AMA Citation Guide: AMA Manual of Style 11th Edition

By MLA Generator Editorial Team · Updated May 27, 2026

AMA is the citation style of American medical publishing — the house style at JAMA, the JAMA Network family of journals, and most U.S. clinical and biomedical venues that do not specifically require Vancouver or NLM. The variant this site generates is the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition (Oxford University Press, 2020). If your manuscript guidelines say “AMA,” reference a JAMA author kit, or point to the AMA Manual itself, this is the style you want.

The shortest version of AMA: a superscript number in the text (¹), a numbered reference list at the back ordered by first citation, surname-plus-initials author blocks (Chen MS), italicized abbreviated journal names (J Cogn Dev), and page ranges with a hyphen. First three authors then et al. once you reach seven.

What AMA is and when you’ll use it

The AMA Manual of Style began as a slim editorial handbook for JAMA contributors and now runs more than a thousand pages, governing reference formatting at JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Pediatrics, and dozens of allied U.S. medical journals. The 11th edition was released in February 2020 by Oxford University Press, and every rule below is keyed to that revision.

You’ll be asked for AMA in clinical medicine, public health, health-services research, surgery, oncology, pediatrics, and most U.S. medical-school coursework. The style descends from the same numeric-citation tradition that produced Vancouver and the NLM Citing Medicine guidelines, and it borrows much of NLM’s mechanics — abbreviated journal names from the NLM Catalog, surname-plus-initials author blocks, citation-sequence ordering. Where AMA diverges is mostly typographical: italicized journal abbreviations, hyphenated page ranges, a tighter author cap before et al., and a superscript in-text format.

Why a numeric system at all? Medical writing cites densely — a single clinical-trial discussion sentence routinely supports its claim with three or four prior trials, a systematic review, and a guideline document. Author–date parentheticals turn into speed bumps in that context, while superscript numerals stay out of the way. The trade-off is identification at a glance: AMA’s ¹ tells the reader nothing about who or when until they look it up.

In-text citations

The AMA Manual prescribes superscript Arabic numerals for in-text citations. The numeral sits after the punctuation when the citation refers to the whole sentence, and immediately after the word or phrase when it refers to a single mid-sentence point. There is no author name and no year inside the citation — only the number.

One source

The first time you cite a source, give it the next available number. Use that same number every subsequent time you cite it. The numeral sits in superscript after the closing punctuation of the sentence.

Example: Working memory capacity correlates with reading comprehension across age groups.¹

If the cited source supports only one clause of a longer sentence, place the numeral immediately after that clause: “Working memory predicts reading comprehension¹ and is correlated with executive function² in school-age children.”

Multiple sources in one citation

When a single claim cites several sources, list the numerals together in superscript. Consecutive numbers collapse to a range with a hyphen; non-consecutive numbers are separated by commas with no spaces.

Consecutive: Three trials converge on this pattern.^1-3

Non-consecutive: Several reviews report the same effect.^1,4,7

Mixed: A broader literature supports the finding.^1-3,7,9-11

Some journal copy desks render the in-text numerals as parenthetical (1) instead of superscript — the Manual permits the parenthetical form when superscript is not available — but superscript is the JAMA default.

Author-prominent narrative

Sometimes you want to credit an author by name in running prose. Place the superscript numeral after the author’s name (or after the final author for a group). The number sits in superscript immediately after the name, with no space.

Example: Chen¹ argues that working memory operates less like a storage bin and more like a workspace.

For two authors, name both: “Lin and Patel² report…” For three or more, use the first author’s surname plus et al. in italics: “Goldstein et al³ found…” (AMA italicizes et al. in body text; the reference list itself sets the abbreviation in plain text.)

Direct quotes

Direct quotations are uncommon in clinical writing — most biomedical work paraphrases — but AMA supports them. The Manual places the superscript numeral after the closing quotation mark, with the page locator in parentheses after the citation number.

Example: Working memory is “a flexible mental workspace, not a fixed bin of slots.”¹⁽ᵖ⁴⁷⁾

Most authors avoid the awkward superscripted parenthetical and render the locator in the running text instead: “as Chen describes,¹ working memory is ‘a flexible mental workspace, not a fixed bin of slots’ (p 47).” Either is acceptable when the journal’s instructions do not specify.

