

Organisation as author and publisher
Institute of Medicine (US). Looking at the future of the Medicaid program. Washington: The Institute; 1992.

Conference proceedings
Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996.

Dissertation
Kaplan SJ. Post-hospital home health care: the elderly's access and utilization [dissertation]. St. Louis (MO): Washington Univ.; 1995.

Patent
Larsen CE, Trip R, Johnson CR, inventors; Novoste Corporation, assignee. Methods for procedures related to the electrophysiology of the heart. US patent 5 529 067. 1995 Jun 25.

Chapter or article in a book

Format:

Author(s) of chapter (surname initials). Title of chapter. In: Editor(s) name, editors. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. page numbers.

Chapter or article in a book
Weinsten L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, editors. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 1974. p. 457-72.

Conference paper
Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Reinhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics; 1992 Sep 6-10; Geneva, Switzerland. Amsterdam: North Holland; 1992. p. 1561-5.

Other published material

Newspaper article
Lee G. Hospitalizations tied to ozone pollution: study estimates 50,000 admissions annually. The Washington Post 1996 Jun 21; Sect.A;3 (col. 5).

Dictionary and similar references
Stedmans' medical dictionary. 26th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 1995. Apraxia p. 119-20.

Electronic material

Electronic journal article
Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infec Dis [serial online] 1995Jan-Mar [cited 1996 Jun 5];1(1):[24 screens]. Available from: www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm

Journal article from online database
Rockwood K, Graham JE, Fay S. Goal setting and attainment in Alzheimer's disease patients treated with donepezil. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry [serial online] 2002 [cited 2002 Dec 7]; 73(5):500-507. Available from: Proquest Information and Learning Company/Proquest Medical Library.

Monograph in electronic format
CDI, clinical dermatology illustrated [monograph on CD-ROM]. Reeves JRT, Maibach H. CMEA Multimedia Group, producers. 2nd ed. Version 2.0. San Diego: CMEA; 1995.

Cochrane Review
Iyer V, Farquhar C, Jepson R. The effectiveness of oral contraceptive pills versus placebo or any other medical treatment for menorrhagia.(Cochrane Review) In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 4, 1998. Oxford: Update Software.

Electronic Letter
Poynard T, Imbert-Bismut F, Ratziu V, et al. Fibrotest even better than liver biopsy? Electronic letter published 10 March 2003. [Comment on]: Rossi E, Leon Addam L, Prins A, et al. Validation of the FibroTest Biochemical Markers Score in Assessing Liver Fibrosis in Hepatitis C patients Clin Chem [serial online] 2003 [cited 2003 Jul 17]; 49:450-454. Available from: URL :www.clinchem.org/cgi/eletters/49/3/450

World Wide Web

Format:

Author/editor (surname initials). Title [online]. Year [cited year month day]. Available from: URL:

World Wide Web page
McCook A. Pre-diabetic Condition Linked to Memory Loss [online]. 2003 [cited 2003 Feb 7]. Available from: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_11531.html

World Wide Web page (no author)
High blood pressure in pregnancy [online]. 2001 [cited 2002 Oct 21]. Available from: URL: www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/hbp_preg.htm

Personal communication

Personal communications should be included in the text of your document, but they should not be included in your reference list. It is recommended that permission is sought from the source/author of a personal communication if you wish to include quotes in your text. The details you need to include when referencing in text are:

• The date of the communication;
• Whether the communication was in oral or written form;
• The affiliation of the person might also be included to better establish the relevance and authority of the citation (recommended).

Examples of how to include personal communications in your text:

Conversation
In a conversation with a colleague from the School of Population Health (Jameson LI 2002, oral communication, 7th August)...

Letter
As stated in a letter from B.J. Samuels, MD, in July 2002...

E-mail (personal)
Smith P. New research projects in gastroenterology [online]. E-mail to Matthew Hart (mh@hospital.wa.gov.au) 2000 Feb 5 [cited 2000 Mar 17].

Discussion List
James R. Transplant Drug Could Aid Radiation. Radiobiology or Clinical Radiotherapy Forum [online] 2002 Nov 28 [cited 2003 August 4]. Available: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/RADIOBIOLOGY.html