• 3-minute read
• 6th December 2019

How to Cite an Ebook in Vancouver Referencing

We’re not ready to write off paper yet, but we have to admit that ebooks have made life simpler for students. They’re often cheaper, for one thing. And they’re much easier to carry around all day than heavy paper books. But how exactly do you cite an ebook using Vancouver referencing?

How to Cite an Ebook with Vancouver Referencing

Vancouver referencing is a number–note system. You therefore give citations as bracketed numbers in the main text, with full source details included in a reference list at the end of your document.

Sources should be numbered in the order you first cite them. This means you indicate the first source with the number one in brackets, the second with the number two, etc. You will then add all sources you cite to a reference list in the same order. For example, we could cite an ebook as follows:

Paranormal activity has been recorded throughout history (1).

Here, the (1) shows that we’re citing the first source in the reference list.

You will usually give citations at the end of a clause like the one above. However, this changes when you name the author in the text, in which case you give the citations immediately afterwards. In addition, when quoting a source, include a page number after the quote:

Dr Spengler (2) writes that “this is the last unexplored frontier in science” (p. 4).

If you need to cite a source more than once, just use the same number as you did the first time you cited it (i.e., its position in the reference list).

Adding an Ebook to Your Reference List

A reference list is a list of all the sources you cited in your document. These should be listed in the same order as you first cited them in the text, so the entry number will match the citation number for each source.

The information required for an ebook is as follows:

• Citation number (i.e., the number used for the first citation)
• Author surname and initials
• Book title
• Edition (if not first)
• Place of publication
• Publisher
• Year of publication
• A URL or database where the book can be found
• Date ebook was accessed

The basic format for referencing ebooks is therefore:

(Citation Number) Surname Initial(s). Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher; year Available from: database or URL [Accessed date].

The reference list entry for an ebook should look like this:

(1) Venkman P. The Science of Extrasensory Perception. New York: Columbia University Press; 1984 Available from: www.paranormalarchive.net/books/venkman-science-extrasensory-perception.html [Accessed July 17, 2018].

Check Your Style Guide

Vancouver referencing can vary between versions (e.g., how citations are presented). As such, you should always check your style guide to make sure which system to use. And if you’re not following a style guide, just make sure to cite sources as clearly and consistently as possible!

And if you’d like an expert to check your referencing, along with every other aspect of your writing, you can try our proofreading services for free!