APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Government Document

A guide to help users create citations using APA (American Psychological Association) style, 7th edition.

• APAToggle Dropdown
  • General Style Guidelines
  • One Author or Editor
  • Two Authors or Editors
  • Three to Five Authors or Editors
  • Article or Chapter in an Edited Book
  • Article in a Reference Book
  • No Author
  • E-Books
  • Edition other than the First
  • Translation
  • Government Publication
  • Journal Article with 1 Author
  • Journal Article with 2 Authors
  • Journal Article with 3–20 Authors
  • Journal Article 21 or more Authors
  • Magazine Article
  • Newspaper Article
  • Basic Web Page
  • Web page from a University site
  • Web Page with No Author
  • Blog post
  • Entry in a Reference Work
  • Government Document
  • Film and Television
  • Youtube Video
  • Audio Podcast
  • Episodes
  • Electronic Image
  • Figures
  • Facebook
  • Twitter/Instagram
  • Interview
  • Lecture/PPT
  • E-mail
  • Conferences
  • Secondary Sources
  • Avoiding Plagiarism

  Online 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