American Medical AssociationStyle

AMA Style• Used in many medical publications– Including Physical Therapy, the journal of the

American Physical Therapy Association• Required for all submissions in Misericordia

DPT program

Within Text• Cited works are numbered in order of initial

appearance in the text.• Use arabic superscript numerals outside

periods and commas, and inside colons and semicolons.

• Example: The sky is blue.1 The earth is round,2 but we won’t fall off.3

Within Text (continued)• If a citation is repeated, use the number of the

original citation when it is repeated in the text.

Reference List• Cited references appear in the Reference List

in numerical order.• Example:

1. Pheasant2. Barker3. Pascal

Reference List (contd)• Authors’ names are inverted, and use only

initials for first and middle names. No periods between initials.

• Example:1. Barker SP2. Pascal MR

Reference List (contd)• In article titles only the first word and proper

nouns and abbreviations that are ordinarily capitalized are capitalized.

• Example: Differences between the family-centered “COPCA” program and traditional infant physical therapy based on neurodevelopmental treatment principles

Reference List (contd)• Use accepted Index Medicus abbreviations of

journal names.• To find journal name abbreviations, go to

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals

• Enter the name of the journal in the search box.

Enter journal name here.

Finding Journal Abbreviations• Click “Search” to obtain complete journal

listing, including abbreviation.• A list of abbreviations for core clinical journals

list is found as an appendix to AMA Stat (.pdf file)

Journal name abbreviation

Reference List (contd)• For journals use issue numbers in parentheses

after the volume number. If there is no issue number specify month before the year.

• Example: Masley PM, Havrilko C-L, Mahnensmith MR, et al. Physical therapist practice in the acute care setting: a qualitative study. Phys Ther. 2011;91(8):906-919.

Referencing Books & Chapters• Entire Book:– McKenzie BC. Medicine and the Internet:

Introducing Online Resources and Terminology. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1997.

• Book Chapter:– Guyton JL, Crockarell JR. Fractures of acetabulum

and pelvis. In: Canale ST, ed.Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics. 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Mosby, Inc; 2003:2939-2984.

Other References• Refer to AMA Stat (.pdf file) or the AMA

Manual of Style for instructions as to citing other types of references:– Newspapers & magazines– Monographs & proceedings– Web pages & electronic resources– Personal communication

• Check Physical Therapy or other journals that use AMA style for further examples.