Citation guides

Harvard Referencing: The Complete Guide with Examples (2026)

Harvard referencing: in-text citations, reference lists and examples for common source types, including books, journals, websites and reports.

Harvard referencing is a citation system used at many universities in the UK, Australia and Scandinavia. It is an author-date style: you cite sources in the body of your text using the author's surname and the year of publication, then give full details in a reference list at the end.

This guide covers common source types: books, journal articles, websites, reports, theses, newspaper articles, and a few more. Use it as a reference alongside the Harvard reference generator, which formats references automatically from a URL or DOI.

The examples follow Cite Them Right, 13th edition (2025), the Harvard version that many UK university guides use. A university that still uses the 12th edition or its own variant can differ in details such as place of publication, so check your own guide. Some authors, titles and web addresses in the examples are invented, to show the format.

How Harvard referencing works

Every Harvard citation has two parts that must match each other:

• In-text citation: a short marker in the body of your text that points the reader to the source: (Smith, 2021) or Smith (2021).
• Reference list entry: the full bibliographic details at the end of your work, listed alphabetically by the first author's surname.

Every source you cite in your text must appear in the reference list, and every entry in your reference list must be cited somewhere in your text. If you read something for background but did not cite it, it goes in a bibliography (if your institution requires one), not the reference list.

In-text citations

The in-text citation goes either in parentheses at the end of the relevant sentence, or woven into the sentence itself with the author's name outside the brackets.

One author

Two authors

Cite Them Right writes "and" both inside the brackets and in running text. Some university variants use an ampersand (&) inside the brackets.

Four or more authors

Cite Them Right uses "et al." from four authors onwards in the in-text citation; with three, name all of them: (Fossum, Skantz and Katzeff, 1997). List all authors in full in the reference list.

No date

Write "no date" when a publication date cannot be established, as Cite Them Right does. Some university guides shorten it to "n.d.", and Swedish ones use "u.å." (utan år).

Direct quotation

Cite Them Right gives the page after a comma with "p." (or "pp." for a range), as APA does. Some older Harvard variants write a colon instead: (Smith, 2021: 42). For a paraphrase, page numbers are optional but recommended.

Multiple sources in one citation

List multiple sources inside one pair of parentheses, separated by semicolons, in alphabetical or chronological order depending on your university's preference.

Same author, same year

Add a lowercase letter after the year. Use the same letter in the reference list entry.

The reference list

The reference list starts on a new page at the end of your work, headed "References" (or "Reference list"). Entries are listed alphabetically by the first author's surname, then by year for multiple works by the same author. Do not number entries or use bullet points.

Books

Book: standard format

Cite Them Right 13th edition no longer includes the place of publication for books. The 12th edition and many university guides still write it before the publisher (Place of publication: Publisher), so add it if your university asks for it.

Book with two authors

Book with three or more authors

Edited book

Chapter in an edited book

Note: the chapter title goes in single quotation marks; the book title is in italics.

Later edition

Ebook with DOI

Journal articles

Journal article: standard format

No DOI, freely available online

Journal article with many authors

Cite Them Right uses "et al." in the in-text citation from four authors. In the reference list, Cite Them Right guides at some universities allow the first author followed by "et al." from four authors, while others ask for every author. Follow your university's guide.

Websites

Website: standard format

Cite Them Right asks for an accessed date for web pages and other online sources you find by URL. It is not needed when you cite a source with a DOI.

Website with no date

Reports and government documents

Newspaper and magazine articles

Newspaper article in print

Newspaper article online

Theses and dissertations

YouTube and online videos

The channel is the author. The upload date replaces the standard year-only format. See the full guide on citing YouTube videos.

Social media

Check your university's Cite Them Right guide for the exact form, since guides differ on details such as where the platform name goes.

Lecture notes and course materials

Secondary citations

A secondary citation is when you cite a source you read about in another work, rather than reading the original yourself. Avoid this wherever possible: find and read the original. If unavoidable:

Quick-reference: in-text citation formats

Common mistakes in Harvard referencing

• Inconsistent punctuation. Harvard has no single standard; your university's guide is the rule. Pick one and apply it consistently throughout your work.
• Missing the accessed date for websites. Cite Them Right asks for an accessed date on web sources found by URL. It is not needed when you cite with a DOI.
• Using "et al." where your university wants every author. Cite Them Right guides at some universities allow the first author followed by "et al." in the reference list from four authors, while others ask for all authors. Check which applies.
• Mixing editions. Cite Them Right 13th edition dropped the place of publication for books, while the 12th edition and many university guides still include it. Follow the edition your university names.
• Treating a paraphrase as if it needs no citation. Any idea that is not your own needs a citation, whether you quote it directly or restate it in your own words.
• Mixing up the reference list and bibliography. A reference list contains only cited sources; a bibliography may include background reading. Your assignment brief will specify which is required.
• Putting article titles in italics. In Harvard, article titles go in single quotation marks. Italics are for the title of a whole work, such as a journal, book, report or web page.

The fastest way to avoid all of these is to let a tool handle the formatting. Paste any URL, DOI or ISBN into the Harvard reference generator and CitApp fetches the metadata and produces a correctly formatted entry in seconds.