The American Medical Association (AMA) guides a citation style called AMA citation format.

AMA is a common citation style in the field of medicine. It’s required when you’re submitting to a journal published by the American Medical Association.

AMA citation format includes:

• Numerical in-text citations, written in superscript
• A numbered reference list giving full source information

AMA in-text citation

An AMA in-text citation is just a superscript number (like this: ⁷) that appears at the point in the text where information from another source is included. The number points the reader to the relevant entry on your AMA reference page.

The superscript number should be placed so that it’s clear what information is being cited. For example, you can place it after you mention the author’s name, or after a quotation. The number appears after any commas, periods, or quotation marks, not before them.

To cite multiple sources at the same point, you can include a range using an en dash (to cite two or more sources with consecutive numbering: ^1–3) or a list using commas (to cite sources that are not consecutive: ^1,4,8). In either case, there’s no space between the numbers.

To include page numbers (for example, when you’re quoting), present them in parentheses after the citation number, again without any spacing. A single page number is preceded by “p,” a range or list of page numbers by “pp.”

AMA references

On the reference page at the end of your paper, you list references containing full information about each of the sources you used. References are numbered in the order they were first cited in the text. Each source is included only once on your reference page—if you need to cite a source repeatedly in the text, you use the same number each time.

A reference typically includes the author’s last name and initials, the source title, information about the publisher or larger publication in which it was included, and the publication date. The exact information and format vary by source type, as shown in the tabs below.

AMA formatting

AMA also provides some general formatting guidelines for presenting your (research) paper and your reference page (though they’re not too specific about the details).

• Apply a commonly used font such as Times New Roman, in size 12.
• Add page numbers in the upper right corner of each page (starting with the title page).
• Use 1-inch margins and indent the first lines of paragraphs by ½ inch.
• Double-space the text.
• Use consistent styling (such as bolding, centering, or a different font) for each level of heading in the text.
• Spell out acronyms the first time they are used.

Your references appear on a separate page at the end of your text. The heading “References” appears at the top of the page. The references are formatted as a numbered list. Don’t apply any special hanging indent to a reference that runs over onto a second line.