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Citation Styles

The most common citation styles we see used in the Health Sciences are American Medical Association (AMA) and American Psychological Association (APA). We often use these styles to describe the in-text citations and references list of a manuscript, but they can also dictate the style/structure of the entire manuscript or document, including title page, headings, headers, use of abbreviations, etc.

Here are some key resources to help you use these styles:

APA Style

APA Style is typically used in social sciences and Nursing. It relies on author last names to provide structure to the references list, and uses author-date parenthetical in-text citations.

APA Style Blog: Helpful resource addressing many of the questions that aren’t explicitly covered by APA Style.

Instructional Aids: Provided by APA Style, these aids provide numerous examples, worksheets, and explanatory documents to support teaching and learning APA Style.

Purdue Owl: A long-time favorite resource, Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab provides extensive documentation and examples on using APA Style.

AMA Style

AMA Style is used in biomedical fields. It orders the references list sequentially in the order they appear in the text. In-text citations are inserted using superscript numbers, corresponding to the references list. AMA Style uses journal title abbreviations from the National Library of Medicine.

Using AMA Style: A guide from the library on how to cite common source types in AMA style.

Purdue Owl: A long-time favorite resource, Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab provides extensive documentation and examples on using AMA Style.

Other Resources

Reference management software, such as Zotero and EndNote, are able to cite sources in both APA and AMA styles, in addition to many other citation formats. These references can be exported directly from the reference management software, or they can be used within a Word document.

Most databases also include a citation generator for items found within their collections. Look for a “cite” button in any library database. Please be aware that these tools are not perfect – they usually need some correction from a human.