How to cite a government report in MLA 9

A report written by a government body or another organization has a corporate author. How you list it depends on whether the author is also the publisher.

The author and the publisher are different

Author Organization. Title of the Report. Publisher, Year, URL.

National Water Quality Agency. Annual Drinking Water Quality Report. Department of Environmental Protection, 2024, example.org/reports/24-07.

The organization that wrote the report goes in the author position, and the one that issued it goes in the publisher position.

The author and the publisher are the same

If the organization is both author and publisher, MLA’s guidance is to list it in the publisher position and skip the author:

Annual Drinking Water Quality Report. National Water Quality Agency, 2024, example.org/reports/24-07.

Other cases

• A government agency as publisher. List its name as it appears in the source. The rules for government authorship don’t apply to the publisher position.
• A report with no title. Give a short description in place of a title, such as Summary of findings.
• A congressional document. The author is the full government entity, such as United States, Congress, House, followed by the committee name.
• The website has the same name as the publisher. MLA’s guidance is to leave out the publisher. The author stays unless it is also the publisher.

In-text citation

Use the first element of the entry: the organization’s name, or the shortened title if the entry starts with the title.

Check before you submit

• Title in italics for a report published on its own. This is the general MLA rule for standalone works.
• Find the date on the cover or in the document’s details.
• For APA, see citing a government report in APA 7.