How to Cite
RVSOM Students are required to use the American Medical Association (AMA) publication style for all work in the medical scholarship course. The AMA publication style is widely used in biomedical research and publication.
Selecting Reference Type
Deciding how to cite an item can be difficult. Is this a website or a journal article, or is it a government publication? When in doubt how to cite an item ask yourself these questions:
- Who produced or wrote it?
- Can it stand alone or is part of a larger document or website?
- Does it have a unique identifier or accession number?
- Is this something that exist only online or does it have a print version?
Consult section 3.0 References of the AMA Manual and try to see where the item best fits. If you are still unsure consult with your professor or contact a librarian for help.
Ctiation vs. Reference
Citations are notations to a source that appear in the body of a written work
References are a more detailed description of that source that appears in a list at the end of the work.
AMA Publication Style - The Reference List
- Some resources and databases, including PubMed, have a cite option or button that will display a reference or citation in select publication styles. AMA style may not be one of the options, but Look for this option or button when doing research.
- List references in numerical order of use in the text, at the end of the document.
- Use authors’ last name followed by initials for first and middle names. No period after or between initials, separate names with commas. If there are one to six authors, list all authors. If there are seven or more authors, list the first three and then abbreviate with “et al”.
- Organizations, institutions, and companies are not considered authors in AMA styles and should be treated as publishers. In AMA style only human beings can be authors.
- Editors follow the same rules as authors. After the list of editor names, include “ed.” (if one editor) or “eds.” (for two or more).
- Items without authors or editors begin the reference with the title of the item.
- Abbreviate journal title using National Library of Medicine (NLM) abbreviations
- For journal article titles and web page titles capitalize the first letter of the first word only (Sentence case). Capitalize the first letter or each word, omitting articles, for book and journal titles (Title case). Book and journal titles are italicized.
- Include the DOI in your reference to articles, if there is no DOI include the URL to the web page where you accessed the article, along with the access date. If you include a DOI you do not need to include an access date or a URL.