Referencing guide
Harvard Referencing Made Simple (with Examples)
A clear guide to the Harvard author-date style used by most UK, Australian and African universities.
JW
Dr. James Whitfield
· 7 min read
'Harvard' is a family of author-date styles rather than one fixed standard, so always check your university's own guide first. The examples below follow the widely used Cite Them Right version.
In-text citations
- Paraphrase: (Smith, 2021) or Smith (2021) argues that...
- Quotation: (Smith, 2021, p. 14).
- Two or three authors: (Smith, Patel and Ochieng, 2021).
- Four or more authors: (Smith et al., 2021).
- Several sources: (Brown, 2019; Smith, 2021), in chronological or alphabetical order as your guide specifies.
Reference-list formats
Journal article
Smith, J. and Patel, R. (2021) 'Feedback literacy in higher education', Studies in Higher Education, 46(5), pp. 1023-1037. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.0000000.
Book
Brown, L.K. (2020) Research methods for the social sciences. 3rd edn. London: Sage.
Web page
World Health Organization (2023) Mental health at work. Available at: https://www.who.int/ (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
Key differences from APA
- In the reference list, Harvard has no full stop after the year, e.g. Smith, J. (2021) Title... (APA writes Smith, J. (2021). Title...).
- Two or three authors are joined with 'and' rather than APA's '&'.
- Article titles go in single quotation marks; book and journal titles are italicised.
- Online sources usually include an 'Accessed' date.
- The list is titled 'Reference list' (or 'Bibliography' if it includes works you read but did not cite).