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To cite a report in APA 7th edition, give the author, the year, the report title and a URL. When an organisation both wrote and published the report, it is the author and no separate publisher is listed. When individuals wrote it for an organisation, the organisation follows the title as publisher. This guide shows both patterns with entries taken from APA’s own reference handout, then the matching in-text citations and the mistakes that most often appear in theses and manuscript reference lists.
The format
APA’s “Common Reference Examples” handout files reports under Section 10.4 of the Publication Manual and shows two patterns.
Report by a group author
Group Name. (Year). Title of report. URL
The organisation is the author, so there is no publisher element. Publishers are left out whenever they exactly match the author.
Report by individual authors
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of report. Publisher or organisation. URL
Invert each author’s name (surname, then initials), put the year in parentheses, and name the organisation that published the report after the title. Write the title in sentence case, as the handout entries do. Give the URL as a plain link with no period after it, and do not add a publisher location.
Examples
Group author: a WHO report (APA’s own example)
World Health Organization. (2025). Global report on neglected tropical diseases. https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/9c4655d8-3671-4503-ae51-4a80bb44d5e0/content
This is the entry APA prints in its reference examples handout (last updated March 3, 2026). The organisation is author and publisher, so the entry has no publisher element.
Individual authors: a think-tank report (APA’s own example)
Winthrop, R., Ziegler, L., Handa, R., & Fakoya, F. (2019). How playful learning can help leapfrog progress in education. Center for Universal Education at Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/how_playful_learning_can_help_leapfrog_progress_in_education.pdf
Here the authors are people and the Center for Universal Education at Brookings is the publisher, so it sits between the title and the URL.
Group author: a fictional agency report (example only)
Example Health Agency. (2025). Annual review of example programs. https://example.org/report.pdf
Individual authors: a fictional institute report (example only)
Smith, J., & Lee, K. (2025). Review of example reporting practices. Example Research Institute. https://example.org/review.pdf
The last two entries are invented to show the patterns; the agency, institute and authors do not exist.
In-text citation version
In-text citations use the author and year from the reference entry.
- Group author, parenthetical: (World Health Organization, 2025)
- Group author, narrative: World Health Organization (2025) reported that…
- Three or more authors: use the first author’s surname plus “et al.” from the very first citation, for example (Winthrop et al., 2019) or Winthrop et al. (2019).
- Direct quotation: add the page, as in (World Health Organization, 2025, p. 20), where the page number is only a placeholder. Quotations under 40 words go in double quotation marks; 40 words or more are set as an indented block without quotation marks.
APA’s In-Text Citation Checklist allows abbreviations for group authors “as appropriate”. For paraphrasing in your own words, see APA paraphrase citation, and for the author-date form in brackets see parenthetical citation.
Citing reports in a manuscript or thesis
Three APA 7 rules matter most when a long reference list has to be consistent:
- List up to 20 authors by name. For 21 or more, give the first 19, an ellipsis (no ampersand) and then the final author.
- Use “Retrieved from” before a URL only when a retrieval date is also needed. Without a retrieval date, the URL stands alone.
- Give DOIs and URLs as full links, with no “DOI:” label and no period at the end.
Format the finished list following the APA reference page guide and the hanging indent guide. If the report you are citing is a student thesis rather than an organisational report, use how to cite a thesis in APA; for a page on an organisation’s website, use how to cite a website in APA.
Common errors
- Repeating the organisation. If the author and publisher are the same, name it once, as the author.
- Listing a publisher location. APA 7 drops the city for every reference type.
- Using the 6th edition author rule. The 6th edition spelled out up to five names at first citation; APA 7 uses “et al.” from the first citation for three or more authors.
- Adding “DOI:” or “Retrieved from” by habit. APA 7 drops the “DOI:” label in favour of the full https link, and uses “Retrieved from” only when a retrieval date is needed.
- Ending the URL with a period. The link is the last element and carries no closing punctuation.
- Mixing author names with initials-first order. Names are inverted: Winthrop, R., not R. Winthrop.
Style-guide edition
This guide follows the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020). APA’s reference examples handout (last updated March 3, 2026) and its In-Text Citation Checklist are both labelled 7th edition. Date checked: 2026-10-29.
FAQ
How do you cite a government report in APA?
When an agency wrote and published the report, treat the agency as a group author: Agency name. (Year). Title of report. URL. The WHO entry above is the pattern. If a named person wrote the report for the agency, use the individual-author pattern and put the agency after the title as publisher.
How do you cite a government document in APA?
Use the same reasoning: identify who is credited as author and who published, then apply the group-author or individual-author pattern. The format changes only with the author and publisher, not with the word “government”.
How do you cite an annual report in APA?
An annual report issued by an organisation about itself follows the group-author pattern: Organisation name. (Year). Title of the annual report. URL. The fictional agency entry above shows this shape. Use the year printed on the report.
How do you cite a white paper in APA?
A white paper published by an organisation under its own name is cited with the group-author pattern. If individuals are credited, list them as authors and place the organisation after the title as publisher. For the genre itself, see the white paper definition.
How do you cite the Belmont Report in APA 7th edition?
Take the author, year, title and URL from the copy of the report you actually used. If an organisation is credited as the author, use the group-author pattern; if named people are credited, use the individual-author pattern. For what the report says, see the Belmont Report principles guide.
Sources
- American Psychological Association, “APA Style Common Reference Examples” (7th ed.), last updated March 3, 2026: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-examples.pdf (checked 2026-10-29).
- American Psychological Association, “In-Text Citation Checklist” (7th ed.): https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/in-text-citation-checklist.pdf (checked 2026-10-29).
- American Psychological Association, “Guide to What’s New in the 7th Edition”: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/whats-new-7e-guide.pdf (checked 2026-10-28).
