Harvard Referencing
Rosella Bowlan
As a general rule a reference list includes every source that you have cited in your work, while a bibliography also contains any relevant background reading which you have consulted to familiarise yourself with the topic (even those sources that are never mentioned in the narrative). Your Harvard referencing bibliography should start on its own page, with the same formatting as the rest of the paper and aligned to the left with the sources listed alphabetically. Certain fields ask you to provide an annotated bibliography that includes your full citations with the addition of notes. These notes are added to further analyze the source, and can be of any length.
Creating complete and correctly formatted citations can be a challenge for many writers, especially when documenting multiple source types. Our primary goal at Cite This For Me is to offer support to students and researchers across the globe by transforming the way in which they perceive citing. We hope that after using our citation generator and reading this Harvard referencing guide, what was once considered an arduous process, will be viewed as a highly-valued skill that enhances the quality of your work.
There are different versions of the Harvard referencing style. This guide is a quick introduction to the commonly-used Cite Them Right version. You will find further guidance available through the OU Library on the Cite Them Right Database.
This guide does not apply to OU Law undergraduate students. If you are studying a module beginning with W1xx, W2xx or W3xx, you should refer to the Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules.
Note: if a complete journal article has been uploaded to a module website, or if you have seen an article referred to on the website and then accessed the original version, reference the original journal article, and do not mention the module materials. If only an extract from an article is included in your module materials that you want to reference, you should use secondary referencing, with the module materials as the 'cited in' source, as described above.
Parenthetical referencing is a citation system in which in-text citations are made using parentheses.[1] They are usually accompanied by a full, alphabetized list of citations in an end section, usually titled "references", "reference list", "works cited", or "end-text citations".[2][3] Parenthetical referencing can be used in lieu of footnote citations (the Vancouver system).
A content note generally contains useful information and explanations that do not fit into the primary text itself. Content notes may be given as footnotes or endnotes or even a combination of both footnotes and endnotes. Such content notes may themselves contain a style of parenthetical referencing, just as the main text does.
Table of contents
- Harvard in-text citation
- Creating a Harvard reference list
- Harvard referencing examples
- Referencing sources with no author or date
- Frequently asked questions about Harvard referencing
Finally, because the Harvard Style does not have a manual of style with exact rules, always discuss with your lecturer or module coordinator what their expectations are around quotation, citing and referencing. Show them the advice on this guide, and clarify if they expect any alternative writing practices. This is especially important for first year students or those beginning a course/module.
If the information you are referencing was obtained by a personal communication such as a telephone call, interview or email, this should be documented in the text and are not added to the reference list. If desired you can add the abbreviation pers.comm. to the reference.
This guide to the UOW Harvard edition is an updated edition of the previous UOW Harvard referencing guide. It has been greatly expanded to include more content and examples for ease of use. Remember that there are different Harvard styles and UOW Harvard formatting may not agree with the Harvard formatting included in programs such as MS Word or Endnote. For other referencing styles and some general information on referencing go to the main Referencing & Citing guide.
Why is referencing important?
Making sure that you accurately cite and reference the writing, work and/or ideas produced by somebody else is an essential part of academic writing. Here are some reasons why it is so important:
To differentiate between authors with the same surname you should add the initials of the author to the citation. The addition of initials will avoid any confusion over who you are referencing and will make it easier to find the corresponding entry in your bibliography.
It is sometimes necessary to cite an author already quoting somebody else, this is sometimes called secondary referencing or an indirect citation. Your tutor may prefer that you use the original source, rather than the work of the person quoting them, so always check with them to be sure.
There will be occasions where you need to reference a person who is not the author of a source and where there is no original source. In those instances the format for secondary referencing is appropriate. For example, if you are referencing an interviewee from an interview and the interviewer is the author of the article, or if you are referencing a character in a film or a person in a documentary.
The method shown in this guide is the formal method of referencing images based on the Harvard system and is suitable for referencing images used within essays or dissertations. This method is not necessarily suitable for all assignments, such as reports that contain a lot of visual material, so your tutors may recommend a more suitable way of referencing images.
The Harvard referencing system is the most common style of referencing used at Staffordshire University and is the officially adopted standard for all students except those studying modules in law or psychology. The version of Harvard we use is the Cite Them Right version.
We have a subscription to Cite Them Right Online to help you use this version effectively. Cite Them Right Online (CTRO) is a comprehensive referencing resource. It will help you to cite and reference just about any source. There is also information on the basics of referencing, top 10 referencing tips, understanding plagiarism and lots more.
To make it easier to access the information on the referencing style you need to use CTRO offers specific sections of their site for different referencing styles. You can access the section for Harvard through the link below.
The third section gives general guidance for creating the reference list. The next sections give detailed instructions and examples of how to reference many different kinds of information sources. It starts with the items that you are most likely to reference often (books, journal articles and webpages) and then goes on to items that are slightly less commonly used (audio and video sources, images and legal publications). Other sources are then listed alphabetically by the main heading. The next section is information on secondary referencing, that is, referencing sources you have not read. Then there is information on using EndNote, and an example of what a reference list should look like. The final section is an alphabetical list of all of the sources referenced in this guide.
There are different versions of Harvard referencing and this is only a guide. If you have any doubts about the style you should be using check with your lecturer, supervisor, course handbook or coursework guidelines.
The detailed referencing guide (see below) developed by the Library describes in detail the rules of the Harvard style, along with examples of references for the various information sources you will use including books, e-books, journal articles, newspapers, databases etc.
Criminology with Law (Faculty HSS) students use BU Harvard and OSCOLA referencing style guidance - UK & EU Law and International Law. Any questions please email HSS Library Team (hssli...@bournemouth.ac.uk).
Our referencing guide explains how to use the Newman Harvard style of referencing. Along with this guide, the Library can offer you support with the general principles of referencing, and we can help you with further questions you may have about the Birmingham Newman Harvard system.
We strongly recommend caution in using these tools! 'Harvard' referencing is not a unified system controlled by one organisation and the references produced may not be the same as 'Newman Harvard'. If you decide to use an online system to format your references, you should choose one that can format references in 'Cite them right' style, 10th edition or later.
Our referencing style is based on the principles in Cite them right by Richard Pears and Graham Shields. This book is available from the Library, and we have both print copies that you can borrow as well as an e-book.
The Harvard referencing system is known as the Author-Date style. It emphasizes the name of the creator of a piece of information and the date of publication, with the list of references in alphabetical order at the end of your paper.
You can find many different types of information on the Internet. Check that the item you are referencing isn't a journal article, book chapter, or another type of publication which you should be citing in a different way.
When referencing Acts of Parliament you should use the short title of the Act and year it was enacted. It is not necessary to include the year in brackets as it would duplicate the year in the title. Include the following elements:
These examples use Harvard style. If you are studying in English Literature, you will have separate guidance from your department on using MHRA style for referencing. See the link below for more information:
Tables should be sequentially numbered in your work with the title above the table - as in the following example in the Harvard referencing style. When referring to the table in your writing use the table number.
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