PDFs are known documents that have been popular among writers. Thousands of PDF documents are uploaded every year and we can all use it as a resource to our paper. But how do we cite a PDF in our document? Does APA formatting apply in this? Find out here Source: https://deftpdf.com/blog

1. How to cite PDF files
and links

2. 2
Is it acceptable?
Citing a PDF in your document is no different than
citing a book or a published article. It is in fact an
acceptable piece nowadays, as PDFs are essentially
part of the digital world.

3. 3
Important note
It is important though that the proper format be
followed for citing a resource. According to APA
website citations, there are certain details that need
to be present when mentioning a reference and if
that detail does not exist or lacks thereof, the
formatting should be presented differently or
replaced with a relative detail.

4. Reference citation format:
Author, (Year of Date, Month and day). Title of the
article. Name of the source. URL address
4
Usually, citing online
publications using the APA
method requires the inclusion of
author, date, the title of the
reference, the website name,
and the URL address.
Standard

5. Not complete?
This is applicable though if this is a PDF document
uploaded online and has its own link. Again, if the
source is different and if the document doesn’t
have enough details, then the citation becomes
different as well.
5

6. 6
Important note
PDF documents are no different from citing
newspapers or websites and you can treat it as if it
were as such. If the source is a PDF version of a
magazine, then it should be cited as a magazine. If it
was uploaded online, cite it as if it was a website or
an online article. This means, using the link of the
PDF as the URL.

7. 7
If you are citing a website
When you are including a whole website as a
reference in your document, citation can be as
simple as adding its name and URL in your
paragraph. For instance, if you were to use
Facebook (http://facebook.com), then you could
simply include the URL inside a parenthesis as we
did in this sentence. This is applicable if there is no
requirement for you to quote or use a specific part of
the website.

8. If you are citing an online article
● May it be a newspaper or a blog, an article online
should still be cited properly. If the article is an online
version of print media, then it should be cited as if it
was on print plus its URL. The formatting should follow
as such:
○ In-text: (Author’s last name, year of publication)
● Reference: Author’s last name, Initials of first name
(Year, Month, Day published). Article title. Publication
name or blog name. URL.
8

9. If the data is
incomplete

10. “
For instances where details are incomplete, shortening the citation is not a
problem. For example, if there is no author present in the resource, replace the
title with the name of the organization. But if there is no detail to replace such
detail, the format should begin the citation with the title. It is also required to
shorten the title in the in-text citation if is long.
○ In-text: (Title, Year)
○ Reference: Title of the article. (Year, Month, Day of date). The
name of the website. URL
10
If you are citing a reference
without an author

11. “
In another example, if the source does not have an exact publication date, then it
is proper to use the retrieval date as a replacement. For blogs, the date of
posting will be used as the publication date and if the article updates and
changes date from time to time, it is necessary to add the date when it was read.
In worst cases where you cannot find any date at all, then the last resort is to put
“no date” in the citation. Here is the formatting for “n.d.”
○ In-text: (Last name or organization, n.d.)
○ Reference: Last name of the author, first name (n.d.). Page title.
Website name and Month day and year date when it was read, from
URL
11
If you are citing a reference
without a date

12. If the data is from
social media
12

13. If you are citing from
social media
● Another possible resource that is made available in this
generation is social media. Posts from social media may not
always be reliable though as it can be edited, or deleted
immediately. When citing social media posts, titles are replaced
with the first few words of the post and include the type of media
in the reference. Other types of reference such as Twitter or
Instagram, may need to include the username in the citation,
otherwise, you can completely remove this detail.
○ In-text: (Author, date)
○ Reference: Last name of the author, initials of the first
name. [@username] (Year, month day). First 20 words
[Description of post] [Type of media]. Website name. URL
13

14. Have other needs? Look
through our free tools in
our homepage or look
into our blog for more
details!
DeftPDF
online

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