PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Government report

How to Cite a Government Report in APA 7

An APA 7 government report reference starts with the specific agency that wrote it as the author, then the year in parentheses, the report title in italics and sentence case, and the report number in parentheses (not italic) right after the title. Next comes the publisher: the parent agencies not already in the author's name, left out when it would only repeat the author. It ends with the URL or DOI. The in-text citation is the agency and the year: (National Cancer Institute, 2024).

The format

Agency Name. (Year). Title of the report (Report No. 123). Parent Agency, Sub-Agency. https://www.agency.gov/...

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the link to the report's PDF on a .gov site into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA reads the PDF and builds it as a government report under Gray Literature, with the title in sentence case, the year, and the link. The author is the agency, with its abbreviation when PERRLA knows the site, or the individual authors when the cover names them. Then check two things. If the report number isn't there, type it in Identifying Information exactly as the report prints it. And make sure the publisher holds the parent agencies, not a repeat of the author.

Adding one by hand? Choose Gray Literature (Reports, Briefs, Codes), then A standalone work: report, brief, codes, etc. Add a Group Author (Organization) with the agency's full name and its abbreviation in Abbrev. Type the report number in Identifying Information, and type the parent agencies in one publisher Name box, largest first, separated by a comma. If the author and the publisher are the same agency, PERRLA leaves the publisher out for you.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Author: the specific agency

Use the most specific agency responsible for the report as a group author, spelled out in full. That's usually the office or institute named on the cover, not the whole department above it.

National Cancer Institute.

If the report names individual authors on the cover or title page, they're the authors instead, and the agency moves to the publisher spot. NCHS Data Briefs work this way: Emmerich, S. D., Fryar, C. D., Stierman, B., & Ogden, C. L. Never put an abbreviation like NCI or GAO in the reference. Abbreviations belong in your in-text citations only.

2. Year

Give the year the report was published, in parentheses, followed by a period. Reports take the year only, even when the cover shows a month.

(2024).

The NCI booklet's back cover says January 2024, and the reference still says just 2024. If you can't find any date, write (n.d.).

3. Title, in italics

Write the report title in italics and sentence case: capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Agencies print titles in title case on their covers, so you'll usually need to lowercase most of it.

Chemotherapy and you: Support for people with cancer

Keep proper nouns capitalized inside a title, like U.S. Surgeon General or United States.

4. Report number

If the report has a number, put it in parentheses right after the title, before the period. It isn't italicized. Copy the number in the agency's own format, including its label.

(NIH Publication No. 24-7157).

Agencies label these in different ways: (NCHS Data Brief No. 508), (GAO-23-105515), (Report No. NASA/CR-2018-220043). Look on the cover, the title page, the back cover, and the report's landing page. No number anywhere? Leave this part out.

5. Publisher: parent agencies

The publisher is where the parent agencies go, the ones not already in the author's name. List them from the largest to the smallest, separated by a comma.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.

When the author and the publisher are the same agency, leave the publisher out, so the name doesn't appear twice. That's why a GAO report goes straight from the report number to the URL. When individual people are the authors, the agency they work for is the publisher: National Center for Health Statistics. Two separate organizations that published a report together are different: list both, separated by a semicolon.

6. URL or DOI

End with the report's DOI, if it has one, written as a https://doi.org/ link. Otherwise, end with the URL of the report's page or PDF. Don't put a period after either one, and don't add "Retrieved from."

https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/159281

More government reports have DOIs than students expect. NCHS, AHRQ, and many CDC reports print one in the suggested citation, sometimes written as dx.doi.org. Use the https://doi.org/ form. A report you have only in print gets no URL.

Examples

A report by an agency, with a report number and parent agencies

The National Cancer Institute's Chemotherapy and You booklet, a staple of oncology nursing patient teaching. The NCI is the author, its parent agencies are the publisher, and the NIH publication number from the back cover goes after the title.

  • Parenthetical citation(National Cancer Institute [NCI], 2024, p. 12)
  • Narrative citationThe National Cancer Institute (NCI, 2024, p. 12)
  • Later citations(NCI, 2024, p. 12)

A report from an office within a department, with no report number

The 2023 Surgeon General's advisory on loneliness and isolation, widely cited in community and mental health nursing. The Office of the Surgeon General is the author and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the publisher. The advisory has no report number, so nothing goes in parentheses after the title.

  • Parenthetical citation(Office of the Surgeon General, 2023)
  • Narrative citationThe Office of the Surgeon General (2023)

A report with individual authors, a report number, and a DOI

An NCHS Data Brief on adult obesity. The four researchers named under the title are the authors, the National Center for Health Statistics is the publisher, and the DOI from the suggested citation replaces the URL.

