This format maintains the clear and accurate form of your writing without the parenthetical mess of names of authors and dates found in other referencing formats. This is due to what is required in the basics of the AMA style guide:
The writing in medical and health sciences has a bigger burden than the presentation of findings. Any assertion contained in a clinical publication, research document, or any other academic paper needs to be representative, verifiable, and referenced.
It is all on the quality of citation you do. Hence, the AMA citation guide with examples was developed to ensure the consistency, credibility, and standardization of all publications in the field.
This guide provides you with all the rules, templates, and confirmed examples you may require. The reference is the most useful part of this guide.
However, it is always validated against materials published by various reputable universities, complete with the benefit of being built entirely around the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition, published by Oxford University Press in 2020. Start the scrolling game and get a complete AMA style guide 2026.
The American Medical Association referencing style is technically a documentary-note style. AMA is one of the styles of documentation notes, i.e., a figure is added to text to refer to the information sources, the list of references is in number sequence. The core principles of the AMA 11th edition citation system are summarized in the table below that compares them side by side:
| AMA Style Feature | Current 11th Edition Rule |
| In-text citation format | Superscript numbers: ¹ ² ³ in order of first appearance |
| Reference list order | Numerical, by order of first citation in text |
| Author name format | Last name + initials, no periods, no spaces (Smith JA) |
| Journal title format | Abbreviated and italicized (N Engl J Med, JAMA) |
| Article and chapter titles | Sentence case, not italicized |
| Book titles | Italicized, sentence case |
| DOI format | doi:10.xxxx/xxxx, no trailing period |
| Publisher location | Not required in the 11th edition |
| Maximum authors before et al | List all if 6 or fewer; first 3 + et al if 7 or more |
| Second line of reference | Flush left, no hanging indent |
The AMA in-text citation system is founded on a single principle: each source that you refer to is assigned a distinct Arabic numeral the first time it is mentioned. And there is that number accompanying you everywhere in your paper. When your first referenced source is marked with the number ¹, it will remain ¹ in each and every instance when you reference it, be that in page 1 or page 20.
These superscript figures are comparatively small and elevated and placed close to the text they are anchoring such as this: Diabetes is afflicting over 37 million Americans and early diagnosis greatly helps to minimize the long-term complication.
No author name. No year. Just the number. Clear and straightforward, just medical literature should be read.
AMA has a superscript numbering system where it is used to endorse in-text citation. The superscript numerals avoid locating within periods and commas, and inside the colon and semicolons.
Correct placement of punctuation can be illustrated through the following cases under situations that frequently occur in writing:
The comma is placed before the superscript which is located outside the comma.
Two outcome measures were placed in the first plan; 30- day mortality and hospital readmission rate. The superscript is inside of the colon and appears before it.
The AMA cautions that you should not create a citation of a reference made in superscript right after a number, but asks you to amend the sentence in question to avoid any possible mistake of confusion with an exponent.
When the name of a researcher or author is appropriate to be mentioned in your sentence, the AMA in-text citation rules are not complicated. Last names only are used. The text body never contains first names, credentials or full names.
In a single-author study, Harrison 1 has shown that early nutritional intervention resulted in a shorter length of stay in the ICU of 2.4 days on average.
In the case of a source containing two authors
Harrison and Patel 2 displayed statistically significant changes in glycemic measures of patients after undergoing the re-organized diet protocol measures.
To use a source that has three or more authors
In the items that contain three or more authors, a surname of the first author followed by et al or and colleagues are to be used. Harrison et al 3 figure out that the altered method of surgery decreased the morbidity without prolongation of the operative period.
A significant point that catches out most authors
Anywhere using the AMA style, the translations et al., do not have a period after the a. This can be compared to a conscious difference with other citation styles and is to do with the AMA manual being sporadically punctual with its abbreviations.
Where to refer more than 2 consecutively use the hyphens, and where to refer to non-consecutively use commas without a space. The various meta-analyses of five separate trials have uniformly favored this protocol of intervention.
