Citing Government Documents/Government Agency Style Manuals

• General Guides to Citing U.S. Government Documents
• Style Manuals of Specific Agencies
• Citing Foreign Government Documents

Government documents often present special problems in creating citations. For example, a government document may not have a personal author, or the publication date or title may not be clear. They differ widely in purpose, style, and content, and the standard style manuals may not give examples for citing all these formats in a consistent fashion. For this reason, several authors have developed manuals specifically addressing the problems of citation peculiar to government publications.

Often a government publication will offer a suggested citation for itself. Check the front (recto) or back (verso) of the title page. Also, many Scholarly and Professional Style Manuals provide (usually limited) information on how to cite government documents.

If you are writing for a class or for publication, your instructor or publisher is always the final authority to consult for determining which general style to use, as well as for determining the proper format for a specific citation.

General Guides to Citing U.S. Government Documents

There is no universally accepted format for citing government documents, anymore than there is for any other source of information. The manuals listed below give examples of citations in various commonly used styles.

DocsCite (Arizona State University Libraries)

A step-by-step guide to putting government publication citations into proper MLA or APA format. Use interactive templates to generate a complete citation automatically.

The Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources: A Manual for Social Science & Business Research, revised edition, by Debora Cheney for the Government Documents Round Table, American Library Association.

By far the most detailed manual for citing government documents. The format, however (based on ANSI bibliographic standards), may need to be adapted to whichever style manual you are using for other citations. This work includes information on citing British and Canadian government documents.

• Available at the Government Documents Service Desk under Call Number Z7164 .G7 G37 2002.
• General Guidelines for Citing U.S. Government Publications, available from the UNT Web site, provides an online summary of the principles described in The Complete Guide.
• Bibliographic Form: U.S. Government Documents, available from the University of Delaware Web Library site, provides examples taken directly from an earlier edition of The Complete Guide.  
• Brief Guide to Citing Government Publications, produced by the Government Publications Department at the University of Memphis, is a concise online citation guide based on an earlier edition of The Complete Guide, with the examples adapted to conform to Chicago/Turabian standard bibliographic style.

Citing Government Information Sources Using MLA (Modern Language Association) Style (University of Nevada)

Online samples of citations for selected types of government publications. Describes MLA style only.

Guide for Citing Government Information Sources in a Bibliography (MLA Style) (Montana State University)

Online samples of citations for selected types of government publications in MLA style.

Citing Maps (Ohio Wesleyan University Libraries & Information Services)

Rules of thumb for citing paper and electronic maps in Chicago/Turabian style. Sample citations for many types of maps, and diagrams labelling the elements in each sample citation.

How to Cite Government Documents According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (University of Nebraska at Kearney)

Provides general guidelines and many specific examples for citing government information in APA style.

How to Cite Government Documents According to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (University of Nebraska at Kearney)

Provides general guidelines and many specific examples for citing government information in MLA style. [In preparation]

Style Manuals of Specific Agencies

Many government agencies have prepared guides to citing their own publications, or in-house style manuals for formatting documents that they publish.

Census: Suggested Citation Styles for our Internet Information (U.S. Bureau of the Census)

Sample citations for various electronic Census publications.

American FactFinder: Citations for Tables & Maps shows how to cite tables, maps, and files that have been dynamically generated by the American FactFinder database.

EIA: EIA Publishing Style Guide (Energy Information Administration)

Guide for creating and formatting uniform Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports in both printed and electronic forms. It is intended to stress the importance of maintaining traditional EIA publication features--such as source documentation, consistent and commonly understood abbreviations, and bibliographies--in all reports no matter how they are published.

GPO: U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual (Government Printing Office)

By act of Congress the Public Printer is authorized to determine the form and style of Government printing. Essentially, it is a standardization device designed to achieve uniform word and type treatment, and aiming for economy of word use.

• Paper copy available at Government Documents Service Desk under Call Number GP 1.23/4 : ST 9/2000.

NARA: Citing Records in the National Archives of the United States (National Archives and Records Administration)

Guidelines for citing unpublished records held by the NARA in the Washington, DC area and in the Regional Records Services facilities, the Presidential Libraries system, and Affiliated Archives.

• NARA General Information Leaflet Number 17.
• Paper copy available at Government Documents Service Desk under Call Number AE 1.113:17/date.

