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Introduction

Full Name: Harvard Referencing System

Citation System: Author–Date

Typical Fields: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Business, Economics, Education, Law

Official Source: No single official manual — varies by institution. Common guides: Cite Them Right (Pears & Shields)

Harvard is an Author–Date system closely resembling APA, but with key differences: the year follows the author's name in parentheses with no comma between them; titles use title case; publisher location is retained; and the reference list is called 'Reference List' or 'Bibliography'. Because Harvard has no single official manual, institutional guidelines take precedence.

In-Text Citations

Situation	In-Text Example
One author	(Ahmed 2022) or Ahmed (2022) argued…
Two authors	(Garcia and Lee 2020)
Three or more authors	(Patel et al. 2018)
Group author	(World Health Organization 2021)
No author — use title	(Citation Practices in Education 2019)
Multiple sources	(Ahmed 2022; Garcia and Lee 2020)
Direct quotation	(Miller 2019, p. 45)
Secondary citation	(Brown 1995, cited in Ahmed 2022)

Note: Harvard uses no comma between author and year: (Ahmed 2022), not (Ahmed, 2022). This is a primary distinction from APA. For direct quotations always include page numbers.

Reference List Examples

Examples below follow a common UK Harvard format (similar to Cite Them Right). Institutional variations may occur.

Source Type	Format	Example
Book	Author, A.A. (Year) Title: Subtitle. Edition. Place: Publisher.	Creswell, J.W. (2014) Research Design. 4th edn. London: SAGE Publications.
Book chapter	Author, A.A. (Year) 'Chapter title'. In: Editor (ed.) Book Title. Place: Publisher, pp. x–x.	Bjork, R.A. (1989) 'Retrieval inhibition'. In: Roediger, H.L. (ed.) Varieties of Memory. Hillsdale: Erlbaum, pp. 309–330.
Journal article	Author, A.A. (Year) 'Article title'. Journal Name, Vol(Issue), pp. x–x.	Maddux, W.W. (2011) 'Creativity and learning'. Psychological Science, 22(6), pp. 753–761.
Journal (online)	Author, A.A. (Year) 'Article title'. Journal Name [Online], Vol(Issue), pp. x–x. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).	Maddux, W.W. (2011) 'Creativity'. Psychological Science [Online], 22(6). Available at: https://doi.org/xxx (Accessed: 1 June 2024).
Thesis	Author, A.A. (Year) Title. Type, Institution.	Harris, L. (2014) Instructional Leadership. PhD thesis, University of Michigan.
Webpage	Author/Organization (Year) Title [Online]. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).	WHO (2023) Mental Health [Online]. Available at: https://www.who.int (Accessed: 10 Jan 2024).
YouTube	Creator (Year) Title [Online video]. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).	TED (2009) Do Schools Kill Creativity? [Online video]. Available at: https://youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY (Accessed: 5 Mar 2024).
AI tool	Developer (Year) Tool Name [AI language model]. Version. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).	OpenAI (2023) ChatGPT [AI language model]. GPT-4. Available at: https://chat.openai.com (Accessed: 10 Nov 2023).

Figures & Tables

Label figures below: 'Figure 1: Description (Source: Author Year).'
Label tables above: 'Table 1: Description.'
Include a full reference in the reference list.
Reproduced figures should include: 'Reproduced with permission from Author (Year).'
Adapted figures: 'Adapted from Author (Year).'

Formatting Rules

Heading: 'Reference List' — new page
Order: Alphabetical by first author's surname
Indent: Hanging indent
Author names: Surname, Initials — e.g., Ahmed, M.A.
Year: In parentheses immediately after author name — (2022)
Titles: Books and journals in italics; articles and chapters in single quotation marks
Online: Add [Online] and '(Accessed: Day Month Year)' for web sources

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