Most policy documents are found online as PDF documents.

In general, any PDF which you find online is probably available on paper and can be referenced as a paper source.

Policy documents (whether from the Scottish Government, UK government departments or other organizations) can be referenced as paper BOOKS. To view an example, access our books page and scroll down to the example for where an organisation is the author. If you are able to find the information you need to do this then there is no need to give an electronic reference.

In most cases the organisation which is the author of the policy document is also the publisher. If a place of publication is not obvious on the document then look on the website of the organisation for their headquarters and use that as the place of publication.

In the unlikely event that it proves impossible to find the information you need to give a full paper book reference, then reference the policy document in the same way as you would reference a web page.