harvard reference in essay

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Free Harvard Referencing Generator

Generate accurate Harvard reference lists quickly and for FREE, with MyBib!

🤔 What is a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator is a tool that automatically generates formatted academic references in the Harvard style.

It takes in relevant details about a source -- usually critical information like author names, article titles, publish dates, and URLs -- and adds the correct punctuation and formatting required by the Harvard referencing style.

The generated references can be copied into a reference list or bibliography, and then collectively appended to the end of an academic assignment. This is the standard way to give credit to sources used in the main body of an assignment.

👩‍🎓 Who uses a Harvard Referencing Generator?

Harvard is the main referencing style at colleges and universities in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also very popular in other English-speaking countries such as South Africa, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. University-level students in these countries are most likely to use a Harvard generator to aid them with their undergraduate assignments (and often post-graduate too).

🙌 Why should I use a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator solves two problems:

• It provides a way to organise and keep track of the sources referenced in the content of an academic paper.
• It ensures that references are formatted correctly -- inline with the Harvard referencing style -- and it does so considerably faster than writing them out manually.

A well-formatted and broad bibliography can account for up to 20% of the total grade for an undergraduate-level project, and using a generator tool can contribute significantly towards earning them.

⚙️ How do I use MyBib's Harvard Referencing Generator?

Here's how to use our reference generator:

• If citing a book, website, journal, or video: enter the URL or title into the search bar at the top of the page and press the search button.
• Choose the most relevant results from the list of search results.
• Our generator will automatically locate the source details and format them in the correct Harvard format. You can make further changes if required.
• Then either copy the formatted reference directly into your reference list by clicking the 'copy' button, or save it to your MyBib account for later.

MyBib supports the following for Harvard style:

🍏 What other versions of Harvard referencing exist?

There isn't "one true way" to do Harvard referencing, and many universities have their own slightly different guidelines for the style. Our generator can adapt to handle the following list of different Harvard styles:

• Cite Them Right
• Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
• University of the West of England (UWE)

Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.

Harvard referencing quick guide: Sample assignment

• Introduction
• General guidelines
• Citing and referencing material

Sample assignment

• Referencing software

Citing and reference list example

The text to the right shows how citations and the reference list are typically written in the Harvard referencing style.

Note: the text itself is not designed to be a proper example of academic writing and does not use information from the sources cited; it is for illustrative purposes only.

The purpose of this assignment is to show common elements of the Harvard style of referencing in Dundalk Institute of Technology. It is not intended to be an example of good quality academic writing, and indeed may not make sense in general, but it should show you how citations and a reference list are formed in the Harvard style of referencing (Cameron 2021). If you include a “direct quotation from a book you have read” (Giddens and Sutton 2021, p.117) you should include the relevant page number.

You don’t always have to write the author and year in brackets. Cameron (2021) explains that if the author’s name occurs naturally in the text then the year follows it in brackets. If there are two authors you should include both of them in the citation (Levine and Munsch 2021). If there are three or more authors you don’t have to list all of the names in the citation but you should include them all in the reference list (Robbins et al. 2020). The reference list should appear at the end of your assignment and be in alphabetical order based on the first author’s surname (Bruen 2022) rather than the order in which they appear in your assignment ( Papagiannis  2022). If you are using a citation for a second time you do not need to include it twice in the reference list (Cameron 2021).

Referencing an academic journal that you find online requires more information in the reference list but uses the same format for citing as other sources (Tesseur 2022). If referencing a source from a library database you say from which database you found it (Mayombe 2021).

Don’t forget that websites need to be cited too (Dundalk Institute of Technology 2022). We recommend you look at the full version of DkIT’s Harvard referencing guidelines, and contact the Library if you have any questions. Good luck.

Reference list

Bruen, M. (2020). River flows. In: Kelly-Quinn, M. and Reynolds, J., eds.  Ireland’s rivers . Dublin: University College Dublin Press, pp.39-59.

Cameron, S. (2021). The business student's handbook: skills for study and employment . 7th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Dundalk Institute of Technology. (2022).  Research support  [online]. Available from: https://www.dkit.ie/research/research-support.html [accessed 25 March 2022].

Giddens, A. and Sutton, P.W. (2021).  Sociology . 9th ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Levine, L.E. and Munsch, J. (2021).  Child development: an active learning approach  [online]. 4th ed. London: SAGE Publications. Available from: https://books.google.ie/books?id=zlrZzQEACAAJ&dq [accessed 25 March 2022].

Mayombe, C. (2021). Partnership with stakeholders as innovative model of work-integrated learning for unemployed youths.  Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning  [online], 12(2), pp.309-327. Available from: Emerald Insight [accessed 25 March 2022].

Papagiannis, N. (2020).  Effective SEO and content marketing: the ultimate guide for maximizing free web traffic  [online]. Indianapolis: Wiley. Available from: EBSCOhost eBook Collection [accessed 25 March 2022].

Robbins, S.P., Coulter, M.A. and De Cenzo, D.A. (2020).  Fundamentals of management . 11th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Tesseur, W. (2022). Translation as inclusion? An analysis of international NGOs’ translation policy documents.  Language Problems and Language Planning  [online], 45(3), pp. 261-283. Available from: https://doras.dcu.ie/26151 [accessed 25 March 2022].

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Quick guide to Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right)

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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 .

For help and support with referencing and the full Cite Them Right guide, have a look at the Library’s page on referencing and plagiarism . If you need guidance referencing OU module material you can check out which sections of Cite Them Right are recommended when referencing physical and online module material .

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 .

Table of contents

In-text citations and full references.

• Secondary referencing
• Page numbers
• Citing multiple sources published in the same year by the same author

Full reference examples

Referencing consists of two elements:

• in-text citations, which are inserted in the body of your text and are included in the word count. An in-text citation gives the author(s) and publication date of a source you are referring to. If the publication date is not given, the phrase 'no date' is used instead of a date. If using direct quotations or you refer to a specific section in the source you also need the page number/s if available, or paragraph number for web pages.
• full references, which are given in alphabetical order in reference list at the end of your work and are not included in the word count. Full references give full bibliographical information for all the sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

To see a reference list and intext citations check out this example assignment on Cite Them Right .

