Washington and LeeUniversity: University Library.APA Style -- Citing Government Sources: Items on Agency Web Sites Retrieved November 4, 2008.
APA Style -- Citing Government Sources: Items on Agency Web Sites

1. Again, an agency is usually the "author," although the same document may appear on several different agencies' Web sites, perhaps, resulting in different authors and/or titles for the same document.

Following is a citation of the online "version" of the first printed example above, found on the Web.

United States. Federal Reserve Board. (1998, July 22).

Conduct of monetary policy; Report of the Federal Reserve Board

pursuant to the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act

of 1978; July 21, 1998 report. Retrieved 3 December

1998 from the Federal Reserve Web site:

United States. Federal Reserve Board = issuing agency/author

(1998, July 22) = date of page

Monetary policy... = title of document

Retrieved... = found/read/used on World Wide Web on date given

= full URL of page/document

2. Following is a citation of the electronic "version" of the second printed example, above, found on the Web.

United States. Department of Justice. Office of

Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice.

(1998, October) High school youths, weapons,

and violence: A national survey by J.F. Sheley

& J.D. Wright. (Research in brief) Retrieved

December 3, 1998 from the Department of Justice Web site:

United States Department of Justice... = issuing agency/author

High school youths... = title

J.F. Sheley & J.D. Wright = personal authors

(1998, October) = date of page

(Research in brief) = series

Retrieved... = found/read/used on World Wide Web on date given

= full URL of page/document

Items from "Index" Web Sites

There are several research Web services which may provide the full text of a U.S. Government publication without actually taking you to an agency Web site. Among these services are GPO Access and LexisNexis Congressional.

Materials accessed through these services should be cited as though were retrieved directly in full-text form from an online periodical index, as in this example, which is #88 in the APA's Web site.

Two examples:

Gilman, B.A. (1999, June 29). In support of peace in

Kashmir, H.Res.227. Congressional Record, E1424-E1425.

Retrieved 19 March 2002 from the GPO Access database.

United States. Congress. House of Representatives. Committee on the

Judiciary. Subcommittee on the Constitution. (1999, September 28).

Testimony, September 23, 1999, Mark E. Rush, Associate Professor,

Washington and LeeUniversity, House Judiciary, Constitution,

Redistricting Systems. Retrieved 19 March 2002 from the LexisNexis Congressional database.

Information Compiled by Kimberly M. Gay, Academic Reference and Instruction Librarian;Library Faculty Liaison- Communication and Journalism 2009