A Quick Guide to Harvard Referencing | Citation Examples

Published on 14 February 2020 by Jack Caulfield. Revised on 15 September 2023.

Referencing is an important part of academic writing. It tells your readers what sources you’ve used and how to find them.

Harvard is the most common referencing style used in UK universities. In Harvard style, the author and year are cited in-text, and full details of the source are given in a reference list.

Sources with multiple authors in the reference list

As with in-text citations, up to three authors should be listed; when there are four or more, list only the first author followed by ‘et al.’:

Harvard referencing examples

Reference list entries vary according to source type, since different information is relevant for different sources. Formats and examples for the most commonly used source types are given below.

Books

• Entire book
• Book chapter
• Translated book
• Edition of a book

• The city mentioned is the location of the publisher’s headquarters.

• The first name listed is the author of the individual chapter you’re referencing.
• The editor of the book appears later in the reference, followed by ‘ed.’ (or ‘eds.’ if there are two or more).
• The page range at the end shows the chapter’s location in the book.

• The translator’s name, unlike other names, is not inverted: the initial comes first.

• The edition appears only when it’s a second or later edition.
• ‘Edition’ is always abbreviated to ‘edn’.
• Note that this example is an edited collection of essays from different authors, and thus the editor is listed as the main author.

Journal articles

• Print journal
• Online-only journal with DOI
• Online-only journal with no DOI

• This format is also used for journal articles which you accessed online but which are available in print too.
• There is no space between the volume and issue number (in brackets).
• The page range shows where the article is located in the journal.
• Unlike other titles, the name of a journal uses headline capitalisation; capitalise every important word.

• When an article you accessed online has no print equivalent, include the DOI if available.
• The DOI is preceded by ‘doi:’ – no capitalisation, no space.

• When an article you accessed online has no print equivalent and no DOI, include a URL and an access date.
• Use the stable URL provided by the database if there is one.

Websites

• General web page
• Online article or blog
• Social media post

• Reference list entries for pages without a clearly identified author can begin with the name of the relevant site or organisation instead.

• Here you include the year at the start as usual, but also the exact day of publication later in the reference.

• Include the author’s username on the site in square brackets, if available.
• If the post has a title, use it (in italics).
• If the post is untitled, use the text of the post instead. Do not use italics. If the text is long, you can save space by replacing some of it with an ellipsis, as above.

Referencing sources with no author or date

Sometimes you won’t have all the information you need for a reference. This section covers what to do when a source lacks a publication date or named author.

No publication date

When a source doesn’t have a clear publication date – for example, a constantly updated reference source like Wikipedia or an obscure historical document which can’t be accurately dated – you can replace it with the words ‘no date’:

Note that when you do this with an online source, you should still include an access date, as in the example.

No author

When a source lacks a clearly identified author, there’s often an appropriate corporate source – the organisation responsible for the source – whom you can credit as author instead, as in the Google and Wikipedia examples above.

When that’s not the case, you can just replace it with the title of the source in both the in-text citation and the reference list:

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Frequently asked questions about Harvard referencing

Harvard referencing uses an author–date system. Sources are cited by the author’s last name and the publication year in brackets. Each Harvard in-text citation corresponds to an entry in the alphabetised reference list at the end of the paper.

Vancouver referencing uses a numerical system. Sources are cited by a number in parentheses or superscript. Each number corresponds to a full reference at the end of the paper.

A Harvard in-text citation should appear in brackets every time you quote, paraphrase, or refer to information from a source.

The citation can appear immediately after the quotation or paraphrase, or at the end of the sentence. If you’re quoting, place the citation outside of the quotation marks but before any other punctuation like a comma or full stop.

In Harvard referencing, up to three author names are included in an in-text citation or reference list entry. When there are four or more authors, include only the first, followed by ‘et al.’

Though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there is a difference in meaning:

• A reference list only includes sources cited in the text – every entry corresponds to an in-text citation.
• A bibliography also includes other sources which were consulted during the research but not cited.

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