Difference between reference list and bibliography

a reference list only includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text

a bibliography includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text AND sources that were part of your background reading that you did not use in your assignment

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Examples of in-text citations

You need to include an in-text citation wherever you quote or paraphrase from a source. An in-text citation consists of the last name of the author(s), the year of publication, and a page number if relevant. There are a number of ways of incorporating in-text citations into your work - some examples are provided below. Alternatively you can see examples of setting out in-text citations in Cite Them Right .

Note: When referencing a chapter of an edited book, your in-text citation should give the author(s) of the chapter.

Online module materials

(Includes written online module activities, audio-visual material such as online tutorials, recordings or videos).

When referencing material from module websites, the date of publication is the year you started studying the module.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

OR, if there is no named author:

The Open University (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Rietdorf, K. and Bootman, M. (2022) 'Topic 3: Rare diseases'. S290: Investigating human health and disease . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1967195 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

The Open University (2022) ‘3.1 The purposes of childhood and youth research’. EK313: Issues in research with children and young people . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1949633&section=1.3 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

You can also use this template to reference videos and audio that are hosted on your module website:

The Open University (2022) ‘Video 2.7 An example of a Frith-Happé animation’. SK298: Brain, mind and mental health . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2013014&section=4.9.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

The Open University (2022) ‘Audio 2 Interview with Richard Sorabji (Part 2)’. A113: Revolutions . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1960941&section=5.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

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.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of message', Title of discussion board , in Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Fitzpatrick, M. (2022) ‘A215 - presentation of TMAs', Tutor group discussion & Workbook activities , in A215: Creative writing . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=4209566 (Accessed: 24 January 2022).

Note: When an ebook looks like a printed book, with publication details and pagination, reference as a printed book.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title . Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.

For ebooks that do not contain print publication details

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title of book . Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).

Example with one author:

Bell, J. (2014) Doing your research project . Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy . Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-ebooks (Accessed: 23 June 2021).

Example with two or three authors:

Goddard, J. and Barrett, S. (2015) The health needs of young people leaving care . Norwich: University of East Anglia, School of Social Work and Psychosocial Studies.

Example with four or more authors:

Young, H.D. et al. (2015) Sears and Zemansky's university physics . San Francisco, CA: Addison-Wesley.

Note: You can choose one or other method to reference four or more authors (unless your School requires you to name all authors in your reference list) and your approach should be consistent.

Note: Books that have an editor, or editors, where each chapter is written by a different author or authors.

Surname of chapter author, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of chapter or section', in Initial. Surname of book editor (ed.) Title of book . Place of publication: publisher, Page reference.

Franklin, A.W. (2012) 'Management of the problem', in S.M. Smith (ed.) The maltreatment of children . Lancaster: MTP, pp. 83–95.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference.

If accessed online:

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference. Available at: DOI or URL (if required) (Accessed: date).

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326.

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326. Available at: https://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/log... (Accessed: 27 January 2023).

Barke, M. and Mowl, G. (2016) 'Málaga – a failed resort of the early twentieth century?', Journal of Tourism History , 2(3), pp. 187–212. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2010.523145

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference if available. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Mansell, W. and Bloom, A. (2012) ‘£10,000 carrot to tempt physics experts’, The Guardian , 20 June, p. 5.

Roberts, D. and Ackerman, S. (2013) 'US draft resolution allows Obama 90 days for military action against Syria', The Guardian , 4 September. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/04/syria-strikes-draft-resolut... (Accessed: 9 September 2015).

Surname, Initial. (Year that the site was published/last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Robinson, J. (2007) Social variation across the UK . Available at: https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/social-variation... (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

The British Psychological Society (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct . Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct (Accessed: 22 March 2019).

Note: Cite Them Right Online offers guidance for referencing webpages that do not include authors' names and dates. However, be extra vigilant about the suitability of such webpages.

Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of photograph . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Kitton, J. (2013) Golden sunset . Available at: https://www.jameskittophotography.co.uk/photo_8692150.html (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

stanitsa_dance (2021) Cossack dance ensemble . Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/COI_slphWJ_/ (Accessed: 13 June 2023).

Note: If no title can be found then replace it with a short description.

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fa3d988da6f218669ec27d6b6019a0cd

A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

• The Honor Code
• In-Text Citation Examples
• When neither the author nor the page number is mentioned in the body of the sentence, you should include both the author’s last name and the page number in the parenthetical citation.

Colleges and universities need to create policies that foster inclusion for low-income students (Jack 24).

• When the author’s name is mentioned in the sentence, you should include only the page number in your parenthetical citation.

As Anthony Jack argues, colleges and universities need to create policies that foster inclusion for low-income students (24).

• If the source you are writing about does not have page numbers, or if you consulted an e-book version of the source, you should include only the author’s name in the parenthetical citation:

Colleges and universities need to create policies that foster inclusion for low-income students (Jack).

• If you mention the author in the body of the sentence and there is no page number in the source, you should not include a parenthetical citation.

As Anthony Jack argues, colleges and universities need to create policies that foster inclusion for low-income students.

• If you are referring to an entire work rather than a specific page, you do not need to include a page number.

In The Privileged Poor, Anthony Jack describes many obstacles that low-income students face at selective colleges and universities.

• If you are referring to a source that has no listed author, you should include the title (or a shortened version of the title) in your parenthetical citation.

Harvard College promises “to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society” (“Mission, Vision, & History”).

• If you are referring to a source that has two authors, you should include both authors in your parenthetical citation.

The researchers tested whether an intervention during the first year of college could improve student well-being (Walton and Cohen 1448).

• If you refer to a source that has more than two authors, you should include the first author’s name followed by et al. ( Et al. is an abbreviation for et alia which means “and others” in Latin.) When you use et al. in a citation, you should not put it in italics.

The researchers studied more than 12,000 students who were interested in STEM fields (LaCosse et al. 8).

• If you refer to more than one source by the same author in your paper, you should include the title (or a shortened version of the title) in your parenthetical citation so that readers will know which source to look for in your Works Cited list. If you mention the author’s name in the sentence, you only need to include the title and page number. If you mention the author and title in the sentence, you only need to include the page number.

Colleges and universities need to create policies that foster inclusion for low-income students (Jack, Privileged Poor 24).

