Skip to Main Content

Citation Styles: AMA Style

Anyone who writes and researches in the academic environment must be able to use the citation style for that particular discipline. This guide will give basic information of how and why various citation styles are used.

How do I Cite? AMA 11th Edition

In-text Citations

Use Arabic superscript numerals outside periods and commas, inside colons and semicolons. When more than 2 references are cited at a given place in the manuscript, use hyphens to join the first and last numbers of a closed series; use commas without spaces to separate other parts of a multiple citation.

As previously,1,3–8,19
The derived data were as follows3,4:


Reference List

  • References are listed numerically in the order they are cited in the text. Two references should not be combined under a single reference number.
  • Use the author's surname followed by initials without periods or spaces. The names of all authors should be given unless there are more than 6, in which case the names of the first 3 authors are used, followed by “et al.” Do not use and between names.
  • References to material not yet accepted for publication or to personal communications (oral, written, and electronic) are not acceptable and instead should be included parenthetically in the text.
  • Abbreviate and italicize names of journals. Use initial capital letters. Abbreviate according to the listing in the PubMed Journals database.
  • In article titles, capitalize only the first letter of the first word, proper names, and abbreviations that are ordinarily capitalized in the reference.

Print Article

Author(s). Title. Journal Name. Year;vol(issue #):inclusive pages. 

Lissarassa YPS, Vincensi CF, Costa-Beber LC, et al. Chronic heat treatment positively impacts metabolic profile of ovariectomized rats: association with heat shock response pathways. Cell Stress Chaperones. 2020;25(3):467-479.
 

Online Journal 

When the DOI is provided, it is preferable to cite it rather than the URL. The DOI is provided immediately after “doi:” with no spaces. If there is no DOI, then include the URL and accessed date for articles accessed electronically.

Author(s). Title. Journal Name. Year;vol(issue #):inclusive pages. DOI. 

Wheelis M. Investigating disease outbreaks under a protocol to the biological and toxin weapons convention. Emerg Infect Dis. 2000;6(6):595-600. Accessed October 26, 2010. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/wheelis.htm.

Lissarassa YPS, Vincensi CF, Costa-Beber LC, et al. Chronic heat treatment positively impacts metabolic profile of ovariectomized rats: association with heat shock response pathways. Cell Stress Chaperones. 2020;25(3):467-479. doi: 10.1007/s12192-020-01087-z.

Book in Print

Author(s). Book Title. Volume # and title. Edition #. Publisher name; copyright year.

Walker J, Pollard, J, Murray E. Methods in Molecular Biology. Volume 2. Humana Press; 1984.


eBook

Author(s). Book Title. Volume # and title. Edition #. Publisher name; copyright year. Accessed date. URL.

Modell AH. Imagination and the Meaningful Brain. MIT Press; 2003. Accessed October 31, 2010. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uic/docDetail.action?docID=10173553.


Chapter from a Book

Author(s). Chapter title. In: Editor(s). Book Title. Edition number. Publisher name; copyright year:inclusive pages.

Sisk JE. Cardiac catheterization. In: Krapp K, ed. The Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing & Allied Health. Gale Group; 2002:407-412. 

NOTE: If the chapter is from an eBook, included the accessed date and URL at the end of the citation.


Book with Editors

Armitage JO, Antman KH, eds. High-dose Cancer Therapy: Pharmacology, Hematopoietins, Stem Cells. Williams & Wilkins; 1995.

Website

Author(s) (or, if no author is available, the name of the group responsible for the site). Title of the specific item (or, if no title is available, the name of the organization responsible for the site). Name of the Web site. Date published. Date updated. Date Accessed. URL. 

U.S. National Library of Medicine. Back Pain. MedlinePlus. n.d. Updated April 30, 2020. Accessed May 14, 2020. https://medlineplus.gov/backpain.html

King MW. Carbohydrate Nomenclature. The Medical Biochemistry Page. Updated April 2, 2020. Accessed June 3, 2020. http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org.


Online Reference

Amoxicillin. Micromedex. Truven Health Analytics; 2020. Updated June 2, 2020. Accessed July 22, 2020. http://www.micromedexsolutions.com/micromedex2/librarian#

Examples and information have been pulled from University of Washington AMA Style Guide and University of Illinois AMA Style Sheet.