diff --git a/src/Serializer/JsonApiSerializer.php b/src/Serializer/JsonApiSerializer.php
index e532d010..773f6a65 100644
--- a/src/Serializer/JsonApiSerializer.php
+++ b/src/Serializer/JsonApiSerializer.php
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 use InvalidArgumentException;
 use League\Fractal\Pagination\PaginatorInterface;
 use League\Fractal\Resource\ResourceInterface;
+use UnexpectedValueException;
 
 class JsonApiSerializer extends ArraySerializer
 {
@@ -45,6 +46,11 @@ public function collection(?string $resourceKey, array $data): array
     public function item(?string $resourceKey, array $data): array
     {
         $id = $this->getIdFromData($data);
+        $resourceKey = $resourceKey ?? $data['type'];
+
+        if ($resourceKey === null) {
+            throw new UnexpectedValueException('The resource must have a key specified.');
+        }
 
         $resource = [
             'data' => [
@@ -54,7 +60,10 @@ public function item(?string $resourceKey, array $data): array
             ],
         ];
 
-        unset($resource['data']['attributes']['id']);
+        unset(
+            $resource['data']['attributes']['id'],
+            $resource['data']['attributes']['type']
+        );
 
         if (isset($resource['data']['attributes']['links'])) {
             $custom_links = $data['links'];
diff --git a/test/Serializer/JsonApiSerializerTest.php b/test/Serializer/JsonApiSerializerTest.php
index b3663ff3..c7fe2ad2 100644
--- a/test/Serializer/JsonApiSerializerTest.php
+++ b/test/Serializer/JsonApiSerializerTest.php
@@ -87,6 +87,35 @@ public function testSerializeCollectionWithExtraMeta()
         $this->assertSame($expectedJson, $scope->toJson());
     }
 
+    public function testSerializingItemResourceWithNestedType()
+    {
+        $bookData = [
+            'id' => 1,
+            'type' => 'books',
+            'title' => 'Foo',
+            'year' => '1991',
+        ];
+
+        $resource = new Item($bookData, new JsonApiBookTransformer());
+        $scope = new Scope($this->manager, $resource);
+
+        $expected = [
+            'data' => [
+                'type' => 'books',
+                'id' => '1',
+                'attributes' => [
+                    'title' => 'Foo',
+                    'year' => 1991,
+                ],
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        $this->assertSame($expected, $scope->toArray());
+
+        $expectedJson = '{"data":{"type":"books","id":"1","attributes":{"title":"Foo","year":1991}}}';
+        $this->assertSame($expectedJson, $scope->toJson());
+    }
+
     public function testSerializingItemResourceWithHasOneInclude()
     {
         $this->manager->parseIncludes('author');