The author's surname and year of publication are inserted in the text whenever a source is cited. In the author-date system the list of references is arranged alphabetically by author's surname, year and letter, and is placed at the end of the work. The Vancouver system is a numbering system used in many biomedical sciences journals. References are numbered in the text in the order in which they appear. They are then collected together in numerical order at the end of the chapter, book or periodical article.
Numbers appear in the text either in parentheses or superscript.
The Vancouver system adopts a specific sequence for presentation of the elements of the reference. It also specifies formatting conventions. Document by the Vancouver Group on uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. For further information check out the Preparing and Quoting References guide. Right A guide produced by staff at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle.