Writing a bibliography or list of references
Please, find below the most commonly used referencing style – the Vancouver system – in medical and scientific journals.

Distinction must be made between the reference list and the bibliographic list. Your reference list should identify the references cited by you in your article (ex. book, journal article, internet site etc.) in sufficient details, so that others may locate and consult your references.

The bibliography is a separate list from the reference list and it should be arranged alphabetically, by author and title.

Punctuation and spaces in the reference list and citations are very important.

Please observe the following:

  • As a general rule, reference numbers should be placed outside full stops and commas, inside colons and semicolons.
  • Ex. …..or polymerase chain reaction, (20-22) but these remain experimental. Moir and Jessel maintain “that sexes are interchangeable. (1).
  • When multiple references are cited at a given place in text, use a hyphen between the first and last numbers that are inclusive.
Ex. (2-5, 7,10)

I. Citing a book


The following details are required:

  • Name of the author/s, editor/s etc. Where there are 6 or less authors, you must give the name of all the authors. Where there are 7 or more authors, only the first 6 will be listed and you will add “et al” (“et al” means “and others”).
  • Put a comma and 1 space between each name. The last author must have a full-stop after his/her initial/s.

Ex. Smith AK, Jons BC.

  • Tile of the publication. Please do not use italics or underling. Only the first word of journal articles or book titles (and words that normally begin with a capital letter) will be capitalized. Title (full stop, 1 space)

Ex.1. Harrison’s principles of internal medicine.
Ex.2. Pharmacy in Australia: the national experience

  • Edition. (full-stop, 1 space)
  • Place of publication. (colon, 1 space)
  • Publisher’s name should be spelt out in full. (semi-colon, 1 space)
  • Year of publication. (full-stop, 1 space if page numbers follow).

Ex. 2000. p. 12-5.
Ex. Getzen TE. Health economics: fundamentals of funds. New York: John Wiley & Sons;1997. p. 361-80

II. Citing a journal article


  • Name of the author/s. Follow step 1 of “Citing a book”
  • Title of the article. See step 2 of “Citing a book”.
  • Title of the journal. No punctuation marks will be used in the abbreviated name – just spaces. Ex. J Mol Biol
  • Year (and month/day if available) of publication.
  • Year (1 space) month (1 space) day (semi-colon, no space) OR year (semi-colon, no space). Ex. 1996, Jun 1;12(5):127-33, where 12 represents the number of volume and 5 – number of issues. Abbreviate the month to the first 3 letters.
  • Volume number. Volume number (no space) issue number in brackets (colon, no space) OR volume number (colon, no space).
  • Ex. 1996;12(5):127-33. or 1996;12:127-33
  • Page numbers.

Example of citing journal articles: Russell FD, Coppell AL, Davenport AP. In vitro enzymatic processing of radiolabelled big ET-1 in human kidney as a food ingredient. Biochem Pharmacol 1998 Mar 1;55(5):697-701.

III. Citing internet resources


Format: Author (full-stop after last author, 1 space) Title (full-stop, 1 space) [Online] (full stop, 1 space) Publication Year (1 space) [cited year month (abbreviated) day] (semi colon) Number of screens in square brackets or pages (full-stop, 1 space) Available from (colon, 1 space) URL: (no space) URL address underlined

Ex. National Organization for Rare Diseases [Online]. 1999 Aug 16 [cited 1999 Aug 21]; Available from:
URL:http://www.rarediseases.org/Royal College of General Practitioners.