Harvard
The Harvard style is a generic term for any referencing system that uses author-date references (citations) in the text of the document where the author and year are placed in parentheses in the text, either within or at the end of a sentence. The full reference details are listed alphabetically at the end of the document.
Guide
There is no official manual for the Harvard style, and different variations are used in several disciplines. Søk og Skriv recommends the guidelines published in Bloomsbury’s Cite them right, 13th ed. The library guide at the University of Westminister has information and examples from this guide on their webpage which we include below. See also important rules for quoting.
New in the 13th ed.
- Removal of place of publication from citations to most source types (e.g. books, films, maps).
- Inclusion of paragraph numbers in in-text citations where helpful (optional).
- Use title case for titles of works in your text and sentence case for reference list entries. Previous advice was to use the title as given.
- For journals where each article is assigned an individual number (e.g. electronic articles), the guide now simplifies formatting by using just “article” instead of “article number.”
In-text reference
Pears and Shields (2025) suggest x
Entry in the list of references
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2025) Cite them right: the essential guide to referencing, 13th ed. Bloomsbury.
In-text references (aka citations)
Below are some examples of in-text references. Note that there are several different ways to present these.
Page/location numbers
When referring to a specific section, the in-text references (citations) should normally include page numbers or other location information (for single pages, use ’p.’, and for a page range, use ’pp.’). You should always provide location information when quoting from a source unless the source is very short.
Without quotes (paraphrasing)
Edwards (2020, p. 56) reports that x It has been argued that x (Pears, Smith and Shields, 2022)
With quotes (direct citations)
Smith (2023, p.87) states ’x x x.’ On the other hand, LaRochelle and King claim that ’x x x x’ (2011, pp. 918-919) According to one account, ’x x’ (Petridis, 2015, para. 3)
Multiple sources
Several studies have shown x in recent years (Smith, 2020; Jones and Roberts, 2021; Singh, 2024) (Put in date or alphabetical order, but be consistent)
No date / No author
Smith (no date) argues x The BBC annual report highlights x (BBC, 2023)
Four or more authors
Controversially, Mowlam et al (2012) suggest that x
Films
The nudity of the protagonist at the end of Saltburn (2023) symbolises x
List of references
The list of references should always:
- begin on a new page headed either ’references’ or ’list of references’ (not bibliography)
- include all sources that you have provided an in-text reference for (and no others)
- be arranged alphabetically by surname in one sequence (not arranged by format)
Below are some examples of entries in a list of references for common sources. For other sources, please consult Cite them right.
Book
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2025) Cite them right: the essential guide to referencing, 13th ed. Bloomsbury.
eBook
Reference ebooks as if using the print version if the page numbering is the same. Otherwise, use a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if available (no date accessed required) or a URL with the date accessed (as shown).
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2025) Cite them right: the essential guide to referencing, 13th ed. Bloomsbury. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-ebooks (Accessed: 12 August 2025).
Chapter in an edited work
Edwards, E. (2020) ‘The thingness of photographs’, in S. Bull (ed.) (2020) A companion to photography. Wiley‐Blackwell, pp. 97-112.
Book (reprint/translation)
Freud, S. (1915) The unconscious. Translated by Graham Frankland. Penguin, 2015.
Journal article
LaRochelle, J. M. and King, A. R. (2011) ‘Avoiding plagiarism’, Hospital Pharmacy, 46 (12), pp. 917-919. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1310/hpj4612-917.
DOI
You should use a DOI (digital object identifier) if available. Otherwise, use a URL with the date accessed (see eBook).
Magazine article
Yetikyel, G. (2024) ’What is vegan leather?’ Vogue, (6 April). Available at: https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/what-is-vegan-leather (Accessed: 8 April 2024).
Issue number
If an issue number is available, include this before the date (1123; 6 April)
Newspaper article
Petridis, A. (2015) ‘Rocking the casbah: the gig of a lifetime back on stage’, The Guardian, 16 March. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/ mar/16/no-lands-songs-sara-najafi-iranwomen-concert (Accessed: 16 March 2024).
