Skip to Main Content

AMA 11th Referencing Guide

Referencing guide for the 11th Edition of AMA Style

Authors - format and numbers

Author formats in the Reference List

The authors follow the pattern of Surname Initials (e.g. Brown JA) and are separated by a comma.

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

If there are more than six authors/editors, only list the first three names, then shorten with et al. (e.g. Smith AA, Jones BA, Bloggs JC, 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.

Mentioning the authors by name in text

In narrative citations in text, you mention the author's names as part of the sentence. Place the reference number next to the author's names. For example:

Research conducted by Smith7 showed a correlation between...

When you have only two authors, you will always mention both authors in the sentence:

Research conducted by Smith and Green7 showed a correlation between...

If you have three or more authors, give the first author and et al (note that for AMA you do not put a full stop after al in et al):

Research conducted by Smith et al7 showed a correlation between...

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.Acknowledgement of Country

Creative Commons Licence
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License. Content from this Guide should be attributed to James Cook University Library. This does not apply to images, third party material (seek permission from the original owner) or any logos or insignia belonging to JCU or other bodies, which remain All Rights Reserved.

.