PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Report by an organization

How to Cite a Report by an Organization in APA 7

An APA 7 reference for a report from an organization lists the authors (the people named on the report, or the organization itself when no one is named), the year in parentheses, the report title in italics and sentence case, the organization as the publisher, and the DOI or URL. When the organization is also the author, leave the publisher out. The in-text citation is the author and year: (Yam et al., 2025) or (National Council of State Boards of Nursing [NCSBN], 2026).

The format

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the report (Report No. if any) [Description if needed]. Publisher. https://xxxx

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 report's DOI or the link to its PDF into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA reads it and builds a Gray Literature reference with the authors, the year, the title, the publisher, and the link or DOI. When the report shows the organization's abbreviation, like NCSBN for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, PERRLA adds that too, so your first citation spells out the name with [NCSBN] and later ones use NCSBN.

Read the authors, the year, and the title against the report's cover before you save it. Check that a suffix like II sits in the Suffix box, not in the last name; that the title matches the cover, with a colon before the subtitle; and that the publisher isn't a second copy of the author with "Inc." on the end. If it is, delete the publisher, and PERRLA leaves it off for you.

Many organizations publish reports as web pages, like Pew Research Center and KFF. A link to one of those comes back as a Webpage reference with the full release date. Your in-text citation is the same either way, but to match APA's report format, choose Gray Literature under Change the reference type, then keep only the year in Publication Year.

Adding one by hand? Choose Gray Literature (Reports, Briefs, Codes), then A standalone work: report, brief, codes, etc. Add each person as an Author, or the organization as a Group Author (Organization). Put a report number in Identifying Information and a description like Issue brief in Format or Type, then fill in Publication Year, the publisher, and the DOI or URL.

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

The parts of the reference

1. Author

Look at the report's cover or title page. If people are named there, they're the authors: last name, comma, initials, with an ampersand before the last one. List up to 20.

Yam, E., Kikuchi, E., & Pula, I.

If only the organization is named, the organization is the author, spelled out in full. Leave off endings like Inc. and any abbreviation.

National Council of State Boards of Nursing.

Names in a staff list, an acknowledgments page, or the back of the report don't make those people the authors.

2. Year

Give the year printed on the report, in parentheses, followed by a period. Reports take the year only.

(2026).

Use the year on the document itself. NCSBN's web page lists its 2026 NCLEX-RN test plan under 2025, but the plan says 2026 on every page and in its copyright line, so 2026 is the year to use. If the report has no date anywhere, write (n.d.).

3. Title

Write the title in italics and in sentence case: capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Leave out trademark symbols like ® and ™.

2026 NCLEX-RN test plan

If the title ends in a question mark, the question mark replaces the period. Don't add one after it.

How do Americans view childhood vaccines, vaccine research and policy?

4. Report number and description

If the report has a number, like Report No. 23-07 or Issue Brief No. 4, put it in parentheses right after the title, not in italics. If the kind of document isn't clear from its title, add a short description in square brackets, like [Issue brief], [Policy brief], or [Fact sheet].

Key facts about the uninsured population [Issue brief].

A report number comes first, then the bracketed description, then the period.

5. Publisher

Name the organization that published the report, in plain text, followed by a period. No city or state.

Pew Research Center.

When the publisher is the same as the group author, leave it out so the name doesn't appear twice. The NCSBN test plan goes straight from the title to the URL.

6. DOI or URL

Some organizations give their reports a DOI. If the report has one, end with it as a link and skip the URL.

https://doi.org/10.26099/ta0g-zp66

Otherwise, end with the URL of the report itself: its PDF, or the page where the report is published. No "Retrieved from," and no period after the link.

Examples

A report with individual authors and a DOI

The Commonwealth Fund's Mirror, Mirror 2024 compares health system performance in 10 countries. Five people are named as its authors, so they're the authors and the Commonwealth Fund is the publisher. The last author's name ends in II, which goes after his initials. The report has a DOI, so the reference ends with it.

  • Parenthetical citation(Blumenthal et al., 2024)
  • Narrative citationBlumenthal et al. (2024)

A report published as a web page

Pew Research Center publishes its reports as web pages, with a byline at the top. Pew labels this one a report, so it takes the report format: the three authors, the year, the title in italics, Pew Research Center as the publisher, and the URL. The title ends in a question mark, which takes the place of the period.

  • Parenthetical citation(Yam et al., 2025)
  • Narrative citationYam et al. (2025)

An issue brief from a health policy organization

KFF's Key Facts About the Uninsured Population is an issue brief with four named authors. KFF updates this brief as new data come out, so cite the year on the version you read. This one is dated June 16, 2026. The description [Issue brief] tells your reader what kind of document it is.

  • Parenthetical citation(Tolbert et al., 2026)
  • Narrative citationTolbert et al. (2026)

A report with the organization as author

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing wrote and published the 2026 NCLEX-RN test plan, in effect since April 2026. No people are named on its cover, so NCSBN is the group author, and the publisher drops out because it's the same organization. The citation points to page 5, where the plan gives the share of test items in each category.