References must appear in numerical order based on their first mention in the text. Do not sort them alphabetically or by date and the order is dictated entirely by where each source first appears in the paper.
AMA reference list format is the form of bibliography which is numbered at the end of your paper as it provides the reader with all the information on the source you use in your text. The first page of your reference list must follow your paper. The numbers used in references are in the sequence they appear in the text. Indenting should not be done where the reference stretches to the second line.
The citation REFERENCES is written in all capital letters, bold, and in the left hand side. Every entry starts with the respective number with a period after it. Each citation is typed in a single space, and another blank line comes between entries. Core No two entries can have the same number, and all superscripts of the text cannot have more than one answer in this list.
Authors will be put in the format of last name, first, and middle initials without periods. A maximum of 6 names of the authors ought to be listed. A list of more than 6 authors, including the first 3 followed by et al.
Author names are separated by commas. There is no use of the word and between names. Below are the entries of author records with different numbers of authors in the proper format of the real style names:
In the AMA style, titles of articles and titles of chapters are always typed in sentence case. The only words, which are capitalized in the title, are the first one, proper nouns, e.g., the name of the disease, and drug names, and the first word after the colon. All other words will be kept small.
The titles of books are italicized and they also adhere to the lower case. The abbreviations in journals are italicized and capital letters are used in the abbreviation of major words.
Any AMA journal article citation must be of the official abbreviated name of the journal and not the complete name. The titles of journals are to be abbreviated in PubMed form and italicized. All major words in the title of the journal are to be capitalized.
| Full Journal Title | AMA Abbreviation |
| Journal of the American Medical Association | JAMA |
| New England Journal of Medicine | N Engl J Med |
| Annals of Internal Medicine | Ann Intern Med |
| British Medical Journal | BMJ |
| The Lancet | Lancet |
| Nature Medicine | Nat Med |
| Pediatrics | Pediatrics (single-word titles are not abbreviated) |
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a service used as an unchanging and unique location address of an online document. When available, AMA suggests the provision of a DOI. DOIs are the stable and long-lasting links to online articles. In case you are unable to locate a DOI of an article, please give the URL.
The right dressing rules of DOIs in AMA 11th edition citation are absolute:
Correct: doi:10.1001/jama.2020.12345
Wrong (full URL format): https://doi.org/10.1001/jamas.2020.12345
Wrong (trailing period): doi:/10.1001/jama.2020.12345.
In case of the unavailability of the DOI of a source, the complete URL and a date accessed. Where a DOI and URL are available, however, the DOI should be used.
When citing websites and online articles in AMA style, always link to the specific page that contains your information not the site's homepage and include an access date whenever a DOI is unavailable.
Template: Author(s). Title of article written in lowercase. Abbreviated Journal Name. Year;Volume(Issue):Pages. doi:xxxxx
Single author: Frank S. Developments in pharmacological therapy of Huntington disease. Drugs. 2010;70(5):561-571. doi:10.2165/11534430-000000000-00000
Two authors: Semple JW, Rebetz J. Transfusion-associated circulatory overload and transfusion-related acute lung injury. Blood. 2019;133(17):1840-1853. doi:10.1182/blood-2018-10-860809
Seven and above authors: Delaney M, Wendel S, Bercovitz RS, et al. Transfusion reactions: prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Lancet. 2016;388(10061):2825-2836. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01313-6
No DOI: Wheelis M. Investigating disease outbreaks under a protocol to the biological weapons convention, on line only. Emerg Infect Dis. 2000;6(6):595-600. Retrieved October 26, 2023. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/wheelis.htm
The example of AMA book citation is also simpler in the 11 th edition than earlier editions. The place of the publisher is not a reference anymore to books and reports. This eliminates the need to have city and state listed and then it makes the format much simpler.
Template: Author(s). Book Title in Sentence Case. Edition if applicable. Publisher; Year.
