AMA Citation Guide: Getting Started

AMA style is widely used in medicine and the health sciences:

• It uses superscript arabic numerals for in-text references.
• All cited references should also be listed at the end of the document.
• Only use the last name and first initial of authors' names, without punctuation, in the reference list (example: Smith A).
• References are divided by specific punctuation into bibliographic groups.
• You must use the standard National Library of Medicine abbreviations for all journal titles.

Also known as a permalink, a DOI, or digital object identifier, is an article's permanent online location. DOIs are used for a variety of academic and non-academic sources that are located online.

Include a DOI for all works that have a DOI. If an online work has both a DOI and a URL, include only the DOI; if the source only has a URL, include the URL.

AMA stands for American Medical Association. The AMA Manual of Style is the official style guide defining the citation rules of AMA.  It is a set of rules for research papers and publications.

In AMA, you must cite sources that you have paraphrased, quoted, or consulted to write your research paper. Cite your sources in two places:

1. In the body of your paper (in-text citation).
2. In the Reference list at the end of your paper (full bibliographic reference).