There're literally thousands of conflicting APA styles on the internet, even different universities with different professors using different standards. It's a truly atrocious system that does nothing but waste the world's time. How can I simply find the most recent and official English citation format for a scholarly PDF?
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Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.– tchrist ♦Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 1:26
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Can you please give an example of a scholarly pdf file which does not mention its author's name or the title of the paper, etc.? I mean, if it's scholarly it should have a title, and the name of the author, right?– Mari-Lou ACommented Aug 7, 2018 at 16:04
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A PDF is like a binder that someone put pages in. You have to figure out what the pages inside the binder qualify as: e.g. if they're the pages of a published book, then you cite it as a book, but if they're a digital form of a printout from a website, you quote it as the website it came from. Please be more specific about what the contents of the PDF actually is. Do you have a link to the exact PDF you want to cite?– 3D1T0RCommented Aug 8, 2018 at 0:36
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2 Answers
The reason you don't have the answer you want is because you haven't yet asked the right question.
Answering your second question first (the easy one):
Assuming you mean the style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA), there is a link on the Wikipedia page to the APA style website. This is the only official online APA style guide, i.e. the one that comes directly from the American Psychological Association.
Their quick guide on references should give you most of the information you want, and you can search on the site for other specifics.
Now for the unasked question behind your first question:
Your question boils down to: "What is the citation format for a PDF?" This is the wrong question. It is the same as asking "What is the citation format for an envelope?" It's not the envelope that's important, it's the contents.
PDFs are not a specific document type as almost anything can be published as a PDF, so you should use the correct format for the type of source material that appears within the PDF.
However, that is of no help to you because you haven't identified the type of document inside the PDF. You need to clarify if you mean extracts from websites, unpublished material/documents, etc. Only then will anyone be able to give you a definitive answer.
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It's pretty rare that I downvote, there's no section called "PDF" on the APA website suggested. There's sections for books, and articles, etc, but no PDFs. You can pretend a PDF isn't a document all you want, I can't help you with that. There's plenty of PDFs online that do not state they are derived from any book nor a particular scientific journal nor any other source, they're simply just PDFs thrown online and nothing more. Unofficial sources suggest you can treat the PDF similar to a website, inserting a "[PDF file]" after the title and using the "retrieved from" followed by the link.– John JoeCommented Aug 6, 2018 at 19:22
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1It seems that it's pretty rare that the OP casts any vote, let alone a downvote. In fact, looking at his profile page, it shows that they have only ever cast one vote, which was a downvote on an answer. Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 15:51
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+1 for being the first to post the APA style website by nearly seven hours. The links on how to cite pages from social media, interviews, etc. are clearly shown. Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 16:01
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@Mari-LouA Actually two downvotes, one on each answer here. Commented Aug 8, 2018 at 23:30
How can I simply find the most recent and official English citation format for a scholarly PDF?
The most recent official form of the APA guidelines will be at their official website: www.apastyle.org.
The differing styles you're complaining about, however, may be “house styles” that your instructors prefer that you use instead of the actual updated and official APA guidelines. You're trying to make your instructor happy, so just ask them or their assistants what they expect to be used in your work.
Do I italicize or quote the title of a PDF for a citation?
PDFs are not a document type. *.pdf is just a kind of computer file. The document that has been encoded as a PDF file might be a book, movie script, journal article, letter, webpage, &c. &c. &c. Each of those cases have separate formatting. Generally speaking, the titles of major works or series are italicized and minor works or sections of major works are put in quotation marks, but it varies a bit and you should use the correct format for the exact kind of material in your PDF.
The current overview of APA reference styles is here, but you'll need to look up more details if your document doesn't fall into one of those categories.
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1Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.– tchrist ♦Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 1:26