Here is how to cite the Federal Register in APA, MLA, and Chicago: you need the issuing department, the regulation’s title, the volume number, the abbreviation “Fed. Reg.,” the starting page, and the publication date. The exact order and punctuation depend on which of the three styles you’re writing in. This guide walks through all three formats with worked examples, a side-by-side comparison table, and the mistakes students make most often.
Citing a federal regulation is not the same as citing a website or a journal article. The “author” is a federal department or office, the “publication” is a daily government journal, and most style guides borrow their rules from The Bluebook, the citation manual used in U.S. legal writing. Once you know the five building blocks above, switching between styles is mostly a matter of reordering and repunctuating them.
What Is the Federal Register?
The Federal Register is the U.S. government’s official daily publication for proposed rules, final rules, executive orders, and public notices from federal agencies. It comes out every business day and is the fastest way to track a regulation before it becomes permanent law, which is also why your citation needs a precise volume, page, and date rather than just a URL.
It is published by the Office of the Federal Register, a part of the National Archives, working with the Government Publishing Office. You can browse and search every issue directly on federalregister.gov. University law libraries maintain their own research guides to the executive branch’s rulemaking process, and this guide follows the same citation conventions they teach.
Federal Register vs. Code of Federal Regulations
Students often confuse the Federal Register with the Code of Federal Regulations, usually abbreviated C.F.R. or CFR. The Federal Register is where a regulation is first published, whether it is still a proposed rule or has just been finalized. The Code of Federal Regulations is where a rule lives permanently once it has been finalized and codified by subject area.
- Cite the Federal Register when the regulation is still proposed, or when you need to reference the exact day it was announced.
- Cite the C.F.R. once the regulation has been finalized and codified, using our guide to citing a law.
See the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) overview for how that codification process works. If it is still new, proposed, or you specifically need to reference the day it was announced, cite the Federal Register using the formats below.
A Worked Example Used Throughout This Guide
To make the three styles easy to compare, every example below cites the same illustrative regulation. Swap in your own department, title, volume, and page numbers when you cite a real entry:
Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Title: “Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, Automatic Emergency Braking Systems”
Volume and page: 89 Fed. Reg. 24123
Date: April 17, 2026
Where to Find the Volume, Page, and Date
Every entry on the Federal Register’s official website displays the citation elements you need right at the top of the page, before the full text of the rule begins. Look for the agency name, the volume number, the starting page, and the action line, all listed near the entry’s title.
The four elements are, specifically:
- Agency name: listed under the entry title, sometimes with a parent department above it (for example, an administration under a cabinet department).
- Volume number: the Federal Register restarts its volume count once a year, so the number tells you which annual volume the page falls in.
- Starting page: pages run continuously through the whole annual volume rather than resetting per issue, which is why page numbers can run into the tens of thousands by December.
- Action and date: the “action” line (Proposed Rule, Final Rule, Notice) tells you what status to note in your citation, and the publication date sits just below it.
If you only have a print copy or a PDF from govinfo.gov, the same four elements appear in the header of the scanned page, just above the entry text.
How to Cite the Federal Register in APA
APA treats the regulation’s title as the author when no individual person is named on the entry. The reference-list citation opens with that title, then the volume, the abbreviation, the starting page, the date, and finally the codification note if one applies. The full reference-list format looks like this:
Title of Regulation in Title Case. Vol. # Fed. Reg. Page # (status Month Day, Year) (to be codified at Vol. # C.F.R. pt. #).
Worked example (reference list):
Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, Automatic Emergency Braking Systems, 89 Fed. Reg. 24123 (Apr. 17, 2026) (to be codified at 49 C.F.R. pt. 571).
In-text citation: place the short title and year in parentheses, or drop the year from the parenthetical if you already named the regulation in your sentence.
(Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, Automatic Emergency Braking Systems, 2026)
Need the generator version? Try the APA citation generator.
How to Cite the Federal Register in MLA (Bluebook Style)
MLA does not have its own rule for federal regulations, so it defers to Bluebook citation style, the standard citation system used across U.S. legal writing. The Works Cited entry opens with “United States,” then the issuing department, the regulation title, the volume, and the page and date. The full Works Cited format looks like this:
United States, Department or Agency. “Title of Regulation in Title Case.” Vol. # Fed. Reg. Page # (Month Day, Year).
