PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/NIH or MedlinePlus page

How to Cite an NIH or MedlinePlus Page in APA 7

For a page from an NIH institute, the institute is the group author, followed by the date in parentheses (or n.d.), the page title in italics, the parent agencies (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health), and the URL. The in-text citation is the institute and the year: (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2023), then (NIMH, 2023). For a MedlinePlus health topic page, the National Library of Medicine is the author and MedlinePlus is the site name. MedlinePlus drug pages take the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists as author.

The format

Institute Name. (Year, Month). Title of the page. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://xxxx

PERRLA APA Experts ยท 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 page's URL into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA recognizes NIH institute websites and MedlinePlus. It puts the specific institute in as the group author, fills in the title in sentence case, the date, and the URL, and gives MedlinePlus pages the National Library of Medicine as author and MedlinePlus as the site name. For institutes like NIMH, NIA, NHLBI, NIDA, and NICHD, it adds the abbreviation and the parent agencies too.

Then check three things against the page. First, the parent agencies: if Website Name shows the institute's own name, change it to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. Second, the date: APA uses a "Last updated" or "Last revised" date but never a "Last reviewed" date, so if a review date is the only date on the page, clear Publication Date and PERRLA prints n.d. Third, on a MedlinePlus drug page, make the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists the group author, because they wrote the drug information.

Adding one by hand? Choose Webpage, add a Group Author (Organization) with the institute's name and abbreviation, and type the parent agencies in Website Name. PERRLA spells the name out in your first citation and switches to the abbreviation after that, on its own.

Look up
Paste a URL, get the reference

https://medlineplus.gov/pressuresores.html

National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Depression. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression

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

The parts of the reference

1. Author: the specific institute

Use the most specific agency that's responsible for the page as the group author, and spell it out in full. On nimh.nih.gov that's the National Institute of Mental Health, not the National Institutes of Health and not the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

National Institute of Mental Health.

The web address usually tells you which institute it is: nimh, niddk, nia, nhlbi, and so on, each followed by nih.gov. A few live elsewhere, like the National Cancer Institute at cancer.gov and the National Human Genome Research Institute at genome.gov. A page on nih.gov itself, with no institute named, has the National Institutes of Health as its author.

2. Date

Use the most specific date the page gives for its content, in parentheses: year, then month, then day if it's there. NIH pages show a "Last Updated" date, a "Last Reviewed" date, or both.

(2023, July).

A "Last Updated" or "Last revised" date counts. A "Last Reviewed" or "Content reviewed" date doesn't: APA leaves review dates out, because a reviewed page hasn't necessarily changed. If a review date is the only date on the page, write (n.d.).

3. Page title

Italicize the title and write it in sentence case. NIH sites capitalize every word in their headings, so you'll usually lowercase most of it.

Major depression

4. Source: parent agencies or MedlinePlus

For an institute's own website, the parent agencies take the site name's place, largest first, separated by a comma. This keeps the in-text citation short and the reference complete.

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

MedlinePlus is different: it's a named website from the National Library of Medicine, so the site name is simply MedlinePlus.

MedlinePlus.

5. URL

End with the page's own URL, with no period after it. Link to the page you read, not to the institute's home page or a search results page.

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression

Examples

An NIMH health topic page with only a review date

The National Institute of Mental Health's main depression page. Its only date is "Last Reviewed: December 2024," which APA leaves out, so the page takes n.d.

  • Parenthetical citation(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], n.d.)
  • Narrative citationNational Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, n.d.)
  • Later citations(NIMH, n.d.)

An NIMH statistics page with a "Last Updated" date

NIMH's statistics on major depression, a common source for prevalence numbers in nursing and psychology papers. It says "Last Updated: July 2023," so the reference takes the year and month. The in-text citation uses the year only.

  • Parenthetical citation(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2023)
  • Narrative citationNational Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2023)
  • Later citations(NIMH, 2023)

A MedlinePlus health topic page

MedlinePlus's page on pressure sores, which says "Last updated December 18, 2024." The National Library of Medicine runs MedlinePlus, so it's the author, and MedlinePlus is the site name.

  • Parenthetical citation(National Library of Medicine [NLM], 2024)
  • Narrative citationNational Library of Medicine (NLM, 2024)
  • Later citations(NLM, 2024)

A MedlinePlus drug information page

MedlinePlus's page on metformin. MedlinePlus drug pages come from AHFS Patient Medication Information, written by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which the page credits at the bottom. So ASHP is the author, the "Last Revised" date is the date, and MedlinePlus is still the site name.

