AMA Citation (11th Edition) Help

This guide was created as a basic guide for using AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition. Some of the health science fields such as physician assistants and physical therapy use the AMA Manual of Style.

General Website Guidelines

  • Authors’ names are inverted. Use only initials for first and middle names. Do not put periods between initials.

  • If there are six authors/editors or less, include the names of all authors/editors. If there are more than six authors/editors, include the first three names, then shorten with et al.

  • Always try to find an author for a web site. If you cannot find an author or organization responsible for the page, and you must cite it, you may begin the reference with the title of the page.

  • The name of the company responsible for the site and the name of the site may be identical. If the name of the site is the same as the name of the organization responsible for the site, add the word "website" to the title of the site.    

  • Include the date the website was created or updated. If you know the date the website was created, place it after the name of the website. If you know the date it was updated, place that date after the the name of the website instead and include the word "Updated." The updated date takes precedence over the created date. You do not need to include both.

  • Always include the date that you accessed the website. Include the word "Accessed."              

  • If the pdf has an ISBN, then the work is technically a book, not a web page.

For more information, consult the chapter on websites from the AMA Manual of Style. 

Website examples

Standard Web content pattern:

Author AA, Author BB. Title of page or object. Title of web site. Published Month DD, YYYY or Updated Month DD, YYYY. Accessed Month DD, YYYY. URL. 

Websites (with author):

Rainie L. The rise of the e-patient. Pew Research Center Internet and the  American Life Project. October 7, 2009. Accessed January 11, 2012. http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2009/40-The-rise-of-the-e-patient.aspx

Websites (with no author):

Air Pollution and Respiratory Health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Updated January 9, 2012. Accessed March 2, 2012. http://www.cdc.gov/Environmental/

Information Needed

You will need (minimum information in bold):

  • Author(s) (or organization responsible for the site)
  • Title of page 
  • Name of the website 
  • URL
  • Published date (at least year, if available) OR Updated date (if different to published date - at least year, if available)
  • Accessed date
Subjects: Citing
Tags: AMA, citations, citing