AMA Style (11th ed): Citing Your Sources

The American Medical Association (AMA) style was created by editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). AMA style specifies writing and citation styles for scholarly works in medicine. AMA style is internationally recognized and is used throughout disciplines in the health sciences. The AMA Manual of Style was first published in 1963, and is currently in its 11th edition (2020).

This guide includes some basic and common citation styles, condensing nearly 200 pages of print content covering citing and referencing in AMA Style. Consult the full 1200 page AMA Manual of Style for significantly more detail on citing, referencing, writing, and manuscript styling.

Unlike other publication manuals, the AMA Manual of Style provides a range of acceptable citation practices, explains the purpose of each practice, and allows the writer/editor to make choices that make sense for their specific project.

Because of this element of choice, the person who is grading your citations as part of your school work, or the editors reviewing your article submission, are the only people who can decide if an AMA formatted citation is "correct." The examples here include only the most basic and general AMA citation rules. If you are writing for a class or for publication, follow any specific rules you have been provided. If you have not been provided specific rules beyond "use AMA style,"  try to consider what style choices you could make to conform to the ultimate goals of any citation style: communicate to the reader that you selected a relevant and authoritative source for this fact/quote/idea, and allow the reader to find the specific source you are citing.

Review this guide for commonly used reference styles; review the full Manual for all styles and manuscript styling.