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Cite using Vancouver

General

Legal and public documents can be laws, Swedish government official reports and government bills but also parliamentary bills, minutes or decisions from various departments.

The following are instructions for how to cite Swedish legal and public documents. For instructions on how to cite legal and public documents from other countries, we suggest finding a citation guide from the country in question since these documents differs a lot between countries. You can also choose to follow the instructions below as far as possible. The most important thing is to be consistent in how you format the references.

These are some Swedish abbreviations used when citing legal and public documents:

Skr. = Official communications
Bet. = Report
Dir. = Committee terms of reference
Ds = Ministry publication series
Prop. = Government bills
SFS = Swedish code of statutes
SOU = Swedish government official reports

Laws, bills and reports

Template

In printed format:

Title (SFS/Prop./SOU Year:number). Place of publication: Publisher/Ministry.

In electronic format:

Title (SFS/Prop./SOU Year:reference number) [Internet]. Place of publication: Publisher/Ministry [cited year month day]. Available: URL

 

Examples
1. En ny lag om elcertifikat (Prop. 2010/11:155). Stockholm: Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation.

2. Work Environment Act (Arbetsmiljölagen) (SFS 1977:1160). Stockholm: Ministry of Employment.

3. Självständiga lärosäten: Betänkande av autonomiutredningen (SOU 2008:104) [Internet]. Stockholm: Ministry of Education and Research [cited 2020 mars 15]. Available: https://www.regeringen.se/rattsliga-dokument/statens-offentliga-utredningar/2008/12/sou-2008104/

 

Comments

  • When citing a law you should write the name of the law in your text, for example: "According to the Work Environment Act (1)...". If you want to refer to a specific section of a law you can add the number of the chapter and paragraph in the text: "According to chapter 4 § 1 in the Work Environment Act (2)...".

  • The date of retrieval should be stated for all electronic sources, in addition to the year of publication. This is written as shown above, in square brackets with the word "cited". The reason for this is that electronic sources may theoretically get edited and the information in them can then change. For this reason it is important to indicate at what time you studied an electronic source.

Other documents from the government or the Riksdag

Template

In printed format:

Ministry. Title. Place of publication: Publisher; Year. 

In electronic format:

Ministry. Title [Internet]. Place of publication: Publisher; Year [cited year month day]. Available: URL

 

Examples
1. Ministry of Justice. Uppdrag till Polismyndigheten att förstärka bekämpningen av illegal handel med narkotika. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet; 2019.
 

2. Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation. Verksamhetsberättelse för bolag med statligt ägande 2020 [Internet]. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet; 2021 [cited 2021 November 15]. Available: https://www.regeringen.se/4a0189/contentassets/a34b2a25b7a646d4850b5f6f2ec9e818/verksamhetsberattelse-for-bolag-med-statligt-agande-2020-komplett.pdf

 

Comments
  • The date of retrieval should be stated for all electronic sources, in addition to the year of publication. This is written as shown above, in square brackets with the word "cited". The reason for this is that electronic sources may theoretically get edited and the information in them can then change. For this reason it is important to indicate at what time you studied an electronic source