According to Anthony Jack, colleges and universities need to create policies that foster inclusion for low-income students ( Privileged Poor 24).

As Anthony Jack writes in Privileged Poor, colleges and universities need to create policies that foster inclusion for low-income students (24).

• If you want to credit multiple authors for making the same point, you can include them all in one parenthetical citation. 

Students who possess cultural capital, measured by proxies like involvement in literature, art, and classical music, tend to perform better in school (Bourdieu and Passeron; Dumais; Orr).

• If you refer to a source that includes line numbers in the margins, numbered paragraphs, numbered chapters, or numbered sections rather than page numbers, you should include the number in your parenthetical citation, along with “line,” “ch./ chs.,” or “sec./secs.”   You can include stable numbering like chapters even when there are no stable page numbers (as in an e-book). You should separate “line” or other designation from the work’s title or author’s name with a comma.  If the source does not include this type of numbering, you should not include it either.

We learn that when he went to the store to buy clothes for his son, “a frantic inspection of the boys’ department revealed no suits to fit the new-born Button” (Fitzgerald, ch.2).

• If you are citing a play, you should include the act and scene along with line numbers (for verse) or page numbers, followed by act and scene, (for prose).

Guildenstern tells Hamlet that “there has been much throwing about of brains” (Shakespeare, 2.2. 381-382).

Chris is in this mindset when he says, “a couple minutes, and your whole life changes, that’s it. It’s gone” (Nottage, 13; act 1, scene1).

• If you are referring to a video or audio recording that contains time stamps, you should include the time in your parenthetical citation to make it easy for your readers to find the part of the recording that you are citing.

In the Stranger Things official trailer, the audience knows that something unusual is going to happen from the moment the boys get on their bicycles to ride off into the night (0:16).

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Harvard Style & Format: A 5-Minute Guide + Samples

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The Harvard referencing style is a widely used system for citing and referencing sources in academic writing. It provides a consistent and standardized format for acknowledging the works of others that you have used in your research.

Struggling to remember tricky peculiarities of Harvard style referencing and formatting? Don’t worry, you have come across a helpful material. In this article, you will find the basics of Harvard style formatting which would be useful for your academic progress. This easy but detailed Harvard style guide contains all format requirements for a paper and some structural tips. Besides, it covers general rules on how to cite your sources properly in your text. Feel free to use these guidelines for your academic endeavors. Let us go through details of Harvard style referencing and formatting together!  

Reference Harvard Style: Basics

Harvard style is an author-date system of referencing. It’s similar to an  APA paper format  in terms of general formatting of pages and text. But this style follows its own rules for bibliography and in-text citations formatting. Harvard style is typically used for essays in such academic disciplines:  

• Behavioral Sciences
• Philosophy.

But this doesn’t mean you can’t use this paper format in other areas of study. The general rule is to put references to your sources in round brackets. Specify author’s name and publication year. These references should come after your quotes (direct or indirect) in the end of a respective sentence or paragraph. Full details about all sources you have used should be provided at the end of your work. This section should be named ‘Reference List’. Buy coursework or any other type of research paper that will be referenced for you by our experts. 

Harvard Format: General Requirements

Let us explore some general rules for Harvard formatting:

• Font: Times New Roman or Arial
• Size: 12 pt
• Text: double-spaced and left-aligned
• Indent: first line of a paragraph has indent of 0.5 inch
• Margins: 1 inch from each side

A Harvard style citation  must have a Title page, header (or running head), headings and Reference list. We will take a closer look at formatting each section down below.  

Harvard Style Title Page

What are the requirements for a Harvard style cover page? Title page is otherwise known as front page. This is the first page of your paper to be observed by your reader, i.e. your teacher first of all. Therefore, it is highly important to format it properly. Formatting rules for Harvard Title page:  

• Paper title is fully capitalised and centered. Should be placed at approximately 33% of your page counting from its top.
• Your name as an author, centered and placed at the middle of your page.
• Course name at approximately 66% of the page.
• Instructor’s name on a new line.
• University’s name.
• Submission date.

See the sample of a Harvard title page down below.

Formatting a Header in Harvard

An important detail: you are required to use a header in  Harvard referencing  format. This section is repeatedly shown on all pages of your paper except the title page. You have to configure it once. Then, headers will get automatically added on each new page. Headers in Harvard referencing format contains such information:  

• Page number, right aligned
• Shortened title of your paper, not capitalized, right-aligned, to the left of page number.

It is important to use shortened title because there is not too much space in any header. Also, another requirement is putting exactly 5 spaces between your title and a page number in headers.

Harvard Style Heading

Now let us explore some rules of using subheadings in Harvard style, in detail. Typically there are 2 levels of section headings recommended for use in such papers. They have different formatting. This helps to tell one from another, without using different font sizes for them.

• Level-1 subheadings for a bigger section. They must be centered, capitalized, but at the same time not indented, not bold, not underscored, not italicized.
• Level-2 subheading for any subsection, typically 1-2 paragraphs. They must be capitalized, left-aligned, not indented. Besides, they should be italicized.

The plain text of any paragraph should go on a new line after subheadings in Harvard style, be it Level-1 or Level-2 subheading.

Harvard Reference List

Listing all sources you have used for your research in a proper order is a core element of Harvard style. Reference list should be the last part of your paper but absolutely not the least. Now let us explore some critical rules for a reference list formatting. The Harvard-style reference list section has its own subtitle, namely ‘Reference List’. Similarly to a Level-1 subheading, it should be capitalized and centered. The rest of your content in this section goes from a new line after your title. No extra empty lines are to be added. Your references in this list are numbered and sorted alphabetically. No lines are indented. Each item in this list starts from a new line. Below we will describe a format for referencing in detail.  

Harvard Style Bibliography

Sometimes your professor or instructor might ask you to create a Bibliography section instead of a common Reference list. So what is the Harvard Bibliography format? Harvard style bibliography includes not only those sources you have cited in your text but also. It also includes materials which you have read to get ideas for your research and to better understand the context of a selected problem. So, such section would contain more items than a Reference list. Apart of that, the general Harvard Bibliography format is the same:  

• Heading, ‘Bibliography’ is formatted the same way as a Level-1 subheading
• Sources are put into alphabetical order
• List is double-spaced
• Lines do not have any indent
• Each item of this list starts from a new line.

