Punctuation

The Punctuation chapter of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style includes guidance on usage of many punctuation marks, as well as examples to illustrate the style. Included are the period, question mark, and exclamation point; comma, semicolon, and colon; hyphens and dashes; forward slash (virgule); parentheses and brackets; quotation marks; apostrophe; and ellipses. Expanded guidance on punctuation within lists or enumerations has been added, as have several policy changes: no hyphen in email and no period in the reference list after a URL or a DOI if either of these is the final item in the reference.

Editorial Assessment and Processing

The Editorial Assessment and Processing chapter of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style describes the procedures that some scientific journals use to evaluate and then process articles for publication. For the evaluation process of peer review, not only the selection of reviewers but also criteria for manuscript assessment, masked (“blind”) or unmasked review, revisions, and appeals are described. The steps an accepted manuscript then undergoes as it moves toward publication (manuscript editing, composition and page makeup, and proofreading), as well as issue makeup (including advertising placement and final review) are outlined. Finally, postpublication review and corrections are emphasized as important parts of the process.

Tables, Figures, and Multimedia

The Tables, Figures, and Multimedia chapter of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style begins with guidance on when to use tables vs figures or tables vs text. Descriptions of various table types (eg, matrix, box, sidebar, and other nontabular material) and examples of each illustrate advice on organization of information, use of footnotes, alignment, titles, column and row headings, and treatment of punctuation, abbreviations, and units of measure. Descriptions of assorted figures (statistical graphs, diagrams, maps, illustrations, and clinical imaging), each with examples, provide advice on scales, axis labels, and error bars, as well as titles and legends. New with this edition is sentence-style capitalization for table column headings and graph axis labels. Consent for identifiable patients is covered, and helpful guidelines for preparing both figures and tables are included. Detailed specifications on acceptable video and audio file formats, optimal video quality, and filming and copyright considerations complete the chapter.

References

The References chapter of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style contains detailed guidance on what should be included in a reference and how references should be styled and formatted. Sample references to both books and journals, in print and online, include formats for sometimes complex citations that include non-English words and phrases, names of organisms, discontinuous pagination, journals without volume or issue numbers, a special department of a journal, discussants, online comments, special collections, package inserts, patents, conference proceedings, personal communications, material submitted but not yet accepted or published, and transcripts. Many examples of how to cite social media and other electronic resources, including podcasts, apps and interactive games, preprints, databases, and data repositories, are included. New recommendations: a DOI should be included for journal references if available, and it is no longer necessary to include the publisher’s location in references to books.

Types of Articles

The Types of Articles chapter of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style considers the different types and formats of articles that scientific journals may use to present their content: research reports, reviews (systematic and narrative), other substantive articles (nonresearch, nonreview), opinion (viewpoints or commentaries, editorials, personal vignettes and reflections), and correspondence (including research letters). Guidance is directed to authors for use in preparation of articles, as well as to journal editors in providing clear instruction to the journal’s authors.

Mathematical Composition

The Mathematical Composition chapter of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style addresses conventions used to display mathematical formulas and other expressions involving special symbols, character positions, and relationships, both in print and online. Topics include displayed vs run-in equations, stacked vs unstacked fractions or formulas, exponents, fractional exponents vs radicals, negative exponents, logarithmic expressions, long formulas, expression of multiplication and division, typography and capitalization, punctuation, and spacing with mathematical symbols. A list of commonly used symbols is also included, as well as more examples of complicated “fences” in equations.

Capitalization

The Capitalization chapter of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style provides guidance on capitalization in a wide variety of situations: first word of sentences, quotations, titles, and subtitles; titles and headings in articles, tables, figures, and boxes; hyphenated compounds; proper nouns (geographic names; sociocultural designations; events, awards, and legislation; eponyms and words derived from proper nouns; proprietary names; organisms; seasons, deities, and holidays; tests; official names; and titles and degrees of persons); designators; types and sections of articles; acronyms; computer terms; and “intercapped” compounds. New to this edition is a subsection on capitalization of URLs.

Ethical and Legal Considerations

The Ethical and Legal Considerations chapter of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style summarizes best practices and cites examples of the determinants of ethical behavior and legal concerns as they relate to scientific publication. Topics covered include authorship responsibility; acknowledgments; duplicate publication; scientific misconduct; conflicts of interest; intellectual property: access, rights, and management; confidentiality; protecting research participants’ and patients’ rights in scientific publication; defamation and libel; editorial freedom and integrity; editorial responsibilities, roles, procedures, and policies; advertisements, advertorials, sponsorship, supplements, reprints, and e-prints; and release of information to the public and journal/author relations with the news media. Several new policies: mandate for a single corresponding author has been relaxed; designations such as co–first authorship or co–senior authorship may be allowed; the ICMJE policy on sharing clinical trial data is now being followed; and a new option is presented for retraction and replacement in cases of pervasive error without evidence of misconduct or invalid science.