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This question regards Vancouver referencing, though I suppose the issue could really arise regardless of what is contained in the in-text citation.

Consider the sentence:

As dogs are mammals they give birth to live young.

Clearly this is better separated:

As dogs are mammals, they give birth to live young.

But what if we feel the need to justify the statement that dogs are mammals?

As dogs are mammals [1], they give birth to live young.

Or:

As dogs are mammals, [1] they give birth to live young.

The former makes more sense to me - I intuitively would like the citation to be contained on the same side of the comma as the clause to which it relates.

But I have a feeling the latter is perhaps 'correct', and the comma should not surround the citation, just as it should not surround a parenthetical? (Which I do unashamedly anyway)

OJFord
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  • For what it's worth, Wikipedia puts the superscript after any comma etc: 'In the arts and sciences chemistry, geometry, surgery, the blues,[1] jazz, ...'(this format doesn't copy accurately). This article doesn't: 'Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Sample References (2),' – Edwin Ashworth Apr 27 '14 at 18:29
  • Referencing questions are not on topic and should be asked on the Writers site. – curiousdannii Jul 23 '14 at 07:34
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    Why dig up an old (and answer accepted) thread to say that? – OJFord Jul 23 '14 at 07:44
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    This question appears to be off-topic because Referencing questions are not on topic and should be asked on the Writers site – FumbleFingers Jul 23 '14 at 14:20
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    @FumbleFingers Well I didn't see you complaining 3 months ago when I asked it and got a good answer. – OJFord Jul 23 '14 at 16:20
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    @Ollie: I have never seen the point of questions asking about "citation style" on ELU, and have nothing but contempt for those who've voted to make How do you quote a passage that has used '{sic}' mistakenly? by far the most "interesting" question on the site. But I didn't know until a few days ago that writers.SE specifically welcomes such questions. – FumbleFingers Jul 23 '14 at 16:51
  • There are almost 40 thousand questions on this site and this one's only been viewed 36 times. It's not surprising that it wasn't closed as off topic when it originally was asked as it would've appeared on the front page for only a short time. Additionally I'm not sure if there was an official policy back then. (Even now it's not quite official, but there's been no disagreement on the Meta.) – curiousdannii Jul 24 '14 at 05:08
  • I would love to see the meta thread that decided retrospective closure due to recent not-quite-official policy changes was a good idea. – OJFord Jul 24 '14 at 09:23

1 Answers1

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According to page 2 of this Vancouver Style Guide, the citation in brackets should be placed after any commas and periods.

SEL
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