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How to... use the Harvard reference system

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Article Sections

What is the Harvard reference system?
Elements of a Harvard-style reference
An interactive demonstration
References within the text
Using bibliographic software

In this section

The basic structure
Putting references in order
How to cite different source types:
Some guidelines to remember for all source types

Elements of a Harvard-style reference

The basic structure

List alphabetically by lead author's surname (i.e. the surname that appears first in the work quoted).

While conventions of use of italics, quotations etc. will vary according to the media, the basic structure is as follows:

Surname, initials
(year of publication)
Title
Publisher, place of publication, journal, etc.
Exact reference.

Putting references in order

Entries should follow alphabetical order of author surname.

If there is more than one entry by the same author, put them in date order of publication.
If an author wrote more than one of your references in a single year, then use 2000a, 2000b, etc.

References by more than one author always follow single author references.

Three authors follows two, four authors follows three and so on.
Sort alphabetically using lead author's surname first, then second author, then third author etc.
Sorting by names in this way is more important than sorting by date.

Punctuation should be as follows:

for two authors, separate by "and", without a comma
for multiple authors, separate by a comma, but the last name should be linked by "and" without the comma.

Example

Richardson, A. (1988)
Richardson, A. (1989a)
Richardson, A. (1989b)

Richardson, A. and Brown, B., (1988)
Richardson, A. and Smith, S., (1986)
Richardson, A., Brown, B. and Smith, S. (1983)

Ingram, T.N., Schwepker, C.H. and Hutson, D. (1992)
Ingram, T.N., Laforge, R.W., Schwepker, C.H. Jr, Avila, R.A. and Williams, M.R. (1997)
Ingram, T.N., Laforge, R.W., Avila, R.A. and Schwepker, C.H. Jr and Williams, M.R. (2001)

How to cite different source types

Books

Surname, initials
(year of publication)
Title
Edition
Publisher
Place of publication.

Example

Abbott, A. (1988), System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor , University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

Patton, M.Q. (1990), Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods , 2nd ed., Sage, Newbury Park, CA.

A chapter from an edited book

Surname, A.N.
(year of publication)
"Title of chapter"
in Editor surname, initials (Ed.)
Title of Book
Edition
Publisher
Place of publication
Chapter page numbers.

Example

Bourdieu, P.(1977), "The forms of capital", in Richardson, J.G. (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Greenwood Press, New York, NY, pp. 311-56.

A translated work

Surname, A.N.
(year of publication)
Title of Book
Edition
Translated by Translator name, initials
Publisher
Place of publication.

Example

Bourdieu, P. (1977), Outline of a Theory of Practice, translated by Nice, R., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Journal articles

Surname, A.N.
(year of publication)
"Article title"
Journal Title
Volume number, Issue number (if it exists)
Article page numbers.

Example

Baron, R.M. and Kenny, D.A. (1986), "The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 51, pp. 1173-82.

Guthrie, J. and Parker, L. (1997) "Editorial: Celebration, reflection and a future: a decade of AAAJ", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal , Vol. 10 No.1, pp. 3-8

Electronic sources

NB this refers to a source which is only available electronically, and not to sources which you may have accessed electronically but which are also available in print form, such as an article from an Emerald journal accessed via the Web.

These follow the same convention of referencing as for printed sources, but include elements unique to the Web:

Name
(year of publication)
"Article title"
available at: full url
(accessed date)

For the last two elements, please try to remember the following conventions:

When giving the url, "http://" should only be included if the address does not include "www"
(accessed date) is important because of the lack of permanence of Internet sites.

Example

Better Business Bureau (2001), "Third-party assurance boosts online purchasing", available at: http://bbbonline.org/about/press/2001/101701.asp (accessed 7 January 2002).

Hummingbird (2002), Hummingbird corporate website, available at: www.hummingbird.com (accessed 2 January 2002).

