Washington and Lee University
The examples below supplement the basics of APA Style for printed and online sources.
1. Remember that the "author" of any government material in
almost always an agency, not an individual.
When in doubt, provide the full "hierarchy" of the issuing agency.
You should always include a complete title, even when it's of unwieldy length, in order to differentiate
between that item and others with similar titles.
Always include the Superintendent of
Documents call number, whenever possible.
United States. Congress. House of Representatives. Committee on
Banking and Financial Services. (1998). Conduct of
monetary policy; Report of the Federal Reserve Board
pursuant to the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act
of 1978, P.L. 95-523, and the state of the economy: Hearing
before the Subcommittee on Domestic and International
Monetary Policy of the Committee on Banking and Financial
Services, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Fifth
Congress, second session, July 22, 1998. Washington:
Government Printing Office. (Y 4.B 22/1:105-70)
2. Personal authors, as differentiated from agency authors, are identified after the title. If the agency author is also the publisher, a shortened form of the name is enough. If the publication is obviously labeled as one in a series, you should identify the series.
United States. Department of Justice. Office of
Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice.
(1998). High school youths, weapons, and violence:
A national survey by J.F. Sheley and J.D. Wright.
Washington DC: National Institute of Justice.
(Research in brief) (J 28.24:Y 8)
3. It is always desirable to identify a report number or document, particularly with Congressional publications, as a means of differentiating among items with similar titles.
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, .
Science, and Transportation. (1999). Satellite Television
Act of 1999: Report of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation on S. 303, together with minority views.
Washington DC: Government Printing Office. (Senate Report 106-51)
(Y 1.1/5:106-51)
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 here.
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:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/hh/1998/july/fullreport.htm
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
http://... = full URL of page/document
2. Following is a citation of the electronic "version" of the second printed example, above, found on the Web here.
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:
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/172857.pdf
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
http://... = full URL of page/document
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 Lee University, House Judiciary, Constitution,
Redistricting Systems. Retrieved 19 March 2002 from the LexisNexis
Congressional database.