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American Medical Association (AMA) Style Quick Guide

The purpose of this guide is to provide some basic rules for the American Medical Association Style.

Purpose of this Guide

The following is a guide to the 11th edition of the American Medical Association Citation Style (AMA). Examples are given to illustrate how various types of publications are formatted in the AMA style, including:

  • Books
  • Journals
  • eBooks
  • Websites
  • Government Reports

These are only a few examples of AMA citation style. Please see the AMA website for more in-depth information.

Who uses AMA Style?

  • Typically the publications that use AMA style are ones that exist within healthcare fields such as medicine, public health, nutrition, etc. 

General Notes on AMA Style

Things to Remember:

  • AMA style utilizes a reference list instead of a bibliography.
    • This means that you only include references that you actually mention or cite in your paper. You connect your citation to the reference list by number.
  • The numbers must be in superscript. 

  • References are organized by order of occurrence in the written text, not alphabetically.
    • This means that the first reference used in the document is citation number 1, the second is number 2, etc.
  • If you reuse information from a previously-cited reference, you will reuse the original citation number after the relevant text and not assign the reference a new number. So, for example, if you re-quote from your first reference later in your paper, you would still cite that quote as reference number 1.