Printed journals are the backbone of medical referencing, but a growing share of what students and clinicians cite lives online: health agency pages, news articles, organisational reports and even social media posts. AMA style (from the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition) has clear rules for each. Getting them right shows readers exactly where to find a source and when you accessed it, which matters because web content changes.
The basic website format
A standard AMA web reference contains:
- Author(s), if named
- Title of the specific page or document
- Name of the website
- Date published (and/or updated)
- Date accessed
- URL
In template form:
Author AA. Title of page. Name of website. Published Month Day, Year. Updated Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL
Example:
National Health Agency. Understanding high blood pressure. National Health Agency website. Updated January 5, 2026. Accessed March 3, 2026. https://www.example.org/high-blood-pressure
(The agency and page are illustrative.) Notes on this example:
- When no individual author is listed, the organisation can be treated as the author, or the reference can begin with the page title.
- Page titles are in sentence case and not italicised.
- Months may be abbreviated in some contexts, but check your instructor's or journal's preference.
- There's no full stop after the URL.
When dates are missing
Many web pages don't show a publication date. In AMA style, include the accessed date regardless; it's the reader's clue to which version you saw. If there's an "updated" or "last reviewed" date, include it as well.
Online news articles
News articles follow a similar pattern, with the publication name italicised as it is for newspapers:
Author AA. Title of article. Name of Newspaper. Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL
Example:
Smith J. Hospital waiting lists fall for third month. The Example Times. February 12, 2026. Accessed February 20, 2026. https://www.example.com/news/waiting-lists
(The example is illustrative; always cite real sources you've read.)
Reports from organisations
Reports, guidelines and fact sheets published online by agencies and charities use the website format, with any report number included after the title:
World Health Organization. Global Report on Hypertension. WHO; 2023. Accessed April 2, 2026. URL
Longer standalone documents, like books, are typically italicised; shorter pages are not. When in doubt, follow the pattern of the closest example in the manual.
Social media posts
AMA style allows citing social media when it's the original source of information, such as a public health agency's announcement:
Author (@handle). Text of post, up to the first 10 words or so. Platform. Month Day, Year. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL
Keep the account handle, quote the start of the post accurately and include the post's date. Consider whether a more permanent source, like a press release, would serve readers better.
Formatting rules to remember
- Numbering: references are numbered in the order they're first cited in the text, using superscript numbers.
- Authors: list up to six; if there are more than six, list the first three followed by "et al".
- No "Available at": AMA 11th edition simply gives the URL after the accessed date.
- DOIs: if a web document has a DOI, you can give it in the form doi:10.xxxx instead of the URL.
- Break long URLs carefully in print: break after a slash or before a full stop, and never insert a hyphen.
Checking a reference list
Web references are where most errors creep in: missing accessed dates, inconsistent capitalisation, or organisation names written two different ways. A reference builder like amacitationgenerator.org can lay out each element in the right order, but always compare the output with the source page and correct capitalisation and author names by hand.
Quick checklist
- Is the author (person or organisation) correct?
- Is the page title in sentence case?
- Is the website or newspaper name in the right format?
- Are the published/updated and accessed dates included?
- Is the URL complete and working, with no trailing full stop?
- Are references numbered in order of first citation?
Summary
AMA web references follow a consistent pattern: author, page title, site name, dates and URL. The accessed date is essential because online content changes. Treat news, reports and social media as variations on that pattern, and double-check every generated reference against the original source.