AMA Citation Style
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From the 10th edition
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Begin page numbers on title page. Only use one numbering
system throughout, including appendices and other end material.
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Use numerals instead of text for most numbers, except ordinals
like “first” through “ninth; numbers used like pronouns (e.g.,
“one” or “one’s”); fractions; numbers that begin sentences, titles, or
headings, numbers spelled out in quotations.
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Drop punctuation for abbreviations like Rev, Corp, Dr, J Lab Clin
Med, FDA, MD, Inc, 6 lb 4oz
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Don’t cite unpublished works and personal communication like
social media posts, email, or phone interviews. They are cited only
in parenthesis in-text, not on the reference list
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Block quotations are single-spaced with extra space before and
after the quotation. No quotation marks are used. They are
indented the same as a paragraph indentation. Use for more than 4
lines of quoted material
Some AMA writing conventions
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Sources are numbered in order of their appearance in the text and on the
Reference page.
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Superscript numerals in text at the end of the borrowed material indicates the
source on the Reference Page.
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Superscript numerals are placed outside periods and commas,1 and inside colons
and semi-colons2; this is not intuitive.3
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Authors’ names are as follows.
 Lastname AB. No periods, no spaces between initials.
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Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns in the article titles. No quotation
marks are used, unless title has internal quotation marks.
 Duration of antibiotic therapy for early Lyme disease.
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Date appears after title, not after author, as in APA
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Italicize journals, and put issue numbers in parenthesis after the volume number.
 The Journal of American Medicine 2000;109(9):481-488
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No spaces between year, volume, number, page numbers. See example above.
General information
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Of the respondents, 95% felt that discharge
arrangements were adequately explained to them.4
Further examination of the data in this study revealed
other significant discrepancies.4(275) Similar
discrepancies were noted in the aforementioned studies
by the 2 teams of researchers in Australia and New
Zealand.2,3
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Note: If a source is cited more than once, give the
number of the original reference; then include the
page number in parenthesis where the information
was found in subsequent citations for that source.
In-text example
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Book
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Journal article
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4. Gage BF, Fihn SD, White RH. Management and dosing of warfarin therapy. The
American Journal of Medicine. 2000;109(6):481-488. doi: 10.1016/S00029343(00)00545-3
Electronic journal without doi
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3. Geller AC, Venna S, Prout M, et al. Should the skin cancer examination be
taught in medical school? Arch Dermetol. 2002;138(9):1201-1203.
Electronic journal with doi
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2. Hu P, Reuben DB. Effects of managed care on the length of time that elderly
patients spend with physicians during ambulatory visits. Med Care. 2002;40(7):606613.
Journal article with more than 6 authors
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1. Bates WH. The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses. New York: Henry
Holt & Co; 1943.
5. Aggleton JP. Understanding anterograde amnesia: disconnections and hidden
lesions. Q J Exp Psychol. 2008;61(10):1441-1471.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh&AN=341681845&site
=ehost-live Accessed March 18, 2010
Web page
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6. World Health Organization. Saving the future generation in Darfur. World
Health Organization. http://www.who.int/features/2007/child_health/en/
index.html. Published July 7, 2007. Accessed October 11, 2009.
Reference list examples
1. Jones AB. Modes of treatment: A traditional approach. Phys Ther.
1999;80:20-26.
2. Smith CD. Transmission modes and treatment approaches. 3rd ed. Miami
(FL): Florida University Presses; 1999.
3. Garcia EF, Zabihi GH. Transmission modes. New York (NY): NYU
Press; 1999:308-338.
4. Mohamed IJ. Principles of treatment. In: Needles DD, Thread OE,
editors. What it's all about? Putnam (NY): Happy Days Press; 1998:2939.
5. Haskins AR, Himburg SP, George V, et al. Daring to be different: A
less traditional style. Clin mgmt in educ. 2000;26(1):9-19.
6. Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA
acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun
[cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 3 p.]. Available from:
http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm
7. Wyndham Mount Laurel. Meetings and Conferences Page. Available
at: http://www.wyndhammountlaurel.com/meetings.html. Accessed
January 9, 2004.
Sample reference list
Background and Examples for Utilizing AMA Citation Style
Alissa Virginia Fial, MA, MLIS
avfial@utep.edu
University of Texas at El Paso
427 words
Sample title page
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Citation InformationSCSU Library Citation information