How to Cite UpToDate: APA, MLA, and AMA Examples

Wondering how to cite UpToDate for a paper or presentation? Treat every entry as a chapter in an edited book, not as a journal article or a plain website. A complete reference needs four pieces: the person credited with the entry, its title, the book-level attribution (with Connor RF listed as general editor and Wolters Kluwer as the publisher), and the day you viewed the page, since the resource updates on a rolling basis and carries no fixed publication day. The exact wording shifts by style guide, but those four pieces stay constant.

Where to Find the Citation Details on UpToDate

Open the entry you want to reference on UpToDate.com. The person credited appears directly under the title, and the “Literature review current through” or “This entry last updated” line near the top gives you the day to record. Copy the page’s URL from the browser address bar. Most individual entries do not list a separate general editor. Publisher guidance instructs writers to list Connor RF (Rebecca Connor, MD, Senior Director of Clinical Content) as the general editor for every entry, regardless of which physician wrote the specific piece. See the publisher’s own “Cite a Topic” guidance for the current wording and copyright terms.

How to Cite UpToDate in APA Style

APA 7th edition treats UpToDate as a reference work chapter that changes over time, so the reference list entry uses the periodical-style format with the database name italicized. For the general rules this format follows, see the Purdue OWL guide to APA electronic source references.

Reference list format: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of topic. UpToDate. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL

Example: Bordeaux, B., & Lieberman, H. R. (2020). Benefits and risks of caffeine and caffeinated beverages. UpToDate. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/benefits-and-risks-of-caffeine-and-caffeinated-beverages

Parenthetical citation: (Bordeaux & Lieberman, 2020)
Narrative citation: Bordeaux and Lieberman (2020)

How to Cite UpToDate in MLA Style

MLA 9th edition has no dedicated UpToDate example in the handbook, so treat the citation as a chapter from an edited database book, following the standard “part of a larger work” pattern.

Works Cited format: Author Last name, First name. “Title of Topic.” UpToDate, edited by Rebecca F. Connor, Wolters Kluwer, Date of last update, Accessed Day Month Year, URL.

Example: Friedman, Lawrence S. “Approach to the Patient with Abnormal Liver Biochemical and Function Tests.” UpToDate, edited by Kris V. Kowdley, Wolters Kluwer, Updated 4 Mar. 2024, Accessed 12 Aug. 2024, https://www.uptodate.com/contents/approach-to-the-patient-with-abnormal-liver-biochemical-and-function-tests.

In-text citation: (Friedman)

How to Cite UpToDate in AMA Style

AMA style (11th edition) is the format most medical schools and clinical journals expect, and it is close enough to Vancouver style that the same citation works for both. For the underlying rule on citing a chapter within an edited book, see the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library AMA book-chapter guide.

Reference list format: Author LastName FirstInitial. Title of topic. In: Deputy editor name, ed. UpToDate. Publisher. Use literature review update. Accessed date. URL

Example: Friedman LS. Approach to the patient with abnormal liver tests. In: Law K, ed. UpToDate. Wolters Kluwer. Updated July 2024. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/approach-to-the-patient-with-abnormal-liver-tests

AMA numbers references in the order they appear in the text, so the in-text citation is a superscript number rather than an author name.

Quoting or Paraphrasing UpToDate Content

UpToDate summarizes peer-reviewed evidence for point-of-care use, and its clinical write-ups are protected by copyright. Most instructors expect students to paraphrase clinical guidance in their own words rather than quote it directly, both for academic integrity and because verbatim medical text can be dense to read. If you do quote a short passage, keep it brief, mark it clearly, and still credit the entry using the reference format for your chosen style.

Citation Style Comparison Table

Style	In-text form	Access date required	Editor listed
APA	(Author, Year)	Yes	No, but “UpToDate” is italicized as the source
MLA	(Author)	Yes	Yes, “edited by”
AMA / Vancouver	Superscript number	Yes	Yes, listed after “In:”

Common Mistakes When Citing UpToDate

These slip-ups show up often enough in student papers that they are worth a dedicated list. For more general reference rules, browse EssayReply’s full citation guide library.

• Citing UpToDate like a standard website reference instead of an edited-book chapter.
• Including a page number. UpToDate topics are web-based and have none.
• Leaving out the access date. Because UpToDate content updates continually, no other date reliably identifies which version you used.
• Forgetting to list Connor RF (or the topic’s own deputy editor, depending on the style) as editor.
• Reusing an old citation for a topic you accessed again later without updating the access date.

Building the reference by hand is optional. EssayReply’s own citation generator can format an UpToDate reference in APA, MLA, or AMA style once you enter the topic title, author, and access date.

Frequently Asked Questions