Governmental agencies

Citing government agencies and other institutional authors including the Federal Register (in the US) presents a common challenge because full names are often lengthy, leading authors to adopt abbreviations. Because abbreviations are not formally part of an institution’s name, and because their use can vary depending on how often a source is cited, including them in the reference list can introduce inconsistency. The approach used by JLS, outlined below, follows the idea that abbreviations are used only to streamline repeated in-text citations and are not part of the formal bibliographic record.

 

When an agency is first mentioned in the text, provide the full name and introduce the abbreviation, if the agency is going to be referred to multiple times. This may be done in one of two ways:

Preferred:
According to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, greater sage-grouse habitat has declined across much of its range (BLM 2018).

Also acceptable (but more cumbersome, with square brackets):
Habitat degradation has been documented across much of the species’ range (U.S. Bureau of Land Management [BLM] 2018).

In either case, subsequent in-text citations should use only the abbreviation:
(BLM 2018)

In the reference list, always provide the full institutional name and do not include abbreviations:
U.S. Bureau of Land Management. 2018. Nevada Special Status Species List. Nevada State Office, Reno, Nevada. 42 pp.

 

If an agency is cited only once in the manuscript, an abbreviation is unnecessary and should be omitted, for example:
Surveys conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey indicate continued declines in detection rates (U.S. Geological Survey 2019).

In the reference list:
U.S. Geological Survey. 2019. Status and Trends of Pollinator Populations in Western North America. Reston, Virginia.

Federal Register citations

The Federal Register is the official daily publication of the U.S. federal government and includes rules, proposed rules, and notices issued by federal agencies. Because these documents are formally published and paginated, they should be cited as serial publications rather than as standalone reports or webpages. In the reference list, include the issuing agency as the author, followed by the year, the title of the rule or notice in sentence case, the journal title (Federal Register, italicized), the volume number, and the full page range. Issue numbers are not required.

Authorship in Federal Register citations should reflect the issuing body responsible for the rule, notice, or action. "Federal Register" itself should not be treated as the author, as it is the publication venue rather than the issuing entity. If no specific sub-agency is named, the highest-level federal body responsible (e.g., a department such as the U.S. Department of the Interior) should be used.

Example, in the reference list (the in-text format would follow examples given above):
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1994. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; animal candidate review for listing as endangered or threatened species; proposed rule. Federal Register 59: 58982–59028.