AMA Citation Generator

Enter your source details and get a correctly formatted AMA 11th-edition reference, plus the matching superscript in-text number, in seconds. Built for the lab reports, case write-ups, systematic reviews and dissertations that follow the AMA Manual of Style — with a live preview you can drop straight into a numbered reference list.

Used in: Medicine, nursing, public health and the biomedical sciences. AMA is the house style of JAMA and most medical journals, and the standard you will be asked for across health-science coursework and research writing.

AMA · 11th editionNumeric

Enter your source

Auto-cite from a DOI, ISBN or PubMed ID

Or fill the form yourself below. A bare web address can’t be looked up in the browser — paste its DOI instead.

Source type

A peer-reviewed article in an academic journal.

Author

Digital Object Identifier, if the source has one.

Year published

Add an author or a title and your formatted AMA citation appears here instantly.

In your text

A raised superscript number marks each citation in the running text, e.g. “… retrieval cues.¹” The number is assigned the first time a source is cited and reused for every later citation of the same source.

In your reference list

References are numbered and listed in the order they first appear in the text (not alphabetically). Author names use the surname followed by closed-up initials with no full stops (“Tulving E”); article titles take sentence case; journal, book, thesis and report titles are italicised.

AMA tips
  • List up to six authors; for seven or more, give the first six then “et al.”.
  • Use surname + closed-up initials with no periods — “Smith JA”, not “Smith, J. A.”.
  • Journal references use tight punctuation: Year;Volume(Issue):Pages, with no spaces around the semicolon and colon.
  • Give full (uncondensed) page ranges, e.g. 352-373, not 352-73.
  • Print a DOI as “doi:10.xxxx” at the end of the entry; use the stable URL only when there is no DOI.

Your reference list is empty. Build a citation above and choose “Add to list” to collect your sources here, correctly ordered and ready to copy or export.

AMA 11th edition · at a glance

The numbered style of medicine and the health sciences

AMA is the citation-sequence house style of JAMA and most biomedical journals. Instead of an author–date tag, you drop a raised superscript number where you cite a source, and the reference list is numbered in the order those sources first appear. Medicine, nursing, public health and the biomedical sciences. AMA is the house style of JAMA and most medical journals, and the standard you will be asked for across health-science coursework and research writing.

11th
Edition (2020) this tool follows
¹ ² ³
Superscript, not author–date
By order
Reference list numbering
6 + et al.
Authors listed before truncating

Built for clinical writing — lab reports, case write-ups, systematic reviews and dissertations that follow the AMA Manual of Style.

Tight journal punctuation — Year;Volume(Issue):Pages — with the full inclusive page range, never condensed.

DOIs print as a bare doi:10.xxxx at the end of the entry — no https:// prefix and no closing full stop.

Signature mechanics

Superscript numbering, then the journal-name abbreviation

Two things make an AMA reference list look right: numbers assigned in order of first appearance (and reused, never re-numbered), and journal titles shortened to their NLM/PubMed form. Here is how both work.

Numbered by first appearance

The number is locked in the first time a source is cited and reused thereafter.

  1. 1

    Memory consolidation depends on retrieval cues present at encoding.1

    New source — assigned number 1
  2. 2

    Paradigm shifts reorganise how a field interprets the same evidence.2

    New source — assigned number 2
  3. 1

    Those same encoding cues reappear when the memory is later tested.1

    Same source — reuses number 1
  4. 3

    Public guidance summarises this for a general clinical audience.3

    New source — assigned number 3
The list, not the alphabet, decides order
Because Kuhn is cited (²) before Cherry (³), the reference list runs 1 → 2 → 3 in that sequence — even though alphabetically Cherry would come first. AMA reference lists are never alphabetised.

Abbreviate the journal title

AMA shortens journal names to the form used in PubMed/MEDLINE — look the exact form up in the NLM Catalog.

