A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 7th edition - Kate L. Turabian 2007

Public documents - Elements to include, their order, and how to format them
Parenthetical citations–reference list style: citing specific types of sources
Part II. Source Citation

Public documents include a wide array of sources produced by governments at all levels throughout the world. This section presents basic principles for some common types of public documents available in English; if you need to cite other types, adapt the closest model.

Such documents involve more complicated and varied elements than published sources. In your citations, include as much identifying information as you can, format the elements consistently, and adapt the general patterns outlined here as needed.

The bulk of this section is concerned with documents published by U.S. governmental bodies and agencies. For documents published by the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom and by international bodies, see 19.9.9—19.9.11. For unpublished government documents generally, see 19.9.12.

19.9.1 Elements to include, their order, and how to format them

In your reference list, include as many of the following elements as you can:

name of the government (country, state, city, county, or other division) and government body (legislative body, executive department, court bureau, board, commission, or committee) that issued the document

date of publication

title, if any, of the document or collection (capitalized headline style and generally italicized)

name of individual author, editor, or compiler, if given

report number or other identifying information

facts of publication: place of publication and publisher's name, if different from the issuing body (for all publications of the U.S. federal government, covered in 19.9.2—19.9.4, use Washington, DC, and Government Printing Office respectively)

page numbers or other locators, if relevant

In general, list the relevant elements in the order given above. Exceptions for certain types of documents are explained in the following sections of 19.9.

R: U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. 1956. The Mutual Security Act of 1956. 84th Cong., 2d sess. S. Rep. 2273.

For parenthetical citations, treat the information listed before the date in your reference list as the author. If this information is lengthy, you may shorten it, as long as you do so logically and consistently in your citations. In many cases, you may be able to include some or all of this information in the text instead of a parenthetical citation.

P: (U.S. Senate 1956, 9—10)

. . . as the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations decreed in its report accompanying the Mutual Security Act of 1956 (9—10).

Note that some shortened forms and abbreviations used in citing public documents are different from those used elsewhere, such as 2d instead of 2nd and 3d instead of 3rd. Other examples are noted in the relevant sections of 19.9.