Harvard Style Citations: General Rules

Another crucial element of Harvard style is referring to your sources inside your essay. That’s why you should know how to cite in Harvard style. Keep in mind that the main purpose of a proper format is to ensure your paper is plagiarizm-free. Sometimes, you should cite ideas from books, magazines or newspapers. But you can only refer to such ideas, otherwise it will be considered a form of plagiarism. Below we will show you how to cite in Harvard style, providing general information about published sources. So let us proceed and learn more about shortened quotes and full references.  

How to Quote in Harvard Style

Here are the rules of Harvard format in-text citation:

• Add them in parentheses, usually at the end of quotes.
• Put an author’s last name and a publication year into round brackets, add page number if needed.

• When quoting a web page, give a paragraph number instead of a page since many websites don’t divide text into pages.
• Direct citation requires quotation marks and a page number is mandatory in parenthesis
• If you have mentioned an author’s name in your quote, do not include it into brackets, just leave a year and a page numbers there.

• Sometimes you might need to quote two different sources at once. In such case include both into the same parenthesis and divide them by a semicolon.

Creating References in Harvard Style

And this is how you should be referencing in Harvard style, providing full descriptions of the sources you have used. Let us start with the general book format:

• Last name of the author followed by comma and initials
• If there are multiple authors, their names are separated with comma, except the last one which must be separated by ‘&’
• Year of publication follows, without a comma
• A full title of the book is given, italicized
• Publisher name
• City and country where this book was published are the last to be provided.

Here are several Harvarvard referencing rules for other source types:

• Refer to an edited book by putting ‘(ed.)’ or ‘(eds)’ after the editor name(s)
• If a book was translated, add ‘trans. I Lastname’
• Refer to an article in any book or journal by adding an article name in quotation marks but not italicized
• Refer to a website by adding ‘viewed’ and the date when you’ve opened it, followed by the URL in angle brackets.

Bottom Line

In this article we have explored the Harvard referencing guide, one of the most popular ones for students in the UK. Feel free to use these tips and proceed to writing a winning essay with flawless formatting! Just keep in mind the following key concepts of the Harvard style:

• Title or cover page
• Headers and their contents
• Subheadings of two levels with different formatting
• Reference list with full-detailed description of sources
• In-text citations with lots of different forms for various quote types.

In conclusion, consider our  custom term paper writing solution if you lack the time or got into writer's block.

If you have questions, please visit our FAQ section or contact our expert writers. They will gladly help you create references in line with all requirements. On top of that, our writers are highly experienced in academic writing and can assist you with any type of formatting.  

FAQ About Harvard Format

1. is harvard reference style used in colleges.

The Harvard style can be used in colleges as well as in other educational institutions and even by professional researchers. While it is relatively popular in many countries for research paper referencing, Harvard style is most widespread in universities of the UK nowadays. Other styles (APA, MLA and Chicago) dominate the US educational institutions.

2. What is the difference between Harvard and Oxford referencing styles?

The Harvard style format is a typical example of an author-date system as it requires using author’s names and publication dates for in-text referencing. You should create a complete reference list as a separate section in the end of your research paper. The Oxford style on the contrary uses numbered footnotes for citing sources used on your page. In-text citations on this page consist just from numbers of respective notes.  

Emma Flores knows all about formatting standards. She shares with StudyCrumb readers tips on creating academic papers that will meet high-quality standards.

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• Archive material
• Chapter of an edited book
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• Online image or video
• Presentation
• Press release
• Religious text

What is the Harvard Referencing System?

The Harvard style is a system that students, writers and researchers can use to incorporate other people’s quotes, findings and ideas into their work. This is done in order to support and validate their conclusions without breaching any intellectual property laws. The popular Harvard format is typically used in assignments and publications for humanities as well as natural, social and behavioural sciences.

It is a parenthetical referencing system that is made up of two main components:

• In-text references including the author’s surname and the year of publication should be shown in brackets wherever another source has contributed to your work
• A reference list outlining all of the sources directly cited in your work

While in-text references are used in the Harvard referencing system to briefly indicate where you have directly quoted or paraphrased a source, your reference list is an alphabetised list of complete references that enables your reader to locate each source with ease. Each entry should be keyed to a corresponding parenthetical reference in the main body of your work so that a reader can take an in-text citation and quickly retrieve the source from your reference list.

Note that some universities, and certain disciplines, may also require you to provide a bibliography. This is a detailed list of all of the material you have consulted throughout your research and preparation, and it will demonstrate the lengths you have gone to in researching your chosen topic.

‘Harvard referencing’ is an umbrella term for any referencing style that uses the author name and year of publication within the text to indicate where you have inserted a source. This author-date system appeals to both authors and readers of academic work. Scholars find the format an economical way of writing, and it is generally more accessible to the reader as there are no footnotes crowding the page. Only the name of the author, the publication date of the source and, if necessary, the page numbers are included in parenthetical references, for example:

(Joyce, 2008).

Use the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing generator to create your fully-formatted in-text references and reference list in the blink of an eye.

Popular Harvard Referencing Examples

• Chapter of a book
• Conference proceedings 
• Court case 
• Dissertation 
• Encyclopedia article 
• Image online or video
• Presentation or lecture
• Video, film, or DVD

Cite This For Me Harvard Referencing Guide

Not sure how to format your Harvard references, what references are, or simply curious about the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing tool? Our guide can answer your questions and offer you a comprehensive introduction to the style. (Note that Cite This For Me is not officially associated with the style.)

Sometimes, students do not encounter referencing until they embark onto degree-level studies, yet it is a crucial academic skill that will propel you towards establishing yourself in the academic community. So, if you need a helping hand with your referencing then why not try the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing generator? The Cite This For Me automated referencing generator accesses knowledge from across the web, assembling all of the relevant information into a formatted reference list that clearly presents all of the sources that have contributed to your work. Using this citation generator to cite your sources enables you to cross the finish line in style.

