These are highly credible, authoritative digital sources managed by official state bodies or institutional school boards. They are ideal for pulling official public policies or curriculum guidelines.
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Video: Citing .gov and .edu Sources
Instructor video coming soon
Examples in Your Field
Field
Sites you might cite
Human Development & Family Studies
Administration for Children and Families (ACF, .gov); Harvard University Center on the Developing Child (.edu)
Education
U.S. Department of Education (.gov); Edutopia / George Lucas Educational Foundation
Pages from agencies and institutions usually have a group author: the organization itself. Hunt for the pieces in these spots:
Piece
Where to look
Author
The agency or organization, usually in the logo, header, or page footer. Individual authors are rare, but check the byline first.
Date
"Last updated," "Last reviewed," or a posted date near the title or footer. No date anywhere? Use (n.d.).
Title
The page's main heading, italicized in the reference
Site name
Include it only when it differs from the author; if author and site are the same, skip it
URL
Always included for web pages. Copy it exactly.
Explore Two Samples
Click each dashed-underlined part in both samples to see what it becomes in your reference. The key difference: Sample 1 has a group author, Sample 2 has a named person. Find all 10.
Found: 0 / 10
Sample 1: A government page (group author)
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| An official website of the U.S. government
Family engagement is a collaborative relationship between families and program staff... [page continues]
✅ URL. The final element of the reference, copied exactly: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/family-engagement
✅ Group author. The agency is the author: Administration for Children and Families. Spell out the ampersand as "and" if the formal name does. In-text, introduce the abbreviation once: (Administration for Children and Families [ACF], 2024).
✅ Page title. Italicized, sentence case: Strengthening family engagement in early childhood programs.
✅ Date. "Last reviewed" or "Last updated" is your date: (2024, March 15). No date anywhere on the page? Use (n.d.).
Sample 2: An .edu page (named author, site name differs)
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First-generation students bring strengths that traditional support models often overlook... [page continues]
✅ URL. The final element: https://cte.coastal.edu/first-gen
✅ Site name. Because the author is a person (see the byline), the site name appears after the title, not italicized: Center for Teaching Excellence, Coastal State University. Compare Sample 1: when the organization IS the author, the site name is skipped.
✅ A named author. A byline outranks the organization: Chen, R. Drop the "Dr." (credentials and titles never appear). Full reference: Chen, R. (2023, September 8). Supporting first-generation students. Center for Teaching Excellence, Coastal State University. https://cte.coastal.edu/first-gen
✅ Date. A posted date, so use it in full: (2023, September 8).
Building the Reference
Pattern
Organization or Author. (Year, Month day). Title of the page in sentence case. Site Name if different from the author. URL
Walk the pieces: the group author (or a named person if the page has a byline), the fullest date shown, the page title in italics, the site name only when it differs from the author, and the exact URL.
Government page, group authorAdministration for Children and Families. (2024, March 15). Strengthening family engagement in early childhood programs. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/family-engagement
No date: use n.d.National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Anxiety disorders. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders
Educational site where author and site name differChen, R. (2023, September 8). Supporting first-generation students. Center for Teaching Excellence, Coastal State University. https://cte.coastal.edu/first-gen
In-text: the abbreviation move
If the organization has a familiar abbreviation, introduce it in brackets at the first citation, then use the abbreviation alone:
First citation
(Administration for Children and Families [ACF], 2024)
Every citation after
(ACF, 2024)
For a no-date page, n.d. takes the year's place. To quote from a web page (no page numbers), use a section heading and/or paragraph number: (ACF, 2024, Family Engagement section).
🦦A caution on sources: .gov and .edu pages are generally strong sources, but "on a website" is not the same as "peer reviewed." A university news post or a student blog on an .edu domain is not an academic source. Look for research centers, official reports, and agency publications.
Check Yourself
Question 1
An ACF web page shows "Last reviewed: March 15, 2024" and no individual author. Who is the author of your reference?
Question 2
You cite the National Institute of Mental Health several times. How do the citations run?