AMA Citation Style

The 11th edition of the AMA Manual provides examples of references for various types of materials.

Required elements for references vary from material to material. Scroll down to see the minimum required elements for references. On the left, you will find subpages with examples explaining the reference format for different materials.

A reference consists of bibliographic groups. Bibliographic groups are separated by periods in the reference. Groups are separated into bibliographic elements. The different elements are divided with either a comma, semicolon, or colon.

In the example below, you can see the authors and title are separated by a period. Those are two separate bibliographic groups.

Wheeler T, Watkins PJ. Cardiac denervation in diabetes. BMJ. 1973;4:584-586.

In the last bibliographic group, you can see that a semicolon and colon separate the bibliographic elements.

Wheeler T, Watkins PJ. Cardiac denervation in diabetes. BMJ. 1973;4:584-586.

From AMA Manual, 11th ed., Ch. 3.1.1 Bibliographic Grouping.

1. Journal Articles
   • Print ​​​​​​- Author(s). Article title. Abbreviated Journal Name. Year;vol(issue No.):inclusive pages. DOI, if provided
   • Online - Authors(s). Article title. Abbreviated Journal Name. Publication date. DOI, if provided
2. Books
   • Print - Author(s). Book Title. Edition number (if it is the second edition or later). Publisher’s name; copyright year.
   • Online - Author(s). Book Title. Edition number (if it is the second edition or later). Publisher’s name; copyright year. Accessed [date]. URL (or DOI, if provided)
3. Websites
   • Author (or, if no author is available, the name of the organization responsible for the site). Title (or, if no title is available, the name of the organization responsible for the site). Name of the website. Published [date]. Updated [date]. Accessed [date]. URL

From AMA Manual, 11th ed., Ch. 3.4 Minimum Acceptable Data for References.