It is important to bear in mind that there is a plethora of different referencing styles out there – the use of any particular one depends on the preference of your university, subject, professor or the publication you are submitting the work to. If you’re unsure which style you should be using, consult your tutor and follow their guidelines. The Cite This For Me Harvard referencing generator above will create your references in the Harvard – Cite Them Right (10th Edition) format as standard, but it can auto-generate references in 7,000+ styles. So, whether your professor has asked you to adopt APA referencing , or your discipline requires you to use OSCOLA referencing , Vancouver or MLA , we have the style you need. To accurately create references in a specific format, simply sign up to Cite This For Me and select your chosen style.

Are you struggling with referencing an unfamiliar source type? Or feeling confused about whether to cite a piece of common knowledge? Our Harvard reference generator and this guide will help provide you with everything you need to get both your parenthetical references and reference list completed quickly and accurately.

Why do I Need to Reference?

Referencing can be a confusing task, especially if you are new to the concept, but it’s essential. Simply put, referencing is the citing of sources you have utilised to support your essay, research, conference, article etc. Even if you are using the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing tool, understanding why you need to reference will go a long way in helping you to naturally integrate the process into your research and writing routine.

Firstly, whenever another source contributes to your work you must give the original author the appropriate credit in order to avoid plagiarism, even when you have completely reworded the information. The only exception to this rule is common knowledge – e.g., London is the capital city of England. Whilst plagiarism is not always intentional, it is easy to accidentally plagiarise your work when you are under pressure from imminent deadlines, you have managed your time ineffectively, or if you lack confidence when putting ideas into your own words. The consequences can be severe; deduction of marks at best, expulsion from university or legal action from the original author at worst. Find out more here.

This may sound overwhelming, but plagiarism can be easily avoided by citing your sources and carrying out your research and written work thoughtfully and responsibly. Use the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing generator to do so! We have compiled a handy checklist to follow whilst you are working on an assignment.

How to avoid plagiarism:

• Formulate a detailed plan – carefully outline both the relevant content you need to include, as well as how you plan on structuring your work
• Manage your time effectively – make use of time plans and targets, and give yourself enough time to read, write and proofread
• Keep track of your sources – record all of the relevant publication information as you go (e.g., If you are referencing a book you should note the author or editor’s name(s), year of publication, title, edition number, city of publication, name of publisher). Carefully save each quote, word-for-word, and place it in inverted commas to differentiate it from your own words
• When you are paraphrasing information, make sure that you use only your own words and a sentence structure that differs from the original text
• Save all of your research and references in a safe place – organise and manage your references using the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing generator.

Secondly, proving that your writing is informed by appropriate academic reading will enhance your work’s authenticity. Academic writing values original thought that analyses and builds upon the ideas of other scholars. It is therefore important to use a Harvard referencing generator to accurately signpost where you have used someone else’s ideas. This will show your reader that you have delved deeply into your chosen topic and supported your thesis with expert opinions.

Here at Cite This For Me we understand how precious your time is. This is why we created the Cite This For Me referencing tool and Harvard referencing guide to help relieve the unnecessary stress of referencing.

Harvard Referencing Guidelines by School

• Anglia University Harvard Referencing
• Bournemouth University Harvard Referencing
• Cardiff University Harvard Referencing
• Coventry University Harvard Referencing
• DMU Harvard Referencing
• Edge Hill University Harvard Referencing
• Imperial College University Harvard Referencing
• Leeds University Harvard Referencing
• LSBU Harvard Referencing
• MMU Harvard Referencing
• SHU Harvard Referencing
• Staffordshire University Harvard Referencing
• UCA Harvard Referencing
• UWE Harvard Referencing
• UWS Harvard Referencing
• Wolverhampton University Harvard Referencing

How do I Create and Format Harvard Style In-text References?

When adopting Harvard style referencing in your work, if you are inserting a quote, statement, statistic or any other kind of source information into the main body of your essay you should:

• Provide the author’s surname and date of publication in brackets right after the taken information or at the end of the sentence.

There are many assumptions when it comes to the information processing approach to cognition… (Lutz and Huitt, 2004).

• If you have already mentioned the author in the sentence, you should enter only the year of publication in brackets directly after where the author’s surname is mentioned.

In the overview of these developmental theories, Lutz and Huitt (2004) suggest that…

• If you are quoting a particular section of the source (rather than the entire work), you should also include a page number or page range within the brackets after the date.

“…the development of meaning is more important than the acquisition of a large set of knowledge or skills …” (Lutz and Huitt, 2004, p. 8), which means that …

• Note that if the source has four or more authors, you do not need to write out all of their surnames; simply use the first author’s surname followed by the abbreviation ‘et al.’ (meaning ‘and others’) in italics.

As well as saving you valuable time, the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing tool will enable you to easily avoid common referencing errors.

How Do I Format My Harvard Style Reference List?

The brief in-text Harvard references in your work should directly link to your reference list. Utilising and building on a wide range of relevant sources is a guaranteed way of impressing your reader, and a comprehensive list of the source material you have used is the perfect platform to exhibit your research efforts.

Follow these Harvard referencing guidelines when compiling your reference list:

• Start your reference list on a new page at the end of your document
• Use ‘Reference List’ as the heading
• Copy each of your full-length references from the Harvard referencing tool into a list
• Arrange the list in alphabetical order by the author’s last name (titles with no author are alphabetised by the work’s title, and if you are citing two or more sources by the same author they should be listed in chronological order of the year of publication)
• General formatting should be in keeping with the rest of your work
• Italicise titles of books, reports, conference proceedings etc. For journal articles, the title of the journal should be printed in italics, rather than the title of the journal article
• Capitalise the first letter of the publication title, the first letters of all main words in the title of a journal, and all first letters of a place name and publisher

As a general rule a Harvard reference list includes every source that you have cited in your work, whilst a bibliography also contains any relevant background reading which you have consulted (even those sources that are never mentioned in the narrative). Your 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. You may be required to provide a bibliography as well as a reference list, so check this with your tutor.

Reference list / bibliography examples:

• Book, one author:

Martin, K. (2019) The queen of hearts . New York: Berkley.

• Edited book with a chapter written by an author:

Mooney, L.R. (2011) ‘Vernacular literary manuscripts and their scribes’, in Gillespie, A. and Wakelin, D. (eds.) The production of books in England 1350-1500 . New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 192-211.

