How do I cite a journal article that only has an article number in AMA Style?
Answer
Many journals, but especially online only journals, have stopped assigning unique page numbers to PDFs of their articles and instead assign the entire article a number.
Article numbers can have many different formats to them, here are some examples
- e19019080
- 65
- 200245012
- sg2345
While the PDF will be numbered starting with 1, these are not the official page numbers and should not be used in citations. Instead include the article number as part of the citation.
1. Author Last Name, First Initial(s). Article title. Journ Titl. Year;volume number(issue number):article number. doi:10….
1. Tait, J., Perotto-Baldivieso, H., McKeown, A., & Westcott, D. A. Are flying-foxes coming to town? urbanisation of the spectacled flying-fox (Pteropus conspicillatus) in Australia. PLoS One. 2014;9(10):e109810. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109810
Since AMA Style does not require the inclusion of page numbers in-text, having an article number instead of page numbers does not affect the formatting of your in-text citation.
If you need further help, contact a librarian