If you are on this page, it means only one thing:
You need to know how to write book reference in Vancouver style.
And we’re ready to help.
Here’s the general format of any book:
Author AA. Title of the book. Location: Publisher; year.
Note: no parts of the reference should be italicized.
In our citation examples we use the following color coding:
- Red – Author
- Blue – Title of book/article/charter/webpage
- Pink – Date
- Orange – Website/Publisher
- Turquoise – Place of publication
- Violet – Editor/Translator
- Sienna – Pages
- Gray – URL/database/website where the source is retrieved
- Gold – Book, a part/chapter of which is being cited
- Peach – Additional information about the source (i.e. its type, specific features etc.)
- Light magenta – Dictionary entry
Book with a single author
Example:
Book with two to six authors
The author’s names are just listed one after another without using the word ‘and’ or the symbol ‘&’.
Example:
Book with more than six authors
Note that ‘et al.’ is put after the name of the sixth author; the rest of the author names are omitted.
Example:
Edited book
When an edited book is cited, the word ‘editor’ or ‘editors’ is added after the name(s) of the author(s).
Example:
eBook accessed from a library-subscribed database
Example:
Book accessed from the Internet
Note that after the name of the publisher’s location, it is necessary to place the abbreviation of its state in brackets.
Example:
Book authored by an organization
This section is for books written by various organizations, associations, and corporate or government bodies.
Example:
Note: capitalize words in the organization’s name as officially accepted by the organization itself (for example, on the official website and the cover of the cited book).
Note: omit “the” before the name of an organization in reference page entries. The American Nurses Association that authored the book in the example above should appear on the reference page as “American Nurses Association.”
Book authored by an organization’s part
In case a book is written by some agency or any other part of organization, make sure to include the name of the organization’s part in your reference page entry after the full name of the organization separating them by a comma (or commas, if the book was authored by a department within another department).
Example:
Note: In the example above, part of the book’s title is capitalized because it is the name of the organization mentioned in the title.
Book authored by a government body
For government bodies, it is recommended to indicate the name of the country to which the body belongs in case the country or nationality is not mentioned in the organization’s name. The name of the country should appear in parentheses after the name of the organization.
Example:
Note: in the example above, the name of the country is indicated as US. This is a standardized two-letter ISO code for the United States of America. In Vancouver citation style, if a country needs to be indicated in a reference page entry, ISO codes need to be used. See a list of country codes here.
Note: in the example above, the author (the Committee) is listed the last after organizations, a part of which it comprises. The names of organizations are separated by commas.
Book authored by two or more organizations
If a book is written by two organizations, one of which is not part of the other one, separate their names with a semicolon (semicolons, if more than two organizations).
Example:
Chapter in an edited book
If a book includes texts by different authors, do not cite it as a single book. Instead, cite a certain section or chapter that you used. The reference page entry should include the name of the chapter’s author (or authors), the chapter’s title, the name of the book’s editor (or editors), and the name of the edited book.
Example:
Book without an author
If the author of a book is not mentioned, simply omit the author from the reference page entry. The same rules works for dictionaries.
Example:
Chapter or Part in an edited book (without known author)
The example presented below can also be applied when citing a contribution or a preface.
Example:
Note: when the cited part of a book does not have an individual author, the author statement is simply omitted.
Edition other than the first
Example:
Dictionary from a library-subscribed database
Example:
Hebephrenia is the term that is searched in the dictionary.