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Physical Therapist Assistant: AMA Citation

This guide provides links to some of our key physical therapy resources as well as a selection of physical therapy news and blog feeds. Please explore the tabs at the top of this guide and don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

AMA Citation Examples

Please note that not all online resources have updated to AMA 11 from AMA 10. Be cautious when looking at different websites and verify that they have taken the time to update.

Also note that AMA is not very specific on formatting (font style, size, etc), always default to your instructors requirements.

Here you will find links to help you with AMA Style. 

 

Have Questions?

  • Chat now with a librarian using the Ask-a-Librarian chat box on the right side of the screen.
  • Email or make an appointment with your PTA Library Liaison. 
  • Try some of the resources listed below. 
  • You must use the approved abbreviation of a journal name. You can find those in the NLM Catalog. 
  • Always use a DOI instead of an URL if available. 

Tamburini S, Shen N, Chih Wu H, Clemente JC. The microbiome in early life: implications for health outcomes. Nat Med. 2016;22(7):713-722. doi:10.1038/nm.4142

Allison MA, Hurley LP, Markowitz L, et al. Primary care physicians’ perspectives about HPV vaccine. Pediatrics. 2016;137(2):e20152488. doi:10.1542/peds.2015-2488

 

List the first 3 authors then put et al. 

Notice in this citation that an e-locator (e20152488) takes the place of the page numbers. 

Jette AM. A bold vision for physical therapy. Phys Ther. 2017;97(10):946-947. Accessed April 30, 2019. http://proxy154.nclive.org/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy154.nclive.org/scholarly-journals/bold-vision-physical-therapy/docview/1966874455/se-2?accountid=13601

 

Remember to include an Accessed Date if you are going to use an URL. 

ALWAYS check for a permalink when using a URL. If you have questions about finding permalinks in Library databases reach out to a librarian. 

Brumitt J, ed. Physical Therapy Case Files: Sports. McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

 

Note in this example ed. signifies an editor. 

Ciccone CD. Geriatric pharmacology. In: Avers D, Wong RA. Guccione's Geriatric Physical Therapy. 4th ed. Elsevier; 2020: 102-136.

 

Chapter titles are not capitalized the same way the book title is. 

Fetters L, Tilson J. Evidence Based Physical Therapy. 2nd ed. F.A. Davis Company; 2019. Accessed September 28, 2021. https://www-r2library-com.proxy154.nclive.org/Resource/Title/0803661150

 

Please note, if this eBook comes from somewhere other than on your computer in a browser you have to include format (CD, Kindle, etc.) between the edition and publishers name. For examples of this see Section 3.12.11 in the AMA handbook. 

Neergaard L, Stobbe M. Stage set for COVID-19 booster shots. Salisbury Post. September 24, 2021. Accessed September 28, 2021. https://www.salisburypost.com/2021/09/24/stage-set-for-covid-19-booster-shots/

See 3.13.1 of the AMA Guide for more examples. 

Charlton G. Internal linking for SEO: examples and best practices. SearchEngineWatch. September 29, 2015. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2428041/internal-linking-for-seo-examples-and-best-practices

 Zika travel information. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Updated May 24, 2021. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-information

AMA Citation Links

Abstracts

This type of abstract is a paragraph with no headings. Max of 200 words summarizing all the important parts from your paper. See 2.5.2 of the AMA manual for more information on unstructured abstracts. 

This is the type of abstract suggest for original research, systematic reviews, and clinical reviews. A structured abstract just means that you have an abstract broken up under headings. For original research and systematic reviews you have a max of 350 words. Examples of headings include: 

  • Importance
  • Objective
  • Evidence Review
  • Design
  • Setting
  • Participants
  • Intervention(s) or Exposure(s)
  • Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s)
  • Results
  • Conclusions and Relevance

For more information on structured abstracts check out Section 2.5.1 in the AMA Manual

Direct Quotes

Guidelines for Direct Quotes

A Direct Quote uses the exact words of a source. 

Think of the quote as a rare and precious jewel. 

