The 11th edition of the American Medical Association Manual of Style online contains everything medical and scientific researchers, writers, and editors need to produce well-organized, clear, readable, and authoritative manuscripts.
UCF Health Sciences Library Reference Collection -- WZ 345 A512 2020
Citing Medicine provides assistance to authors in compiling lists of references for their publications, to editors in revising such lists, to publishers in setting reference standards for their authors and editors, and to librarians and others in formatting bibliographic citations.
Citations for journal articles should include the following basic information. If the article does not have one of these elements, skip it.
Each element is followed by a period.
Please note: AMA style requires the use of standard abbreviations for all references, when applicable. Abbreviations for many common medical journals can be found in the AMA Manual of Style. Additional abbreviations can be searched in the PubMed Journal Database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals).
Example: New England Journal of Medicine -----> N Engl J Med
Based on AMA Manual of Style, 11th ed., 2020
Please Note: The preferred citation style for an electronic journal uses a DOI (digital object identifier). The DOI provides a persistent link to the electronic item and is considered to be more stable than a URL. If the DOI is not given on the full text article or in the citation, use a DOI Lookup Tool (https://www.crossref.org/guestquery/) to locate it or use the format for an electronic article without a DOI.
| ELECTRONIC ARTICLES FROM ONLINE JOURNALS WITH DOI AVAILABLE (when using a DOI, no access date or URL is needed) |
Author(s) last name, initial of first and middle name. Title of article. Abbreviated name of journal in italics. Year;vol(issue):pages. doi:xx.xxxx. |
|---|---|
| Morrison G, Van Langenberg DR, Gibson SJ, Gibson PR. Chronic pain in inflammatory bowel disease: characteristics and associations of a hospital-based cohort. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2013;19(6):1210-1217. doi:10.1097/MIB.0b013e318280e729 | |
| ELECTRONIC ARTICLES FROM ONLINE JOURNALS WITHOUT DOI AVAILABLE |
Author(s) last name, initial of first and middle name. Title of article. Abbreviated name of journal in italics. Year;vol(issue);pages. Accessed date. URL |
| Thomas JL. Helpful or harmful? Potential effects of exercise on select inflammatory conditions. Phys Sportsmed. 2013;41(4):93-100. Accessed November 22, 2013. https://physsportsmed.org/psm.2013.11.2040 | |
11th edition updates: The URL now comes after the access date.
When an article is published ahead of print, sometimes the volume, issue, and page numbers may be missing. Below are examples of how to cite these articles if this information is missing.
Please Note: The preferred citation style for an electronic journal uses a DOI (digital object identifier). The DOI provides a persistent link to the electronic item and is considered to be more stable than a URL. If the DOI is not given on the full text article or in the citation, use a DOI Lookup Tool (https://www.crossref.org/guestquery/) to locate it or use the format for an electronic article without a DOI.
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EPUB AHEAD OF PRINT |
Author(s) last name, initial of first and middle name. Title of article. Abbreviated name of journal in italics. Published online [month day, year]. doi:xx.xxxx |
|---|---|
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Turnquist C, Ryan BM, Horikawa I, Harris BT, Harris CC. Cytokine storms in cancer and COVID-19. Cancer Cell. Published online October 2, 2020. doi:10.1016/j.ccell.2020.09.019 |
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EPUB AHEAD OF PRINT ELECTRONIC ARTICLES |
Author(s) last name, initial of first and middle name. Title of article. Abbreviated name of journal in italics. Published online [month day, year]. Accessed date. URL |
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Makoni M. Africa eradicates wild polio. Lancet Microbe. Published online October 7, 2020. Accessed October 14, 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266652472030152X?via%3Dihub |
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11th edition update: Replaced [published online ahead of print [date]]
| ONE AUTHOR (do not include the month unless the volume and issue are missing) |
Author last name, initial of first and middle name. Article title. Abbreviated journal title in italics. Month Year;Volume(Issue):Inclusive page numbers. |
|---|---|
| Steward DL. Effectiveness of multilevel (tongue and palate) radiofrequency tissue ablation for patients with obstructive sleep apnea, syndrome. Laryngoscope. 2004;114(12):2073-2084 | |
| MORE THAN ONE AUTHOR (list all authors if six or less, otherwise list first three followed by “et al”) |
Author(s) last names, initial of first and middle names. Article title. Abbreviated journal title in italics. Month Year;Volume(Issue):Inclusive page numbers. |
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Klintwall L, Eldevik S, Eikeseth S. Narrowing the gap: effects of intervention on developmental trajectories in autism. Autism. 2015;19(1):53-63. |
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In references to journal articles that have no volume or issue numbers, use the issue date, as shown in example 1 below. If there is an issue number but no volume number, use the style shown in example 2 below.
| ARTICLE WITH NO VOLUME OR ISSUE NUMBERS | Author last name, initial of first and middle name. Article title. Abbreviated journal title in italics. Month Year:Inclusive page numbers. |
|---|---|
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McKenzie SA, Harview CL, Truong AK, et al. Physical symptoms and psychosocial problems associated with hidradenitis suppurativa: correlation with Hurley stage. Dermatol Online J. Sep 2020:130. |
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| ARTICLE WITH NO VOLUME NUMBER | Author(s) last names, initial of first and middle names. Article title. Abbreviated journal title in italics. Month Year;Volume(Issue):Inclusive page numbers. |
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Johnson CL, Dohrmann SM, Kerckove VD, et al. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: National Youth Fitness Survey estimation procedures, 2012. Vital Health Stat 2. 2014;(168):1-25. |
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