An electronic source may appear as an abstract, an excerpt, or a full-text article or book. It is important to distinguish among these versions and to use a complete source, preferably one with page numbers, for your research.
Abstracts or excerpts can give you clues about the usefulness of an article for your paper, but by themselves they do not contain enough information to cite. To understand an author’s argument and use it in your own paper, you must find the complete article and read it.
A full-text work may appear online as a PDF file (portable document format), as an HTML file (formatted for display on the Web), or as a text file (a simple format that you can read within a word processor).
Abstracts
Abstracts are shortened versions of complete works. An abstract—a summary of a work’s contents—might appear in a database record for a periodical article or in a catalog listing for a book.
Abstract (example from database search)
Excerpts
An excerpt is the first few sentences or paragraphs (the lead) of a newspaper or magazine article and usually appears in a list of hits in an online search.
Excerpt (example from database search)
PDF or full-text file
A PDF file is usually an exact copy of the pages of a periodical article as they appeared in print, including the page numbers and visuals. Some corporate and government reports are presented online as PDF files, and these too are usually paginated. PDF files are read by Acrobat Reader, a small program you can install for free on your computer. PDF files are useful because they can be printed or annotated.
A full-text document that appears as an HTML or a text file may or may not be paginated. If your source is available in both formats, choose the PDF file for your research because you will be able to cite specific page numbers.
PDF Portable document format, a type of electronic file that is relatively stable across platforms and Web browsers.
HTML Hypertext markup language, a method of controlling the appearance of text and graphics on the Web.
full-text file An electronic file that contains a complete article.
abstract A brief summary of an article or another work.
PDF Portable document format, a type of electronic file that is relatively stable across platforms and Web browsers.