Quotes can be super-effective in getting your point across to the reader. Just be sure you’re not stringing a bunch of quotes together – you want your voice to be stronger than the voice of your sources. You always need to interpret, analyze, add to and explain more about the quote to your reader.  

Here are some guidelines to help you decide when to use quotes:

  • Wording that is so memorable, unforgettable or powerful, or expresses a point so perfectly, that you cannot change it without weakening the meaning.
  • An important passage is so dense or rich that it requires you to analyze it closely. This requires that the passage be quoted so the reader can follow your analysis.
  • A claim you are making is such that the doubting reader will want to hear exactly what the source said. This is mostly when you criticize or disagree with a source. You want your reader to know you aren't misrepresenting the source.
  • Your attempts to paraphrase or summarize are awkward or much longer than the source material.

Examples

You may choose to quote an entire passage from a source or just words or phrases. Make sure to use signal words (see below) to move between your ideas and the words of your source and avoid wordy or awkward introductions to a quote. Also, always cite your work. See examples below for ideas on how to use quotes.

Direct Quotes

As Ali Akbar Hamemi remarked in 2005, "There is no doubt that America is a super-power in the world and we cannot ignore them".1(p13) 

 

For Charles Dickens, the eighteenth century was both "the best of times" and "the worst of times".5(p30)

 

Sometimes it may be necessary to include long direct quotes (4 lines or longer) if you are unable to paraphrase or summarize. A long quote is treated differently as a block quotation with a .5 inch margin from the left but still double-spaced. Notice that there are no quotation marks around the block quotations even though these are direct quotes. 

Avers states:

The state of frailty is associated with multisystem dysregulations, leading to a loss of energetics, homeostasis, and physiological reserve. Although the two major models of frailty have done much to describe characteristics and attributes of frailty, neither the phenotype model nor the cumulative deficit model explains how multisystem dysregulation occurs.25(p291)

 

Avers D. The older adult who is frail. In: Avers D, Wong RA. Guccione's Geriatric Physical Therapy. 4th ed. Elsevier; 2020: 283-308.

 

For more information on Block Quotes see Section 8.6.14 in the AMA Manual

 

 

So, when using quotes:

  • Always have a good reason for using a direct quote. Otherwise, paraphrase or summarize.
  • Do not allow quotes to speak for themselves. Your research paper is about communicating YOUR IDEAS.  Your research simply helps prove or support those ideas.
  • Always make sure you provide an analysis of the quote.  Show your readers that you understand how the quote relates to your ideas by analyzing its significance.
  • Do not use quotes as padding. If quotes do not have adequate analysis, readers will feel that you don’t have a grasp on what that quote means, and they also might feel that you are using quotes as “filler” to take up space.
  • Use no more than 2 direct quotes per paragraph.
  • Carefully integrate quotations into your text so that they flow smoothly and clearly into the surrounding sentences. Use a signal phrase or signal verb, such as those in the following example:

As Thompson makes clear in his article, Youtube's algorithms "can’t distinguish between true and false data, except in the most crude way".18  

 

In Text Citations

In-text citations refer to the works you are using for the information in your text or body of your paper. At any point in your paper when you discuss information that you obtained from a source you must give credit for that information. These citations tell a reader where the information comes from by telling them which reference in your reference list to look at. AMA format uses numbering for in-text citations.

  •  Each source is cited in order of its first appearance in the text.
  • If a source is used multiple times in your paper, use the same number assigned to that source each time. 
  • You put the number associated with the source in the text as a superscript, meaning it goes up like this.22
  • Put these numbers outside of commas and periods, but inside of semicolons and colons. When listing the author in the text put the citation with it. For example:
    •  Many different kinds of fish live in the ocean.3, 7-10 
    • As previously stated,1-2
    • Katz et al5 show further examples of this.
    • The results are as follows9 :
  • Personal communications are cited in-text parenthetically (similar to APA and MLA style citations.

For more information on In-Text Citations check out Chapter 3, Section 6 Citation in the AMA Style guide.

For more information on personal communications see Chapter 3, Section 13, Part 10 in the AMA Style Guide