  • Parenthetical citation(Emmerich et al., 2024)
  • Narrative citationEmmerich et al. (2024)

A report where the agency is both author and publisher

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report on obstetric care in rural hospitals. The GAO wrote and published it, so the publisher is left out, and the GAO's own report number goes in parentheses without a label.

  • Parenthetical citation(U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO], 2022)
  • Narrative citationThe U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO, 2022)
  • Later citations(GAO, 2022)

In-text citations

Cite a government report by its author and year. Add a page number when you quote or point to one passage.

  • Agency as author: (National Cancer Institute, 2024) or National Cancer Institute (2024)
  • Defining an abbreviation: spell out the name the first time with the abbreviation in square brackets, (National Cancer Institute [NCI], 2024), then use (NCI, 2024) after that
  • First mention in your sentence: the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO, 2022) found...
  • Individual authors: three or more take et al. from the first citation: (Emmerich et al., 2024)
  • A quote: (NCI, 2024, p. 12)

Abbreviate only an agency you cite three or more times; otherwise, spell it out every time. Define the abbreviation once in the whole paper, not once per report. The reference itself always keeps the full name.

Common mistakes

  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2024). Chemotherapy and you: Support for people with cancer.National Cancer Institute. (2024). Chemotherapy and you: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 24-7157). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.The author is the specific agency that wrote the report. The department above it goes in the publisher spot, and the publication number goes after the title.
  • Chemotherapy and you: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 24-7157).Chemotherapy and you: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 24-7157).The report number isn't part of the title, so it isn't italicized.
  • U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2022). Maternal health: Availability of hospital-based obstetric care in rural areas (GAO-23-105515). U.S. Government Accountability Office.U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2022). Maternal health: Availability of hospital-based obstetric care in rural areas (GAO-23-105515).When the author and the publisher are the same agency, the publisher is left out.
  • Emmerich SD, Fryar CD, Stierman B, Ogden CL. Obesity and severe obesity prevalence in adults... NCHS Data Brief, no 508. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2024.Emmerich, S. D., Fryar, C. D., Stierman, B., & Ogden, C. L. (2024). Obesity and severe obesity prevalence in adults... (NCHS Data Brief No. 508). National Center for Health Statistics.Agencies print a "suggested citation" in their own style, not APA. Use it to find the details, then rebuild the reference in APA order, with no city.
  • GAO. (2022).U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2022).Spell out a group author in the reference. The abbreviation is only for your in-text citations.
  • A government report cited as a webpage, with the agency's site name after the titleCited as a report, with the report number and parent agenciesA standalone report, often a PDF with its own cover and number, is a report even when you found it online. A regular page on the agency's site is a webpage.

Quick checklist

  • The most specific agency as the author, spelled out
  • Individual authors instead, if the cover names them
  • The year only, in parentheses
  • Title in italics and sentence case
  • The report number in plain parentheses after the title, if there is one
  • Parent agencies as the publisher, largest first; no publisher when it repeats the author
  • DOI if there is one, otherwise the URL

Questions students ask

Where do I find the report number?

Check the cover, the title page, the back cover, and the report's page on the agency's website. The NCI booklet in our first example prints it on the back cover, and GAO prints it right under the title on the report's landing page. Copy it exactly, with the agency's own label, like NIH Publication No. or NCHS Data Brief No.

Is the author the agency or the department?

The most specific agency responsible for the report. The National Cancer Institute, not the National Institutes of Health or HHS. The bigger agencies above it go in the publisher spot, so the reference is complete and your in-text citation stays short.

What's the difference between a government report and a government webpage?

A report is a standalone document, usually a PDF with its own cover, date, and often a number. A webpage is a regular page on the agency's site. Reports leave out the site name and can take a report number. Our CDC webpage guide covers the webpage format.

Do I include the city, like Washington, DC?

No. APA 7 dropped the publisher's location, so leave out the city and state even when the agency's suggested citation includes them.

Should I abbreviate the agency's name in my paper?

Only if you'll cite it three or more times. Spell out the full name with the abbreviation in square brackets the first time, (National Cancer Institute [NCI], 2024), and use the abbreviation after that. The reference always uses the full name.

How do I cite a state government report?

The same way. The state agency that wrote it is the author, written with its full official name, which usually includes the state, like Texas Department of State Health Services. Its parent department, if it isn't already in the name, is the publisher.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.17, 8.21, 9.7–9.8, 9.11, 9.14, 9.17, 9.19, 9.24, 9.29, 9.34–9.35, and 10.4, and the APA Style website's government report and report with individual authors examples. Example sources verified on each report itself: the NCI booklet's cover and back cover, the Surgeon General's advisory on hhs.gov and its PubMed Bookshelf record, NCHS Data Brief No. 508 on cdc.gov, and the GAO's product page. For more on reports and government data, see our post on citing a government report or data set in APA 7.

PERRLA builds a government report from its PDF link, then puts the report number and parent agencies in the right places and drops a publisher that repeats the author.

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