APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Government Document

For more tips on citing government sources, check out the Government Publication section under the Books tab.

General Format

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Government Author, Year)

In-Text Citation (Quotation):

(Government Author, Year, page or paragraph number [if available])

References:

Name of Government Agency. (Year). Title of document: Subtitle. URL of specific document

Example

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

First time: (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 2020)

Subsequently: (HUD, 2020)

In-Text Citation (Quotation):

First time: (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 2020, p. XX)

Subsequently: (HUD, 2020, p. XX)

References:

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2020). National comprehensive housing market analysis.
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/pdf/National-CHMA-20.pdf

TIP: To abbreviate or not abbreviate?

QUESTION: If I am citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the in-text citation, do I need to use the full name or can I just use CDC?

ANSWER: If the corporate author names (corporations, organizations, and government agencies) are readily identified by an abbreviation, you should include the full name in the first citation along with the abbreviation in brackets and then use the abbreviation in all other subsequent in-text citations.

Example: First in-text citation

• (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014)

Example: Subsequent in-text citations

• (CDC, 2014)