Citing a government document follows the same basic logic as any citation, but with one key twist: the “author” is usually an agency, not a person. The exact format depends on your citation style, whether you’re working in APA, MLA, Chicago, or Bluebook for legal documents. Below you’ll find the specific formats for each, along with examples you can adapt to your own sources.
APA Style (7th Edition)
In APA, the specific agency responsible for the document serves as the author. If that agency sits within a larger department, the parent agency appears in the publisher position instead. This prevents you from listing the same organization as both author and publisher.
The general reference format looks like this:
- Agency Name. (Year). Title of report (Report No. if available). Parent Agency. URL
Here’s a real example:
National Cancer Institute. (2019). Taking time: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 18-2059). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/takingtime.pdf
A few details to note. The URL goes at the very end with no period after it. Include any report or publication number in parentheses right after the title. For the in-text citation, use the agency name and year: (National Cancer Institute, 2019). If you reference the same agency repeatedly, you can introduce an abbreviation in your first citation, like (National Cancer Institute [NCI], 2019), then use (NCI, 2019) afterward.
Government Websites in APA
When citing a specific page on a government website rather than a formal report, treat the page title as the document title and the website name as the source. Include a retrieval date if the content is likely to change over time.
Presidential election process. (2017). In USA.gov. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from https://www.usa.gov/election
MLA Style (9th Edition)
MLA handles government documents by spelling out the full hierarchy of the issuing body, starting with the national government and working down through each agency or committee. The general format is:
- National Government, Agency, Subdivision. Title of Document. Publisher, Date. URL. Accessed date.
For a congressional document, that looks like this:
United States, Congress, House, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Government Publishing Office, 17 Apr. 2013. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.
For in-text citations, MLA uses a shortened version of the title in parentheses rather than the agency name. So you would write (Cyber Intelligence Sharing) rather than listing the full chain of agencies. Pick the first few meaningful words of the title so the reader can locate the entry in your works cited list.
Government Websites in MLA
For a government web page, use the page title in quotation marks, then the site name, the date last modified, and the URL:
“Presidential Election Process.” USA.gov, 30 Jan. 2018, https://www.usa.gov/election.
Most government websites display a “last modified” or “last updated” date near the bottom of the page. Use that as your publication date.
Chicago Manual of Style
Chicago style uses a notes-and-bibliography system for most humanities work. For a government web page, list the page title in quotation marks, the source site, the last modified date, and the URL:
“Presidential Election Process.” USA.gov. Last modified January 30, 2018. https://www.usa.gov/election.
For formal government reports, the entry resembles APA’s structure: start with the issuing agency, then the title in italics, the publication details, and the URL or database. In footnotes, you can shorten subsequent references to the agency abbreviation and a short title.
Legal Citations (Bluebook Style)
Legal documents follow their own system, governed primarily by the Bluebook. If you’re citing statutes, regulations, executive orders, or court cases, the rules differ significantly from academic styles.
Federal Statutes
A citation to the United States Code includes a title number and a section number. For example, 26 U.S.C. § 115 refers to section 115 of title 26 of the United States Code. The title number isn’t a name; it’s a broad subject grouping (Title 26, for instance, covers the Internal Revenue Code).
You may also see citations to commercially published, annotated versions of the code: 26 U.S.C.A. § 115 (from United States Code Annotated) or 26 U.S.C.S. § 115 (from United States Code Service). These contain the same statutory text plus editorial notes and case annotations. Bluebook Rules B12 and 12 cover the finer points of statutory citations for court filings and law review articles.
Federal Regulations
Regulations that have been finalized and organized into the Code of Federal Regulations follow this pattern:
Title or Number, Volume # C.F.R. § ### (Year).
C.F.R. stands for Code of Federal Regulations, which is the permanent collection of rules issued by federal agencies. If a regulation hasn’t been codified yet, meaning it was recently proposed or finalized and only exists in the Federal Register (abbreviated F.R.), cite it like this:
Title or Number, Volume # F.R. Page (proposed Month Day, Year) (to be codified at Volume # C.F.R. § ###). URL
For both codified and not-yet-codified regulations, the in-text citation in APA follows standard patterns: (first element of the reference, year), with no italics.
Executive Orders
Executive orders are cited similarly to regulations since they are published in the Federal Register. Include the executive order number, the Federal Register volume and page, and the year. The Bluebook treats these under its rules for administrative and executive materials.
Tips That Apply Across All Styles
Regardless of which citation format you use, a few principles hold true for government documents. First, always identify the most specific agency responsible for the document. Listing “U.S. Government” as the author is too vague; narrow it to the bureau, office, or committee that actually produced the work.
Second, include report numbers, publication numbers, or document identifiers whenever they appear on the source. These make it much easier for a reader to locate the exact document, especially when an agency publishes dozens of reports per year with similar titles.
Third, use stable URLs when possible. Government documents sometimes move between web addresses as agencies redesign their sites. If your source is available through GovInfo (govinfo.gov), the official repository for federal publications, that URL is more likely to remain active than a link buried in an agency subdomain. For the same reason, include an access date when your citation style calls for one, particularly with web pages whose content may be updated or removed.
Finally, when a government document lists individual authors by name, most styles let you cite those individuals as authors and then identify the agency as the publisher. This applies when the document’s cover or title page credits specific people rather than just the agency. If only the agency is listed, the agency is the author.