Create a spot-on reference in Vancouver
General rules
In accordance with the rules of Vancouver Style, a bibliographic reference to a book should contain the information on its authors, title, editors or other contributors (whenever applicable), place of publication, publisher, and year of publication. In addition, it may also contain some other obligatory (e.g. the edition number) or optional elements (see in more detail below).
For a book accessed online, provide the date cited and the URL address.
How to cite in a list of references
See this article for the principles of indicating the names of authors in the Vancouver referencing system.
Book with an author (authors)
For the print version of a book, use the following referencing template:
Author(s). Title. Edition number. City: Publisher; year. Number of pages.
Nota bene:
- If the city is not well known, provide the name of the country in parentheses after the city.
- For the US and Canadian cities, whenever confusion may exist, provide the code of the state or province in parentheses.
- If the data on the place of publication, the publisher, or the year is missing, the following information is to be given mandatorily in the reference: ‘[place unknown],’ ‘[publisher unknown],’ or ‘[date unknown].’
- In general, the edition number is given for the editions other than first.
- For a book in a foreign language, the original language is to be stated.
- The Number of pages element is optional.
- Some other data may be given optionally as well: ISBN, series title, etc.
For a book available online, use the following template:
Author(s). Title [Internet]. Edition number. City: Publisher; year [cited date cited]. Number of pages. Available from: URL
For the particularities of providing the URL addresses, see this article.
Examples in a list of references:
Donnelly R, London NJ. ABC of arterial and venous disease. London: BMJ; 2000. 72 p.
Oikonomakis I. Anastomotic leakage in colorectal surgery: early diagnosis and treatment with stent [Internet]. Örebro (Sweden): Örebro University; 2021 [cited 2021 May 31]. 76 p. Available from: http://oru.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:1535490&dswid=-7482
Book with an author and an editor (a translator, a compiler, etc.)
Reference template:
Author(s). Title. Edition number. Editor(s), editor(s). City: Publisher; year. Number of pages.
Example in a list of references:
Soames R, Palastanga N. Anatomy and human movement: structure and function. 7th ed. Richardson P, illustrator. Edinburgh: Elsevier; 2019. 667 p.
Book without a credited author (with an editor, a translator, a compiler, etc.)
Reference template:
Editor(s), editor(s). Title. Edition number. City: Publisher; year. Number of pages.
Example in a list of references:
Theobald T, editor. Sampson's textbook of radiopharmacy. 4th ed. London: Pharmaceutical; 2011. 724 p.
Volume (part of a multivolume edition)
For a volume that has the same authors as the whole edition but bears a different title, use the following template:
Author(s). Edition title. Edition number. Vol. volume number, Volume title. City: Publisher; year. Number of pages.
Example in a list of references:
Riva G, Wiederhold BK, Cipresso P, editors. The psychology of social networking [Internet]. Vol. 1, Personal experience in online communities. Warsaw: De Gruyter Open Poland; 2015 [cited 2021 May 31]. 232 p. Available from: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110473780/html doi: 10.1515/9783110473780
Chapter of an edited book
See this article for the rules of referencing a book chapter in Vancouver Style.