Harvard Referencing

Harvard is an author–date referencing style. It has two parts:

• In-text citations appear within text in brackets to briefly acknowledge the source to which you are referring, e.g. (Cottrell, 2024) or Cottrell (2024).

  • In-text citations are like signposts for the reference list.

• A reference list at the end of your work which includes full publication details for each in-text citation

  • Reference lists are detailed and allow you to find the source of information again. 

A reader should be able to move from your citation to your reference list seamlessly, where full publication details are referenced and formatted correctly and consistently.

To use Harvard correctly, you’ll need to understand how to:

• Acknowledge other people’s ideas and work in your writing

• Paraphrase or summarise accurately

• Create in-text citations

• Format references for different types of information sources

See also:

• Avoiding plagiarism
  
  
• Paraphrasing 
  
  
• Setting out citations (CTRO Video and Guide)

Abertay uses the Cite Them Right (CTR) Harvard style, based on the 13th edition of the book Cite Them Right.

CTR Online provides examples for almost every source type, with clear guidance on:

• What details to include

• The order in which they should go

• How to format each part

Go to Cite Them Right Online
(Use the search bar or browse the Harvard style index to find what you need.)

Take a look at the CTRO Harvard page and scroll down to see the different kinds of information sources listed - as well as print and ebooks, journals, and websites - you will also find examples and templates of how to reference conference proceedings, software, social media platforms and networks, TV programmes, audio or video downloads, and many more!

Before you can create a reference for a specific type of source, you need to identify the correct elements — such as author, date, title, edition, publisher, or URL — these elements will vary according to the type of source you are referencing.

This guidance from Cite Them Right Online explains:

• where to look for this information on books, journals, and web pages etc.

• what to do if something is missing (e.g. no author or date)

• how to handle names, DOIs, and corporate authors

• which elements to include depending on the source type

Read the full guidance on elements of a reference (Harvard)

In Harvard style, in-text citations usually include author surname, year, and page number (if quoting or paraphrasing a specific section).

The CTR Harvard style does not use footnotes. In-text citations:

• Appear within the body of your writing

• Match the entries in your reference list

Examples of in-text citations in CTR include:

• One, two, or multiple authors

• Corporate authors

• No author or no date

• Multiple works by the same author

Read the full guidance on in-text citations from Cite Them Right Online

Books are one of the most common information sources referenced in academic work. Cite Them Right explains how to reference:

• Printed books
• Ebooks — including those without page numbers
• Audiobooks
• Collections and parts of books  - including chapters or sections of edited books
• Reference works

Printed books (Harvard)

Note from CTRO: The increasing availability of ebooks in identical form to print has rendered the need for a distinction between print and electronic versions unnecessary. If the online source includes all the elements seen in print versions (that is, publication details, edition and page numbers), reference in the same way as print.

Only include the edition number if it is not the first or revised edition.

Citation order:

• Author/editor
• Year of publication (in round brackets)
• Title (in italics)
• Edition (edition number if not the first edn and/or rev. edn)
• Publisher
• Series and volume number (where relevant)

Try generating a citation for yourself and see the full guidance CTRO on printed books 

Electronic books (ebooks) (Harvard)

Note from CTRO: When an ebook looks like a printed book, with publication details and pagination, you should reference as a printed book (see Printed books).

Citation order:

• Author/editor
• Year of publication (in round brackets)
• Title of book (in italics)
• Publisher

Try generating a citation for yourself and see the full guidance on ebooks, including when using a personal electronic device without page numbers (pagination) 

Chapters or sections of edited books (Harvard)

Citation order:

• Author of the chapter/section (surname followed by initials)
• Year of publication (in round brackets)
• Title of chapter/section (in single quotation marks)
• 'in' plus author/editor of book
• Title of book (in italics)
• Edition and volume number
• Publisher
• Page range of chapter/section

  If the source is unpaginated add:

• Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date)

See full examples for books and chapters on Cite Them Right Online

Journal articles are key source for university assignments. Harvard citations for journals can vary depending on whether the article is in print or online, and whether it includes a DOI or just a URL.

Cite Them Right Online explains how to reference:

• Journal articles
• Prepublication journal articles
• Systematic reviews

Journal Articles (Harvard)

Note on Journal articles from CTRO:  

Journal articles have print and online equivalents (either with all details the same or with small variations, for example page numbers). Or they may just be available online or in print editions.

You should reference the version that you are using. 

Ensure you provide enough bibliographic information for the article to be located by the reader. Note that because the DOI is the permanent identifier for the source, it is not necessary to include an accessed date.

Citation order:

• Author (surname followed by initials)
• Year of publication (in round brackets)
• Title of article (in single quotation marks)
• Title of journal (in italics – capitalise first letter of each word in title, except for linking words such as and, of, the, for)
• Issue information: volume (unbracketed) and, where applicable, part number, month or season (all in round brackets)
• Page range (if available) or article number

If accessed online:

• Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date)

Try generating a citation for yourself and see the full guidance on journals from CTRO 

When you go to CTRO, you can generate your own citations, see template examples of both the in-text citation and the reference list entry including:

• print journal articles,
• electronic journal articles with DOI
• electronic article with URL (no DOI)
• electronic article with no page numbers
• whole journal issue (print or electronic)
• prepublication article in a repository
• and many more!

