AskUs@CSS: APA, 6th edition

You’re trying to cite the Federal Register. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6^th edition, gives an example on p. 223. The problem is that they don’t explain what the elements of their example are …

Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, 73 Fed. Reg. 82,082

     (proposed Jan. 11, 2008) (to be codified at 45 C.F.R. pt. 1355).

I went and found the Federal Register for this example and still couldn’t make sense of the “82,082” in the citation, however, I did find a blog post on the APA website that shows how to cite the Federal Register - http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/07/the-rules-for-federal-regulations-ii-the-federal-register.html

It appears these numbers refer to the beginning of the discussion of the regulation. So I think your citation would be something like this – 

Title of rule | Volume number of FR | Fed. Reg. | page number rule begins on | date of publication | where the rule will be codified

Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules

            Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and the

            Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; Other Modifications to the HIPAA Rules;

            Final Rule, 78, Fed. Reg. 5566 (Jan. 25, 2013) (to be codified at 45 C.F.R. pts. 160 &

            164).

Your in-text citation would be then … (Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules, 2013).

Citing is sometimes an art & not a science. This is my best interpretation on a gloomy Monday morning. As always, I defer to your professor if they wish to show you how to cite it … :)

ps. I would assume most people access the Federal Reigister online, but neither example metions that, so I think it best to let that sleeping dog sleep.