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Sports Medicine: Manual Referencing

This subject guide is created for the use of the Sports Medicine department at Health Sciences Faculty

Manual Referencing

Faculty of Health Sciences - University of Pretoria (July 2013)

Vancouver is a "numbered" style and, follows rules established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Using Vancouver style means you're obeying the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.

However, when we're writing articles for publication we have to consult the 'Instructions to authors' for the specific journal in which we want to publish.

  • Your list of references should identify all references cited (eg books, journal articles, pamphlets, internet sites, CDRom, DVD, etc) in sufficient detail so that others can locate and consult your references.
  • The Vancouver reference style is the one that is commonly used in the medical field and when publishing in medical journals.
  • It is very important that you use the right punctuation and that the order of details in the reference is correct.
  • A-List of reference at the end of the assignment, research report or journal manuscript contains the full details of all the in-text citations.

In text referencing

  • The identification of references within the text of your assignment are identified by Arabic numerals in superscript.
  • A number is assigned to each reference as it is cited. A number must be used even if an author was named in the sentence, eg. Smith12 argued that.....
  • Use double quotation marks to enclose a direct quotation. Type [sic] after a misspelled word or an incorrect or apparently absurd statement in quoted material to indicate that this is an accurate rendition of the original source. Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations.
  • The original number assigned to a reference is re-used every time the reference is cited in text, regardless of the previous position in text.

Example:

... as one author has put it "the darkest days were still ahead"1: which is well documented in the literature.2-3 This proves that "the darkest days were still ahead".1

  • When multiple references are cited at a given place in a text, use a hyphen to join the first and last numbers that are inclusive, eg. 6-8
  • Use commas (no spaces) to separate non-inclusive numbers eg. 2,3,4,5,7,9 is abbreviated to 2-5,7,9
  • Placement of referencing numbers with a text should be carefully considered, eg. a particular reference may be relevant to only part of a sentence. However, as a general rule, reference numbers should be placed outside full stops and commas, inside colons and semi-colons.

Examples:

    • The coach can carry out his own assessment of the athlete5,9 in relation to the agreed constructs and so pinpoint areas of agreementon the one hand, 2-4 and differing perceptions on the other.
    • Butler and Hardy maintain "that people's intrinsic motivation could be weakened by the application of external controls".,1
  • The main advantage of the Vancouver style is that the text reads more easily, without the intrusion of in-text quotations which can be difficult to keep brief. Reader can also check the list of references as they read through the text, without having to search through the list of references alphabetically for the first author of a particular referenced publication.

How to create a list of references

  • Your reference list should appear at the end of your assignment/report with the entries listed numerically and in the same order that they were given in the text.

Example:

It is very important that you use the right punctuation and that the order of details in the reference is also correct.

    1. Baker PN, editor. Obstetrics by ten teachers. 18th ed. London: Hodder Arnold; 2006.
    2. Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347(4):284-7.
  • Book and journal titles are not italicised or placed in quotation marks.
  • Only first words of the article title and words that normally begin with a capital letter are capitalised.
  • Journal titles are abbreviated. A list of abbreviations for the titles is available online at either NLM Catalog: Journal abbreviation or Medical Journal Abbreviations (Internationally recognised abbreviations for journal titles)
  • If the journal has continuous page numbering, you may omit month/issue number.
  • Some commonly used abbreviations:
    • c. = circa (about, approximately in time)
    • ch. = chapter
    • ed. = edition
    • et al. = and others
    • fig; figs = figure(s)
    • ill; ills = illustrator(s)
    • p. = page(s)
    • para; paras = paragraph(s)
    • pt; pts = part(s)
    • rev = revised
    • suppl = Supplement

Journal articles

(Please note: Journal titles are always abbreviated.) Go to Journals referenced in the NCBI databases or Medical Journal Abbreviations (Internationally recognised abbreviations for journal titles).

Recommended to always cite an article as a print copy except (when pages clearly indicate e3-e5).

Main elements of a journal reference:

Author's surname Initials, Author's surname Initials. Title of article. Title of Journal. [abbreviated] Year of publication Month date; Volume number (issue number): page numbers.