See full examples for print and online articles on Cite Them Right Online

Online sources come in many forms — from blog posts and government reports to AI tools and organisational web pages. There’s no one-size-fits-all format for referencing internet sources in Harvard style.

When you browse CTRO, you will see a large section on Digital and Internet sources, within that section there is a comprehensive guide to citing and referencing websites and web pages, including:

• web pages with individual authors
• web pages with organisations as authors
• web pages with no dates
• web pages with no authors or titles
• blogs
• wikis

Cite Them Right Online explains how to:

• Identify what kind of source you’re using (e.g. personal blog, news article, company website) because the nature of what you are referring to will govern how you cite or reference it
• Know when to include access dates and full URLs
• Handle sources with no author, no date, or no clear title

General points to remember when referencing internet sources:

• Material on the internet can be changed or removed quickly, so it is good practice to note when you accessed/viewed the information
• You should always critically evaluate internet sources before citing them in your work
• The defining element in referencing a web page is its URL. This should be included in your reference list, but do not include the URL in your in-text citation, unless this is the only piece of information you have.
• Generally, web pages do not have page numbers. To help your reader locate where you have quoted or paraphrased from a website, you can number the paragraphs on the page and include the paragraph in your in-text citation.

Browse the guidance on CTRO

Web pages with individual authors (Harvard)

Citation order:

• Author
• Year that the site was published/last updated (in round brackets)
• Title of web page or webpage (in italics)
• Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Web pages with no authors (Harvard)

CTRO Note: Use the title of the web page. However, if you cannot identify the author (and their qualifications or expertise), you should consider if the information is suitable for academic work.

Citation order:

• Title of the web page (in italics)
• Year that the site was published/last updated (in round brackets)
• Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

When you go to CTRO, you can generate your own citations, see template examples of both the in-text citation and the reference list entry including: whole websites, a specific web page within a website etc. 

See full website referencing guidance on Cite Them Right Online

Images and media cover a wide range of non-text sources — from videos, podcasts and music, to photographs, artworks, and diagrams. These are often used in creative subjects or as supporting evidence in visual and media-based analysis.

Cite Them Right Online provides examples for the most common types, including:

• Book illustrations, figures, diagrams, logos and tables
• Videos or films on streaming platforms (e.g. Netflix)
• Online video platforms (e.g. YouTube)
• Photographs from the internet
• TV programme episodes
• Podcasts

Tips:

• Be clear whether you're citing the media itself (e.g. a video or image) or a source that includes it (e.g. a website or gallery guide).
• For streaming services, always include full URLs and access dates.
• If you include images or diagrams in your work, use a figure number and make sure you reference the source properly.

Need help with an unusual source? Search or browse the Media and Art section of Cite Them Right Online — it includes everything from album covers to theatre recordings.

Browse more examples in the Media and Art section on Cite Them Right Online

Although the idea of citing code can seem complicated, it’s not really different from citing anything else. If you have taken an idea or phrasing from somewhere, you need to make that attribution clear. We've produced a Citing code‌ guide to help.

Sometimes you want to refer to a source mentioned in another author's work — for example, when reading a textbook that quotes a study you haven’t been able to access directly. This is called secondary referencing.

Wherever possible, try to track down and read the original source — it’s the only way to be sure it’s been quoted or interpreted correctly. If you can’t find the original, you should:

• Mention both sources in your in-text citation, using “quoted in” or “cited in”

• Only include the source you actually read in your reference list

Example in-text citation (quoted):

Harvey (2015, quoted in Lewis, 2018, p. 86) suggests...

Example in-text citation (summarised):

... as argued by White (2014, cited in Murray, 2018)

See the CTRO Harvard Guides for more details on secondary referencing, setting our citations, and much more: CTRO Harvard Articles

Here are quick answers to some of the most frequent questions students ask about Harvard referencing.

Q: How do I add more than one source into a citation?
Separate them with semicolons: (Grover, 2016; Clark, 2017)

Q: When do I use et al.?
Use et al. when a source has four or more authors: (Corder et al., 2015). List all authors if there are one to three.

Q: When should I reference a chapter as a chapter?
Only when it’s from an edited book with different authors for each chapter.

Q: How do I reference a report found online?
Use the organisation or author name. Include the full URL and an access date:

SportScotland (2015) Active schools. Available at: https://... (Accessed: 6 March 2019)

Q: What if there’s no author?
Use the organisation as author if possible. If no author or organisation is named, use the title in italics instead: (Global Water Crisis, 2021)

Q: What if there’s no date?
Use “no date” in place of the year: (Taylor, no date)

Q: Do I need to include page numbers?
Include page numbers if quoting directly or paraphrasing a specific section. Use “p.” for a single page or “pp.” for a range: (Ahmed, 2020, p. 42) or (Lee, 2019, pp. 19–20)