To cite the Federal Register, pull five pieces of information from the document — volume, starting page, title, publication date, and issuing agency — and then arrange them the way your style guide requires. Bluebook, APA, MLA, and Chicago each use those same facts but abbreviate the source differently and order the elements differently. The sections below give a working format and a real example for each.
What You Need Before You Cite
Every citation style draws from the same core elements, printed at the top of each Federal Register entry:
- Volume number, at the top of every issue. Each calendar year gets a new volume.
- Starting page of the entry within that volume, plus a pinpoint page if you are quoting or referencing a specific passage in a long document.
- Document title, exactly as it appears in the Federal Register.
- Publication date (month, day, year).
- Issuing agency, printed just below the title.
- Document number, a unique identifier used for permanent digital links.
Federal Register or CFR?
Cite the Federal Register for proposed rules, notices, executive orders, the preamble or supplementary information accompanying a rule, and final rules that have not yet been codified. Once a final rule is incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations, the CFR citation becomes the standard reference for the regulation’s text.1Govinfo. Federal Register Help If you are citing a final rule that will be codified but has not yet appeared in the CFR, add a parenthetical noting the future location, such as “(to be codified at 40 C.F.R. pt. 86).”
Bluebook Format (Rule 14)
The Bluebook governs legal citation, and Federal Register entries fall under Rule 14 on administrative and executive materials.2The Bluebook Online. 14 Administrative and Executive Materials The elements run in this order:
- Title of the rule, notice, or order.
- Volume number, followed by the abbreviation “Fed. Reg.” Always abbreviate; never spell it out.
- Starting page. Use commas in page numbers of five or more digits (50,379).
- Parenthetical with the full publication date. For proposed rules, add “proposed” before the date.
- Second parenthetical with the future CFR location, if applicable.
A proposed rule:
Control of Air Pollution from New Motor Vehicles and New Motor Vehicle Engines, 56 Fed. Reg. 9754 (proposed Mar. 7, 1991) (to be codified at 40 C.F.R. pt. 86).
A final rule:
Importation of Fruits and Vegetables, 60 Fed. Reg. 50,379 (Sept. 29, 1995) (to be codified at 7 C.F.R. pt. 300).
Pinpoint Citations
To direct the reader to a specific page inside a long entry, add the pinpoint after the starting page, separated by a comma:
Importation of Fruits and Vegetables, 60 Fed. Reg. 50,379, 50,381 (Sept. 29, 1995) (to be codified at 7 C.F.R. pt. 300).
Pinpoints matter most when you are citing something inside the preamble or supplementary information of a rulemaking, since those discussions can run for dozens of pages.
ALWD Guide
The ALWD Guide to Legal Citation, used at some law schools in place of the Bluebook, follows an essentially identical format for the Federal Register. Same abbreviation (“Fed. Reg.”), same title-first order, same parenthetical structure. The Bluebook examples above will satisfy an ALWD requirement.
APA 7th Edition Format
APA style, common in the social sciences, uses the same underlying facts but changes the abbreviation and the presentation. The differences from Bluebook:
- The abbreviation is “F.R.,” not “Fed. Reg.”
- The title leads the citation and is not italicized.
- The date sits in a parenthetical after the page number.
- A retrieval URL appears at the end.
A proposed rule in APA form:
Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees, 81 F.R. 32391 (proposed May 23, 2016) (to be codified at 29 C.F.R. § 541). https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2016-11754
For regulations already codified, APA directs you to cite the CFR instead. Use the Federal Register citation only for proposed rules or rules not yet incorporated into the CFR.
MLA Format
MLA treats the Federal Register as a government document and slots it into the standard Works Cited container model:
- Author: “United States,” a comma, and the specific agency name.
- Title of the regulation in quotation marks.
- Container: Federal Register, italicized and spelled out in full.
- Volume number and starting page.
- Publication date in day-month-year order.
A Works Cited entry:
United States, Environmental Protection Agency. “Control of Air Pollution from New Motor Vehicles and New Motor Vehicle Engines.” Federal Register, vol. 56, 7 Mar. 1991, p. 9754.
MLA does not have specialized rules for legal materials, so exact formatting can shift with instructor preference. Check the current MLA Handbook if the assignment is graded to it.
Chicago Manual of Style Format
Chicago handles Federal Register documents through its general pattern for government publications in the notes-and-bibliography system. The elements:
- Author: the government entity, such as “U.S. President” or the agency name.
- Document type, such as “Proclamation” or “Final Rule.”
- Title in quotation marks.
- Publication details: Federal Register, italicized and spelled out, then the volume, issue number, date in parentheses, and page number.
- URL, if the document was accessed online.
A footnote example:
U.S. President, Proclamation, “National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month, 2013, Proclamation 9050 of October 31, 2013,” Federal Register 78, no. 214 (November 5, 2013): 66611.
The bibliography entry uses the same elements with periods replacing commas between major sections. Chicago is the one style here that spells out “Federal Register” in full and includes the issue number.
Linking to the Document Online
Most researchers pull Federal Register documents from FederalRegister.gov or GovInfo.gov. Each site supports predictable URLs.
FederalRegister.gov offers two link patterns. One uses the document number:3Federal Register. Linking to FederalRegister.Gov
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2010-23166
The other uses the volume-and-page citation:
https://www.federalregister.gov/citation/75-FR-56796
Both resolve to the same document. Every document page also links to the official PDF on GovInfo.gov.
GovInfo.gov, run by the Government Publishing Office, hosts the authoritative PDFs. Its URLs are built from the publication date and document number:1Govinfo. Federal Register Help
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2009-09-09/pdf/E9-20836.pdf
You can also search GovInfo by volume and page to find a specific entry.4Govinfo. Federal Register For a legal citation, the GovInfo PDF is generally the preferred link because it is the authoritative digital copy of the printed Federal Register.
Style guides handle the URL differently. In Bluebook, a URL typically appears in a parenthetical starting with “available at” when the source came from a commercial database, but no introductory language is needed for a direct link to an official government site. APA and Chicago put the URL at the end of the entry with no introductory phrase. MLA places it in the optional “Location” element of the Works Cited entry.