How to cite using APA in the Health Sciences

Grey literature refers to sources that are authored by government, academia, business, and industries-- in both electronic and print formats-- but not controlled by commercial publishing and often excluded from scholarly communication databases. Examples can include reports, brochures, fact sheets, etc.

For examples of other forms of grey literature, visit the APA reference webpage.

Elements for an Online Report (by a Government Agency)

Author Agency. (Year). Report title (Report No.). Parent Agency. URL 

Example

Health Infobase. (2024). Public awareness of alcohol-related harms survey 2023. Public Health Agency of Canada. https://health-

infobase.canada.ca/alcohol-related-harms-survey/

National Cancer Institute. (2019). Taking time: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 18-2059). U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/takingtime.pdf

Elements for an Online Report (by Individual Authors)

Author(s). (Year). Report title (Report No.). Publisher of Report. URL

Example

Dragicevic, N., & Thirgood, J. (2023) A path forward: Advancing disability inclusion in Canada. Canadian Standards

Association. https://www-csagroup-org.uml.idm.oclc.org/article/public-policy/a-path-forward-advancing-disability-inclusion-in-

canada/

• Author: For government agencies, the specific agency responsible for the report appears as the author. The names of parent agencies not present in the group author name appear as the publisher in the source element.
• Date: Use the year that the report was published.
• Title: Supply the title in sentence case. Include the subtitle if there is one. 
• If there is a report number, include in it in parentheses after the title.
• Source: For reports by a government agency, provide the name of the parent agency in title case. For reports by individual authors, supply the group or organization which published the report also in title case.
• Provide the URL of the report. Do not supply a period after the URL.

What is the difference between sentence and title case? Find out in Formatting Tips.

Don't leave it blank! Find out how to properly indicate that information is missing from one of your reference elements by reading more about missing information.

Information on this page was adapted from "Chapter 10: Reference List", in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), as well as the APA webpage, "Reference Lists".