• One author, book, multiple editions:

Hawking, S.W. (1998) A brief history of time: From the big bang to black holes . 10th edn. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.

If all information resembles a book, use the template for a book reference.

If a page number is unavailable, use chapter number. URL links are not necessary, but can be useful. When including a URL, include the date the book was downloaded at the end of the reference:

Available at: URL (Downloaded: DD Month YYYY)

• More than three authors, journal article:

Shakoor, S., Jaffee, S.R., Bowes, L., Ouellet-Morin, l., Andreou, P., Happé, F., Moffitt, T.E. and Arseneault, L. (2011) ‘A prospective longitudinal study of children’s theory of mind and adolescent involvement in bullying’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry , 53(3), pp. 254–261. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02488.x.

• Conference papers:

Drogen, E. (2014) ‘Changing how we think about war: The role of psychology’, The British Psychological Society 2014 annual conference . The ICC, Birmingham British Psychological Society, 07-09 May 2014.

• Web pages with one author:

Raiford, T. (2015) 20 amazing dog breeds from England . Available at https://puppytoob.com/ (Accessed: 6 November 2019).

If your web page is missing a date of publication, or information about when it was last updated, place (no date) directly after the author’s name. Make sure to include the accessed date at the end of the reference.

Butterfield, L. (2019) ‘Research spotlight: I want to get high enough up the chain to pull others over the wall with me’, Oxford science blog , 1 November. Available at: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/science-blog (Accessed 5 November 2019).

When referencing blog posts, the year of publication is placed in parentheses directly after the author of the posting. The day and month of publication are placed in the reference after the title of the blog site. Make sure to include the accessed date at the end of the reference as well.

If the author uses a pseudonym, use it in in the author’s position. Do not attempt to seek out the author’s full name. Remember, the goal of a reference to make it simple for the reader of your work to seek out the source for themselves.

• Social Media Posts:

Whilst scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles, books, conference papers, and research reports are considered high-quality source materials, it is not uncommon to come across social media posts featured and discussed in projects. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide easy access to information on a number of personally owned devices. In addition, they promote interaction among its participants, thus allowing for deliberation and debate.

When creating a reference for a social media post, it is recommended to include the main URL of the social media platform, not the URL of the individual post. This prevents readers from clicking on links that may lead to a blocked post behind a private account.

Do not include the content of the individual post in the full reference. If the reader strives to see the contents of the post in its entirety, the information provided in both the text and on the final page of the project provide enough information for the reader to locate it on their own.

John, E. (2019) [ Facebook ] 31 October. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/EltonJohn/ (Accessed 12 November 2019).

Rushdie, S. (2019) [ Twitter ] 10 October. Available at: https://twitter.com/SalmanRushdie (Accessed 2 November 2019).

Are you struggling to find all of the publication information to complete a reference? Did you know that our Harvard reference generator can help you do it?

Time is of the essence when you’re finishing a paper, but there’s no need to panic because you can compile your reference list using the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing generator. Sign in to your Cite This For Me account to save and export your reference list.

Harvard Style Formatting Guidelines

Accurate referencing doesn’t only help protect your work from plagiarism – presenting your source material in a consistent and clear way also enhances the readability of your work. Closely follow the Harvard referencing system’s formatting rules on font type, font size, text-alignment and line spacing to ensure that your work is easily legible. Before submitting your work check that you have formatted your whole paper – including your reference list – according to the style’s formatting guidelines.

How to format in Harvard:

• Margins: 2.5cm on all sides
• Suggested fonts: Times New Roman, Arial and Courier New for Windows; Times New Roman, Helvetica and Courier for Mac, 12pt size. Ensure that all references are in the same font as the rest of the work
• Shortened title followed by the page number in the header, aligned to the right
• Double-space the entirety of the paper
• ½ inch indentation for every new paragraph (press tab bar)
• Unlike other popular reference styles, this particular style does not call for a hanging indent for the second and any subsequent lines of references. Instead, this style requires all lines to sit flush against the left margin.
• Reference list on a separate page at the end of the body of your work. If your professor requests a bibliography too (a list of sources that were used to help gain background knowledge on the topic), it can be placed at the end of the assignment as well.

Even when using a Harvard referencing generator, always check with your professor for specified guidelines – there is no unified ‘Harvard Style’ for the formatting of a paper.

A Brief History of the Harvard Style

The author-date system is attributed to eminent zoologist Edward Laurens Mark (1847-1946), Hersey professor of anatomy and director of Harvard’s zoological laboratory. It is widely agreed that the first evidence of the citation style can be traced back to Mark’s landmark cytological paper (Chernin, 1988). The paper breaks away from previous uses of inconsistent and makeshift footnotes through its use of a parenthetical author-date citation accompanied by an explanatory footnote.

• Parenthetic author-year citation, page 194 of Mark’s 1881 paper:

[…] The appearance may be due solely to reflection from the body itself. (Comp. Flemming, ‘78b, p. 310.*)

• Mark’s rationale for his citational scheme:

*The numbers immediately following an author’s name serve the double purpose of referring the reader to the list (p. 591) where the titles of papers are given, and of informing him at once of the approximate date of the paper in question.

A tribute dedicated to Mark in 1903 by 140 students credits Mark’s paper with having ‘introduced into zoology a proper fullness and accuracy of citation and a convenient and uniform method of referring from text to bibliography’ (Parker, 1903). Today Harvard referencing is widely considered one of the most accessible styles and is used across most subjects.

The Evolution of the Harvard Referencing Style

Due to its simplicity and ease of use, the format has become one of the most widely adopted citation styles in the world. However, many universities offer their own unique style guide, and each has its own nuances when it comes to punctuation, order of information and formatting rules. UK university-specific styles, such as Bristol University Harvard, are available via the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing generator. Simply go to the Cite This For Me website to login to your Cite This For Me account and search for the version you need. Make sure you apply consistency throughout your work.

The Cite This For Me Harvard reference generator currently uses the Cite Them Right 10th Edition, which has evolved in recent years to match the ever advancing digital age. It is increasingly easy for writers to access information and knowledge via the internet, and in turn the Harvard referencing guidelines are continually updated to include developments in electronic publishing. This guide is not affiliated with Cite Them Right, but it does cover the basics of the Harvard style.

