AMA Citing Tips: Intext citing, Reference Lists

 Go to section 3.6 for

Intext citing

• Each reference should be cited in the text, figures, tables, or boxes in consecutive numerical order by means of superscript arabic numerals.
• It is acceptable for a reference to be cited only in a figure, table, or box and not in the text if it is in sequence with references cited in the text. For example, if Table 2 contains reference 13, which does not appear in the text, this is acceptable as long as the last reference cited (for the first time) before the first text citation of Table 2 is reference 12.
• Use arabic superscript numerals outside periods and commas, inside colons and semicolons (see 8.0, Punctuation, and 4.0, Tables, Figures, and Multimedia).
• When more than 2 references are cited at a given place in the manuscript, use hyphens to join the first and last numbers of a closed series; use commas without space to separate other parts of a multiple citation.
• References to material not yet accepted for publication or to personal communications (oral, written, or email) are not acceptable as listed references and instead should be included parenthetically in the text

EXAMPLES:

As reported previously,^1,3-8,19

The derived data were as follows^3,4:

Avoid placing a superscript reference citation immediately after a number or an abbreviated unit of measure to avoid any confusion between the superscript reference citation and an exponent.

The 2 largest studies^2,3 to date included 26 and 18 patients, respectively.

• If the author wishes to cite different page numbers from a single reference source at different places in the text, the page numbers are included in the superscript citation and the source appears only once in the list of references. Note that the superscript may include more than 1 page number, citation of more than 1 reference, or both and that all spaces are closed up.

These patients showed no sign of protective sphincteric adduction.^3(p21),9

Westman^5(pp3,5),9 reported 8 cases in which vomiting occurred.

In listed references, do not use ibid or op cit.

Go to Section 3.7

Reference Lists

• References should be listed in numerical order at the end of the paper
• Two references should not be combined under a single reference number.
• Use the author’s surname followed by initials
• No periods in between the initials
• The first letter of the author's surname should be capitalized
• Initials are capitalized
• The names of all authors including the 6th author should be listed
• When there is  more than 6 authors, only add the names of the first 3 authors followed by “et al.”
• PAY ATTENTION TO the format, periods, italics and semicolons
• Do not use and between surnames.
• Roman numerals and abbreviations for Junior (Jr) and Senior (Sr) follow authors’ initials. see examples
• Note: NLM uses “2nd,” “3rd,” and “4th,” JAMA journals prefer II, III, and IV, unless the author prefers arabic numerals.

EXAMPLES