How to cite an online PDF of an in-print publication in APA format Try it for tricky APA citations like anthologies, encyclopedias, and keynote speeches. Here’s a tip: Grammarly’s Citation Generator ensures your essays have flawless citations and no plagiarism. Instead, cite the PDF document as you would a personal communication. If the PDF is not public or even published, such as lecture notes or course documents, it won’t have a URL. If you need extra time to track down the original, you may want to ask your professor for an extension. If you can’t find a URL, try citing the source as its original version, such as a physical book or journal article. Keep in mind that specific source types may require additional information, such as volume or issue numbers for scientific journals.Īs mentioned earlier, citing a PDF in APA format requires a URL. These formulas work for PDFs as both primary and secondary sources.

(Last name of author, Year of publication) In APA format, PDF in-text citations should follow this formula: If you’re familiar with how to write a research paper, you know that you’ll also need in-text citations. In-text, however, use the standard title case. In APA reference citations, titles use the sentence case except for periodicals ( newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, etc.), so capitalize only the first word of a title, the first word after a colon, or proper nouns.

Last name of author, First name initials. Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly In general, to cite a PDF in APA format, use the same formula as you would to cite a website in APA format :

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