“Harvard style” and “Vancouver style” may refer to specific editorial styles or to general families of citation styles. The short answer to the question, then, is “yes and yes.”


Referenced works are typically cited according to one of two families of citation styles:

  1. Harvard-style citations – also known as author-date, name-date, or name-year citations – include the author’s surname(s) and the date of the referenced work; for example, “(Smith & Jones, 2014)” or “(Smith and Jones 2014)”.
  2. Vancouver-style citations – also known as numbered, author-number, or citation-sequence style – use numbers to link the in-text citations and end references; for example, “see [1] for more information.”


Harvard-style reference lists are typically unnumbered and alphabetized by author surname and year – although there are different conventions for even this piece of the bibliography. The publication date is also often placed at the beginning of the reference, as it plays an important role in the citation-reference relationship. Common Harvard reference styles include APA and Cell Press, both of which are supported by Edifix. Here are some examples:

APA 6th ed:

Smith, A. B., & Jones, C. D. (2014). Reference styles and other musings. J Citation Res, 1(5), 200–215.

Cell Press (Harvard):

Smith, A.B., and Jones, C.D. (2014). Reference styles and other musings. J Citation Res 1, 200–215.


Vancouver-style reference lists are numbered and sequenced in parallel with the in-text citation. In other words, the first citation will always be citation #1, which refers to reference #1. AMA (supported by Edifix) is a great example of an editorial style that uses Vancouver-style references:

AMA:

1. Smith AB, Jones CD. Reference styles and other musings. J Citation Res. 2014;1:200-215.


There is also a specific editorial style commonly called “Vancouver style” that has been adopted by the ICMJE Recommendations and is used by MEDLINE, PubMed, and many other scientific publications. This specific style is also known as “Citing Medicine”, “ICMJE style,” and “PubMed/NLM style.” This style is supported by Edifix and appears on the style menu as ICMJE (Citing Medicine/NLM). A reference Edifixed in the ICMJE style looks like this:

ICMJE:

1. Smith AB, Jones CD. Reference styles and other musings. JAMA. 2014;1:200–215.


In other words, Edifix supports both unnumbered (“Harvard”) and numbered (“Vancouver”) reference styles, as well as the Vancouver Style – or ICMJE . If your references are numbered, the numbers will not be removed, regardless of the style you select. Some styles, such as Chicago, can be used with both Harvard and Vancouver citations, and removing reference numbers may cause unintended confusion later when matching your bibliography to your project's citations.