Sequencing rules: first mention assigns the number; reuse keeps it

The most important AMA mechanic — and the one most likely to trip a writer coming from APA or MLA — is that numbers are assigned by order of first appearance. The first source cited becomes reference 1 in the back. The second new source is reference 2. If your third sentence cites the same source as your first, the third sentence uses ¹ again — not ³. The number belongs to the source, not the citation event.

Reordering paragraphs during revision can require renumbering. Reference managers handle this automatically; if you are numbering by hand, do it last, after the prose is final. The reference list is not alphabetical — a reader looking for “Chen” finds the matching number in the text and reads it off the list.

Reference list format

The reference list goes on its own page at the end of the manuscript with the heading References at the top — not italicized, not bolded, just the word in the same font as the body. Every source cited must appear here, and every entry must be cited at least once.

Entries are numbered, starting at 1, in the order first cited. The citation number is followed by a period and a single space, then the entry. AMA layouts typically render the page single-spaced within entries and double-spaced between them; consult your target journal’s instructions for the exact rendering. There is no hanging indent — AMA entries are flush left, with the citation number leading the line.

The author block follows the NLM convention with a tighter cap. Authors are listed by surname followed by initials, with no comma between surname and initials and no period after each initial. Margaret S. Chen becomes Chen MS — not Chen, M.S. Multiple authors are separated by commas; the block ends with a period. AMA caps the in-list author count at three before truncating: when a source has seven or more authors, list the first three and append et al (no italics in the reference list, no terminal period before the next element). For six or fewer authors, list everyone. This is tighter than NLM Vancouver’s first-six-then-et al. rule.

Article and chapter titles use sentence case — only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns capitalized — and carry no quotation marks and no italics. Book, report, and dissertation titles use title case and are italicized. Journal titles are italicized and abbreviated using the NLM Catalog short form: Journal of Cognitive Development becomes *J Cogn Dev*; New England Journal of Medicine becomes *N Engl J Med*. This italicization is the most visible AMA-vs-Vancouver difference — Vancouver uses the same abbreviation in roman.

The bibliographic block packs year, volume, issue, and pages into a no-space sequence with semicolon and colon delimiters: 2024;19(2):87-104. The page range uses a hyphen, not an en dash. DOIs follow in the compact form doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx (lowercase prefix, no space, no URL prefix), appended after the page range with no terminal period. When only a URL is available, the access sentence reads Accessed Month DD, YYYY. followed by the bare URL.

This site’s generator does not look up NLM abbreviations automatically. Supply the abbreviated journal name in the source’s journal field if you want the AMA-correct short form; supply the full name and the engine will italicize it as you typed it. The canonical NLM abbreviation lookup is the NLM Catalog at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals.

Source-type examples

The entries below show each common source type formatted exactly as the AMA Manual of Style (11th ed.) prescribes — and exactly as this site’s generator emits them. In your own document, set the citation number and entry on the same line, flush left, and follow your target journal’s instructions for line spacing.

A few details to notice. The book uses the publisher-semicolon-year form (Cambridge University Press; 2021) with no place-of-publication element — AMA 11th drops the publisher city from book references, a 10th-to-11th-edition simplification. The chapter uses In: (no italics) followed by the editor in initials-after-surname form with the ed. label (Morrison RT, ed.), then the italicized container in title case, publisher and year, and a colon-then-page-range with no space. The journal article packs year, volume, issue, and pages into the no-space 2024;19(2):87-104 block; the DOI follows in compact form with no terminal period. The web article italicizes nothing — AMA italicizes journal containers but treats web-content containers as plain text — and the issued date renders in full as March 12, 2023, distinct from journal entries that collapse the date to just the year. The government report sets its title in italicized title case (AMA italicizes report titles, where journal-article titles are roman sentence case). The conference paper uses the same In: introducer with no editor — the italicized proceedings title carries the venue. The dissertation carries its genre label (Doctoral dissertation) as a separate element between the italicized title and the granting institution.

