AMA Referencing Guide: Image

Superscript numbers

The numbers in text are in superscript¹ and occur at the end of the clause in which you used the information.  They occur outside “quotation marks,”² commas,³ (parentheses)⁴ and full stops.⁵ However, they occur inside semicolons⁶; and colons⁷:

Do not leave a space between the last letter or punctuation mark and the number.

Re-use numbers for the same citation

Citations should be numbered sequentially – that is, the first source you cite is 1, the second source is 2 and so on.

However, once you have given a source a number, it will keep that number throughout your paper. So, if you use your first source again, no matter how often you use it, it is still 1.

Citing more than one work at a time

Use commas to show that more than one work is being cited, and use hyphens for several works that would be numbered sequentially:

These side effects can have implications for the patient's mental health, as numerous studies have shown.^1,3,6-9

Relationship between in-text citations and reference list

Your reference list follows the order of the numbers used in the text. The first source you cite in the text is 1 and the reader will look for number 1 in the reference list to find the full citation; the fifth source you use is 5 and the full citation is listed at number 5 in the reference list (and so on).

The way you reference an image depends on where the image was found.

If the image was found online, as part of a website, treat it like a Web Object:

Author AA, Author BB. Title of page or object. Title of Website. URL. Published Month DD, YYYY or Updated Month DD, YYYY. Accessed Month, DD, YYYY.

Examples:

1. ISTOCKPHOTO. Hands washing under stream of water [image]. ABC Health & Wellbeing website. http://www.abc.net.au/health/library/stories/2007/11/22/2089345.htm. Updated July 11, 2013.  Accessed April 14, 2014.
2. Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. Photoalergic reactions [image].  ARPANSA website. http://www.arpansa.gov.au/RadiationProtection/Solaria/Offline/06/05.html. Updated May 18, 2011. Accessed April 14, 2014.
3. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Slide 37 - Solvent, nummular eczema [image]. CDC website. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/skin/occderm-slides/ocderm8.html. Updated April 17, 2001. Accessed April 14, 2014.

Notes:

• If there is a credit for the image, use this as your author.  If there is no credit for the image, use the authors of the web site if you believe they are responsible for the image.
• If you are not sure who is responsible for the image, omit the authors and begin with the title of the image.
• If the image does not have a title, give a description of the image (e.g.: Boy holding a fish [image]).

If the image was found in a book, journal article or entry in a database:

Do not cite the image individually but give the citation details for the book/article/etc.

If there are six authors/editors or less, include the names of all authors/editors.

If there are more than six authors/editors, include the first three names, then shorten with et al.

1.  Hallal AH, Amortegui JD, Jeroukhimov IM, et al. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography accurately detects common bile duct stones in resolving gallstone pancreatitis. J Am Coll Surg. 2005 Jun;200(6):869-75.