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).
Using author's names in-text:
If including an author in the text of a sentence, use the surnames of authors and add the citation number after the author’s surname.
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:
Notes:
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Do not cite the image individually but give the citation details for the book/article/etc.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;200(6):869-75.
These rules also apply to editors, translators and other people who need to be cited for the source.
Figures, Tables and Boxes are given a number and a header in AMA. You number them sequentially, according to their order of appearance in the text and the type of figure (e.g.: Box 1, Box 2, Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2...)
Table is used for any data arranged in tabular format.
Figure is used for graphs, diagrams and images (like illustrations or photographs).
Box is used for textual information like lists, dot-points, side-bars and the like.
Continue numbering based on what has been used in the main text. If the last number used in the text was 3, then the first number in your table/figure/box will be 4 (unless it is the same source, in which case it will be 3 again).
If the entire table, figure or box has been taken from (or represents information taken from) the same source, place the superscript number at the end of the header
Table 1. Leading causes of mortality in Australia in 2018.4
| Males | Heart disease |
| Females | Alzheimer disease |
If the information has been taken from various sources, place the superscript number after the relevant piece of information:
Table 2. Incidence of asthma in Queensland and Tasmania 2018
| Queensland | Tasmania |
| 11% of children 0-4 years.7 | 12.2% of children and young people.8 |
| 10.6% overall population.9 | 12.6% overall population.10 |
The sequence of numbers within a table should be logical and consistent.
When setting out tables, figures and boxes in your document, you should put a line above the header and put the type and number of the figure in bold. The header should be in sentence case.
See this attached Word document for examples of the format (machine readable):
We acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and acknowledge Traditional Owners of the lands where our staff and students, live, learn and work.