No edition in single author: Anderson KM. Promoting resilience among victims of family violence. Springer; 2010.
Edition: Bickley LS, Szilagyi PG, Bates B. Bates guide to physical examination and history taking. 13 th ed. Wolters Kluwer; 2021.
Edited book: Harvey RA, Ferrier DR, eds. Lippincott material reviews: biochemistry. 5 th ed. Wolters Kluwer health; 2011.
Online eBook: Modell AH. The meaningful brain and imagination. MIT Press; 2003. Obtained on October 31, 2023.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uic/docDetail.action?docID=10173553.
Citation of a book chapter will be done by specifying the editor and the author of the chapter separately. This is particularly widespread in pharmacy texts, clinical reference literature and edited medical handbooks.
Template: Chapter Author(s). Title of chapter in lower case. In: Editor(s), ed(s). Book Title. Edition. Publisher; Year:pages.
Manning DR, Blumenthal DK. Pharmacodynamics: molecular pharmacology. Dns ed. Brunton LL, Knollmann BC. Goodman and Gilman: the pharmacological basis of therapeutics. 14th ed. McGraw-Hill Education; 2023:45-68.
Example of a nursing source: Murphy K. The first line of defense: Innate immunity. In: Murphy K, Weaver C, eds. Janeways immunobiology. 10th ed. Garland science; 2022:37-73.
The In: connector is used to indicate the shift between the chapter level citation to the book level citation. This is a crucial aspect that should not be left out.
The reference to the AMA site is always directed to the particular page that has been referred to and not only the starting page of the site. Name of the author or or in the absence of an author, the name of the organization which has produced the site, title, name of the site, date of publishing, date updated, date accessed and the URL are all mandated components.
Name: Author or Organization. Title of specific page. Website Name. Published date. Updated date. Accessed date. URL.
Health agency of the government: Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. About chronic diseases. CDC. Updated June 15, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/index.htm
WHO organization source: The World Health Organization. Hand hygiene why, how and when. WHO. August 2009. Retrieved on August 12, 2023. https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/Hand_Hygiene_Why_How_and_When_Brochure.pdf.
No individual author: Compound summary of CID 146571: escitalopram oxalate. PubChem Compound Database. Retrieved on April 16, 2023. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/146571.
When an image, figure or table taken elsewhere is replicated in a paper, then it has to be quoted in two places.
Below in red print:
Figure 1. Description of image. Thing: ¹ (with the corresponding superscript number).
When listing all the references in the reference list, the original source should appear in the same format that the type of source demands whether it is a journal article, book, or a webpage.
When using institutional publications, which constitute a numbered series, e.g. WHO Technical Report Series or NIH monographs etc., a series name and a number are necessary to complete the citation.
Template: Author(s). Report Title. Series Name No. [number]. Publisher; Year.
Example: World Health Organization. Mental health atlas 2020. WHO Technical Report Series No. 1004. WHO; 2021. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240036704
In the event that a source does not feature any identifiable author, be it individual or organization, the citation in AMA format starts with the title of the article, page, or document. The remaining citation items are in the normal format of that type of source.
Cid 146571 escitalopram oxalate Compound summary. PubChem Compound Database. Fetched April 16, 2023. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/146571.
Organizations often write clinical practice guidelines, federal reports as well as institutional policy. The name of the entire organization is used as the start of the reference without abbreviations.
Case in point: American Medical Association. AMA manual of style: a guide to writing and editing. 11th ed. Oxford University Press; 2020.
An example is the National Institute of Mental Health. Suicide prevention. NIMH. Fetched May 1, 2025. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention.
In the case when the date of publication cannot be found, the line Publiced year unknown was written in the place where the year should be. In the case of a source to the web site that does not have a visible date, the accessed date will serve as the primary time point of reference.
Case in point: National Cancer Institute. Prevention of breast cancer (PDQ). NCI. Published year unknown. Read as of March 1, 2023. https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/hp/breast-prevention-pdq.
