How to Cite the Federal Register

How to Cite the Federal Register

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This article was written by wikiHow writer Jennifer Mueller, JD. Jennifer Mueller is a legal expert at wikiHow. Jennifer reviews, verifies, and evaluates wikiHow’s legal content for completeness and accuracy. She received her JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2006. This article has been viewed 29,498 times. Know more…

US federal regulations are codified in the Code of Federal Regulations. The Federal Register, on the other hand, is updated daily with regulations that have not yet been codified. If you are writing a research paper that addresses federal regulatory activity, you may need to use a regulation listed in the Federal Register as a source.[1]
Although the information included in your citation will be similar, the format will differ depending on whether you use the Modern Language Association (MLA) citation style, the American Psychological Association (APA), or the Chicago citation style. MLA uses the Bluebook citation style for federal citation records. Bluebook is a citation style used in the legal field.[2]

  1. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 1

    Begin the Works Cited entry with the name of the office or agency. For regulations in the Federal Register, start with “United States” to identify the federal government. Place a comma after “United States” and then add the name of the specific executive department or agency that issued the regulation. Put a period after the agency name.[3]

    • Example: United States, Food and Drug Administration.

  2. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 2

    Provide a title for the regulation. The name of the regulation will appear at the top of the entry in the Federal Register. Use uppercase and lowercase letters in the title, capitalize all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. Put a period at the end of the title.[4]

    • Example: United States, Food and Drug Administration. “Pre-Sale Tobacco Product Registrations and Record-Keeping Requirements.”

  3. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 3

    Indicate the volume and page number on which the regulation appears. Enter the Federal Register volume number followed by the abbreviation “Fed. Reg.” Then enter the page number where the regulation begins. Include commas for page numbers with 5 or more digits. Do not put a period after the page number.[5]

    • Example: United States, Food and Drug Administration. “Pre-Sale Tobacco Product Registrations and Record-Keeping Requirements.” 84 federal. record 50,566

  4. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 4

    Include the publication date in parentheses. Type a space after the last page number and open the brackets. Enter the date in month-day-year format, using the three-letter abbreviation for the month. Put a period outside the closing parenthesis.[6]

    • Example: United States, Food and Drug Administration. “Pre-Sale Tobacco Product Registrations and Record-Keeping Requirements.” 84 federal. record 50,566 (September 25, 2019).

    MLA Works Cited Format

    United States, Department or agency, “Regulation title in title.” vol. # Fed. record Page # (month, day, year).

  5. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 5

    Use the first element of your works cited entry in an in-text citation. When you mention a regulation in the text of your paper, accompany it with a parenthetical citation that will direct your readers to the Works Cited entry. For a parenthetical citation, use the first elements included in the works cited entry. This will usually be “United States of America” ​​and the name of the executive department or agency that issued the regulation.[7]

    • Example: The regulation requires manufacturers to maintain records showing that tobacco products, such as vaping devices, have been legally marketed (United States, Food and Drug Administration).
    • If you’ve included the name of an executive department or agency in your text, you usually don’t need a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. For example, you might write: “Following deaths caused by the use of vaping devices, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a regulation to control the marketing of vaping devices.” Since you identified the executive agency in the sentence, you would not need to include the citation in parentheses.

  1. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 6

    Begin the reference list entry with the title of the regulation. See the title of the regulation and provide the full name of the regulation. Use uppercase and lowercase letters in the title, capitalize all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. Put a period at the end of the title.[8]

    • Example: Mammography Quality Standards Law.

