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Citing Government Sources Using APA Style

Fall 2014
http://libguides.wlu.edu/apagovt

Citing Government Sources Using APA Style

The following examples below supplement the guidance from published sources.

Three important considerations when citing a government publication:

  • The “author” of any government material is almost always “institutional” — an agency, office, committee, department, etc. — not an individual person.
  • When in doubt, provide the full “hierarchy” of the issuing agency as author.
  • U.S. Federal Government "authors" in citations should begin with "United States" or "U.S."

See examples, below.

Printed Materials -- Advice and Examples

Whenever possible and reasonable, include a complete title, even when it’s of unwieldy length, in order to differentiate between that item and others with similar titles.

United States. Congress. House of Representatives. Committee on 
     Banking and Financial Services.  (1998).  Conduct of 
     monetary policy; Report of the Federal Reserve Board 
     pursuant to the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act 
     of 1978, P.L. 95-523, and the state of the economy: Hearing 
     before the Subcommittee on Domestic and International 
     Monetary Policy of the Committee on Banking and Financial 
     Services, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Fifth 
     Congress, second session, July 22, 1998.  Washington: 
     Government Printing Office.   (Y 4.B 22/1:105-70)

 

It is always desirable to identify a report number or document, particularly with Congressional publications, as a means of differentiating among items with similar titles.

United States. Congress.  Senate.  Committee on Commerce, 
     Science, and Transportation.  (1999). Satellite Television 
     Act of 1999: Report of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
     Transportation on S. 303, together with minority views.  
     Washington DC: Government Printing Office. (Senate Report 106-51)   
     (Y 1.1/5:106-51)

 

Individual authors, as differentiated from agency authors, may be identified after the title. If the agency author is also the publisher, a shortened form of the name is enough.
If the publication is obviously labeled as one in a series, you should identify the series.

United States. Department of Justice.  Office of 
     Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice.
     (1998). High school youths, weapons, and violence:
     A national survey by J.F. Sheley and J.D. Wright.
     Washington DC: National Institute of Justice.  
     (Research in brief)   (J 28.24:Y 8)

Online Materials -- Advice and Examples

Again, an agency is almost always the “author”  However, the same online document may appear on several different agencies’ Web sites, perhaps, resulting in different authors and/or titles for the same document.
For example, here is a very different-looking citation for the online “version” of the very same document cited in the first printed example in the above box:

United States. Federal Reserve Board.  (1998, July 22).
     Conduct of monetary policy; Report of the Federal Reserve Board 
     pursuant to the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act 
     of 1978; July 21, 1998 report.  Retrieved from the Federal Reserve 
     Web site:  http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/hh/1998/july/fullreport.htm

 

Another example -- following is a citation of the online “version” of the third printed example in the above box:

United States.  Department of Justice.  Office of
      Justice  Programs.  National Institute of Justice.
      (1998, October)  High school youths, weapons,
      and violence: A national survey by J.F. Sheley
      & J.D. Wright.  (Research in brief)  Retrieved
      from the Department of Justice Web site:  
      https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/172857.pdf