Harvard Referencing: Short Guide
The full guide, concise guide and web pages are available from https://tinyurl.com/bcuharvard.
Introduction
Referencing is a vital component of academic writing. It demonstrates your ability to select and refer to the
most appropriate external sources which support your work. You need to give proper credit to the authors
of any work from which you use information in order to avoid plagiarism.
In the Harvard style there are two aspects to referencing:
Citing sources within your text.
Providing a list of all the sources you have cited at the end of your text, known as the reference
list (different from a bibliography, which is a list of set texts you were given but which you may
not have cited).
Citing
Every time you refer to information from an external source in your writing you should provide a citation.
Citations always include:
The surname of the author(s) or the name of the organisation responsible for the source.
The year it was published; if no year is available, use “n.d.” for “no date”.
They may also include a page number or a sequence of pages from within the source. Harvard citations
can be direct or indirect.
A direct citation is where the name of the author(s) is(are) used within a sentence.
Example:
Gupta et al. (2016) highlighted that there was a mismatch between long-term overheating
prediction in climate modelling and overheating risk measured through environmental
monitoring.
Note: This example demonstrates how to cite three or more authors – just use the surname of the
first author followed by “et al.”.
An indirect citation is where the name of the author(s) is(are) not used within a sentence. It is always
placed at the end of a sentence before the final full stop. Indirect citations may contain several sources.
These should be separated by semi-colons and listed in alphabetical order.
Example:
In educational research, conducting a pilot questionnaire, asking for feedback from a
supervisor and modifying it accordingly is considered best practice (McGrath and Coles,
2013; Newby, 2014).
Note: Where a source has two authors, the citation should include both author surnames,
separated by the word “and”.
Quoting is where you provide text from an external source word for word. The page number(s) is
compulsory with a quote but optional with other types of citation. It is given after the year, separated by a
colon. Apart from exceptional circumstances, no more than 10% of all your citations should be quotes.
Example:
Mining data and modelling the relationship is an approach which “would be able to develop a
specific optimum staffing model if good quality data were available” (Leary et al., 2016: 2).
Summarising is where you take source information and put it in a shorter form in your own words.
For more information on how to summarise, go to http://tinyurl.com/bcu-wri-sum.
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The Reference List
The reference list should be put in alphabetical order of the last names of the authors or authoring
organisations. The exact style of each reference depends on its type. Here are some common examples:
Referencing a book
Example:
McGrath, J. and Coles, A. (2013) Your Education Research Project Companion. 2
nd
edn. Harlow:
Pearson.
Referencing a journal article
Example:
Hayward, R. S., Harding, J., Molloy, R., Land, L., Longcroft-Neal, K., Moore, D. and Ross, J. D.
C. (2018) Adverse effects of a single dose of gentamicin in adults: a systematic review.
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 84(2), pp. 223-238.
Referencing an online journal article (no print equivalent) with a DOI
Example:
Leary, A., Cook, R., Jones, S., Smith, J., Gough, M., Maxwell, E., Punshon, G. and Radford, M.
(2016) Mining routinely collected acute data to reveal non-linear relationships between
nurse staffing levels and outcomes. BMJ Open, 6(12). Available at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-011177.
Referencing a website
Example:
National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (2013) Birthplace in England Research Programme
(Birthplace). Available at: https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/birthplace [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Referencing a report in pdf format
Example:
Gupta, R., Walker, G., Lewis, A., Barnfield, L., Gregg, M. and Neven, L. (2016) Care Provision Fit
for a Future Climate. [pdf] York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Available at:
https://www.jrf.org.uk/file/49107/download?token=p9s7KTcL&filetype=full-report [Accessed
28 February 2018].
For more help, please email the Centre for Academic Success at [email protected].uk, visit C142 or book
a tutorial via http://bcu.iinsight.org/. Health students can also email sherron[email protected] or visit
the Personal Development Department, Room SCT132, Seacole Building, City South Campus, tel. 0121
331 7011, https://tinyurl.com/BCU-PDD.
Authorship (Year) Title.
Edition.
(if not first)
Place of
publication:
Publisher.
Authorship (Year)
Article
title.
Journal
Title,
Volume(Issue), pp. pages.
Authorship (Year)
Article
title.
Journal
Title,
Volume(Issue) or
equivalent.
Available at:
DOI.
Authorship (Year) Title.
Available at:
URL
[Accessed
date].
Authorship (Year) Title. [pdf]
Edition. (if
not first)
Place of
publication:
(optional)
Publisher.
(optional)
Available at:
URL
[Accessed date].
