First check your style guide and follow that if you can. If the country has changed its name, list its publications under their names as they appear in the source (including any spelling mistakes! But put a [sic] after those) then have a ‘see‘ or ‘see also’ cross-reference from all the alternative names to the other names. For example:

Department of … see South Africa, Department of …
Eswatini see also Swaziland
Eswatini (2020)
Kingdom of Eswatini see Eswatini
Kingdom of Swaziland see Swaziland
Republic of South Africa see South Africa
South Africa, Department of … (2024)
Swaziland (2010)
United States see U.S.

If you like, you can make the see also reference even more helpful by saying something like ‘Eswatini see also Swaziland for items published before 19 April 2018’.

If only South African departments are referenced, you could list them without the country name and have cross-references that say something like:

Republic of South Africa see Departments and Acts under their names
South Africa see Departments and Acts under their names.

Government items are very difficult to reference according to style guides because each country has different conventions for naming its departments so you often have to make up something as close to the style guide trends as possible and then apply it consistently.

Use the same names in the text as you use in the reference list. The whole idea is to make the reference list easy to use.

Suggested by Anne Denniston on Sep 27, 2024 at 08:55

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