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APA Formatting and Style (7th ed.) for Student Papers

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How to Cite a PDF in APA Style | Format & Examples

Published on December 17, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on December 27, 2023.

APA Style doesn’t provide a specific citation format for PDFs. Instead, you’ll have to determine what kind of source the PDF is (e.g., a book, a journal article) and cite it in the appropriate format.

If you’re not sure what type of source you’re dealing with, look for clues in the PDF. For example, you might find the name of the larger publication the PDF comes from, which you can then look up to see what kind of source it is. If you received the PDF from an instructor, you can always ask them to clarify how to cite it.

This article explains the formats for several source types you might encounter in PDF form below.

Table of contents

Citing a book in pdf form, citing a journal article, citing a dissertation or thesis, citing a report, citing a white paper, citing a brochure, citing a newspaper or magazine article.

Books, or extracts from books, may be encountered online in PDF form. A book will generally include a copyright page with the details of publication. To cite an online book like this, list the usual information for a book, followed by a URL or DOI at the end.

APA format Last name, Initials. (Year). . Publisher. DOI or URL
Sedgwick, E. K. (2003). . Duke University Press. http://www.bu.edu/honoringeve/files/2009/09/paranoid-reading-and-reparative-reading.pdf
(Sedgwick, 2003)

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Journal articles will usually indicate the volume, issue, and name of the journal they’re published in.

Journal articles published as PDFs often use an e-locator (the letter “e” followed by a series of numbers, e.g. e1034762) instead of a page range to identify their location within the journal. If the article cited lacks a page range, use the e-locator instead.

APA format Last name, Initials. (Year). Article title. , (Issue), Page range. or e-locator. DOI or URL
McCabe, D. P., & Castel, A. D. (2008). Seeing is believing: The effect of brain images on judgements of scientific reasoning. , (1), 343–352. http://castel.bol.ucla.edu/publications/McCabeCastelCogn.pdf
(McCabe & Castel, 2008)

A dissertation or thesis published online will often be in PDF form. These will generally feature a title page clearly marking them as a dissertation or thesis.

List the author, date, and title, followed by the type of document (e.g. “Master’s thesis”) and university in square brackets, the name of the website, and finally the URL.

APA format Author last name, Initials. (Year). [Type of dissertation/thesis, University Name]. Archive Name. URL
Behrens, B. (2020). [Master’s thesis, University of Notre Dame]. CurateND. https://curate.nd.edu/show/9k41zc80w8w
(Behrens, 2020)

Reports are frequently accessed online in PDF form. They will generally clearly identify the organization they’re published by and frequently list a report number. They may also have “report” in the title.

Include the title, author, date, publisher, report number (if available), and the URL.

APA format Author last name, Initials. (Year). (Report No. number). Publisher Name. URL
Bedford, D. A. D. (2017). (Report No. WA-RD 896.4). Washington State Department of Transportation. https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/reports/fullreports/896-4.pdf
(Bedford, 2017)

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A white paper is a type of report presenting the ideas, policy, or proposals of the organization that issued it (e.g., a government or business) concerning a particular topic.

The format for citing one is similar to that for a report, except that white papers generally don’t have report numbers, and the label “White paper” in square brackets appears after the title instead.

APA format Organization Name. (Year). [White paper]. Publisher Name. URL
Department of Health and Social Care. (2012). [White paper]. Crown. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/136422/White-Paper-Caring-for-our-future-reforming-care-and-support-PDF-1580K.pdf
(Department of Health and Social Care, 2012)

Brochures and pamphlets are small, informative promotional texts designed, for example, to introduce an exhibition or advertise a range of products or services.

Brochures encountered in PDF form are cited in a similar format to reports. Note that when the organization listed as author is the same as the publisher (as in the example below), you should only list it once.

APA format Organization Name. (Year). [Brochure]. or [Pamphlet]. Publisher. URL
Museum of Modern Art. (2004). [Brochure]. https://www.moma.org/d/pdfs/W1siZiIsIjIwMTYvMDcvMjkvM3h6ajlsbWNtaF9wcm9qZWN0czgxX2Jyb2NodXJlLnBkZiJdXQ/projects81_brochure.pdf?sha=f2f2e81f2cbf0514
(Museum of Modern Art, 2004)

When you encounter a newspaper or magazine article in PDF form, the page numbers will generally be available, so that you can just cite it in the format for a print article .

APA format Last name, Initials. (Year, Month Day). Article title. , pages.
Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. , A1, A4.
(Schwartz, 1993)

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Caulfield, J. (2023, December 27). How to Cite a PDF in APA Style | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved July 10, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/pdf/

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