Journal supplements are mentioned in the normal style of journal articles with the supplement name written down with addition of the supplement name between the parenthesis after the volume number.
Weight: American Diabetes Association. Medical care in diabetes: 2023 standards. Diabetes Care. 2023;46(suppl 1):S1-S4. doi:10.2337/ dc23-Sint.
Since the AMA reference list format, appearance order is organized in sequence of the appearance in text instead of chronologically based on the authors name, there is no special rule that is used in case of multiple works of a single individual. All sources are given their own sequential numbers due to their appearances in the first instance alone, in the paper. Entry 4 and entry 19 may properly appear in the same entry on the same reference list and this is quite well consistent with the requirements of AMA 11 th edition citation.
The AMA Manual of Style is a vital resource to any medical, health and scientific publishing person. The chapter on References incorporates many updates, as well as the examples of how to refer to electronic publications, preprints, databases, repositories of data, podcasts, applications and interactive games, and social media.
This will bring your citation knowledge up to date in case you as a researcher and practitioner were working with older versions or based on outdated institutional guides.
Social media posts and comments lack titles, and in this case, the title is unavailable, but rather give the text of the post. Where you can, copy and paste emojis because you are using the same format, or write descriptively in square brackets where you can not.
Template: Post Author or username. Post title or text of post. Platform Name. Date of posting. Accessed date. URL.
Twitter/X example: @AMAManual. The explanation of the absence of using the s (possessive eponym) in AMA style can be heard in the JAMA podcast on the topic of Parkinson disease. Twitter. February 11, 2020. Last accessed on February 15, 2020. https://twitter.com/AMAManual/status/1227290871273525249.
Examples of Facebook page: Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Facebook page. Last accessed March 4, 2019. https://www.facebook.com/mayoclinicsportsmedicine.
According to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries, citations on social media should be taken with caution since some posts can be edited or deleted once viewed and thus the time of access is particularly important.
The main major creator may involve the podcast host. The name of the article in italics comes in the next line. The distributing or publishing organization comes after the title. The entry is complete with the date of publication, date of access when it is accessed over the internet and the URL when it is accessed over the internet.
Name: Host First Name Surname. Podcast Series Title. Episode title. Podcast. Month, Day, Year. Accessed date. URL.
Example: Mason J, Bavolek R. Placenta previa. Emergency Surgery Reviews and Views. October 1, 2018. Our of November 21, 2018.
https://www.emrap.org/episode/emrap20181/placentaprevia.
Mobile Apps
Mobile applications utilized in the clinic as drug reference or dosage calculators or diagnostic aids can be cited formally according to AMA guidelines in the 11th edition.
Template: version number app. Title. Developer or Publisher. Updated Month Year.
Version: CorePendium app. Version 1.24.2. EM:RAP. Updated February 2024.
The version number can be left out when referenced to the initial publication of an application.
Preprints
Arranging of preprinted articles takes several forms, including those that are officially referred to as preprints, to those that are considered early unedited manuscripts. Note that articles that are preprinted are usually not edited, unformatted, and are not always checked by other professionals in the same field to be accurate. Always make reference to the one luxuriously used.
Sample: Riad R, Denais M, de Gennes M, et al. Automated speech analysis to identify at risk depression, anxiety, insomnia, and fatigue: algorithm development and validation study. medRxiv. Published April 30, 2024. Accessed March 19, 2026. doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4302115/v1
Package Inserts
The standard reference citations used in writing pharmacy and clinical pharmacology are drug package inserts and prescribing information documents. St. This format of prescribing information is confirmed by the pharmacy citation guide created by John Fisher University.
Name: Drug Name( package insert). Manufacturer; Year.
Case Scenario: Azilect [ package insert]. Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc; 2014.
URL Example: ZITHROMAX [package insert]. Pfizer; 2022. Retrieved on July 1, 2025. labeling.pfizer.com/showlabeling.aspx?id=513.
