AMA Style: Formatting Your Academic Assignment

What Is AMA Format?

AMA format paper provides formatting that is appropriate for scientific or medical-based research studies. It is a variation of the Vancouver system used by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and other AMA publications. In AMA, kind of briefing note is used, which means that you put the number in your text to name sources of information and list of references in numerical order. In your text, AMA citations are in superscript and in order of citation (the first citation is 1, the next is 2). If you reuse the same source, you keep the same number. For example, the source you used for the first quote is always 1, even if you reuse it after 6.

Use Arabic superscript numbers (1, 2, 3) to cite each source in numerical sequence. Use these numbers outside commas and periods and inside semicolons and colons. For numerous citations, use a comma (no space) between the numbers. Using a hyphen, join a closed series. Let’s take a look at some examples:

Example 1: Patients with heart failure present with either a reduced or a preserved ejection fraction. 8

Example 2: The data were as follows 12,13:

Example 3: As previously mentioned, 9-10,21  

AMA Paper Format: Basics

To fully understand AMA Style guide or AMA manual of style (as many researchers call it), one must comprehend all elements involved. Guidelines & official information provided need to be used in a precise manner. Using correct references within a text and bibliography, as well as stylistic considerations given forth in AMA Manual of Style to style content, is what formatting a paper entails. This covers things like headers and capitalization, line spacing, margins, text style concerns (such using "one" or "1," AM or a.m. or A.M.), page number placement, desired font and spacing for graphs, preferred size and shape for tables, and so on. This guide provides some fundamental manuscript style advice, although it is not comprehensive.

AMA Format: Title Page

AMA title page format does not always require a title page on the first blank page. However, researchers cannot just go with no title page at all. In general circumstances, the fundamental objective of a title page is to simply and clearly explain the major idea(s) of your work. If your assignment requires a title page, it should be centered and placed in the upper part of the page. Your title page should include a title of your document (centered and double spaced), author’s name, university name, and an abstract. If appropriate, remove any titles (e.g., Dr., Professor) and degrees (e.g., MA, Ph.D., EdD). Your name and name of your college, university, or institution should be in a center as well. An abstract or your study aim, background, or context of your research should be bold and centered. Your key concepts investigated and/or your study design and methods, principal conclusions, and/or your findings of a study should also be included in an abstract. Also, supply your title page with 3-10 keywords aligned with the left margin. Check how it should look in our example:

                                                        Title
                                                 Author Name
                                               University Name

                                                     Abstract  

Keywords:

AMA: Heading Format

AMA header format requires the use of logical titles that are chronologically placed with short page numbers. Use our words to pages converter to calculate the exact number of sheets in your paper. It should be done to separate paper sections and establish a hierarchy of information. The main heading should be bold, while subheadings should be italicized. Furthermore, all heading levels should be left-aligned. And font should be similar to a font used in the body of your text.

So, for example, the body of your text uses Arial 12 then a heading should also use Arial 12 with the difference being that your heading should be bold or italicized as per its own category.  

Endnote: AMA Style

AMA style endnote uses commas, spaces, and semicolons to ensure that resources within a research paper are well defined. Footnotes done via endnotes are used to describe a short hand in-text resource. Researchers may use it to better complement a study. EndNote also is basically a module developed by Rowan University. It works as a citation manager to ensure that citations are done correctly in AMA format. EndNote application automates organization of a study when it comes to citations and references. Furthermore, researchers can incorporate customizable libraries in EndNote. It would suffice to their own needs and the way that they conduct their term papers. EndNote ensures that your formatting is done correctly and that references list can just be imported directly into a document without much hesitation.

Formatting Reference Page

AMA reference list style relies on numbered references. They act as entries for all presented resources in a study. Every AMA in text citation must have a corresponding full citation in a reference section of your paper. Here are some basic rules to structure your reference page:  

• Reference lists are arranged in numerical order. It is based on the order in which sources were first cited in your assignment.
• Use single‐space within citations and double‐spaces between citations.
• In case of personal communication, you should cite references parenthetically in the text.
• If you include more than 6 authors, mention names of first three authors and then add “et al.”
• If there is no author, start with the title.
• Capitalize the word "References" and align it with the left margin.
• Format numbers according to normal numbering style in Word (or similar programs).

AMA Style Guide does not provide specific instructions for a layout of reference list, but the following advice is based on layout of the reference lists in both the Style Guide and journals published by JAMA family. You can find an example below.

AMA: Bibliography Format

AMA format bibliography is a collection of all the reference lists with an author, accessed date, and other key sources. There is only a slight difference between reference list and bibliography. In bibliography, you should list all materials you used in your work. While on reference page, you include full citations of corresponding references in-text. For bibliography, you should cite an author (if given). Also add title of item cited (if none given, use an organization name). Than cite name of Web site, URL, published date (if given), updated date (if given), and accessed date.

Other Genetal AMA Formatting Guidelines

Apart from basic guidelines given above, it is important to mention other details that should be specified as well. Here are some essential points to remember when it comes to AMA formatting:

Margins: Margins around your text should be 1-inch. But do not adjust your right margin. It should be unjustified.

Font: Use Times New Roman, 12-point font.

Page Numbers: Your page numbers should be placed in the top right-hand corner throughout your whole paper. Start numbers with your title page.

Line Spacing: Use double-space in your main text. Single space should be used everywhere except your main text. Use it within the abstract, notes, titles and headings, block quotes, tables and figures, and references.

Indents: Use “tab” button to make half-inch indents in your work for new paragraphs.  

AMA Format: Example

The following is AMA reference page example. It can be utilized in research paper writing, allowing researchers to present their citations properly. Presented resources can be formatted in the following way.  

Final Thoughts on AMA Format Paper

As iterated above AMA style is basically a branch of the Vancouver formatting. This type of formatting requires great detail orientation in text. It is necessarily used in health journals.