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AMA Style Basics

Below you will find example citations for the most common resource types following AMA Manual of Style Guidelines. For more information and additional reference type examples please refer to Section 1 Chapter 3 of the manual, available online for Purdue faculty, staff, and students.

Journal Article

Author Last Name First Initial Middle Initial. Title of article. Accepted Abbreviation of Journal Title Year; Volume:Inclusive Page Numbers. doi.(if available)

In listed references, the names of all authors should be given unless there are more than 6, in which case the names of the first 3 authors are used, followed by “et al.”.

Examples Morris JL, Kraus DM. New antiretroviral therapies for pediatric HIV infection. J Pediatr Pharmacol Ther 2005;10:215-247.

Overholser BR, Kays MB, Forrest A, et al. Sex-related differences in the pharmacokinetics of oral ciprofloxacin. J Clin Pharmacol 2004;44:1012-1022.

Roumie CL, Zillich AJ, Bravata DM, et al. Hypertension treatment intensification among stroke survivors with uncontrolled blood pressure. Stroke 2015;46:465-470. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.007566.

Letter [or Editorial] Tisdale JE. Role of the pharmacist in managing hypertension in patients with diabetes [letter]. Am J Health Syst Pharm 2006;63:1129.

• To find the proper abbreviation of journal go to the National Library of Medicine PubMed Journals Database at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=Journals

Internet Sites

Authors (if indicated). Organization responsible for the site. Title of page or document. Available at: URL. Accessed Month day, year.

Examples Food and Drug Administration. MedWatch. Available at: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/index.html. Accessed June 13, 2007.

American Diabetes Association. Gestational diabetes. Available at: http://www.diabetes.org/gestational-diabetes.jsp. Accessed June 13, 2007.

Book

Editor’s Last Name First Initial Middle Initial followed by “eds”. Title of Book. Edition number. City of publication, State Abbreviation: Name of Publisher; Year.

Example Tisdale JE, Miller DA, eds. Drug-Induced Diseases: Prevention, Detection and Management. 1st ed. Bethesda, MD: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists; 2005.

Book Chapter

Chapter Author Last Name First Initial Middle Initial. Title of chapter. In: Name of Book. Edition Number. Editors Last Name First Initial Middle Initial, eds. City of publication, State Abbreviation: Name of Publisher; Year.

ExamplesCalis KA, Sheehan AH. Formulating effective responses and recommendations: A structured approach. In: Drug Information: A guide for pharmacists. 4th ed. Malone PM, Kier KL, Stanovich JE, eds. New York: McGraw Hill; 2012.

Scott SA. The prescription. In: Remington: The Science and Practice of Pharmacy. 21st Edition. Beringer P, Gupta PK, DerMarderosian A, et al., eds. Philadelphia PA: The University of the Sciences in Philadelphia; 2005.

Other

Personal Communication Example – written as statements within the text, including email and listserv messages; permission should be obtained from the author:

In a conversation with A. H. Sheehan, PharmD (August 2007)…

There have been no reports of toxic reactions…(J. Smith, MD, email communication, June 1, 2006)

Government Agency Publication Example US Department of Health and Human Services. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute Obesity Education Initiative Expert Panel on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. Washington, DC: U.S. Public Health Service, 1998.

Poster Presentation Example Schellhase EM, Abel SA, Carlstedt BC. An interdisciplinary collaboration: the development of a pharmacology course for a doctor of physical therapy program. Presented at: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Annual Meeting; June 2, 2003; San Diego, CA.

Web-based citation tools

Two sites that will put your citation information into AMA style are citationmachine.net amd easybib.com.

Journal abbreviations

AMA style requires that you use abbreviated journal titles. Journal abbreviations can be found through the NLM Catalog of Journals Referenced in the NCBI Databases. Type the full journal name into the search box, then look for the NLM Title Abbreviation for that journal.

AMA Citations in Microsoft Word

See links for downloading and installing the AMA plug-in for MS Word at 2:20.

The links are:

https://bibword.codeplex.com/releases/view/19778 for the plug-in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fRk0ddjou4 for how to install a plug-in.

Most important things to remember

• Use superscript Arabic numbers within the text to cite information (e.g.,1, 2, 3…).
• Place the corresponding references in a numbered list at the end of your paper. The references are listed in the order they were cited in the paper, not alphabetically by author's last name.
• The format for author names is "Surname1 AB, Surname2 CD,...". Note that there is a comma between each full name, but there is no punctuation within each name.
• If a reference has up to six authors, include them all. If there are more than six authors, list the first three, followed by "et al."

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• Last Edited: Sep 10, 2025 10:06 AM
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