New England Journal of MedicineN Engl J Med
Journal of the American Medical AssociationJAMA
The LancetLancet
British Medical JournalBMJ
Annals of Internal MedicineAnn Intern Med
American Journal of Public HealthAm J Public Health
What this generator does
This tool outputs the full journal name exactly as you type it — it does not include the NLM abbreviation table. If your submission requires the abbreviated form, type the abbreviation straight into the journal field (for example N Engl J Med) or look it up in the NLM Catalog first.
Anatomy

Inside an AMA journal article reference

Each segment carries its own punctuation rule. Read the reference left to right; the spacing between parts is part of the format.

The finished reference

Tulving E, Thomson DM. Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological Review. 1973;80(5):352-373. doi:10.1037/h0020071

  1. 1
    Author(s)Tulving E, Thomson DM.

    Surname then closed-up initials with no full stops; authors separated by commas, element closed by a full stop.

  2. 2
    Article titleEncoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory.

    Sentence case — only the first word and proper nouns are capitalised — followed by a full stop.

  3. 3
    Journal namePsychological Review.

    Italicised and in title case (normally abbreviated to its NLM form), closed by a full stop.

  4. 4
    Year;Volume(Issue):Pages1973;80(5):352-373.

    Tight punctuation with no spaces around the semicolon or colon; the full inclusive page range is given.

  5. 5
    DOIdoi:10.1037/h0020071

    The bare DOI prefixed with “doi:” closes the entry — no “https://” and no full stop after it.

Templates

One pattern for every source type

Match your source to a row, slot your details into the template, and check it against the worked example. The order of elements never changes within a type.

Journal article

Template
Author AA, Author BB. Article title. Journal Name. Year;Volume(Issue):Pages. doi:xx
Example
Tulving E, Thomson DM. Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological Review. 1973;80(5):352-373. doi:10.1037/h0020071

Book

Template
Author AA. Book Title. Edition. Publisher; Year.
Example
Kuhn TS. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. University of Chicago Press; 1996.

Book chapter

Template
Author AA. Chapter title. In: Editor BB, ed. Book Title. Edition. Publisher; Year:Pages.
Example
McGann JJ. The rationale of hypertext. In: Greetham DC, ed. Electronic Text: Investigations in Method and Theory. Oxford University Press; 1997:19-46.

Website

Template
Author AA. Page title. Site Name. Published Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL
Example
Cherry K. How human memory works. Verywell Mind. Published June 10, 2022. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.verywellmind.com/how-memory-works-2795000

Newspaper article

Template
Author AA. Article title. Newspaper Name. Month Day, Year. URL
Example
Carrington D. World leaders strike landmark climate deal at COP26. The Guardian. November 13, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/13/cop26-climate-deal

Online video

Template
Uploader. Video title. Platform. Published Month Day, Year. URL
Example
Veritasium. The science of thermodynamics. YouTube. Published April 2, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb-zVtJf9Hk

Conference paper

Template
Author AA. Paper title. Paper presented at: Conference Name; Year; Place.
Example
Vaswani A, Shazeer N. Attention is all you need. Paper presented at: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems; 2017; Long Beach, CA.

Thesis / dissertation

Template
Author AA. Thesis Title [Type]. Institution; Year. URL
Example
Doe JA. Essays on Monetary Policy and Inflation Expectations [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Oxford; 2019. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:example

Report

Template
Organisation. Report Title. Year. Report No. xx. URL
Example
World Health Organization. World Health Statistics 2023: Monitoring Health for the SDGs. 2023. Report No. 24. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240074323
Get it right

The slips that cost marks in AMA

AMA punctuation is unforgiving — closed-up initials, tight journal blocks and bare DOIs. These are the corrections markers flag most often.

Don't
Smith, J. A. Article title.
Do
Smith JA. Article title.

AMA uses the surname followed by closed-up initials with no full stops, no commas inside a name, and no space between the initials.

Don't
Tulving E., Thomson D.M.
Do
Tulving E, Thomson DM.

Initials carry no full stops and no internal spaces — “DM”, not “D. M.” — and authors are separated by a comma.

Don't
Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory.
Do
Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory.

Article titles take sentence case in AMA — only the journal, book, thesis and report titles take title case and are italicised.

Don't
1973;80(5):352-73.
Do
1973;80(5):352-373.

AMA gives the full inclusive page range and never condenses the second number.

Don't
1973; 80 (5): 352-373.
Do
1973;80(5):352-373.

