American Medical Association Manual of Style

American Medical Association Manual of Style
The JAMA Network Editors · Public domain · source
Name	American Medical Association Manual of Style
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Medical publishing, Scientific writing
Publisher	American Medical Association
First pub	1962
Editions	Multiple

American Medical Association Manual of Style

The American Medical Association Manual of Style is a style guide for authors, editors, and publishers in medicine and allied health, used to standardize citation, nomenclature, and manuscript preparation across journals and textbooks. It serves practitioners, researchers, and institutions involved with clinical practice and biomedical research, and is cited by publishers, libraries, and professional societies. The manual intersects with standards set by organizations active in medical publishing and scholarly communication.

Overview

The Manual provides guidance on manuscript preparation, reference formatting, ethical reporting, and editorial policy for submissions to peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, BMJ (journal), and Annals of Internal Medicine. It addresses authors connected to institutions including Johns Hopkins Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The Manual’s recommendations align with indexing agencies and registries such as PubMed, MEDLINE, ClinicalTrials.gov, World Health Organization, and National Institutes of Health. It intersects with nomenclature and classification systems like International Classification of Diseases, Medical Subject Headings, SNOMED CT, and standards from International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

History and editions

The first edition, issued by the American Medical Association in 1962, emerged amid shifts in postwar biomedical publishing influenced by institutions such as National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, and academic presses including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. Subsequent editions responded to developments in digital publishing, open access initiatives advanced by groups like Public Library of Science and BioMed Central, and citation practices promoted by organizations such as CrossRef and Committee on Publication Ethics. Editions have reflected regulatory and ethical changes informed by cases and policies from entities including Food and Drug Administration, Office for Human Research Protections, World Medical Association, and high-profile publications involving researchers affiliated with Harvard Medical School, Stanford University School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Organization and content

Chapters cover authorship and contributorship, conflicts of interest, financial disclosures, data sharing, research ethics, statistical presentation, units and abbreviations, chemical nomenclature, drug names, and patient privacy consistent with laws and regulations such as those overseen by Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and European Medicines Agency. It provides model forms and templates for trial registration with ClinicalTrials.gov, reporting conforming to standards like CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE, and CARE. The Manual’s bibliographic sections interact with citation managers and databases including EndNote, Zotero, RefWorks, Scopus, and Web of Science. Contributions and editorial practices often reference work by authors and editors at institutions such as Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Yale School of Medicine, University of Chicago Medical Center, and University of Michigan Medical School.

Style and formatting guidelines

Specific guidance includes punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, units of measure, statistical reporting, drug nomenclature, and figure/table presentation used by editorial boards of journals like JAMA, Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, The BMJ, and PLOS Medicine. The Manual aligns with nomenclature authorities such as USAN Council, United States Pharmacopeia, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and taxonomy references like National Center for Biotechnology Information. It addresses copyright and licensing practices relevant to publishers including Wiley-Blackwell, Springer Nature, Elsevier, and Taylor & Francis, and editorial ethics debated in venues such as Committee on Publication Ethics and cases involving institutions like Kaiser Permanente.

Influence and adoption

The Manual is adopted or referenced by medical schools, residency programs, hospital publishing offices, and journals across organizations such as American College of Physicians, American Heart Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, Society for Critical Care Medicine, and specialty societies like American Society of Clinical Oncology. University presses and library systems at Harvard University, University of California, University of Oxford, Yale University, and Princeton University cite it in author guidelines. It informs indexing conventions used by MEDLINE, citation styles used by repositories like PubMed Central, and guidelines for systematic reviews produced by groups such as Cochrane Collaboration.

Criticism and revisions

Critics have argued about prescriptive elements and changes to digital citation practices, echoing debates involving Open Access movement, Directory of Open Access Journals, and publication reformers associated with Science and Nature. Revisions have been made following feedback from stakeholders including editors at The New England Journal of Medicine, librarians from National Library of Medicine, researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and legal counsel related to cases heard before courts in jurisdictions such as United States District Court for the Southern District of New York or regulatory action involving Food and Drug Administration. Ongoing updates respond to evolving standards in data sharing promoted by National Institutes of Health and transparency initiatives from organizations like Wellcome Trust and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Category:Style guides Category:Medical publications