How to Cite the WHO in APA

Citing a Web Page or Report from the WHO

Use "World Health Organization" as the author. With any citation, you begin with the author's name. In this case, the report was authored by the organization, so you'll use "World Health Organization" at the beginning of the citation, followed by a period. The first part of your reference looks like this: World Health Organization.

Place the year next. The year is when the report was published or last updated. APA prioritizes when the text was published because this type of citation is primarily used in scientific fields. The date is usually at the top of the page, but you might also find it at the bottom. You'll place the year in parenthesis after the author. Follow the parenthesis with a period. If the publication has a month and day, add it too, placing it after the year. Use "n.d." if you can't find a year. It will look like this: World Health Organization. (2020). If it has a month and day, it will look like this: World Health Organization. (2020, September 22).

Add the title of the report next. After the date, you'll put the title of the report. You'll find the title of the report at the top of the web page or web document. In the citation, place the title of the report in italics. Follow it with a period. When capitalizing the title of the report, use sentence capitalization, meaning you only capitalize the first word and proper nouns. Your citation now looks like this: World Health Organization. (2020, September 22). "Tobacco responsible for 20% of deaths from coronary heart disease."

Place the website at the end. Finally, you'll add the website you retrieved it from at the end. Before the website, you'll write "Retrieved from." Use the website for the exact location you found the report, not the general website. Your citation will look like this: World Health Organization. (2020, September 22). "Tobacco responsible for 20% of deaths from coronary heart disease." Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/22-09-2020-tobacco-responsible-for-20-of-deaths-from-coronary-heart-disease

Add a location and "Author" to a print publication. If your report is in print, just leave the website off. However, at the end, you will need to add the location of publication, using the city and state. Then, you'll put a colon and the word "Author" to indicate that the organization is the author. The citation will look like this one: World Health Organization. (2011, January 5). A report about health. Health City, Texas: Author. If the location is outside the United States, format it as city, country.

Making an In-Text Citation

Begin with the author. You also need to create a citation to use in the text. In this case, you just need the author and the date, but you'll start with the author. You can either use the name in the sentence and open a parenthesis for the date or place both of them in parenthesis, separated by a semicolon to indicate they are 2 separate items. If you're incorporating the organization name into the sentence, it will look like this so far: According to the World Health Organization (WHO; The abbreviation in brackets tells the reader you'll use the abbreviation WHO throughout the rest of the article. If you want to cite your source at the end of the sentence, it will look like this so far: According to a recent report, health objectives are falling (World Health Organization [WHO],

Abbreviate WHO when you mention it again. Once you've told the reader you'll use the abbreviation WHO by adding it after the name, you must use it in later citations. APA rules require that you continue to use an abbreviation after you introduce it. Put in place of the full name. You'll just use "WHO": According to the WHO ( According to the report, the main cause is a rise in infectious disease (WHO,

Add the date after the author's name. The date is also used in an in-text citation to help the reader determine which report you're referring to. Place it after the organization's name in parenthesis. You can use "n.d." if there isn't a date. Your first citation within a sentence will look like this: According to the World Health Organization (WHO; 2011), Your first citation at the end of a sentence will look like this: According to a recent report, health objectives are falling (World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). In subsequent entries, it will look like this for a citation within a sentence: According to the WHO (2011), Subsequent citations that come at the end of a sentence will look like this: According to the report, the main cause is a rise in infectious disease (WHO, 2011).

Place a page number or paragraph number at the end. When using a quotation, you'll need to add a page or paragraph number after the quotation. APA also encourages you to use a page or paragraph number when you paraphrase, but it's not required. Use a page number if you can find one and a paragraph number if you can't. Place the page number in parenthesis after the last quotation mark but before the period. For instance, you'd add the page number like this: According to WHO (2011), "infectious disease is a widespread problem" (p. 63). If your whole citation comes after the quote, you can use this method: The report stated the following: "Infectious disease is a widespread problem" (WHO, 2011, p. 63). To cite a paragraph, write it this way: According to WHO (2011), "infectious disease is a widespread problem" (para. 30).