Common mistakes

These five errors account for most of the marks reviewers flag on AMA references. Each shows the wrong version above the right one.

Failing to italicize the abbreviated journal name. Wrong: J Cogn Dev. 2024;19(2):87-104. Right: J Cogn Dev. 2024;19(2):87-104.

The single most common AMA error in submissions from authors used to Vancouver. AMA italicizes the abbreviated journal title; Vancouver does not.

Spelling out the journal name in full. Wrong: Journal of Cognitive Development. 2024;19(2):87-104. Right: J Cogn Dev. 2024;19(2):87-104.

AMA, like Vancouver, uses the abbreviated title from the NLM Catalog. Look up the journal at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals and read off the “Title Abbreviation” field. If the journal is not indexed, abbreviate by ISO 4 (drop articles such as “the” and “of”; reduce common words). When truly nothing is documented, the full name beats a guess.

Using an en dash in the page range. Wrong: J Cogn Dev. 2024;19(2):87–104. Right: J Cogn Dev. 2024;19(2):87-104.

AMA uses a hyphen in page ranges, not an en dash. The CSL locale this site ships overrides the default delimiter to a hyphen for AMA output. Vancouver uses an en dash — a recurring conversion gotcha.

Commas inside the author block. Wrong: Goldstein, A., Ramanathan, P., O’Connor, L. Right: Goldstein A, Ramanathan P, O’Connor L.

Surname, then initials, no comma between them and no period after each initial. Authors are separated from each other by commas, and the block ends with a single period. Authors moving from APA or MLA often carry over the period-after-initial habit.

Listing too many authors before truncating. Wrong: Smith A, Jones B, Williams C, Brown D, Davis E, Miller F, Wilson G. … Right: Smith A, Jones B, Williams C, et al. …

AMA 11th caps the in-list author count at three before truncating with et al once a source has seven or more authors. This is tighter than Vancouver’s first-six rule and a frequent rejection trigger when an AMA-style manuscript is prepared with a Vancouver-configured reference manager.

How AMA differs from Vancouver

AMA and Vancouver are first cousins. Both are numeric citation-sequence systems from the same NLM tradition, both use surname-plus-initials author blocks, both order references by first appearance. If a reviewer asks “is this AMA or Vancouver?” the answer comes down to three typographical tells. Rendering the same journal article in both styles makes them concrete.

In AMA (AMA Manual of Style, 11th ed.):

1. Goldstein A, Ramanathan P, O’Connor L. Sleep consolidation effects on procedural learning in adolescents. J Cogn Dev. 2024;19(2):87-104. doi:10.1037/cogdev0000412

In Vancouver (NLM Citing Medicine, 2nd ed.):

1. Goldstein A, Ramanathan P, O’Connor L. Sleep consolidation effects on procedural learning in adolescents. J Cogn Dev. 2024;19(2):87–104. doi:10.1037/cogdev0000412

The two entries point to the same article. Three differences stand out:

Journal-name italicization. AMA italicizes the abbreviated journal title (*J Cogn Dev*); Vancouver does not. This is the most visually obvious distinction and the one a typesetter will spot immediately.

Page-range glyph. AMA uses a hyphen (87-104); Vancouver uses an en dash (87–104). The difference is set at the locale level — AMA’s CSL overrides the page-range delimiter to a hyphen, while Vancouver inherits the en-dash default.

Author cap before et al. AMA truncates after the third author for seven-or-more-author sources. Vancouver truncates after the sixth. A six-author paper renders all six in both styles; a seven-author paper renders three-plus-et al. in AMA and six-plus-et al. in Vancouver.

The in-text format also differs. AMA prescribes superscript numerals as the published default (…reading comprehension.¹), while Vancouver renders the same number in parentheses on the baseline (…reading comprehension (1).). Both styles permit the alternative form, but the defaults distinguish them at a glance.

If your manuscript guidelines say “AMA” and you are coming from Vancouver, the conversion checklist is short: italicize abbreviated journal names, convert en dashes to hyphens, and truncate author lists at three instead of six. Most reference managers offer an AMA output style that handles all three in one switch.

Editorial methodology and sources