APA PDF Citation

Among the favorite sources of information nowadays is the internet. You can find here diverse web resources and even electronic version of print publications such as books, journals, and other documents in Portable Document Format (PDF) that are highly accessible and convenient to use. It is especially useful when doing research and academic papers.

Citing PDF files is the same as how you cite a print publication, but with the inclusion of the URL or DOI. You will see what I mean when we discuss the APA PDF citation format in detail, but for now, here is a guide in listing the authors.

Table of Content

• 1 Citing the Author
  • 1.1 One Author
  • 1.2 Multiple Authors
    • 1.2.1 Two to Seven Authors
    • 1.2.2 More than Seven Authors
    • 1.2.3 Corporate Author
    • 1.2.4 No Author
    • 3.1 Book
    • 3.2 Periodical
    • 3.3 Web Document, Web Page or Report

    Citing the Author

    One Author

    Multiple Authors

    Note: In listing the authors, follow the same order as it is written in the source.

    Two to Seven Authors

    In-text citation	Reference list
    Last Name A & Last name BCarlson & Lee*Use ampersand (&) instead of “and.”

    More than Seven Authors

    In-text citation	Reference list
    Last name A et al.Davis et al.*Include only the first author’s last name followed by et al.	Last name, A. A., Last name, B. B., Last name, C. C., Last name, D. D., Last name, E. E., Last name, F. F.,… Last name, G. G.Davis, L. D., Smith, J., Anderson, H. M., Lewis, A. J., Wright, K., Adams, C. N.,… Rogers, M.*Only seven authors can be included in the reference list. After the name of the sixth author, write three ellipsis points followed by the last author’s name.

    Corporate Author

    In-text citation	Reference list
    Name of the organization or groupAmerican Psychological Association	(same as in-text)

    No Author

    In-text citation	Reference list
    Title of the article or work“Lifestyle Disease and Mortality”*For works with short titles, write the full title in the in-text citation, whereas for long titles, include only the first few words enclosed in double quotation marks.	Title of the article or workLifestyle Disease and Mortality

    This part will show you the guidelines, elements and examples for both in-text citation and reference list. For the reference list, not all the elements listed may be present in a specific reference. You only need to include the available information from the source.

    In-Text Citation

    • In-text citation is usually written in a parenthesis with the last name of the author and year separated by a comma.
    • If the last name of the author is included in the text, write only the year inside the parenthesis.
    • Include the name of the author, year, and page number if a part of a work is directly quoted.

    (Hill & Scott, 2003, p. 24)

    According to Hill & Scott (2003, p. 24)

    • For works with no date, use n.d.

    Citation by PDF Source

    • Italicize the title of books, newspapers, magazines and journals.
    • The date is written in this order: year, month day.
    • Include the URL or DOI. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string used by scholarly publishers to provide persistent link to content in the internet.

    Book

    Basic Format

    Author. (Year). Title of Book (edition if not first) [PDF file]. Place of Publication: Publisher. Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/ or doi:0000000/000000000000 or http://dx.doi.org/10.0000/0000

    American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6 th ed.) [PDF file]. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/jaro2013/ZUR537/um/APA.pdf

    Periodical

    Basic Format

    Author. (Date). Title of article [PDF file]. Title of Online Periodical, Volume number (issue number if available), pages. Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/ or doi:0000000/000000000000 or http://dx.doi.org/10.0000/0000

    Davy, B.M., Davy, K. P., Ho, R. C., Beske, S. D., Davrath, L. R., & Melby, C. L. (2002, August). High-fiber oat cereal compared with wheat cereal consumption favorably alters LDL-cholesterol subclass and particle numbers in middle-aged and older men [PDF file]. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 76(2), 351-358. Retrieved from http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/2/351.full.pdf+html

    The issue number written in a parenthesis after the volume number should not be italicized.

    Web Document, Web Page or Report

    Basic Format

    Author. (Date). Title of the document [PDF file]. Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/ or doi:0000000/000000000000 or http://dx.doi.org/10.0000/0000

    Food and Agriculture Organization. (2007). Promises and challenges of the informal food sector in developing countries [PDF file]. Retrieved from ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a1124e/a1124e00.pdf