Worked example (Works Cited):
United States, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, Automatic Emergency Braking Systems.” 89 Fed. Reg. 24,123 (Apr. 17, 2026).
Correct: Bluebook style adds a comma inside page numbers of five digits or more. Write “24,123,” not “24123,” when you’re citing in MLA/Bluebook format.
Incorrect: Writing “24123” without the comma, or listing the department name after the title instead of before it.
In-text citation: use a short parenthetical with the same starting elements as the Works Cited entry.
(United States, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
You can build this automatically with the MLA citation generator.
How to Cite the Federal Register in Chicago Style
Chicago-style citations for the Federal Register are also adapted from Bluebook conventions, but they list the issuing department first, without “United States,” and they spell out and italicize the journal name instead of abbreviating it. A URL is expected whenever you accessed the entry online. The full bibliography format looks like this:
Department or Agency. “Title of the Regulation in Title Case.” Federal Register Vol. #, no. # (Month Day, Year): Page #. URL.
Worked example (bibliography):
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, Automatic Emergency Braking Systems.” Federal Register 89, no. 74 (April 17, 2026): 24123. https://www.federalregister.gov/.
Footnote format: the same elements, comma-separated instead of period-separated, with only one period at the very end.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, Automatic Emergency Braking Systems,” Federal Register 89, no. 74 (April 17, 2026): 24123.
Prefer an automated version? Use the Chicago citation generator.
Quick Reference Table
| Element | APA | MLA (Bluebook) | Chicago |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author | Regulation title (as author) | “United States” + agency | Agency name only |
| Title placement | First, italicized as a stand-in title | After agency, in quotes | After agency, in quotes |
| Journal name | Abbreviated: “Fed. Reg.” | Abbreviated: “Fed. Reg.” | Spelled out, italicized: “Federal Register” |
| Page number style | No comma (24123) | Comma at 5+ digits (24,123) | No comma (24123) |
| Codification note | Included: “(to be codified at …)” | Not required | Not required |
| In-text form | (Title, Year) | (United States, Agency) | Footnote, not parenthetical |
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Mistake: Citing the Federal Register with just a URL and access date, the way you would cite a general website. The Federal Register has a stable volume and page number, so use those instead of relying only on the link.
Mistake: Forgetting the “to be codified at …” note in APA when the entry lists a future C.F.R. location. Leaving it out drops information your reader needs to find the finalized rule.
Do this instead: Copy the volume, page, and date directly from the top of the entry on federalregister.gov, and match the punctuation rules for whichever style you’re writing in, not the punctuation you’d use for a website or journal article. If you also need to cite a related government web page rather than a regulation, see how to cite a government website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is “Federal Register” italicized?
In Chicago style, yes. The full name Federal Register is italicized. In APA and MLA/Bluebook, it is abbreviated to “Fed. Reg.” and left unitalicized.
What if the regulation is only proposed, not final?
Add the status before the date in parentheses, for example “(proposed Apr. 17, 2026)” instead of just the date. Check the “action” line at the top of the Federal Register entry to see whether a rule is proposed, interim, or final.
Do I need to include the URL?
Chicago style expects a URL in the bibliography entry when you accessed the regulation online. APA and MLA/Bluebook citations typically omit it, since the volume and page number are already enough to locate the entry.
What if there is no individual author?
That is normal. Federal regulations are issued by a department or office, not a person. Use the issuing office as the author in MLA and Chicago, or lead with the regulation’s title in APA.
Once you’ve got the format down, the same department-as-author logic applies to related administrative and legal sources. See our guides on citing a case study, citing a speech, and citing a government report for more institution-authored source types. For the general rules behind any parenthetical or footnote citation, see our guide to citing sources in an essay, or head back to the full citation guide hub for every format we cover.
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Terry is a Chicago-based writer and editor who creates practical, student-friendly guides on essay writing, research, and citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago). He’s spent 15+ years editing educational content and building clear examples that help readers apply rules without guessing. When he’s not revising drafts, he’s usually turning messy notes into clean outlines and hunting down the one detail everyone skips.