A Quick Guide to American Meteorological Society (AMS) Style Referencing

What is Referencing?

It is necessary to acknowledge other people’s work or ideas when writing; hence, the sources used in your work must be referenced. This is usually done via an in-text citation within the body of a text that refers to work or ideas by others. Also, a complete reference list is provided at the end of the written materials of works or ideas taken from others.

What is AMS referencing?

AMS stands for American Meteorological Society style. The Department of Meteorology uses this style for citations. In this style, the names of journals are abbreviated.

In-text Citation

The in-text citation includes the name of the author and the year of publication.

Example:

Okoroafor (2000) stated that.... or (Okoroafor, 2000).

When lifting direct quotes

Include such quotes, using single quotation marks.
State the page used, e.g. Miguel (2014, p. 19) argued that "the weather..."
For longer quotes, include them as a separate, indented paragraph without quotation marks, with the citation at the end.

NOTE: It is more advisable to paraphrase and not quote. It helps show that you have a good understanding of what you are writing. It is, however, necessary for you to include a citation.

Single Author

For a work authored by a single person, here are some examples:

According to Ornamel (2020), one of...

Ornamel (2020) stated that...

Ornamel (2012, p. 9) argued that "the weather… "

For longer quotes

The atmosphere of the earth consists of a complex mixture of gases such as oxygen (O2) nitrogen (N2) and argon, with small, as well as varying amounts of water vapor (Ornamel, 2015, p.5)

Two or Three Authors

When a pieace of work is authored by two or three people:

According to Okoroafor, Merlin and Sanwoolu (2015), one of...

Okoroafor and Sanwoolu(2018), believes ...

Okoroafor and Sanwoolu (2012, p. 9) argued that "the atmosphere of the earth…"

For longer quotes

Atmospheric pressure refers to a measure of the force which the mass of atmosphere exerted on the surface at a particular location (Okoroafor, Merlin and Sanwoolu, 2015).

More than 3 authors

When a book is authored by more than three people: use ‘et al.,’

According to Okoroafor et al. (2019), one of...

Okoroafor et al. (2018), believes ...

Okoroafor et al. (2017, p. 19) argued that "Atmospheric pressure..."

For longer quotes

Relative humidity can be described as the percentage of water vapour in the atmosphere which can be compared with the maximum amount of water vapour which the atmosphere could contain at that particular temperature (Okoroafor et al., 2017)

Company or Corporate Authors

When a piece of work is authored by a company, use the company’s name.

(Askthemetereologist, 2022)

Missing Authors

When the author’s name is missing, but the title of the materials exist, use that instead, but italicise it.

(A quick guide to AMS referencing, 2022)

Missing Date

When there is no date included in a source, use the author’s name or company’s name only.

(Okoroafor)

(Askthemetereologist)

Multiple Works from a Particular Author in the Same Year

Allocate alphabets such as a, b, c, etc, after the year

(Wickett, 2019a, p. 149)

Different Edition of the Same Work in a Particular Parentheses

Write the name of the author(s), and the appropriate dates separated using semicolons:

Okoroafor (2017; 2019) submitted that or (Okaforoafor, 2017; 2019).

Secondary Source – the author cited another author

The reference used should be stated, followed by 'cited in' and the original author:

Albeiro 2015 (cited in Santana, 2012, p. 99) or (Albeiro, 2015, cited in Santana, 2012, p.99).

Reference List

It contains all the resources cited in between the written text sorted in alphabetical order with the surname. It usually starts with the name of the author (or title, if there is no author).

Book

Surname and initials of author(s), | year: | title of book, | publisher | total pages.

For example:

Jordan, J. M., and P. V. Arab, 2003: War: A Never Win Situation. Middle-East Press, 500 pp.

For example:

Athens, R. A., 1986: Geographic Implications of War. Living in Ancient Times, P. S. Rome, Ed., Amer. Meteor. Soc., 636–656.

Journal article

For example:

Daniel, A. B., and Coauthors, 2022: How to begin a new year. J. Climate, 19, 2144–2161, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3760.1.

Kastina, B., Kaduna, J. Kebbi, S.-K. Obama, J. J. Abia, M. Fiorino, and Israel G. L., 2020: Our Collective Responsibility in Nation Building. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 83, 1631–1643, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-83-11-1631.

if nine or more, the first author is followed by "and Coauthors"
You can find useful journal abbreviations on the CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool

Journal (taken online):

NOAA, 2015: Elusive El Niño arrives Accessed 12 March 2015, http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2015/20150305-noaa-advisory-elnino-arrives.html.

Dataset

For example:

Washington, R., 1900: IPCC Working Group I AR5 snapshot: The rcp85 experiment. DKRZ World Data Center for Climate, accessed 14 October 2016, https://doi.org/10.1594/WDCC/ETHR8.

If possible, cite datasets both in-text citation in the references the same way

Conference proceedings, preprints, and extended abstracts

For Example:

Idowu, A. O., 2007: The impact of an earthquake-generated tsunami on the earth-atmosphere system: Year 2004 Indian Ocean case history example. 21st Conf. on Hydrology, San Antonio, TX, Amer. Meteor. Soc., JP1.1, https://ams.confex.com/ams/87ANNUAL/techprogram/paper_117648.htm.

Dissertation/thesis

For Example:

Kuwait, P., 1988: The saline flow into the Atlantic. M.S. thesis, Dept. of Sea Studies, The Afghanistan State University, 207 pp.

Report/note/memo

For example:

Abuja, W. C., and Coauthors, 2008: A description of the Advanced Research WRF version 3. NCAR Tech. Note NCAR/TN-475+STR, 113 pp, https://doi.org/10.5065/D68S4MVH.