Legal Materials in APA Format

When citing organizational policies in APA format, it's important to note that these are not laws or statutes, so they are treated differently. Organizational policies could come from healthcare institutions, businesses, or professional associations, and they usually aren't published in legal codes but are rather internal or publicly available documents. Here are some general guidelines for citing these types of policies:

General Guidelines for Citing Organizational Policies:

1. Author: In most cases, the author of an organizational policy is the organization itself (e.g., World Health Organization, Mayo Clinic, American Psychological Association).

2. Date: Use the publication date of the policy. If no specific date is provided, use "n.d." (no date).

3. Title of the Policy: The title of the policy is italicized, and you should use sentence case (capitalize only the first word of the title and any proper nouns).

4. Source: Provide a URL or publication information where the policy can be found. If the policy is internal and not publicly available, indicate that it is an internal document in your citation.

Format for Publicly Available Policies:

Organization Name. (Year). Title of the policy. URL

Format for Internal Policies (Unpublished):

Organization Name. (Year). Title of the policy. Unpublished internal document.

Example of a Publicly Available Policy:

World Health Organization. (2018). Policy on the prevention of healthcare-associated infections. https://www.who.int/policies/hai-prevention

Example of an Internal Policy:

Mayo Clinic. (2020). Telehealth service guidelines for clinical staff. Unpublished internal document.

In-Text Citations:

In-text citations for organizational policies follow the typical APA in-text citation format:

• (World Health Organization, 2018)
• (Mayo Clinic, 2020)

Additional Considerations:

• Unpublished Policies: If the policy is internal and not available to the general public, you may need to indicate this in your guide and treat it as a personal communication in some cases, which is not cited in the reference list. You would mention it in the text instead.
• APA's Guidelines: APA provides clear guidance on citing company documents, reports, and similar materials, which would be similar in treatment to organizational policies.

In the APA Manual, 7th Edition, organizational policies would most closely align with the guidelines provided for citing reports and gray literature, particularly in Section 10.4: Reports and Gray Literature. This section provides instructions for citing materials that are not formal publications, such as technical reports, policy briefs, company reports, and other documents from organizations.