  • Parenthetical citation(National Council of State Boards of Nursing [NCSBN], 2026, p. 5)
  • Narrative citationNational Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN, 2026, p. 5)
  • Later citations(NCSBN, 2026, p. 5)

In-text citations

The in-text citation gives the author's last name, or the organization's name, and the year. Add a page number when you quote or point to one passage.

  • One or two authors: every name, every time: (Lichtenstein, 2013) or (Fried & Polyakova, 2018)
  • Three or more authors: the first author and et al., from the first citation on: (Blumenthal et al., 2024) or Blumenthal et al. (2024)
  • A group author with an abbreviation: spell it out with the abbreviation the first time, then use the abbreviation: (National Council of State Boards of Nursing [NCSBN], 2026), then (NCSBN, 2026)
  • Narrative, group author: National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN, 2026) the first time, NCSBN (2026) after that
  • A specific page: (NCSBN, 2026, p. 5)
  • A web report with no page numbers: name the section or paragraph instead: (Yam et al., 2025, Views of MMR Vaccine Safety and School Requirements section)
  • No date: (Author, n.d.)

Abbreviate a group author only if the abbreviation is well known or you cite the group several times. Groups with short names, like KFF or Pew Research Center, don't need one.

Common mistakes

  • National Council of State Boards of Nursing. (2026). 2026 NCLEX-RN® test plan. Chicago: Author.National Council of State Boards of Nursing. (2026). 2026 NCLEX-RN test plan. https://www.ncsbn.org/public-files/2026_RN_Test-Plan_English-F.pdf"Chicago: Author" is the APA 6 way of saying the author published it, and it's still in NCSBN's suggested citation. APA 7 drops the city and leaves the publisher out when it matches the author. Trademark symbols come out too.
  • Pew Research Center. (2025). How do Americans view childhood vaccines, vaccine research and policy? https://...Yam, E., Kikuchi, E., & Pula, I. (2025). How do Americans view childhood vaccines, vaccine research and policy? Pew Research Center. https://...When people are named on the report, they're the authors. The organization moves to the publisher spot.
  • Williams II, R. D.Williams, R. D., II.A suffix like Jr. or II goes after the initials, set off by a comma. Leave it out of the in-text citation.
  • How do Americans view childhood vaccines, vaccine research and policy?. Pew Research Center.How do Americans view childhood vaccines, vaccine research and policy? Pew Research Center.A question mark at the end of a title takes the place of the period. Don't add both.
  • National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). (2026).National Council of State Boards of Nursing. (2026).Abbreviations for group authors go in your in-text citations only, never in the reference.
  • Blumenthal, D., Gumas, E. D., Shah, A., Gunja, M. Z., & Williams, R. D., II. (2024). Mirror, Mirror 2024. Commonwealth Fund. Retrieved from https://www.commonwealthfund.org/...... (2024). Mirror, Mirror 2024: A portrait of the failing U.S. health system: Comparing performance in 10 nations. Commonwealth Fund. https://doi.org/10.26099/ta0g-zp66Give the full title with its subtitles, and use the DOI when the report has one. APA 7 doesn't use "Retrieved from" before a link.

Quick checklist

  • The people named on the cover as authors, or the organization when no one is named
  • The year printed on the report, in parentheses
  • Title in italics and sentence case, with no ® or ™
  • Report number in parentheses and a [description] if needed, right after the title
  • The organization as publisher, unless it's already the author
  • The DOI if there is one, otherwise the report's URL, with no period after it

Questions students ask

Is a report on a website a report or a webpage?

If the organization calls it a report, brief, or paper, or it reads like a standalone document with its own title, use the report format. APA uses the webpage format only for pages that don't fit a better category. The two formats differ in small ways: a report has a publisher and takes the year only, while a webpage has a site name and often a full date.

Who is the author of an organization's report?

Look at the cover or title page. If people are named there, list them as the authors and the organization as the publisher. If only the organization is named, it's the author, even when staff members are thanked inside the report.

Do I include the report number?

Yes. Put it in parentheses after the title, without italics, exactly as the report writes it: (Report No. RR-123) or (Issue Brief No. 4). If the report has no number, leave this part out.

Do organizational reports have DOIs?

Some do. The Commonwealth Fund, for example, gives its reports DOIs. Check the report's page or the first pages of its PDF. If you find one, end the reference with the DOI as a link instead of the URL.

Is a National Academies report a report or a book?

Cite it as a book. Reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, like The Future of Nursing 2020-2030, are published as books by the National Academies Press with a DOI, and APA's own nursing examples list it with the books. Use the organization as the group author and National Academies Press as the publisher.

What if the report has no date?

Write (n.d.) in the reference and in your citation: (Author, n.d.). Look first, though: report dates often hide on the back cover, in the copyright line, or at the bottom of the web page.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.13, 8.17, 8.21, 9.8, 9.11, 9.14, 9.17, 9.19, 9.21, 9.29, 9.34–9.35, and 10.4, and the APA Style website's reference examples for reports with individual authors, reports by group authors, and nursing student references. Example sources verified against each report's PDF or published page: the Commonwealth Fund report and its DOI record, the Pew Research Center report page, the KFF issue brief, and NCSBN's test plan PDF and publication page.

PERRLA builds an organization's report reference from its DOI or PDF link, with the authors, publisher, and abbreviation filled in.

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