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Generate a citation for a FRED series

Source: R/cite.R
fred_cite_series.Rd

Produces a citation string for a single FRED series in BibTeX, plain text, or bibentry form. Works offline by default: the citation falls back to the series ID as the title. Pass fetch_metadata = TRUE to call fred_info() and use the official series title (requires an API key).

Usage

fred_cite_series(
  series_id,
  vintage_date = NULL,
  format = c("bibtex", "text", "bibentry"),
  fetch_metadata = FALSE
)

Arguments

series_id

Character. A single FRED series ID.

vintage_date

Optional character or Date. Vintage date the data was accessed as of. Defaults to today's date (the "accessed" date).

format

Character. One of "bibtex" (default), "text", or "bibentry" (an R utils::bibentry object).

fetch_metadata

Logical. If TRUE, call fred_info() to fetch the official series title. Requires an API key. Default FALSE.

Value

A character string ("bibtex", "text") or a bibentry object.

Details

Cite a specific vintage by passing vintage_date. This is essential for reproducible research: a 2023 GDP figure published in October 2023 may differ materially from the same observation as it appears today.

See also

Other reproducibility: fred_manifest(), fred_vintage_revisions()

Examples

# BibTeX without an API call
fred_cite_series("GDPC1")
#> [1] "@misc{FRED_GDPC1_2026,\n  title        = {GDPC1 [GDPC1]},\n  author       = {{Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis}},\n  publisher    = {Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis},\n  year         = {2026},\n  url          = {https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1},\n  urldate      = {2026-05-04},\n  note         = {FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis}\n}"

# Plain-text citation pinned to a vintage date
fred_cite_series("UNRATE", vintage_date = "2024-06-01", format = "text")
#> [1] "Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. (2024). UNRATE [UNRATE]. FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE. Accessed 01 June 2024."

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
  # Use the official title (requires an API key)
  fred_cite_series("GDPC1", fetch_metadata = TRUE)
} # }