Harvard Style Citation & Referencing - What it is and How to Use it?

The Harvard referencing style is one of the most common citation formats used by universities throughout the UK and other countries.

It is used for a range of disciplines, especially in social and management sciences. Are you required to write a paper following the Harvard style?

Read this complete Harvard style citation guide to help you start.

What is Harvard Citation Style?

The Harvard format is known for the parenthetical author-date system of citing sources within the paper. It is simple to use and can be customized a bit by institutions and universities to suit their specific academic standards.

The Harvard style has no single official manual. Instead, the Harvard format refers to various citation styles that use parenthetical in-text citations. There are customized variations of the Harvard format developed and used by different universities. 

For instance, the LUSEM Harvard Style Guide and the University of Sheffield’s Harvard Guide are used by the students of these institutions. So whenever you’re asked to write a paper in the Harvard style, you should ask your instructor for specific guidelines or a particular manual they want you to use.

Harvard In-Text Citations

The Harvard style citation is popular due to its simplicity and wider applicability. Whenever you quote, paraphrase, or indicate an external source, you simply provide the last name of the author and year of publication within parentheses for the Harvard in-text citation. 

You can place the parenthetical citation after mentioning the author or source in your text or at the end of the sentence. The detailed information about the source is then provided in the reference list below.

Here’s an example: 

Here are some common rules you should know:

Authors

When providing the name of the author within the in-text citation, the author may refer to:

• A corporate author, organization, or institution
• Multiple authors

If your source is written by an organization, mention the organization’s name in place of the author. You can also use an abbreviation if it’s commonly known, such as NASA for the National American Space Agency or WHO for the World Health Organization.

Example:

If a source is written by more than one author, here’s how you should format your in-text citation:

Narrative Citation (Author’s Name in the Main Text)

If you’ve already written the authors’ name in your main text, you don’t need to provide them again in the parentheses. Just provide the year of publication in the brackets, as shown in the example below:

These are the most common and basic rules of in-text citations that you will encounter when writing a paper. 

However, what should you do if you encounter any special cases, such as if there’s no author? Check out our comprehensive Harvard in-text citations guide to learn more!

Harvard Reference List

In the Harvard style, the reference list appears in a separate section after the main body of your text. It presents complete information for all the sources you’ve used throughout the paper. 

Provide the heading “Reference List” at the top-center of the reference section. From the next line after the heading, you can start your reference entries. 

Here are the rules you should follow for formatting your reference entries:

• Arrange your list in alphabetical order by the last name of the author. If there is no author, you can arrange it by the first letter of the title of the source.
• Use hanging indent in the reference list. In other words, the first line should be flush-left, while the second and subsequent lines should be indented by 0.5”.
• Keep the font style, line spacing, margins, and other settings same as the rest of the paper.

Here’s how to format your reference entries according to the type of sources:

Books

Whether you’re using a print book or an ebook that has a published version, you should use the following format for citing it:

As shown in the example, the reference entry should include these elements:

• Author(s) name(s).
• Year of publication.
• Title of the book in italics.
• Name of the publisher.

Journal Articles

If you’ve used a print journal article as a source, you should include:

• Author(s) name(s).
• Publication year.
• Title of the article 
• Title of the journal (in italics) in which it is published.
• Series and volume number.
• Page numbers.

The format given below is also applicable to online journal articles that are also available in print. 

Websites

When it comes to citing web pages and online sources, you should include the following elements:

• Author(s) or Organization Name.
• Title of the page.
• URL
• Accessed date

How to format a reference entry for a source with missing information?

Sometimes, you may use a source that has some of the essential information missing, for instance unknown author or date. Here’s how to deal with these situations:

No Author

If there’s no author, then you should start the reference entry with the title of the source. Here’s an example:

No Publication Date

In case there is no specific publication date for the source material, you should write (no date) in place of the date. The rule applies to both in-text citations and reference entries. For example:

To sum up, Harvard citation is characterized by its use of parenthetical author-date citations. Although there are guidelines for citations and referencing, remember that Harvard style does not provide instructions for page and text formatting. 

So, you can use this guide when citing your paper in Harvard. Ask your instructor for any specific formatting instructions, as universities and institutions provide their own specific guidelines.

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