One of the most common problems identified during the manuscript peer review and academic submission feedback is citation errors. The following are the errors recorded in various university library guides and other editorial sources and they all can be rectified once the rule behind the mistake is known.
The AMA style of reference listing is in a strict sequence of first mention in the text only. Alphabetical order breaks the basic framework of the AMA system.
To add the location of the publisher of books. Publishers location is no longer recommended by the AMA in inclusion of print resources. It is inappropriate to write New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2020 in accordance with the AMA 11th edition citation standards. This is just a simple format: Oxford University Press; 2020.
It is necessary to place a period after a DOI or a URL. It is a mistake that compromises the hyperlinks and opposes the directive in the 11th edition. Each reference entry has no period or URL added to it at the end, irrespective of regular sentence punctuation patterns.
Putting citation numbers in parentheses. Including citation numbers in parentheses such as (1) is considered one of the most common errors, and followed the APA or Chicago styles. AMA style implies the use of superscript numbers with no punctuation marks being used around them.
Putting the superscript preceding a period. Other students wrongly insert the superscript numbers before the periods or commas. The superscripts are always to be placed after words such as periods and commas but before other words such as colon and semicolons in AMA style.
Formatting Errors
AMA citation in article and chapter titles is only in the form of a sentence. It is wrong to capitalize all the major words, as is commonly used in search results on databases, and manually edit it before it could enter a reference list.
Inserting spaces between the initials of authors. "Smith J.A." is incorrect. This is the proper format of the AMA style format Smith JA, no periods and no spaces between the initials. This is applicable in all entries of authors.
The resources below provide the translation of the rules in this AMA citation guide with examples that shows how easily accessible writing and academic writing tools used on the daily basis. Regardless of whether the project is a graduate research paper, a clinical paper, or a pharmacy school assignment, such materials save time during formatting and do away with some unfeasible mistakes.
Learning the AMA citation guide is not an effort of memorization. It is concerning the creation of such credibility that health sciences writing requires. A properly created reference adds weight to your research, helps to prove your point, and demonstrates your professionalism as a medical or healthcare practitioner. This guide can become your reference point every time, the AMA 11th edition guidelines may be used at all times, and your references will never hold your work back.
The font formatting of the AMA style guide is when the text contains a superscript number, and a corresponding reference list whose entries are numbered sequentially appears at the end of the paper. APA has (Author, Year) parentheses and an alphabetically arranged reference list. MLA has (Author page) citations that have a Works Cited page.
Inject "Accessed Month Day, Year" to websites and online sources that lack a DOI. In cases where the journal article has a DOI, an access date is not needed since the DOI offers a permanent and fixed linkage to the article.
Name the first 3 authors in the last and first name and add et al. The case in point: Lee H, Kim S, Park J, et al. This applies to all forms of sources during the AMA 11th edition citation format, such as journal articles, books, book chapters, and reports.
It is a reused number that is used every time citing that source. A source that is first mentioned as 3 is 3 throughout the paper. That source is considered to be used at only one position (3) in the reference list, even though it might have been mentioned in the text many times.
Sources
Christiansen SL, Iverson C, Flanagin A, et al. AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors. 11th ed. Oxford University Press, 2020.
University of North Florida Thomas G. Carpenter Library. "AMA 11th Edition Citation Guide." UNF LibGuides, libguides.unf.edu/AMA11thEdition. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
Nova Southeastern University Library. "11th Edition AMA Citation Style Basics." NSU Library Guides, libguides.nova.edu/ama11. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
West Virginia University Libraries. "AMA Citation Style Guide: 11th Edition." WVU Research Guides, libguides.wvu.edu/ama. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
Murray State University Library. "AMA 11th Edition: How to Cite Your Sources." Murray State LibGuides, lib.murraystate.edu/cite/AMA. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
Massachusetts General Hospital IHP Library. "What's New in the 11th Edition?" MGH Library Guides, libguides.massgeneral.org/AMA/new. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
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