Published October 17, 2020. Updated August 15, 2021.

When you research, it is becoming more and more common to come across PDFs. Many companies and organisations will publish their reports and working papers as PDFs. This guide will show you how to reference PDFs in the Harvard referencing style. Because Harvard style can vary, this guide uses the rules outlined in the 11th edition of Cite them right by Richard Pears and Graham Shields, however this guide is not affiliated with the text in any way. Also, if you’re citing sources, the Chegg Writing Harvard referencing generator is a helpful resource.

To cite a PDF, Harvard style recommends including the following elements:

• Author/organisation

• Publication year

• Title

• DOI/URL

• Access date

If available, the series title and/or paper number should also be included.  Often, PDFs, especially reports, will be part of a larger series of reports that an organization creates. If the PDF you want to reference has a paper number or series title, make sure to include this information after the title in your full reference. The title of the actual report/paper will be italicized and the series title will be in roman.

The in-text reference will follow the typical Harvard style. You’ll include the author’s surname (or organization name) and the publication year in round brackets.

Make sure to include the URL at which you found the PDF and the date on which you accessed the PDF.

Because PDFs are often formatted differently from traditional print or online sources, you may have to hunt for the information you need in the document. Make sure to check the beginning and final pages of the document if there is information you can’t find at first glance.

Help protect your paper against accidental plagiarism with the Chegg Writing plagiarism checker and citation generator.

PDF by an individual or many individuals

List author's surname followed by a comma, followed by the year published. Two authors would be formatted as: (1st Surname and 2nd Surname, Year published).

For a source with 3+ authors, list only the first author's surname followed by "et al." (which indicates mulitple authors) followed by a comma, followed by the year published.

In-text reference template and example:

(Surname, Year published)

(Green et al., 2014)

Full reference template and example:

PDF by an organization

In-text reference example with an organization as the author:

(Organization Name, Year published)

(National League of Cities, 2020)

(Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc., 2020)

Full reference example with an organization as the author:

You’ll notice that for the annual reports, the dates are listed as 2020 even though the report is for 2019. One of the PDFs had an upload date of March 2020 included in the URL. The other PDF had an appended signed approval of the final report dating to February 2020. Though it might take some sleuthing, you can typically find the basic information needed to reference PDFs.

Don’t worry if you cannot find all the information you need, just include what you can. You can use ‘no date’ if there is truly no date. If you cannot find the author or corporate body/organization responsible for the PDF, begin your reference with the title of the PDF.

For more style basics, read this Harvard referencing in-text citations guide and this article on formatting Harvard referencing style papers.

Works Referenced

Pears, R. and Shields G. (2019) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 11th rev. edn. London: Red Globe Press.