The year, volume, issue and page block use tight punctuation with no spaces around the semicolon or colon.

Don't
https://doi.org/10.1037/h0020071.
Do
doi:10.1037/h0020071

AMA prints the bare DOI prefixed with “doi:”, with no “https://” and no full stop after it.

Put it together

A sample AMA reference list

This is what a finished AMA list looks like: numbered in order of first appearance, mixing source types, with tight punctuation throughout. Note that the numbers — not the alphabet — set the order.

  1. 1
    Tulving E, Thomson DM. Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological Review. 1973;80(5):352-373. doi:10.1037/h0020071
  2. 2
    Kuhn TS. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. University of Chicago Press; 1996.
  3. 3
    Cherry K. How human memory works. Verywell Mind. Published June 10, 2022. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.verywellmind.com/how-memory-works-2795000
  4. 4
    World Health Organization. World Health Statistics 2023: Monitoring Health for the SDGs. 2023. Report No. 24. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240074323
Which edition this follows
This generator uses the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition (2020) — the numbered citation-sequence system of JAMA and most medical journals. A raised superscript number in the text points to a matching entry in a reference list ordered by first appearance rather than alphabetically. The 11th edition drops the place of publication for books (ending with “Publisher; Year”), keeps author names as surname plus closed-up initials with no full stops, uses tight journal punctuation (Year;Volume(Issue):Pages) with full page ranges, and prints DOIs as a bare “doi:” prefix.

AMA Citation Generator — questions

Which AMA edition does this generator use?+

It follows the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition (published 2020), the current standard for JAMA and most medical and biomedical journals. The 11th edition uses a numbered citation-sequence system: a raised superscript number in the text points to a matching entry in a reference list ordered by first appearance.

How do AMA in-text citations work?+

AMA does not use author–year in the text. Instead you place a superscript number where you cite a source, e.g. “… consolidation of memory.¹” The number is assigned the first time you cite that source and is reused every time you cite it again, so the reference list is numbered in the order sources first appear — not alphabetically.

How should author names be formatted in AMA?+

Give the surname followed by the initials with no full stops and no spaces between them — “Smith JA”, not “Smith, J. A.”. Separate authors with commas. List up to six authors; for a work with seven or more, list the first six followed by “et al.”.

Should AMA titles be in sentence case or title case?+

Article and chapter titles take sentence case — capitalise only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. The titles of journals, books, theses and reports are italicised and take title case. This tool applies the correct case to each field automatically.

Do I need to abbreviate the journal name?+

AMA conventionally abbreviates journal names to the form used in PubMed/MEDLINE (for example, “N Engl J Med”). This generator does not include a journal-abbreviation table, so it outputs the full journal name you enter. If your submission requires the abbreviated form, type the abbreviation directly into the journal field, or look it up in the NLM Catalog.

How do I present a DOI or URL in AMA?+

Print a DOI as “doi:” followed by the bare number — for example, doi:10.1037/h0020071 — at the very end of the entry, with no “https://” prefix. Use a stable URL only when there is no DOI. For online sources such as web pages and videos, add a “Published” date and an “Accessed Month Day, Year” date before the link.

Does AMA condense page ranges?+

No. AMA gives the full inclusive page range — write 352-373, not 352-73. In a journal reference the page range follows the volume and issue with tight punctuation and no spaces: Year;Volume(Issue):Pages, for example 1973;80(5):352-373.

How do I cite a source with no named author in AMA?+

When there is no personal author, use the organisation responsible as the author — for instance, the World Health Organization or a government body. If no author or organisation can be identified, begin the entry with the title and continue with the remaining elements in the usual order.

Other citation styles

APA Citation Generator

Generate accurate APA 7th-edition references and in-text citations for journal articles, books, websites and more.

MLA Citation Generator

Generate accurate MLA 9th-edition Works Cited entries and in-text citations for books, journal articles, websites and more.

Harvard Referencing Generator

Generate accurate Harvard (Cite Them Right) references and in-text citations for journal articles, books, websites and more.

More than just citations

Tutorioo helps you plan, draft and understand your coursework — not just reference it. Free to start.

Try Tutorioo free