AMA Book Citation Guide for Books and Chapters

The basic AMA book citation format

For a print book written by one author or one team of authors, put the surname and initials first. Follow them with the book title in italics, the edition if it is beyond the first, the publisher, and the four-digit publication year. Keep major words in the book title capitalized. The publisher and year are separated by a semicolon.

George Washington University's library provides the whole-book example below. Its edition describes this particular version of the book, separately from the edition of the AMA style manual you are following.

Authors, editors, and edition numbers

Keep names in the order printed in the book. AMA lists every author when there are six or fewer. For seven or more, list the first three followed by et al. The same count applies to editors. Initials have no periods between them.

If you are citing an edited book as a complete work, put its editors first and add ed. for one editor or eds. for more than one. Keep that role visible in the finished reference. A catalog record can combine authors and editors, so check how each contributor is credited in the book.

Leave out the edition for a first edition. For a later edition, use the edition you actually consulted. Copy the year from that edition's publication information rather than borrowing the year from a newer listing. AMA 11th edition no longer requires the publisher's city. Older online examples may still include it.

How to cite a book chapter in AMA

Use a chapter reference when an edited book contains chapters by different authors and your information comes from a particular chapter. The chapter author comes first. Follow the chapter title with the book editors and their role, then the book title and publication details. Finish with the chapter's inclusive page range after the year.

UT Southwestern's chapter guide provides the example below. The chapter title uses sentence-style capitalization and stays in regular type. Pathophysiology is the book title and takes italics. Banasik appears twice because the contributor has two roles in this reference. Keep both appearances. If you use another separately authored chapter, create another reference with that chapter's own author and pages.

Check the ISBN before using imported metadata

An ISBN identifies a particular edition and format. A paperback, hardcover, and electronic version can have different ISBNs. Use the number on the version you read, then check the imported record against its title page and copyright page. A matching title alone does not confirm a matching edition.

AMA Cite accepts ISBN lookup and can import book metadata from Open Library, with Google Books as a fallback. Its import leaves the edition field blank, so fill that field yourself when it applies. Check the publisher and year as well. A lookup can return incomplete information.

The ISBN helps you find the record. AMA Cite leaves it out of the standard book reference output and keeps it for BibTeX export.

Citing an ebook or an online book

Keep the book's bibliographic details when you read it online. An ebook remains a book, and a separately authored chapter remains a chapter. Oxford's guide to citing the online AMA manual retains its authors, title, edition, publisher, and year, then adds an access date and URL.

For a book identified by a DOI, include the DOI supplied by the publisher. University guidance distinguishes DOI references from URL references, which include an access date. Follow the requirements for the version you used and your intended publication. Choose a stable source link when available, without account tokens or a temporary browser session address.

AMA Cite's current Book and Book Chapter forms cover print-style references. They do not have ebook DOI, URL, or access-date fields. Add those details to the exported reference yourself. The Website form would omit the book-specific structure.

Number the reference when you use it in text

A book uses the same AMA numbered citation system as other sources. Give it a superscript Arabic number at its first appearance and reuse that number when you cite the same source again. The reference list follows the order of first citation. Keep that order when you rearrange your draft.

If a chapter has its own reference entry, its number points to that chapter entry. When an assignment asks you to identify a particular passage, check its page-locator requirements. The chapter's full page range in the reference identifies the chapter; a specific quotation needs a more precise locator when required.

Build the reference and check it before copying

In AMA Cite, select Book for an authored whole book or Book Chapter for a separately authored chapter. Keep AMA 11th edition selected when that is the style your assignment requires. For a chapter, enter its authors in the main author list and enter the book editors in the separate editor fields.

Check the preview against the source before adding it to your citation list. Read the names and roles first, then compare the title, edition, publisher, year, and chapter pages. A complete-looking reference can still describe the wrong version.

Whole edited books need extra care because the current Book form has no dedicated editor-role control. Add the correct ed. or eds. label after export. For an online book, add its required electronic details there too. Use an export that preserves italics when your final document supports formatting, and check the reference again after pasting it into your paper.