Conference paper
Dörk, M., Carpendale, A. and Williamson, C. (2011) ‘The information flaneur: a fresh look at information seeking’, Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11), New York, 7-12 May. Association for Computing Machinery. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979124.
Blog post
Goldacre, B. (2015) ‘I did a Newsnight thing about how politics needs better data,’ Bad Science, 15 February. Available at: https://www.badscience.net/2015/02/i-did-a-newsnight-thing-about-how-politics-needs-better-data/ (Accessed: 12 March 2024).
Webpage
Race, P. (no date) How to do uni: ten points for prospective students. Available at: https://phil-race.co.uk/how-to-do-uni-ten-points-for-prospective-students (Accessed: 12 February 2024).
No date
Use ’no date’ only when it is not clear what the publication date of the webpage is.
YouTube video
TED (2013) How to escape education’s death valley. 10 May. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc (Accessed: 12 February 2024).
Report
MINTEL (2024) Menswear - UK - 2024, 29 April. Available at: https://www.mintel.com (Accessed: 20 May 2024).
Day/month
Day/month can be omitted if not available.
Film (from streaming service)
Saltburn (2023) Directed by E. Fennell. Available at: Amazon Prime Video (Accessed: 5 February 2024).
Frequently Asked Questions
No date
If there is no date, use ’no date’ instead of the date.
No author
You would typically use the organisation name (e.g. BBC) if there is no author. If there is no organisation, you could use the title and if there is no title, you could use the URL.
Quotations
Quotations of up to three lines should be in quotation marks. Cite them right suggests single quotation marks. For quotations longer than this, use a separate indented paragraph with single-line spacing instead of quotation marks.
Four or more authors
If a source has four or more authors, use the first author followed by ’et al’ in the citation and list of references. Some lecturers may specify using all authors in the list of references, but the first author and ’et al’ is generally accepted.
Secondary referencing
Use ’cited in’ or ’quoted in’ for a source you have read about in another source: (Smith, 2020, cited in Jones, 2021) or Smith states «x x» (2020, quoted in Jones, 2021). In Cite them right Harvard, only the source you have read is included in the list of references (i.e. Jones, 2021). It is preferable to read and reference the original source if possible.
DOIs
A DOI (digital object identifier) should be used in preference to standard URLs. You should preface this with https://doi.org/. Do not use a date accessed with a DOI.
Same author and date
Use letters to distinguish between sources with the same author and date: Smith (2024a), followed by Smith (2024b).
Book editions
Only include the edition if it is not the first edition (e.g. Cite them right: the essential guide to referencing, 12th ed).
Place of publication
Since the publication of the 13th edition of Cite them right, place of publication should no longer be included for books.
Reprints and translations
For reprints, use the date of the original publication after the author and the date of reprint after the publisher. If the book is in translation, include a note on the translator. There is an example in the Harvard references.
Non-English sources
For non-English sources, it is advisable to provide a translation in square brackets after the title. If you use books that use a non-Roman script, you can use the original or transliterate the title. You should always transliterate the author.
Format for journal titles
The format for a journal article is Surname, Initial. (date of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of Publication, volume number (issue number), the page range of the article or the article number if no page numbers (electronic articles often have article numbers instead of page numbers, see example below). Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: day month year). Use title case for publication titles. Title case is a style of capitalisation where all «major» words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns), are capitalised, while «minor» words (short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions) are lowercased. Use Title Text for publication titles (e.g. Hospital Pharmacy rather than Hospital pharmacy).
Bourbeau, J. and Echevarria, C. (2020) ‘Models of care across the continuum of exacerbations for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease’, Chronic Respiratory Disease, 17, article 147997311989545. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1479973119895457.
Use of footnotes/endnotes with Harvard
The use of footnotes and endnotes is not typical when using Harvard referencing. If there are any notes, they are not used for references but only for authorial notes. The endnotes appear before the list of references.