Adding References

Introduction[edit | edit source]

Physiopedia uses the Vancouver style of referencing as this is the style used in most leading medical journals. When making or editing a page in Physiopedia and you have used an idea from a book, journal article, etc. you must acknowledge this in your text. This is referred to as ‘citing’. Each piece of work which is cited in your text should have a unique number assigned, in the order of citation, which is listed at the end of the page under the References heading. If you cite a piece of work more than once on a page, the same citation number should be used.

Read more about Referencing.

Adding the reference list[edit | edit source]

First you need to make sure that the reference list will appear at the end of the Physiopedia page. To make this happen you must insert this piece of code <references /> under the 'References' heading on the page. If it is not there, you will need to add it by following these instructions:

  1. Click on Edit in the toolbar at the top right corner of the page and select "Edit Source" from the drop-down menu.
  2. Scroll down to the References heading which will look like this: == References ==
  3. Underneath this heading paste this code: <references />. This is the source code that MUST be present for the reference list to appear.
  4. Click the Save Page button at the bottom of the page and your references should now appear.

To cite a piece of work[edit | edit source]

To cite a piece of work in Physiopedia, follow these instructions:

  1. Click on Edit in the toolbar at the top right corner of the page and select Edit from the drop-down menu.
  2. Once the text editor has loaded, click in the text to add the cursor to where you wish to put your reference.
  3. Once the cursor is in place, click on Cite link in the editing toolbar then select Basic from the drop-down menu.
  4. A new window will pop-up asking you to enter the reference information for the journal, book, video, etc that you used.
  5. When you are done entering the reference information using the Vancouver style of referencing, click on the blue Insert button at the top right corner of the window.
  6. The reference will now appear as a blue number in the area of text you referenced.
  7. Click on the blue Save Page button at the top right of the page. Your reference should now appear in the reference list.

To cite a piece of work more than once on the same page[edit | edit source]

If you wish to site the same piece of work for a different piece of text in the page, follow these instructions:

  1. While in the text editor (as stated above), click where you wish to put your reference to place your cursor, then click on Cite from the toolbar, and then select "Re-use" from the drop-down menu.
  2. A new window will pop-up with the reference you just made using the steps above being listed.
  3. Select the reference then click on the blue Insert button at the top right corner of the window.
  4. The reference will now appear as the same blue number in the area of text you referenced previously.
  5. Click on the blue Save Page button at the top right of the page.

Add a link[edit | edit source]

In Physiopedia, where possible, we always make the title of the reference a link to where the reference can be found online. See Making links

Top tips[edit | edit source]

While we do require that you follow the Vancouver style of referencing, you can choose different ways to create the actual text of the reference which you will then add when using the Cite function:

  1. Have the citation generated for you using a Google Scholar extension (aka Add-On) e.g. for Chrome or Firefox web browsers.
  2. Search for the article you're citing in pubmed.com, copy the information needed for the citation (at the top of the page) and paste into the Cite function box in Physiopedia. Rearrange the information to fit the Vancouver style of referencing.
  3. Copy a generic sample from the Vancouver Referencing page and paste it into the Cite function box in your Physiopedia article. Use this as a handy guide as you replace the generic text with the correct information for your specific citation. If you use this option, please follow the upper/lower case as provided in the sample to ensure accuracy in the referencing style.
  4. In the Vancouver style of referencing there are no rules whether this should be before or after punction!

Adding Citations in Edit Source Using Wikitext[edit | edit source]

To add references in Wikitext follow the steps below:

  1. you first need to add the wiki text for citations <ref name=
  2. choose a logical name for the reference i.e. ":0" or ":cite1" or ":authorname"
  3. then enter details of the citation to appear
  4. the final step is to add the closing statement </ref>
  • First occurrence of citation - <ref name=":0">Citation.</ref>
  • Following citations by the same author - <ref name=":0" />'''

Note: Each new citation must have a unique reference name

Useful links[edit | edit source]