How to Cite a Press Release

A press release is an organisation talking about itself, in public, on a dated record. That makes it a legitimate and often necessary source — for an announcement, a policy, an official position, an appointment — and a weak one for anything it claims about the world. The citation formats below all keep two things visible: who issued it, and that it is a release rather than a news article.

Two real releases are used as examples, both checked on 22 September 2026:

• The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, "Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023", dated 2 October 2023, at nobelprize.org.
• The American Psychological Association's release of 11 April 2024, which is the worked example in APA's own Common Reference Examples handout; the URL it gives still resolves.

What to Collect

• The issuing organisation, or the named individual if one is credited
• The full date of the release
• The exact headline, as the organisation wrote it
• The name of the website or wire service carrying it
• The URL, and an access date for the styles that ask for one

Quick Reference by Major Style

APA (7th Edition)

APA treats a press release as a report with a bracketed description. The template below is the one the University of Queensland Library publishes, and the shape matches APA's own handout.

APA's own published example, from its Common Reference Examples handout (7th ed., last updated 3 March 2026):

The same form applied to the other verified release:

In-text: (American Psychological Association, 2024) and (The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, 2023)

MLA (9th Edition)

The MLA Style Center's post "How do I cite a press release?" was published on 7 February 2020 and carries MLA's own banner: "This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition." It is still the only worked press-release example MLA publishes free of charge, so it is what is shown here — but it is eighth-edition guidance, and the ninth edition is the authority. Check the entry against the MLA Handbook, 9th ed., before you submit.

What that post says: follow the format template, and put "Press release" in the final slot (which the eighth edition calls the optional element) for clarity. If the publisher's name is the same as the website's name, omit the publisher and give the date and URL.

In-text: ("Press Release")

MLA's own published examples are a print release listed under its title with the issuing body as publisher ("Modern Language Association Announces New and Improved MLA Language Map." Modern Language Association of America, 18 Apr. 2006. Press release.) and an HTML release with the site as the container and the publisher omitted because it repeats the site name ("Governments Commit to Shared Climate Action through Least Developed Countries Fund." Global Environment Facility, 26 Sept. 2019, www.thegef.org/news/governments-commit-shared-climate-action-through-least-developed-countries-fund. Press release.). If you downloaded a PDF, MLA cites it in two containers — the publication information for the PDF first, then the site — and adds "PDF download" at the end so the reader knows the URL does not open an HTML version.

Chicago (18th Edition)

The Chicago Manual of Style is subscription-only and its free Citation Quick Guide has no press-release entry. Murdoch University Library's Chicago guide treats this kind of material as internet content: author, title, publishing organisation, date, URL. If your department is strict about Chicago, check the manual through your library rather than relying on a generator; the elements it will want are the organisation, the exact date, the headline and the URL.

Harvard (Cite Them Right)

Neither of the Cite Them Right-based guides followed on this site — the University of Sheffield's Harvard guide and the University of the West of England's Cite Them Right Harvard guidance — publishes a press-release entry under that name; Sheffield handles organisational announcements under its web page and information-sheet forms. The pattern those forms share is the one to use, with the organisation as author and the full date inside the reference:

In-text: (The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, 2023)

Because this is an adaptation rather than a published Cite Them Right example, check your department's guide before submitting; if it has a press-release entry, that one wins.

When the Release Describes Research

This is the case that matters most. A university press office writes a release about a paper; the release is easier to read than the paper, and it is the thing that ends up in a reference list. Two rules keep you safe:

1. Cite the paper for the finding. The release is not peer reviewed and is written to attract attention. Where they differ, the paper is right.
2. Cite the release only for what the organisation said. "The university announced the result on 2 October" is a claim about the release. "The treatment reduced mortality by 30%" is a claim about the study.

The Nobel release above is a good illustration: it names the prize and its date, which is what a release can establish, and it also lists the underlying papers with their journals, volumes and years — which is what you would cite for the science.

Missing Elements

No date. Look for a dateline at the top of the release or a date in the URL. If there is genuinely none, APA uses (n.d.) and Harvard uses (no date), and you should add an access date.

No title. Use a short description in square brackets in place of the title, and keep it factual.

No organisation. If you cannot tell who issued it, you probably should not cite it.

A release seen only as a quotation in a news article. Cite the news article, or find the release. See how to cite a secondary source.

Common Mistakes

• Citing a press release as though it were a peer-reviewed finding
• Leaving out the [Press release] label, so the reader cannot tell the source is self-reported
• Using the year only, when the organisation issues releases weekly
• Naming the press officer, or a newswire, as the author instead of the organisation
• Copying the headline from a news aggregator, which often rewrites it
• Linking to a news article about the release instead of the release

Sources for These Formats

• American Psychological Association, APA Style common reference examples guide (7th ed. handout, last updated 3 March 2026), Press Release section
• University of Queensland Library, "APA 7th referencing style: Press (media) release"
• MLA Style Center, "How do I cite a press release?" (published 7 February 2020; MLA flags it as eighth-edition content)
• Murdoch University Library, Chicago 18th guide, Internet Content
• University of Sheffield Library, "Harvard referencing" (based on Cite Them Right); University of the West of England, "Cite Them Right Harvard" — both checked for a press-release entry and found not to have one
• Nobel Prize press release page for the 2023 Physiology or Medicine prize, nobelprize.org

Full style rules: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard.