Nutrition and Dietetics: Citing Sources

The most common citaiton style in the social sciences is that of the American Psychological Association.  The basic citation forms are:

Journal Article:

Format:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.

Example:

Atkinson, M., & Gianani, R. (2009). The pancreas in human type 1 diabetes: Providing new answers to age-old questions. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes & Obesity, 16(4), 279-285.

Book:

Format:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Example:

Bray, G. A., & Bouchard, C. (2004). Handbook of obesity: Etiology and pathophysiology. New York: Marcel Dekker.

Website:

Try to locate as much information as you can. The author can the the agency that produced the site or an individual. Look around on the page for a last modified date to use as the date. If none is available, use (n.d.) where the date usually goes.

Format:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of document. Retrieved from http://Web address

Example:

National Institute of Mental Health (2011). Eating disorders. Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/eating-disorders/complete-index.shtml

For additional information, See:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

In terms of citation style, the Journal of the American Dietitic Association's Guide for Authors states:

"The Journal follows the AMA Manual of Style, 10th ed, for references. One exception is that reference citations in the Journal must list all authors' names; use of "et al" is not acceptable. Abbreviate periodical titles according to the US National Library of Medicine's lists of biographic data found at: ftp://nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov/online/journals/lsiweb.pdf. If a title does not appear on this list, provide the complete title. Published and updated dates, if available, and access dates for Web sites cited must be included. For example: Smith J. Risk factors for cancer. Cancer Risk Factors Web site. http://www.cancerriskfactors.gov. Published December 1, 2000. Updated January 15, 2008. Accessed February 1, 2008."

Some things to note about the AMA style that makes it different from APA:

1. The lack of commas between the authors last name and first name initials.
2. The use of abreviated journal titles.  A list of journal abreviations can be found by searching the National Library of Medicine's journal database at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/journals.
3. The position of the year of publication after the journal title, but before the volume number. Also, note the use of the semi-colon between the year and the volume number.
4. Also note the lack of spaces between the year, volume and page numbers.

Here are some examples:

Journal Article:

Lê K, Ith M, Kreis R, Faeh D, Bortolotti M, Tran C, Boesch C, Tappy L. Fructose overconsumption causes dyslipidemia and ecopic lipis deposition in healthy subjects with and without a family history of type 2 diabetes. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89:1760-1765. 

Book:

Albritton, R. Let them eat junk: How capitalism creates hunger and obesity. London: Pluto Press; 2009.

Website (List personal or organizational author when available):

United States Department of Agriculture. MyPramid.gov. Available at: http://www.mypyramid.gov. Accessed June 23, 2009.

For more informaiton on the AMA citation style, see:

1. http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/styleguides/ama.html
2. http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citama.htm