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AMA format8 min readPublished Aug 13, 2026

The reference entry

AMA Citation Format: How to Cite a Journal Article in AMA Style

A journal reference becomes much easier to check when you treat it as a sequence of verified fields instead of one long punctuation puzzle.

The AMA citation format for a journal article is compact, numbered, and built around the details that let another reader locate the exact paper. The most common mistakes are not dramatic. They are usually a missing page range, a full journal title left unabridged, a DOI copied as a URL, or a reference that looks fine but uses the wrong publication year. This guide breaks the entry into parts so you can build it, check it, and then use an AMA citation generator without losing control of the source record.

The basic AMA journal article format

For a standard journal article, use this order: author names, article title, abbreviated journal title, publication year, volume, issue when available, page range or article number, and DOI when available.

The article title is written in sentence-style capitalization. The journal title is abbreviated according to the National Library of Medicine convention and is italicized in a formatted reference. Volume and issue information follow the year, and the page range follows a colon.

Template

Author AA, Author BB. Article title. J Abbrev. Year;volume(issue):pages. doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx

Leave out elements that genuinely do not exist, but do not replace missing metadata with a guess.

Worked example

Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347(4):284-287. doi:10.1056/NEJMsb020632

How each part of the reference works

  1. List the authors in surname-first form followed by initials. AMA author names do not use periods between initials. When there are more authors than the style allows, apply the author rule for the edition and publication you are using rather than copying every name automatically.
  2. Use the article title as it appears in the source, but convert it to sentence-style capitalization. Preserve proper nouns, gene names, acronyms, and other terms whose capitalization carries meaning.
  3. Use the official NLM abbreviation for the journal. A search result or a publisher's short brand name is not automatically the NLM abbreviation. If the title is not in your local lookup table, verify it in the NLM Catalog or PubMed record.
  4. Add the year, volume, issue, and pages in that order. Online-first articles may have an e-location or article number instead of conventional pages, so use the identifier supplied by the authoritative record.
  5. Normalize the DOI to the compact doi: form used by the reference style. Remove a copied https://doi.org/ prefix when the output calls for doi:10... rather than a DOI URL.

Three journal cases that need extra care

The same basic structure can look different when the publication record is incomplete or uses online publication conventions. Treat these as metadata questions first and formatting questions second.

Online article with an e-location

Author AA. Article title. J Abbrev. 2024;12:e123456. doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx

Use the article number supplied by the journal or database when no page range exists.

Article with no DOI

Author AA. Article title. J Abbrev. 2019;8(2):44-51.

Do not invent a DOI or turn an ordinary publisher URL into one.

Article found through PMID

Verify the PubMed record against the paper: author list, publication date, journal abbreviation, volume, issue, pages, and DOI.

A database record is a useful starting point, not a substitute for checking the cited version.

AMA citation format mistakes to catch before submission

  • Using the full journal name when an NLM abbreviation is required.
  • Putting the reference list in alphabetical order. Standard AMA references are numbered in the order they first appear in the text.
  • Copying a DOI as https://doi.org/... when the target style requires doi:10... .
  • Capitalizing every major word in the article title instead of preserving sentence-style capitalization.
  • Treating a database's publication date as correct without checking whether it represents online publication, print publication, or a later update.
  • Assuming an automatically generated citation is proof that the source supports the claim. Formatting and evidence verification are separate tasks.

A quick journal-reference checklist

If all five answers are yes, the formatting work is in good shape. Keep the source metadata and the formatted reference conceptually separate: the first is evidence, the second is a presentation of that evidence.

  1. Can another reader identify the exact article from the author, title, journal, year, volume, and pages or article number?
  2. Is the journal abbreviation verified against NLM or the relevant PubMed record?
  3. Does the DOI resolve to the same title and author list you are citing?
  4. Is this reference numbered according to its first appearance in the manuscript?
  5. Did you review the generated output instead of pasting it without checking the source?