AMA UpToDate Citation: Authors, Dates, and Examples

The AMA UpToDate citation format

UpToDate's publisher recommends treating a topic as a chapter, naming Connor RF as the editor and Wolters Kluwer as the publisher. St. John Fisher's AMA guide adapts that approach into the template below. The topic title stays in regular type, while UpToDate is italicized.

The university's template uses the current year. UpToDate's own general example omits a publication year, so these instructions have a visible difference. Use your required template consistently. A topic's last-update year is a separate piece of information; record it without assuming every institution uses it as the publication year.

Keep topic authors separate from editors

Use the people credited as the topic's authors at the beginning of the reference. A topic can also name a section editor and deputy editor. Those labels describe different responsibilities; do not combine all the names into one author list.

For example, the public record for the topic used below identifies Bradley P Knight as its author. His AMA-formatted name is Knight BP. The section and deputy editors stay out of that author field. Professional credentials such as MD and FACC also stay out of the reference.

For a topic with several authors, preserve their displayed order. AMA lists all names for six or fewer authors; with seven or more, use the first three followed by et al. Check names before relying on an older citation stored in your notes.

Which date belongs in an UpToDate citation?

A topic can display both a literature-review cutoff and a last-update date. They answer different questions. In the example checked for this guide, the literature review was current through August 2026, while the topic was last updated on July 2, 2026. August is not a replacement for July in an update-date field.

Your access date records when you consulted the topic. Use that actual date even when it differs from the topic's revision date. A later revision does not retroactively change the date you read an earlier version.

If your required format includes an update date, copy the topic's displayed date. Keep the literature-review cutoff in your research notes unless the assignment asks for it. A database-wide copyright year provides no evidence of when an individual topic was revised. When revisiting a topic, check the passage again before changing your reference to describe the newer version.

A real UpToDate citation example

The public topic record below was checked on October 2, 2026. This example applies St. John Fisher's chapter-style template to that record. Its publication-year convention and access date therefore both use 2026.

The title, author, and URL identify the topic; Connor RF identifies the editor specified in the publisher's citation instructions. There is no page range. UpToDate explicitly says its topics have no page numbers to cite, so a downloaded document's viewer counter should not be inserted as chapter pages.

Use a topic URL and distinguish the underlying study

Copy a link that opens the specific topic. Check it after removing tracking parameters, and avoid a library login redirect or search-results URL that merely starts another search. A working topic link can still require a subscription to read the full text.

When a topic points you to a study, decide which source your sentence actually uses. If you read and discuss the study itself, create a journal reference from its own authors, title, journal, and DOI. If your statement comes from UpToDate's synthesis, cite the topic you consulted. Opening a linked abstract alone does not mean you reviewed the full paper.

Also check the resource name when researching drug information. St. John Fisher provides separate templates for UpToDate topics and Lexidrug entries. A drug monograph needs the database and contributor details displayed on that entry. The topic example above should not be copied unchanged into a drug-information reference.

Build a draft in the AMA citation generator

AMA Cite's Database Entry form can collect the topic's metadata. Select AMA 11th edition and enter the fields manually. The form does not import an UpToDate topic's authors or revision history automatically.

The Database Entry output is a draft for this chapter-style reference. It has no editor field or publication-year field. These details must be added in your final document; they are not generated automatically.

1. Enter the topic authors in Author or group using AMA names, such as Knight BP. This field preserves your text rather than converting full names into initials.
2. Copy the complete title into Entry or topic title. Set Database name to UpToDate and Publisher to Wolters Kluwer.
3. If recording a revision, enter the complete phrase in Updated date, such as Updated July 2, 2026. The form does not add the word Updated for you.
4. Enter your actual Access date and the topic URL. Read the preview against your source record before copying.
5. After exporting, add In: Connor RF, ed. before the italicized database title and supply the publisher/year punctuation required by your template. Check any update-date wording at that stage too.

Check the reference in your finished paper

Give the topic a superscript number at its first citation and reuse that number for later references to the same topic. A different topic needs its own entry even when both come from UpToDate. Keep your reference list in order of first appearance.

After pasting, check that UpToDate remains italicized and the topic URL is complete. Compare the author, title, editor, year convention, and access date once more. If you quote a passage, retain your notes about the section where you found it; do not invent a page locator.