Health Sciences Citations
Citing a source means acknowledging where you got a specific quote, fact, graphic, data, or idea from. A citation is all the information needed to describe a source, such as (but not limited to) the author, title, publisher, page numbers, and publication date. Information in citations follows a specific format or style.
Which citation style you use can depend on what subject or discipline you are writing for or on the preference of you professor.
The Health Sciences programs most often use AMA or APA citation styles. The guides below offer help in understanding how to apply these styles.
The AMA (American Medical Association) reference style was created by the editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It specifies writing and citation styles for scholarly works in Medicine. AMA style is internationally recognized and is used throughout disciplines in the health sciences.
American Medical Association, AMA Manual of Style 11th ed., 2020.
Available to borrow from the Health Sciences Library
General resources:
- AMA Citation format sheet
Quick look at how to format references for journal articles, books, and websites - AMA Citation Style 11th ed Lecture Slides
From Clarkson Health Sciences Library workshop
includes many detailed formatting examples - AMA Resources from Purdue OWL
- Getting Started with AMA Style
A very detailed, easy to follow, guide created by Sheridan College Library - NLM Medical Journal Abbreviation Look-Up
Use this tool from the National Library of Medicine to find the correct abbreviations for journal titles.
APA style is commonly used for citing references in science and social science courses.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed., 2020.
Available to borrow from the Health Sciences Library
General resources:
- APAstyle.org: Handouts and Guides
Look at this guide first for quick easy graphics to understanding all elements of APA style from formatting the paper to creating references. - APA Style and Grammar Guidelines
Comprehensive list & examples - Academic Writer Tutorial: Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style.
A comprehensive, multipart tutorial on all elements of APA Style. - APA Style Sample Papers
- APA Resources from Purdue OWL
- APA 7th edition: resources, handouts, tutorials, & comparison guide to 6th edition
GREAT library guide from ECU Libraries. Includes video lecture with slides.
How to format the paper:
How to format the citations, in text and reference list:
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These links connect to sites authored by vendors, organizations, and other academic libraries and provide documentation to some common style formats.
- Chicago Manual of Style Online
- Chicago Manual of Style – Perdue OWL Guide
- MLA – (Modern Language Association) – Perdue OWL Guide
- MLA 9th edition Citation Guide
- Turabian Citation Guide
There are free, easy-to-use tools to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.
With these, you can:
- Create and manage citations of books, articles, websites, videos, etc.
- Import citations directly from databases, the library catalog, Google Scholar
- Add searchable notes and tags to citation records
- Attach article and chapter PDFs and images to citation records
- Easily and quickly create a bibliography in a variety of reference styles (APA, MLA, etc.)
- Automatically manage in-text citations in Microsoft Word or LiberOffice/OpenOffice
- Easily share references with others
Zotero and Mendeley are the two most common citation softwares. Compare and explore or ask a librarian for help in installing and using either one.