Key differences we identified from previous Cite Them Right editions:

• Previous editions required printed books and eBooks to be referenced differently – in the 9th edition, both were referenced using the same template (if all the necessary information is available). An Ebook is considered to be the digital format of a published book (or a book that is only published in digital format) that is meant for reading on an electronic device.
• URLs are no longer a requirement for digital media if the information provided in the reference is sufficient to find the source without it. They should be included if the source is difficult to find, or if pieces of information needed for Harvard referencing are missing.
• The 10th edition of the guide includes structures for Twitter and play performances.

These days students draw on a diverse range of digital sources to support their written work. Whether you are citing a hashtag on Instagram, a podcast or a mobile app, the Cite This For Me Harvard referencing tool will help you take care of your references and generate them for the sources you want to cite.

How do I Create Accurate References?

Disheartened by the stressful process of referencing? Got a fast-approaching deadline? Using the Cite This For Me accessible and free Harvard generator makes creating accurate references easier, leaving more time for you to focus on achieving your academic goals.

Create an account to add and edit references on the spot, import and export full projects or individual entries, utilise our add-ons and save your work in the cloud. Things get even easier with Cite This For Me for Chrome – a handy browser extension that allows you to instantly create and edit a reference while you browse the web. Use the Harvard referencing tool on any webpage that you want to reference, and add it to your chosen project without interrupting your workflow.

The Cite This For Me reference management tool is here to help you, so what are you waiting for? Help creating accurate Harvard style references is just a few clicks away!

Reference List

Chernin, E. (1988) The ‘Harvard System’: A mystery dispelled. Available at: http://www.uefap.com/writing/referenc/harvard.pdf (Accessed: 4 July 2016)

Parker, G. (ed.) (1903) Mark anniversary volume . New York: Henry Holt.

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2016) Cite them right . London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Manage all your references in one place

Create reference lists and cite directly from the browser.

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Harvard’s Taylor Swift Scholars Have Thoughts on ‘Tortured Poets’

The students taking Harvard University’s class on the singer are studying up. Their final papers are due at the end of the month.

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By Madison Malone Kircher

Fans of Taylor Swift often study up for a new album, revisiting the singer’s older works to prepare to analyze lyrics and song titles for secret messages and meanings .

“The Tortured Poets Department” is getting much the same treatment, and perhaps no group of listeners was better prepared than the students at Harvard University currently studying Ms. Swift’s works in an English class devoted entirely to the artist . The undergraduate course, “Taylor Swift and Her World,” is taught by Stephanie Burt, who has her students comparing Ms. Swift’s songs to works by poets and writers including Willa Cather, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.

On Thursday night, about 50 students from the class gathered in a lecture hall on campus to listen to Ms. Swift’s new album. Mary Pankowski, a 22-year-old senior studying history of art and architecture, wore a cream sweatshirt she bought at Ms. Swift’s Eras tour last year. The group made beaded friendship bracelets to celebrate the new album, she said.

When the clock struck midnight, the classroom erupted into applause, and the analysis began. First, the group listened through the album once without discussing, just taking it all in.

Certain lines, however, immediately caused a stir, said Samantha Wilhoit, a junior studying government — like a reference to the singer Charlie Puth and the scathing lyrics to the song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” Ms. Wilhoit, 21, said.

A line from the song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” in which Ms. Swift sings, “I cry a lot but I am so productive,” also seemed to resonate, Ms. Wilhoit said, laughing.

A smaller group of students, including Ms. Pankowski, stuck it out until the early hours of the morning waiting to see if Ms. Swift would drop additional music. At 2 a.m., they were rewarded with an additional “volume” of 15 tracks called “The Anthology.” Ms. Pankowski said she didn’t go to sleep until hours later.

Speaking with The New York Times together on a video call Friday morning, several students from the class discussed their thoughts on the 31 new songs and brainstormed their final papers, which are due at the end of the month.

“The song ‘Clara Bow’ reminded me of ‘The Song of the Lark,’” Makenna Walko, 19, said, citing the Willa Cather novel that follows the career of an aspiring opera singer, Thea Kronborg. “She’s talking about a girl trying to make it out of her small town and trying to get to Manhattan, and what it’s like to have these big, musical dreams and try to pursue them,” she continued. “That’s a narrative that has shown up a lot in Taylor’s own life, over the course of her own career. In a lot of ways, it’s Taylor’s story, too.”

Lola DeAscentiis, a sophomore, zeroed in on the song “But Daddy I Love Him,” comparing it to the Sylvia Plath poem “Daddy.” She plans to explore the link in her final paper.

“I hesitate to say that the song was anywhere near the genius of Sylvia Plath — no offense to Taylor Swift — but I can definitely see some similarities in the themes, like sadness, depression and mental health,” Ms. DeAscentiis, 20, said. (Ms. DeAscentiis also drew a distinction between being a fan of Ms. Swift and being a devoted Swiftie. She said she identified as the former.)

“The way that Taylor overlays her relationship with the significant other that she’s talking about in the song with the relationship that she has with her father — I think that was very Plath,” she added.

Another student, Ana Paulina Serrano, echoed Ms. DeAscentiis, noting that the class had learned about the genre of confessional poetry. “Is Taylor considered a confessional poet?” Ms. Serrano, a 21-year-old junior majoring in neuroscience, asked the group on the call. In support of her own position, she offered as evidence Ms. Swift’s song “Mastermind,” a track off “Midnights,” in which Ms. Swift reveals herself to have calculated and plotted the outcome of a relationship.

“Sometimes she’s confessing things that we, like, already knew or assumed, but she often seems to feel this need to explicitly tell us,” Ms. Serrano added.

Isabel Levin, a 23-year-old senior studying integrative biology, said she thought Ms. Swift’s delivery on several tracks had a spoken-word quality. She wondered if maybe some of the lyrics had initially begun not as songs but as more traditional poems.

Ms. Swift has said she categorizes her songs by the type of pen she imagines using to write each. A “frivolous, carefree, bouncy” song is a glitter gel pen song, while a fountain pen song might be more “brutally honest,” according to Ms. Swift . Quill pen songs are “all old-fashioned, like you’re a 19th-century poet crafting your next sonnet by candlelight,” she explained during her acceptance speech as songwriter-artist of the decade at the Nashville Songwriter Awards in 2022.

