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AMA Style Guide

Citation Examples

Based on AMA Manual of Style, 11th ed., 2020.

When citing electronic material, in addition to the basic information included as with print references, you must also, in general, include the DOI. If the DOI is not available, include the URL (link) to the item as well as the date you accessed it.

Two tips to keep in mind:

  1. provide the most direct url possible and if a DOI is listed instead of a URL, it is not necessary to include the date accessed.
  2. DOI is preferred over URL.

Please note: Some browsers may show italicized text as underlined. When preparing bibliographies based on any of the formats addressed by this series, italics are specified, and should be used. If you don't see an example for your type of reference, consult the manual itself.

Type of Entry Reference List
Online journal article with volume and page information Allison MA, Hurley LP, Markowitz L, et al. Primary care physicians’ perspectives about HPV vaccine. Pediatrics. 2016;137(2):e20152488. doi:10.1542/peds.2015-2488
Online journal article available online before print publication Tamburini S, Shen N, Chih Wu H, Clemente JC. The microbiome in early life: implications for health outcomes. Nat Med. Published online July 7, 2016. doi:10.1038/nm4142
Web site King MW. Carbohydrate Nomenclature. The Medical Biochemistry Page. Updated April 2, 2020. Accessed June 3, 2020. http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org.
Online book Gilmore K, Meersand P. Normal Child and Adolescent Development: A Psychodynamic Primer. American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2014. Accessed August 12, 2019. https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/1585624365
Chapter from an online book Creating safety systems in health care organizations. In: Kohn, LT, Corrigan, JM, and Donaldson MS, eds. To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC: Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine; 2000: chap 8. Accessed November 1, 2016. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.ptp?record_id=9728&page=155
Online reference Amoxicillin. Micromedex. Truven Health Analytics; 2020. Updated June 2, 2020. Accessed July 22, 2020. http://www.micromedexsolutions.com/micromedex2/librarian#
Preprints Bloss CS, Wineinger NE, Peters M, et al. A prospective randomized trial examining health care utilization in individuals using multiple smartphone-enabled biosensors. bioRxiv. Preprint posted online October 28, 2015. doi:10.1101/029983