AMA vs APA Citation: What’s the Difference?
AMA and APA look similar but format citations very differently. A side-by-side comparison of in-text style, reference lists, and when to use each.
If you're moving from a psychology course to a medical or nursing program, the switch from APA to AMA style trips up almost everyone. They govern the same information but present it in opposite ways. Here's what actually differs.
The core difference: author–date vs numbered
- APA is an author–date style. You cite in the text as
(Smith, 2020)and list references alphabetically by author. - AMA is a numbered style. You cite with a superscript number¹ in the order sources first appear, and list references in that numeric order.
That single difference cascades through everything else.
Side by side
| | APA (7th ed.) | AMA (11th ed.) |
|---|---|---|
| In-text | (Wang et al., 2020) | superscript ¹ |
| Reference order | Alphabetical | Order of appearance |
| Year position | Right after the author | After the journal name |
| Journal names | Written out in full | Abbreviated (JAMA, N Engl J Med) |
| Author cutoff | Up to 20, then "…" | Up to 6, then "et al." |
| Used by | Psychology, education, social sciences | Medicine, health sciences, JAMA journals |
The same source in each
APA:
Wang, D., Hu, B., Hu, C., et al. (2020). Clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized patients with 2019 novel coronavirus–infected pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA, 323(11), 1061–1069.
AMA:
- Wang D, Hu B, Hu C, et al. Clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized patients with 2019 novel coronavirus–infected pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA. 2020;323(11):1061-1069.
Note the removed periods in the author initials, the abbreviated journal, and the year moving to sit with the volume.
Which should you use?
Use whichever your instructor or target journal requires — it's rarely a free choice. As a rule of thumb: social sciences → APA, medicine and health sciences → AMA (or the closely related Vancouver style).
Convert between them in one click
You don't have to reformat by hand. Add your sources once in NeatCite, then switch the style menu between APA and AMA — every reference and in-text citation re-formats instantly. It's the fastest way to hand the same paper to two different courses.