This is the Vancouver style for referencing, used at the Univerity of Portsmouth within the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and the Radiography departments.
This guide is modelled on Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (2nd edition). You may wish to consult this source directly for additional information or examples.
Figures could be photographs, drawings, illustrations, charts, graphs or any other non-textual depiction.
Tables are characterised by row and column structure and are listed separately.
Both figures and tables should serve a purpose in your work rather than be purely illustrative.
Do I need to include a List of Tables and Figures?
No, if your assignment does not have a Contents page, which is likely if you are writing an essay.
Yes, if your assignment has a Contents page, which is likely if you are writing a dissertation or other major project.
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
Table 1 Responses of participants regarding basic knowledge of COVID-19
Table 2 Comparison of radiology students and general public regarding knowledge of COVID-19
Table 3 Alternative therapies offered by top hospitals
Figures
Figure 1 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for model predicting in mental health
Figure 2 Structure of the gastrointestinal membrane
How do I incorporate tables and figures into my assignment?
- Copy the table or figure exactly as found in the original source, unless you need to adapt it.
- Number tables/figures consecutively in Arabic numerals (Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2 etc) as they appear in your assignment/dissertation - do not use the table/figure numbers given in the original work(s).
- Table and figure titles can be located either above or below the table or figure, but keep it consistent in your work.
- Acknowledge the original source in the caption or notes directly underneath the table/figure.
- Captions should be capitalised in sentence style.
- Add credit lines as required by the copyright holder. Copyright holder may be the publisher, author/s or artists.
Refer to the figure or table by the figure or table number and tell your reader what to look out for, e.g. “The image in Figure 2 shows the structure of the gastrointestinal membrane in relation to extracellular fluid” or “Table 1 illustrates that 86% of radiology students believe that radiology has an important role in diagnosing COVID-19”.
Example of a table taken from an online journal article
Note the superscript 1 in the above example is your in-text citation number, and signposts the reader to item number 1 on your Reference list (see the end of this guide for the full reference list).
Example of a figure taken from an online journal article
Example of a figure taken from an electronic book
Note the superscript 2 and superscript 3 in the figure examples given above are your in-text citation numbers, and signpost the reader to item numbers 2 and 3 on your reference list (see the end of this guide for the full reference list).
What if I have adapted a figure or table from the original source?
Use ‘Adapted from’ in the citation if you have adapted or changed the table.
Example of an adapted table
The superscript 1 in the above example is your in-text citation number, and will signpost the reader to item number 1 on your Reference list, where they can find details of the original table.
What if I have amalgamated several sources into one figure or table?
Use ‘Data from’ in the citation if you have used multiple sources to create your own table.
Example of a table you have created
Note the superscript 4,5,6 in the above example will signpost the reader to sources 4,5 and 6 on your Reference list (see the end of this guide for the full reference list).
Referencing tables and figures in your reference list
When referencing, follow the format of the reference type you are using, such as an academic journal article or an electronic book.
The list below is an example of a reference list that uses the tables and figures from the examples given in the guidance sections above.
Reference List
1. Alahmadi AAS, Abdeen RH. Awareness of using radiology in diagnosing COVID-19 among radiological students. J Educ Elearn Res [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2021 Aug 27];8(1): 34-41. Table 2, Responses of the participants regarding basic knowledge of COVID-19; p.37. Available from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1289389
2. Kabore JL, Saidi H, Dassieu L, Choiniere M, Page MG. Predictors of long-term opioid effectiveness in patients with chronic non-cancer pain attending multidisciplinary pain treatment clinics: A Quebec Pain Registry study. Pain Pract [Internet]. 2020 Jul [cited 2021 Aug 25];20(6):588-99. Figure 3, Area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the model predicting improvement in mental health– related quality of life at 12-month follow-up; p.594. Available from: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cmedm&AN=32187793&site=eds-live
3. Aulton ME, Taylor K, editors. Aulton's Pharmaceutics: the design and manufacture of medicines [Internet]. 5th ed. Edinburgh: Elsevier; 2018 [cited 2021 Jun 16]. Figure 19.8, Structure of the gastrointestinal membrane; p.310. Available from: https://elsevierelibrary.co.uk/pdfreader/aultons-pharmaceutics-ebook
4. National Health Service. Complementary and alternative medicine [Internet]. United Kingdom: National Health Service; 2017 [Updated 2018 Dec 11; cited 2021 Aug 27]. Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/contact-us/contacts-for-professionals/
5. Roberts M. UK’s largest alternative medicine hospital to stop offering NHS-funded homeopathy [Internet]. Manchester: Cognitive Publishing Ltd; 2018 Mar 14 [cited 2021 Aug 27]. Available from: https://www.nationalhealthexecutive.com/News/uks-largest-alternative-medicine-hospital-to-stop-offering-nhs-funded-homeopathy
6. Raby A. Complementary therapies [Internet]. United Kingdom: BUPA; 2021 [cited 2021 Aug 27]. Available from: https://www.bupa.co.uk/health-information/complementary-therapies/complementary-therapies