Vancouver reference lists

(BJPsych Bulletin/BJPsych International/BJPsych Open/BJPsych)

References are placed in a numbered list at the end of each paper. Reference details must be given in
full in each entry.

Author names should be presented with the surname first, followed by the initials (closed up, without
full points).
Example: Watson GP, Edwards EF,…

Give six author names before et al in every instance.

For quotes and references where a page number is needed, please create an individual reference for
each citation of a page number rather than citing the page number in text. For example, if there are two
quotes from different pages in the same book, create two separate references in the list, one for each
page number.

Journal articles
Journal names are set in italics and abbreviated as in the Index Medicus.

Authors. Article title. Journal Title year; volume: page range (elided) or article number.

Examples: Soni SD, Mallik A, Mbatia J, Shrimankar J. Late paraphrenia. Br J Psychiatry 1988; 152: 719–
20.
Viding E, Frick P, Plomin R. Aetiology of the relationship between callous-unemotional traits
and conduct problems in childhood. Br J Psychiatry 2007; 190(suppl 49): s33–8.
Meakin CJ, King DA, White J, Scott JM, Handley H, Griffiths A, et al. Screening for depression
in the medically ill. J Nerv Ment Dis 1991; 12: 45–53.

Articles that do not have a page range or article number can be presented in one of the following ways,
depending on the type of reference:

Preprints (articles that are published online pre-peer review)

Cecchetti A, Bhardwaj N, Murughiyan U, Kothakapu G, Sundaram U. Appalachian informatics platform: a
multicentric data warehouse with embedded data analytics and interactive visualization for clinical and
translational research. To be published in J Med Internet Res [Preprint] 2020. Available from:
https://www.jmir.org/preprint/17962 [cited 27 Jan 2020].
or
Kording KP, Mensh B. Ten simple rules for structuring papers. BioRxiv [Preprint] 2016. Available from:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/088278v5 [cited 9 Feb 2017].

[Note that BioRxiv and ArXiv are preprint sites, so ‘To be published in’ should not be included for these.]
Epubs (articles published online that haven’t yet been put into an issue)
Huo L, Zhang G, Du X-D, Jia Q, Qian Z-K, Chen D, et al. The prevalence, risk factors and clinical correlates
of diabetes mellitus in Chinese patients with schizophrenia. Schizophr Res [Epub ahead of print] 24 Jan
2020. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2019.12.029.

[We can include a ‘cited’ date for these in the same style as preprints.]

DOIs in references
Soni SD, Mallik A, Mbatia J, Shrimankar J. Late paraphrenia. Br J Psychiatry 1988; 152. Available from:
https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.152.5.719.

Books
Authors. Book Title edition (only include the edition number if it is not the first edition). Publisher, year.

Examples: Thornicroft GJ. Shunned: Discrimination Against People with Mental Illness. Oxford
University Press, 2006.
Lezak M, Howieson D, Loring D. Neuropsychological Assessment 2nd ed. Oxford
University Press, 2004.

Chapter in book
Authors (of the specific chapter/section to be cited). Title of chapter/section. In Book Title (ed(s) A
Name): chapter number/page range. Publisher, year.

Examples: Casey P. Alternatives to abortion and hard cases. In Swimming Against the Tide (ed AB
Kennedy): 86–95. Open Air Books, 1997.
Clay SW, Conatser RR. Maintenance of competence and/or recertification: policy
considerations. In The Certification and Recertification of Doctors: Issues in the
Assessment of Clinical Competence (eds D Newble, B Jolly, R Wakeford): Ch. 2.
Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Edited books:
Editor name, ed. Book Title. Publisher, year.

Example: Thornicroft GJ, ed. Shunned: Discrimination Against People with Mental Illness. Oxford
University Press, 2006.

Foreign-language citations
If a reference is written in a foreign language, supply an English translation and include this in square
brackets after the foreign version.
Example: Fioritti A, Melega V. Psichiatria forense in Italia, una storia ancora da scrivere. [Italian
forensic psychiatry: a story to be written.] Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale 2000; 9:
219–226.
Citations of Freud and other reprinted material
Example: Freud S. On the history of the psychoanalytical movement. Reprinted (1953–1974) in
the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (trans. &
ed. J Strachey), vol. 14, p. 16. Hogarth Press, 1914.

Law reports
Law reports are usually collected at the end of the reference list, end of the list, under the B-Head
‘Cases’. The year is often, but not always, in square brackets.

A full point is not used after v in law reports (this is in contradiction to house style for v. in ordinary
text).

Italics are used for the case, both in the text and in the reference list.