Leeds Metropolitan University (2002), "Business Start-Up@Leeds Met", available at: www.lmu.ac.uk/city/bus_startup.htm

Pitkow, J. and Kehoel, C. (1997), "GVU's WWW user surveys", available at: www.gvu.gatech.edu

Ballantyne, D. (2000), "Dialogue and knowledge generation: two sides of the same coin in relationship marketing", paper presented at the 2nd WWW Conference on Relationship Marketing, November 1999-February 2000, Monash University and MCB University Press, available at: www.mcb.co.uk/services/conferen/nov99/rm/paper3.html

An electronic journal would be referenced as follows:

Surname, A.N.
(year of publication)
"Article title"
Journal Title
Volume number, Issue number
Article page numbers
Available at: url
(accessed date)

Example

Swaminathan, V., Lepkoswka-White, E. and Rao, B.P. (1999), "Browsers or buyers in cyberspace? An investigation of electronic factors influencing electronic exchange", Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 5 No. 2, available at: www. ascusc.org/ jcmc/vol5/ issue2/

Conference papers

Some papers may not be published in journals but may be delivered at a conference and then published as part of the proceedings of that conference, in which case, use one of the following styles as appropriate.

Example

Lodi, E., Veseley, M. and Vigen, J. (2000), "Link managers for grey literature", New Frontiers in Grey Literature, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Grey Literature, Washington, DC, October 4-5, 1999, GreyNet, Amsterdam, pp. 116-34.

Naude, P. and Holland, C. (1998), "Marketing in the information domain", in Halinen-Kaila, A. and Nummela, N. (Eds), Interaction, Relationships and Networks: Visions for the Future, Proceedings of the 14th Annual IMP Conference, pp. 245-62.

Stauss, B. and Weinlich, B. (1995), "Process-oriented measurement of service quality by applying the sequential incident technique", paper presented at the Fifth Workshop on Quality Management in Services, EIASM, Tilburg.

Strandvik, T. and Storbacka, K. (1996), "Managing relationship quality", paper presented at the QUIS5 Quality in Services Conference, University of Karlstad, Karlstad.

As you see, some of the above references give the date of the conference, others do not; if in doubt, follow the convention used by the conference.

Government or commercial reports

Particularly when writing a case study, you may want to refer to company or government documents. In which case, the organization may become the author and the form of entry would be as follows:

Organization name
(year of publication)
Title of report
Publisher and place of publication (may be same as author).

Example

Apollo Enterprises (1993), Annual Report , p. 8.

Ernst and Ernst (1978), Social Responsibility Disclosure: 1978 Survey, Ernst and Ernst, Cleveland, OH.

Bank of England (2003), Quarterly Report on Small Business Statistics, Bank of England, London.

Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) (2002), White Paper on Enterprise, Skills and Innovation, DTI, London.

European Commission (1998), Fostering Entrepreneurship in Europe: Priorities for the Future, European Commission, Brussels.

Yorkshire Forward (1999), Regional Economic Strategy, Yorkshire Forward, Leeds.

Some guidelines to remember for all source types

If all the above seems complicated, it's worth remembering that the Harvard system is actually quite logical. Bear in mind the following guidelines:

The entry always begins with the author's surname, followed by initials, followed by the date in brackets.
Authors' surnames and initials are always inverted, i.e. Other, A.N. (whether you are referring to the author of an article/chapter, or the editor of the work within which the work is found).
If more than one entry by the same author, put in order of dates.
Publications, whether book or journal titles, are always in italic, with significant words only capitalized. Make sure that the journal title is exactly the same, e.g. use of &/and.
Excerpts from publications, i.e. book chapters, journal articles, always come in "quotes", with only the first word, proper names, and German nouns, capitalized.
The name of the publisher is shown before the place of publication (as it would be in an address). Abbreviations for US states should be in short capitalized form, e.g. CA, MA, rather than Ca., Mass., and should be added as necessary.
Electronic references follow the same conventions as printed ones, followed by "available at:" and the URL. Only retain "http://" if the address does NOT include www. Also, state the date when last accessed (accessed ...).
Use commas to separate elements of the entry.