Citations to Primary Documents

I cite public records, including policy documents and public comments, using government-issued identification numbers. Citations to documents published in the Federal Register include an agency acronym, the year the document was published, and a document number (usually five digits, e.g., “CFPB-2020-14935”). If citing a specific paragraph, the citation will appear as “CFPB-2020-14935/p-134.” Federal Register documents can be accessed by adding “federalregister.gov/d/” before the id number, for example, “federalregister.gov/d/2020-14935/p-134.” Citations to documents posted to regulations.gov begin with a rulemaking docket number, including an agency acronym and the year the rulemaking process officially began, followed by a unique document number (e.g., “IRS-2016-0015-0125”). Regulations.gov documents can be accessed by adding “regulations.gov/document/” before the document id number, for example, “regulations.gov/document/IRS-2016-0015-0125”).