  • Parenthetical citation(American Society of Health-System Pharmacists [ASHP], 2024)
  • Narrative citationAmerican Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP, 2024)
  • Later citations(ASHP, 2024)

In-text citations

Cite an NIH page by its group author and the year, or n.d. Agency names are long, so APA lets you abbreviate them: write the full name the first time with the abbreviation, then use the abbreviation alone.

  • First parenthetical citation: (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2023)
  • After that: (NIMH, 2023)
  • First narrative citation: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2023) reported ... and after that, NIMH (2023) found ...
  • No date: (NIMH, n.d.)
  • Two NIMH pages with the same date: add letters, in the reference and the citation: (NIMH, n.d.-a) and (NIMH, n.d.-b).
  • A quote with no page numbers: give the heading or the paragraph number: (NIMH, 2023, "Prevalence of Major Depressive Episode Among Adults" section) or (NIMH, 2023, para. 3).

Abbreviate only names you'll cite several times. The reference list always uses the full name.

Common mistakes

  • National Institutes of Health. (2023, July). Major depression.National Institute of Mental Health. (2023, July). Major depression. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.The author is the specific institute that made the page. The bigger agencies above it move to the source part of the reference.
  • National Institute of Mental Health. (2024, December). Depression.National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Depression."Last Reviewed: December 2024" is a review date. APA says to ignore review dates, so a page with only a review date is n.d.
  • National Library of Medicine. (2024, February 15). Metformin. MedlinePlus.American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. (2024, February 15). Metformin. MedlinePlus.MedlinePlus drug pages are written by ASHP and licensed to MedlinePlus. Credit the group that wrote the content.
  • MedlinePlus [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); [updated ...]. Pressure Sores; [updated 2024 Dec 18; cited 2026 Oct 21]. Available from: https://medlineplus.gov/pressuresores.htmlNational Library of Medicine. (2024, December 18). Pressure sores. MedlinePlus. https://medlineplus.gov/pressuresores.htmlMedlinePlus's own "how to cite" format follows the NLM style guide, not APA. Don't paste it into an APA paper.
  • National Library of Medicine. (2019). Title of a journal article. PubMed.Cite the article itself as a journal article, with its authors, journal, and DOI.PubMed and PubMed Central are where you found the article, not who wrote it. An article you read there is a journal article.

Quick checklist

  • The specific institute as group author, spelled out
  • The "Last Updated" date, or n.d. if only a review date is shown
  • Page title in italics and sentence case
  • Parent agencies as the source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health
  • MedlinePlus pages: National Library of Medicine, with MedlinePlus as the site
  • MedlinePlus drug pages: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists as author
  • Full name with abbreviation the first time, then the abbreviation

Questions students ask

Is the author NIH or the institute, like NIMH?

The institute. APA uses the most specific agency responsible for the page as the author, so a page on nimh.nih.gov is by the National Institute of Mental Health. The National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services go in the source part of the reference.

What date do I use for an NIH page?

Use the "Last Updated" date if the page has one, as specific as it's given: (2023, July). Ignore a "Last Reviewed" or "Content reviewed" date. If a review date is the only date on the page, use n.d.

Who is the author of a MedlinePlus page?

For health topic pages, the National Library of Medicine, which runs MedlinePlus, with MedlinePlus as the site name. Drug information pages are written by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, so ASHP is their author. Medical Encyclopedia pages come from A.D.A.M.; see the encyclopedia entry guide for those.

Should I use the citation MedlinePlus gives me?

Not in an APA paper. MedlinePlus's "how to cite" format follows the National Library of Medicine's own style guide, with "[Internet]" and "cited" dates. Build an APA 7 reference instead, the way the examples on this page show.

Do NIH and MedlinePlus pages need a retrieval date?

Usually not. They're regular webpages with an updated date or n.d. A retrieval date is only for pages designed to change and not archived, like a live data dashboard.

How do I cite an article I found on PubMed?

If you read a research article on PubMed or PubMed Central, cite it as a journal article, with its own authors and DOI. NIH runs PubMed, but it didn't write the articles in it.

How do I cite an NIH PDF or brochure?

A standalone document, like an NIMH brochure or fact sheet with a publication number, is a report or brochure, not a webpage. Use the institute as author, put the publication number in parentheses after the title, and list the parent agencies as the publisher.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.19, 8.21, 8.28, 9.11, 9.15, 9.17, 9.47, and 10.16, and the APA Style website's example of a webpage with a government agency group author. Each example page was opened on October 21, 2026, to confirm its author, title, URL, and the exact dates it shows; the ASHP credit was confirmed on the MedlinePlus drug page itself.

PERRLA turns an NIH or MedlinePlus URL into an APA reference with the right institute, its abbreviation, and the parent agencies.

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