Scholarly citations document your research journey, acknowledging those whose ideas contributed to your work. They also serve as a guide for readers who wish to consult the sources themselves.
Birthingway College uses a modified American Medical Association (AMA) citation style. Below we’ve provided some general rules, but please contact or visit the library if you’d like assistance with your citations. The library has a copy of the AMA Manual of Style, 10th Ed. on hand.
General rules:
Author(s): Author names appear last name first, then initials. There is no period between initials, or a comma separating the last name and initials. If there is more than one author, separate the names with commas. If there are up to six authors, list them all. If there are seven or more authors include only the first three, followed by “et al.”
Editor(s): The rules for editors are the same as those for authors. Names appear last name first, then initials. If there is one editor, the name should be followed by “ed.” If there are up to six editors, the names should all be listed, followed by “eds.” If there are seven or more, include only the first three, then “et al, eds.”
Journal Articles:
The format for a print article is:
Author AA. Article title. Journal Title. Year;volume(issue):pages.
Article title: The title has an initial capital letter only; the remaining words should be lower case. A period follows the title.
Journal title: Journal names appear in italics with the principal words capitalized, followed by a period.
Article specifics: These appear with no spaces separating them. The year comes first, followed by a semicolon. Next is the volume number, and then the issue number inside parentheses, followed by a semicolon. Finally, the beginning and ending page numbers are shown separated by a hyphen, followed by a period.
Online Journal Articles:
For works published online, a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be available. It should appear in the citation after the volume and issue. It should be introduced with a lower-case “doi” followed by a colon. If a Digital Object Identifier is not available, provide the web page address, or URL, and the date accessed.
The format for an online article with a DOI is:
Author AA. Article title. Journal Title. Year;volume(issue):pages. doi.
The format for an online article without a DOI shows the URL and date accessed instead:
Author AA. Article title. Journal Title. Year;volume(issue):pages. url. Accessed [month day, year].
Books:
The format for a book is:
Author AA. Title of Book. City, State: Publisher; Year.
The full title of of the book appears in italics, in title case (capitalize all the principal words), followed by a period. Then list the city of publication followed by a comma, the state abbreviation followed by a colon, the name of the publisher followed by a semi-colon, and the year of publication followed by a period.
For a chapter in a book, the citation format is:
Author AA. Title of Chapter. Editor EE, ed. Title of Book. City, State: Publisher; Year.
For a chapter in a book, the chapter author(s) appear first, followed by a period. The title of the chapter then appears in roman (non-italic) text, followed by a period. Next, list the editors, followed by a comma, then “eds.” The title of the book is italicized and in title case, followed by a period. City, state, publisher, and year of publication follow the book format above.
If there is more than one edition of a book, the edition number should be shown in Arabic numerals with a superscript indicator. For example, a second edition would be shown as “2nd ed.” A tenth edition would be shown as “10th ed.” The edition number follows the period after the title, and is also followed by a period.
Websites:
The information included in a website citation is less standard than for other sources, as the available information will vary. You should include as much relevant information as possible.
The format for a website is:
Author AA. Title of specific article, post, or item. Website Name. url. Published month day, year. Accessed [month day, year].
Reference List:
The reference list is numbered, and appears at the end of a paper. Items should be listed in the order in which they appear in the document.
In the text of the paper, insert a superscript number (corresponding to the number of the source on the reference list) immediately after the quote or fact the citation supports. If a source is referenced more than once, continue to use the same superscript number.