  2. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 7

    Specify the volume and source of regulation. Type the volume number, followed by a space, followed by the abbreviation “Fed. Reg.” After the abbreviation, write a space and add the page number where the regulation begins. Do not use commas between the digits of the page number. [9]

    • Example: Mammography Quality Standards Law. 84 federal. record 11669

  3. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 8

    Include the publication date in parentheses. Enter the date in month-day-year format without abbreviating the month name. Add the state to the date if the regulation is not final. Check the “action” line in the title of the rulebook. If the regulation is not final, include this information before the date. Place a period after the closing parenthesis if the date is the last element of your citation.[10]

    • Example: Mammography Quality Standards Act. 84 federal. registration 11669 (proposed March 28, 2019)

  4. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 9

    Include information on the future location of the regulation, if available. Look for the CFR line in the title of the regulation. If available, type a space after the closing parenthesis of the date, and then open a new parenthesis. Enter the words “to be codified in” followed by the volume and part number where the regulation will be codified. Use the abbreviation “pt”. per part Put a period after the parentheses.[11]

    • Example: Mammography Quality Standards Law. 84 federal. registry 11669 (proposed March 28, 2019) (to be codified at 21 CFR pt. 900).

    APA reference list format

    Title of the Regulation in the title. vol. # Fed. record Page # (state Month Day, Year) (to be encoded in Vol. # CFR pt. #).

  5. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 10

    Use the name of the regulation and the year for the in-text citation. APA in-text citations include the first item of the reference list entry and the year the reference was published. Typically, you would place this information in parentheses at the end of each sentence where you talk about the regulation, within the closing punctuation.[12]

    • Example: The regulation would modernize existing mammography standards by updating them to meet current technology (Mammography Quality Standards Act, 2019).
    • If you indicate the title of the regulation in the text, place the year of publication immediately after the title of the regulation. If you mention both the year of publication and the title of the regulation, you do not need an in-text reference in parentheses.

  1. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 11

    Start the entry in the bibliography with the author of the regulation. Federal regulations generally do not have an individual author. Instead, the department or agency that issued the regulation is considered the author. Place a period after the department or agency name.[13]

    • Example: Ministry of Labor.

  2. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 12

    Place the name of the regulation in quotation marks. After the name of the department or agency that promulgated the regulation, write the full name of the regulation. Use uppercase and lowercase letters in the title, capitalize all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. Put a period at the end of the title, inside the quotation marks.[14]

    • Example: Ministry of Labor. “Apprenticeship programs, applicable labor regulations, reforms and additions to regulations”.

  3. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 13

    Identify the Federal Register volume, number, and date. Write the words “Federal Register” in italics, followed by the corresponding volume number. Put a comma after the volume number and then the abbreviation “br”. for “number”, followed by the issue number. Then write the date in month-day-year format. Do not abbreviate the name of the month. Put a colon after the parentheses.[15]

    • Example: Ministry of Labor. “Apprenticeship programs, applicable labor regulations, reforms and additions to regulations”. Federal Register 84, no. 122 (June 25, 2019):

  4. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 14

    Provide the page number of the first page of the regulation and the URL, if applicable. After the colon, enter the number of the first page on which the regulation begins. Do not use commas to separate digits. Place a period after the page number. If you accessed the Federal Register online, add the direct URL to the end of the citation by placing a period at the end of the URL.[16]

    • Example: Ministry of Labor. “Apprenticeship programs, applicable labor regulations, reforms and additions to regulations”. Federal Register 84, no. 122 (June 25, 2019): 29970. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-06-25/pdf/2019-13076.pdf.

    Chicago Bibliography Format

    Department or Agency. “Title of the regulation in the title”. Federal Register of St. #, no. # (Month Day, Year): Page #. url

  5. Image titled Cite the Federal Register Step 15

    Adjust punctuation to create footnotes for in-text citations. The same information that you entered in your bibliography is also included in the footnotes whenever you refer to the regulation in the text of your paper. However, the internal periods change to periods. The only point is at the end of the note. If the page number of the material you are referring to is different from the first page of the rulebook, use that page number in the note instead of the first page.[17]

    • Example: Ministry of Labor, “Apprenticeship Programs, Labor Standards for the Application, Modifications to the Regulations”, Federal Register 84, no. 122 (June 25, 2019): 29970, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-06-25/pdf/2019-13076.pdf.

    Chicago Footnote Format

    Department or Agency, “Regulation Title in Title,” Federal Register, Vol. #, No. # (Month Day, Year): Page #, URL.

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