AMA Style Guide

The biggest change in citations from the previous AMA guide to the current 11th edition is that book citations no longer need to include the publisher's location. 

• When citing a book that has editors, use the abbreviation "ed" or "eds" after their names.
• If you are unable to find any information about a publisher, use "publisher unknown" in place of the publisher's name.
• If you are unable to find a publication year, use "date unknown" in place of the year.

Print Books:

Six (or fewer) authors

Author AA, Author BB. Title. Publisher; Year.

1. Sacks O. Hallucinations. Alfred A Knopf; 2012.

Six (or fewer) editors

Editor AA, Editor BB, eds. Title. Publisher; Year.

1. Etzel RA, Balk SJ, eds. Pediatric Environmental Health. American Academy of Pediatrics; 2011.

Greater than six editors with multiple editions

Editor AA, Editor BB, Editor CC, et al, eds. Title. Edition. Publisher; Year.

1. Adkinson NF Jr, Bochner BS, Burks W, et al, eds. Middleton’s Allergy: Principles and Practice. 8th ed. Saunders; 2014.

eBooks:

The same citation structure applies as for print books with the addition of the accessed date and a URL. Note that there is no period after the URL.

Six (or fewer) authors with multiple editions

Author AA, Author BB. Title. Edition. Publisher; Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. Guyatt G, Rennie D, Meade MO, Cook DJ. Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice. 3rd ed. McGraw-Hill Education; 2015. Accessed August 15, 2016. https://jamaevidence.mhmedical.com/book.aspx?bookID=847

Advanced book citations can be found here.

Citations for journal articles require National Library of Medicine (NLM) abbreviations for journal titles.  You can search for the journal abbreviation through the NLM Database.

Print Journals:

Six (or fewer) authors

Author AA, Author BB. Title of article: subtitle. Approved Journal Abbreviation. Year;volume(issue):pages.

1. Wolf BM, Herrmann M, Zubler I, Brandstätter V. Action crises in personal goals compromise recovery during physical therapy. Motiv Sci. 2019;5(2)179-184.

Greater than six authors

Author AA, Author BB, Author CC, et al. Title of article: subtitle. Approved Journal Abbreviation. Year;volume(issue):pages.

1. Ford GA, Bhakta BB, Cozens A, et al. Safety and efficacy of co-careldopa as an add-on therapy to occupational and physical therapy in patients after stroke (DARS): a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet Neurol. 2019;18(6)530-538.

Online Journals:

The citation style rules above still apply.  The distinction in a citation for an online journal is that you include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or a persistent URL.  Note there is no period after a DOI or URL.

With a DOI

Author AA, Author BB. Title of article: subtitle. Approved Journal Abbreviation. Year;volume(issue):pages. doi:10.xxx/xxx

1. Obama B. United States healthcare reform: progress to date and next steps. JAMA. 2016;316(5):525-532. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.9797

Without a DOI

Author AA, Author BB. Title of article: subtitle. Approved Journal Abbreviation. Year;volume(issue):pages. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. Meeker D, Linder JA, Fox CR, et al. Effect of behavioral interventions on inappropriate antibiotic prescribing among primary care practices: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2016;315(6):562-570. Accessed June 18, 2019. https://www.jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2488307

Advanced journal citations can be found here.

AMA does not recommend citing AI software such as ChatGPT as the creator/author of any material, as software does not qualify for "authorship" (it is not human and does not posess independant thought).

If you use AI software to generate content that is included in an assignment, in text you should explain that you have used a particular software tool to do so, and provide a citation for the software:

Software Name. Version no. Publisher; Year. Accessed Date. URL

For example:

ChatGPT¹ was used to generate patient information sheets, which were then checked for quality and corrected as necessary.

1. ChatGPT. Version Mar 14. OpenAI; 2023. Accessed March 28, 2023. https://openai.com/

Note: The way software companies identify the version of the software you are using differs from company to company. In the ChatGPT example above, the versioning used by ChatGPT was a date, rather than a version number.

The example below shows how to cite software with more detailed version information. It is also an example of softwared installed on your computer (as opposed to web-based software):

Microsoft Excel for Microsoft 365 MSO. Version 2208, Build 16.0.15601.20540. Microsoft; 2023.

When citing a website, include as much information as possible.  Always include the accessed date and double-check your URL before finalizing your papers.  No period after a URL at the end of the citation.

Websites with named author

Author AA. Webpage name. Website Name. Month Day, Year. Updated Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year.  URL

1. Charlton G. Internal linking for SEO: examples and best practices. SearchEngineWatch. Accessed February 10, 2016. https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2428041/internal-linking-for-seo-examples-and-best-practices

Websites with no named author

Webpage name. Website Name. Month Day, Year. Updated Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

1. Zika travel information. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. January 26, 2016. Updated August 11, 2016. Accessed June 18, 2019. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-travel-information

More electronic citations can be found here.