There are a number of variations of the Harvard referencing style.

There are two parts to referencing:

1.The citation is included in the text. It shows that what you have written is not your own idea (or research). If you do not correctly cite other people’s work, you are plagiarising.

2.The reference is included in a list at the end (or sometimes as a footnote to the page). It gives the full details of what you have cited, so that someone else can read what you have read.

Making quotations in your text

Direct quotations

This is when you copy a sentence or paragraph that someone else has written. Short quotations must be enclosed within quotation marks (“ ”).

Short quotations of up to 2 lines should be included in the body of the text:

Murray (2002) states that: “The pros and cons of each form of doctorate will no doubt continue to be hotly debated.” (p. 28)

Longer quotations should be indented in a separate paragraph:

Murray (2002) describes the drawing together of an argument thus:

In the doctoral process ideas flow freely and even the writing can be free of structure at many stages. However, there is a need to block the free-flow and design an endpoint to the thesis or a part of the thesis. Like a clot, closure can be dissolved. An argument may be revised in light of events and feedback. (p. 174)

Indirect quotations

If there are two or three authors, all should be included. If there are more than three authors, the first is stated followed by “et al.”

Examples

Smith and Jones (2002) discovered . . .

In 2002 Smith, Jones and Wilson demonstrated . . .

A recent study (Smith et al., 2002) shows . . .

The references are listed in alphabetical order by author surname. Different types of material are referenced in different ways.

To reference a book

Books are one of the easiest items to reference, as all the information that you need is usually included in the title page of the book. For each reference, you should include the following information:

Authors/Editors

Surname first, followed by initials.

If the book has an editor or editors, this must be signified by using “(ed.)” after their name.

Date 

The date follows the author(s), in brackets.

Title

State the full title, including subtitle if there is one, as given on the title-page of the book.

The title should be in italics in order to distinguish it from other information.

Edition

Include the edition number if it is not the first.

Other Publication Details

Place of publication, followed by a colon (:) then publisher.

Example

Pilcher, J. (2002) Age and Generation in Modern Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

To reference a journal article

Author

Use the same style as before: author’s surname, followed by initials.

Date

Give the year of the article in brackets after the author’s name.

Article title

State the full title of the article, as given at the beginning of the article.

Journal title

State the full title of the journal, as given on the front cover. Do not use abbreviations. The journal title should be in italics.

Other details

Volume numbers should be as stated on the journal, and the issue number (if there is one) should be in brackets. Give the start and finish page-numbers.

Example

Matthews, H. (1999) “The Geography of Children: Some methodological considerations for project work and dissertation work.” Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 22(3), 311-324

To reference a website

A website should be cited in the same way as a book (give your reader as much detail as is available – do not simply copy and paste the web address). As well as stating when the website was published, you must also note when you accessed it. You should also give the location of the document.

Example 

Brunel Library (2012) Searching the library catalogue [www] Available from: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/library/guides/skills/guide3.html [Accessed 20 July 2012]

Berado, K. & Simons, G. (2004) “The Intercultural Profession.” Available from: www.sietar-europa.org/research.htm [Accessed: 29 February 2012]