Examples: Re F (Mental Patient: Sterilisation) [1990] 2 AC 1.

Naylor v Preston AHA [1987] 1 WLR 958.
Re X (1987) Times, 4 June.
R v Secretary of State for Social Services ex parte Guirguis [1989] 1 Med LR 17.

Software
For the software packages most commonly used (any Microsoft product, SPSS and Stata) we just require
the product name, version (or release year) and platform to be cited in the text. No reference is required
in the reference list.

Example: ‘Analyses were performed using Stata version 9 for Windows’.

For any other (more obscure) software, we need the above information along with the name and
location of the manufacturer and a URL where the product may be downloaded or purchased (i.e.
enough information for a reader who is unfamiliar with the software to easily find out more). This is best
presented within the text, rather than as a reference.

Example: ‘…data from each study were entered into the RevMan 4.2 for Windows program
(Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, UK; see http://www.cc-
ims.net/RevMan/current.htm)’.

Doctoral theses
Unpublished doctoral theses may be cited (please state department or faculty, university and degree).

Name A. PhD thesis, Department or Faculty, University, year.

Example: Doyle P. Social climate and staff based interventions in forensic mental health settings.
D Clin Psychol doctoral thesis School of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 2016.
Online material
Author name. Page Title/Document Name. Publisher, year (URL [cited]).

Cited dates are optional. If you’d like to include cited dates in online references, make it consistent
throughout the paper (for all online material that isn’t a PDF).

Example: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). PhRMA Guiding

Principles on Direct to Consumer Advertisements About Prescription Medications.
PhRMA, 2005 (http://www.phrma.org/publications/policy//2005-08-02.1194.pdf [cited
25 Jun 2020]).

When a website is referenced as a resource, the URL should be cited in the text only. When a specific
document available online is referred to, treat the text citation in the same way as for a printed
reference.

Twitter:
Example: Lamb N. Serious concerns in the #mentalhealth sector that NICE's draft guideline on
Depression is not fit for purpose & could have a damaging impact on patient care.
@NICEcomms must reconsider! Important cross-party letter with @lucianaberger
@Helen_Whately @DrLisaCameronMP & others. 19 July 2018 [cited December 2018].
Available from: https://twitter.com/normanlamb/status/1019955921164828672.

Conferences
Unpublished conference presentations are not permissible in the reference list. Please see ‘Unpublished
material’ section below for details on how to cite unpublished references. Published conferences can be
included.

Author name. Presentation/paper title. Conference Name (Location, date). Publisher, publication year.

Example: Jones D. Developing big business. Large Firms Policy and Research Conference
(University of Birmingham, 18–19 Dec 1999). Institute for Large Businesses, 1999.

Unpublished material (personal communications)

References to unpublished lectures, documents not available to the reader or papers/books submitted
but not yet accepted for publication are not permissible. Unpublished doctoral theses may be cited. If
the unpublished source is written by one of the present authors, replace with ‘(details available from the
author on request)’. If you cannot find a corresponding published reference, the reference in the text
should read ‘(A. Name, personal communication, year)’. There should be no entry in the reference list.
No other citation of unpublished work, including unpublished conference presentations, is permissible.

Personal communications need written authorisation (email is acceptable) from the reference’s author.
Publications ‘in press’
Some references have details available but haven’t yet been published. If the year of publication is
known, but project is still in press, cite in text as ‘Smith, 2014 [or current year]’ and in reference list as a
standard reference, but end with ‘in press’ for a journal, and ‘(in press)’ for a book.

Example: Smith P. Non-medical prescribing in practice. BJPsych Bulletin, 2014, in press.

Williams A. Advances in Non-Medical Prescribing in Mental Health. RCPsych
Publications, 2014 (in press).

Psychometric instruments
All psychometric instruments (rating scales, questionnaires) should be referenced, unless they are
mentioned in the context of another reference in the list.
Common examples: ICD-10: World Health Organization. The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and
Behavioural Disorders: Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines (2nd edn).
WHO, 2004.
DSM-V: American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (5th edn). APA, 2013.

Cochrane publications
Cochrane references are usually to the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews or the Cochrane
Library, two different products from the Cochrane Collaboration (www.cochrane.org/). CD numbers can
be found on PubMed.

Example: Berner MM, Hagen M, Kriston L. Management of sexual dysfunction due to

antipsychotic drug therapy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2007; 1:
CD003546.
Neufeld H, Branca F. Centralised access to evidence-informed nutrition actions
(editorial). Cochrane Library, 7 Sep (http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/details/
editorial/1336829/Centralisedaccess-to-evidence-informed-nutrition-actions.html).