Harvard citation

How to cite a government report in Harvard.

In Harvard (Cite Them Right), a government report reference gives the agency as author, the year in parentheses, the title in italics, the report number if it has one, the publisher, and Available at: URL with the date you opened it. In the text: (National Cancer Institute, 2018, p. 7).

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On this page
  1. The Harvard format
  2. A real example
  3. When details are missing
  4. Common mistakes
  5. Let Format do it
  6. Questions
  7. More guides

Updated . Example details checked against cancer.gov, NIH Publication No. 18-2059 (2018).

The Harvard format

Pattern

Agency Name (Year) Title of report. Report number. Publisher. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

  • Author: the agency in full, the way the report names it.
  • Title in italics with minimal capitals; the subtitle starts lowercase.
  • Report number after the title, as printed.
  • Publisher: the department that issued it. When it is the same body as the author, give it again; Cite Them Right’s own example repeats the Environment Agency.
  • Online: Available at: and the URL, then (Accessed: day month year).

A real example

Reference list entry

National Cancer Institute (2018) Taking time: support for people with cancer. NIH Publication No. 18-2059. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/takingtime.pdf (Accessed: 3 November 2026).

In-text citation

(National Cancer Institute, 2018, p. 7)

Make this citation for your own source

When details are missing

  • No report number: leave it out.
  • No date: (no date) in place of the year, in the reference and the text.
  • Print only: end with the publisher.

The rules for a missing author, date or page in every style are in no author, date or page.

Common mistakes

  1. An abbreviation as author. Write the agency in full in the reference. You can introduce the short form in your sentence.
  2. No access date. Every URL in Cite Them Right takes one.

Or let Format do it.

Choose Report or government document and fill in the agency, title, report number, publisher, year and link. Format writes the Reference list entry and the in-text citation in Harvard, exactly as shown above, and builds the Reference list page when you export to Word or PDF. Harvard is part of Pro, $4 a month or $29 a year; MLA and APA are free.

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Questions

How do I cite a page of a PDF report?

Give the page number the report prints: (National Cancer Institute, 2018, p. 7).

Is a UK government report cited the same way?

Yes. Cite Them Right’s own example is a UK Environment Agency action plan.

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