VANCOUVER REFERENCE SYSTEM
There are many ways of setting out bibliographies and reference lists.
The following are examples of one s tyle – the Vancouver S ys tem. It
is commonly us ed in medical and scientific journals.
Your reference lis t s hould identify references cited (eg . book,
journal article, pamphlet, internet site, cassette tape or film) in
sufficient detail so that others may locate and consult your references.
Your reference lis t s hould appear at the end of your es s ay/report
with the entries lis ted numerically and in the same order that they
have been cited in the text.
In the Vancouver S tyle, citations within the text of your
es s ay/paper are identified by Arabic numbers in round brackets .
This applies to references in text, tables and fig ures . e.g . (2) – this
is the s tyle us ed by the referencing s oftware Endnote.
The identification of references within the text of your es s ay/paper
may vary according to the preferred style of the journal or the
preferred style of the department or lecturer. For example s upers cript
may be preferred when referencing .
The Vancouver S ystem assigns a number to each reference as it is
cited. A number must be used even if the author(s) is named in the
sentence/text.
Example: S mith (10) has arg ued that… .
Us e commas (without s paces ) to s eparate noninclus ive
numbers in a multiple citation eg. 2,3,4,5,7,10 is abbreviated to
(2-5,7,10) Do not us e a hyphen if there are no citation numbers
in between that s upport your s tatement eg. 1- 2.
CITING A BOOK
1. Name/s of author/s , editor/s , compiler/s or the
ins titution res pons ible.
• Where there are 6 or les s authors you mus t list all
authors .
• Where there are 7 or more authors , only the firs t 6 are
lis ted and add “et al” (et al means “and others”).
• P ut a comma and 1 s pace between each name. The last
author mus t have a full-s top after their initial(s ).
Format: s urname (1 s pace) initial/s (no s paces or
punctuation between initials )
(full-s top O R if further names comma, 1 s pace)
Example 1.1: S mith AK , Jones B C .
Example 1.2: S mith AK , Jones B C , B log g s TC , As he PT,
Fauci AS , Wils on JD et al.
2. Title of publication and s ubtitle if any
• D o not us e italics or underlining.
• O nly the first word of journal articles or book
titles (and words that normally begin with a
capital letter) are capitalised.
Format: 1: title (full-s top, 1 s pace)
Example 2.1: Harris on's principles of
internal medicine.
Example 2.2: Phys ical pharmacy: phys ical
chemical principles in the pharmaceutical
s ciences .
3. Edition, if other than firs t edition.
• Abbreviate the word edition to:- ed. (D o
not confuse with editor.)
Format: edition s tatement (fulls top, 1
s pace)
Example 3.1: 3rd ed.
4. Place of publication
• If the publishers are located in more than
one city, cite the name of the city that is
printed first.
• Write the place name in full.
E xample : K yoto (Japan):
5. Publis her
• The publisher’s name should be spelt
out in full.
Format: publis her (s emi-colon, 1
s pace)
Example 5.1: Aus tralian G overnment
Publis hing S ervice;
Example 5.2: R aven Pres s ;
Example 5.3: Williams & Wilkins ;
6. Year of publication.
Format: year (full-s top, add 1 s pace if
pag e numbers follow)
Example 6.1: 1999.
Example 6.2: 2000. p. 12-5.
7. Pag e numbers (if applicable).
• Abbreviate the word page to “p.”.
• NO TE : do not repeat digits unnecessarily
– abbreviate.
Format: p (full-s top, 1 s pace) pag e
numbers (full-s top).
Example 7.1: p. 122-9.
Example 7.2: p. 1129-57.
P E NULIS . JUD UL TULIS AN. In: NAM A E D ITO R (S ). JUD UL
BUKU. E D IS [Link] TA: P E NE R BIT; TAHUN. HAL.
CONTOH
• More than s ix authors
Give the first six names in full and add “et
al”. The authors are listed in the order in
which they appear on the title page.
Fauci AS , Braunwald E , Is s elbacher KJ, Wils on JD , M artin JB,
Kas per D L, et al, editors . Harrison’s principles of internal
medicine. 14th ed. New York: M cG raw Hill, Health P rofes s ions
D ivis ion; 1998.
P orter R J, M eldrum B S . Antiepileptic drugs . In: Katzung BG ,
editor. Bas ic and clinical pharmacology. 6th ed. Norwalk (C N):
Appleton and Lange; 1995. p. 361-80.
