Citation guides

Harvard Referencing: The Complete Guide with Examples (2026)

Everything you need to know about Harvard referencing — in-text citations, reference lists, and examples for every source type including books, journals, websites, reports and more.

Harvard referencing is the citation system used at most British, Australian and Scandinavian universities — including the vast majority of Swedish institutions. 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 every source type you are likely to encounter: books, journal articles, websites, reports, theses, newspaper articles, and more. Use it as a reference alongside the Harvard reference generator, which formats references automatically from a URL or DOI.

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

Use an ampersand (&) inside parentheses; use "and" when the names appear in running text.

Three or more authors

Most Harvard guides use "et al." from three authors onwards in the in-text citation. List all authors in full in the reference list.

No date

Write "n.d." (no date) when a publication date cannot be established. Some Swedish university guides use "u.å." (utan år).

Direct quotation

Harvard uses a colon before the page number (not "p." as in APA). 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

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

List all authors in the reference list regardless of how many there are. Only abbreviate to "et al." in the in-text citation.

Websites

Website: standard format

Harvard always requires an accessed date for websites — this is one of the clearest differences from APA and MLA, both of which make it optional.

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

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. Unlike APA and MLA, Harvard requires an accessed date on every web source without exception.
• Using "et al." in the reference list. "et al." is only for in-text citations. Every author must be listed in full in the reference list.
• Forgetting the place of publication for books. APA 7 and MLA 9 both dropped it; most Harvard guides kept it. Check your university's style.
• 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, only the journal name (and book titles) are italicised. Article titles go in single quotation marks.

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.