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A Short Guide to Harvard Referencing

Bridget Gevaux • 25 November 2019

Writing your thesis - How to set out Harvard referencing

When proofreading academic papers, I am often asked to check in-text references and the bibliography, and to check that they follow the proper format. As you know, there are various referencing styles that academic institutions follow, such as Harvard, APA, MLA, but the most common is the Harvard style. Many times, I come across discrepancies in reference formatting, so I thought I would put together a brief illustration of how to set out Harvard referencing, both in-text and in the reference list. Please check out my student proofreading services.

How to format in-text references using Harvard style

In-text referencing should be kept brief. It is intended only to identify the source of the idea you are using, and to direct the reader to the source information, which is in the list of references at the end of your paper. The format for in-text references is as follows:

(Author surname, Year) e.g. (Jones, 2014)

Or, when you are quoting text, you should also include the page number(s):

(Author surname, Year: Page number) e.g. (Jones, 2014: 79-82)

If there are two or more authors in a work, then rather than name all the authors we say et al . I often come across confusion when writing this, so just a brief explanation. The term et al . is short for et alia , which is Latin for ‘and others’. There should ALWAYS be a full stop after et al. as this denotes the shortened term of alia . So, in an in-text reference this would be (Peters et al., 1980). I have italicised the term et al . here, but it is not necessary to do so in your own documents.

You will note that I have written these references out using a comma after the author’s surname. This is usual practice. However, the house style of some academic institutions may not require the comma, in which case the reference would be written as follows: (Jones 2014).

However, whichever style you use, the most important thing to remember is to remain consistent throughout. And remember, footnotes and references are important components of your dissertation or thesis and they should also be proofread to check for spelling, punctuation and formatting errors.

How to format a list of references

The list of references is set out in alphabetical order. When there are more than one author, the names are also listed alphabetically.

Author, A. (Year of publication) Book Title . Place of publication: Publisher

e.g. Jones, B. (2014) Philosophy in the 20th Century. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

This, of course, is a very brief description. However, a very good point of reference is the University of Essex, which has provided an excellent guide to the Harvard style, as follows:

https://library.aru.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm

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