NCHS: How to Cite NCHS Publications (National Center for Health Statistics)

Suggested sample citations for some of the most popular NCHS publications. Also includes information on How to Cite Electronic Media.

NLM: National Library of Medicine Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation (National Library of Medicine)

Produced by Karen Patrias of the NLM Reference Section, this publication provides instructions for formatting citations to 14 different types of both published and unpublished material, ranging from the more traditional journal articles and books to the newer electronic formats such as CD-ROM. It was produced to provide assistance to authors in compiling lists of references for their publications, to editors in revising such lists, and to librarians and others in formatting bibliographic citations.

• Paper version not available at the UNT Libraries.
• Full text available from NLM Web site. [PDF format requires Adobe Reader.]
• Internet Supplement from NLM Web site provides recommendations for citing all types of material found on the Internet, including homepages, books, journal articles, and e-mail messages, and provides many examples illustrating the recommendations. [PDF format requires Adobe Reader.]
• NLM Style Guide, available from the University of Washington, provides a samples of the most common types of citations.
• “Citing the Internet: A Brief Tour” is a brief article from Dragonfly, the newsletter of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region. It provides a summary of rules and sample citations for online sources in NLM format.

NLRB: NLRB STYLE MANUAL: A Guide for Legal Writing in Plain English (National Labor Relations Board)

Guidelines for citing NLRB rules and decisions, as well as decisions of Supreme Court and lower courts. Includes general recommendations on legal writing.

• Paper copy available in Government Documents Service Reference under Call Number LR 1.6/2:ST 9/2000

SEC: A Plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents (Securities and Exchange Commission)

This handbook shows how you can use well-established techniques for writing in plain English to create clearer and more informative disclosure documents.

• Paper copy can be ordered by calling the SEC’s toll-free information service: 1-800-SEC-0330.

Citing Foreign Government Documents

Many of the guides listed above include information on how to cite government publications from other countries besides the United States. The following resources are specially written to provide examples for specific foreign documents. Their examples are usually based on one or more of the works listed above.

Australia

The Australian Guide to Legal Citation provides Australia with a uniform system of legal citation. The AGLC is published by the Melbourne University Law Review Association. The first edition of the AGLC was published in 1998, and a second edition was published in 2002. The AGLC has been adopted by a number of Australia’s leading law journals. (PDF format requires Adobe Reader.)

• The Australian Guide to Legal Citation “How to” Guide from the University of Queensland Library provides a quick overview and selected examples  (PDF format requires Adobe Reader).
• The Short Guide to Citing the Law, written for LaTrobe University law students, summarizes the key parts of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (PDF requires Adobe Reader).
• Referencing Guides: Australian Guide to Legal Citation from the Bond University Library also provides a brief summary and selected examples.
  

Legal Citation Guide (Murdoch University Library and Murdoch University School of Law)

A guide to legal citation for students at Murdoch University.

Sydney Law Review Style Guide (University of Sydney)

Guide to preparation of manuscripts to be submitted to Sydney Law Review (PDF format requires Adobe Reader).

Canada

Brief Guide to Citing Canadian Government Documents (Queen’s University Library)

General overview of how to cite Canadian government publications. Examples were developed by consulting the MLA Handbook, the APA Manual, and The Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources.

Canadian Government Publications: A Citation Guide (McGill University Libraries)

This guide is designed to help alleviate confusion in citing Canadian federal government documents by outlining the type of information that should be included in a reference to ensure that it can be easily traced and by suggesting possibilities for organizing each reference. The information included in this guide is based on citation manuals that focus on jurisdictions other than Canada (primarily Great Britain and the United States). The citation data and formats proposed in these manuals have been adapted to conform to the Canadian system of government and the peculiarities of Canadian government publishing. (PDF format requires Adobe Reader).

• The Citing Canadian Government Documents, available online from the Memorial University Libraries, provides a quick overview and selected examples  in this suggested format (PDF format requires Adobe Reader).

Guide to Citing Canadian Government Publications (Mount Allison University Libraries)

Examples of citations to Canadian documents, using a suggested format based on The Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources by Diane Garner and Diane Smith, 1993 ed., and Li & Crane's Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information, 1996 ed.

Great Britain

How to Cite Government Reports and Acts of Parliament (University of Bedfordshire)

Brief examples of citations to reports of British government agencies and to UK Acts of Parliament.