And with what implement might Ms. Swift have written “Tortured Poets?”

Quill pen, for sure, Ms. Walko said.

Madison Malone Kircher is a Times reporter covering internet culture. More about Madison Malone Kircher

Inside the World of Taylor Swift

A Triumph at the Grammys: Taylor Swift made history  by winning her fourth album of the year at the 2024 edition of the awards, an event that saw women take many of the top awards .

‘The T ortured Poets Department’: Poets reacted to Swift’s new album name , weighing in on the pertinent question: What do the tortured poets think ?  

In the Public Eye: The budding romance between Swift and the football player Travis Kelce created a monocultural vortex that reached its apex  at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Ahead of kickoff, we revisited some key moments in their relationship .

Politics (Taylor’s Version): After months of anticipation, Swift made her first foray into the 2024 election for Super Tuesday with a bipartisan message on Instagram . The singer, who some believe has enough influence  to affect the result of the election , has yet to endorse a presidential candidate.

Conspiracy Theories: In recent months, conspiracy theories about Swift and her relationship with Kelce have proliferated , largely driven by supporters of former President Donald Trump . The pop star's fans are shaking them off .

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• Knowledge Base
• Referencing
• Harvard Referencing for Journal Articles | Templates & Examples

Harvard Referencing for Journal Articles | Templates & Examples

Published on 20 May 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 7 November 2022.

In Harvard style, to reference a journal article, you need the author name(s), the year, the article title, the journal name, the volume and issue numbers, and the page range on which the article appears.

If you accessed the article online, add a DOI (digital object identifier) if available.

Scribbr’s free Harvard reference generator can instantly create accurate references for a wide variety of source types:

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Table of contents

Online-only journal articles, articles with multiple authors, referencing a whole issue of a journal, referencing a preprint journal article, frequently asked questions about referencing journal articles in harvard style.

To reference an online journal article with no print version, always include the DOI if available. No access date is necessary with a DOI. Note that a page range may not be available for online-only articles; in this case, simply leave it out, as in this example.

Online-only article with no DOI

When you need to reference an online-only article which doesn’t have a DOI, use a URL instead – preferably the stable URL often listed with the article. In this case, you do need to include an access date.

Note that if an online article has no DOI but does have a print equivalent, you don’t need to include a URL. The details of the print journal should be enough for the reader to locate the article.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Journal articles often have multiple authors. In both your in-text citations and reference list, list up to three authors in full. Use the first author’s name followed by ‘ et al. ’ when there are four or more.

When you want to reference an entire issue of a journal instead of an individual article, you list the issue editor(s) in the author position and give the title of the issue (if available) rather than of an individual article.

When you reference an article that’s been accepted for publication but not yet published, the format changes to acknowledge this.

If it’s unknown where or whether the article will be published, omit this information:

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. ’

In Harvard style , when you quote directly from a source that includes page numbers, your in-text citation must include a page number. For example: (Smith, 2014, p. 33).

You can also include page numbers to point the reader towards a passage that you paraphrased . If you refer to the general ideas or findings of the source as a whole, you don’t need to include a page number.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, November 07). Harvard Referencing for Journal Articles | Templates & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 6 May 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-journal-article-reference/

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How to reference a PDF in Harvard referencing style

This guide covers how to reference PDFs in Harvard style. PDF stands for ‘portable document format’ and is one of the most reliable formats to export read-only documents and share with others or release publicly while retaining the layout of a page.  

You’ll often find PDFs on the internet. It is common for journal articles, reports, and other similar documents to be posted in PDF format. As a general rule, you’ll simply include the link to the PDF in your reference, which will take your reader directly to the PDF you are citing. The rest of your reference will follow the rules for the particular type of source you are citing.

How to cite a PDF in Harvard referencing style  

General citation structure  .

The in-text citations remain the same for most PDFs, as the in-text reference generally uses the author name (or company name) and year of publication.  

In-text citation template:

(Author Surname, Publication Year)

(Mukherjee, 2015)

Reference list template:

Author Surname, Initial(s)./Company Name (Publication year) Title.   Available at: URL (Accessed: Date).

Kelly Services (2020) 2019 annual report . Available at: http://annualreports.co.uk/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/NASDAQ_KELYA_2019.pdf (Accessed: 13 October 2020).

PDF with multiple authors

You’ll often find journal articles published in PDF format. You should point the reader to where you found your source, even if it is not on the official journal page. For a PDF with two or three authors, follow the standard Harvard style. The following example shows you how to cite a journal article with a direct link to a PDF. Alternatively, you could replace the PDF link with the DOI. It is important to use a reference structure that matches the type of source you are citing (here, a journal article).

(Author 1 Surname and Author 2 Surname, Publication year)

(Langhans and Romps, 2015)

Reference list:  

Author 1 Surname, Author 1 Initial(s). and Author 2 Surname, Author 2 Initial(s). (Publication year) ‘Title of article’, Journal Title , Issue information, pp. XX-XX. Available at: URL (Accessed: Date).

Langhans, W. and Romps, D.M. (2015) ‘The origin of water vapor rings in tropical oceanic cold pools’, Geophysical Research Letters , 42, pp. 7825-7834. Available at: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/2015GL065623 (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

Referencing a PDF with four or more authors

If your source has four or more authors, you’ll use the first author’s surname followed by et al. in your in-text citation. Your reference list can also use et al . or, if your institution requires it, a listing of each author in the full reference.

In-text citation structure:

(Author 1 Surname et al. , Year of publication)

(Thacker et al. , 2003)

Reference list example:

Thacker, S.B. et al. (2003) ‘The Impact of Stretching on Sports Injury Risk: A Systematic Review of the Literature’, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise , 36(3), pp. 371-378 . Available at: https://www.dr-moosburger.at/wp-content/uploads/pub102.pdf (Accessed: 5 February 2006).

Published October 29, 2020.

Harvard Formatting Guide

Harvard Formatting

• et al Usage
• Direct Quotes
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Page Numbers
• Writing an Outline
• View Harvard Guide

Reference Examples

• View all Harvard Examples

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