Home Harvard Referencing

What is referencing?
Why reference?

Steps involved in referencing
How to cite references within the text of an assignment
How to create a reference list
Examples of types of printed references
Examples of types of electronic references
More information


What is referencing?

Referencing is a standardised method of acknowledging sources of information and ideas that you have used in your assignment, in a way that uniquely identifies their source. Direct quotations, facts and figures, as well as ideas and theories, from both published and unpublished works must be referenced. There are many acceptable forms of referencing. This information sheet shows the Harvard referencing style. In this system the author's name is given first, followed by the publication date within the text of the assignment. A reference list at the end of the assignment contains full details of all the in-text citations.

It is very important that you check your department's or school's assignment guide as some details, e.g. punctuation, may vary from the guidelines on this sheet. You may be penalised for not conforming to your school's requirements.

Why reference?

Referencing is necessary to avoid plagiarism; to enable the reader to verify quotations; and to enable readers to follow-up and read more fully the cited author's arguments.


Steps involved in referencing

  • Take down the full bibliographical details including the page number(s) from which the information is taken.

    In the case of a book, "bibliographical details" refers to:
         author/editor
         year of publication
         title
         edition
         volume number
         place of publication and publisher.
    (Not all of these details will necessarily be applicable).

    In the case of a journal article it refers to:
         author of article
         year of publication
         title of article
         journal/serial title
         volume number
         issue number
         page numbers on which the article appears.

    In the case of electronic information it refers to:
         author/editor
         year of publication
         article title
         journal title
         the type of medium (e.g. CD-ROM, Online, etc.)
         pages or length
         "Available" statement (e.g. WWW address, supplier and name of electronic database, Email address, etc.)
         access date
    (Not all of these details will necessarily be applicable.)

  • Insert the citation at the appropriate place within the text of the document (see examples below).

  • Provide a reference list at the end of the document (see examples below).
How to cite references within the text of an assignment

When citing references within the text of an assignment use only the name of the author, followed by the year of publication.

Larsen (1971) was the first to propound the theory.

OR

The theory was first propounded in 1970 (Larsen 1971).

When directly quoting from another source, ensure that quotation marks are used and the relevant page number(s) are given.

Larsen (1971, p. 245) noted that "many of the facts in this case are incorrect".

OR

"Many of the facts in this case are incorrect" (Larsen 1971, pp. 245-6).

Refer to Sections 14.70 - 14.74 of the AGPS Style Manual for more details on citing direct quotations.

Works with no author: When a work has no author (including legal materials) or the author is anonymous, cite in-text the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title) and the year. Use italics for the title as follows:

This was apparently not the case in seventeenth-century England (On Travelling to London 1683).

OR

On travelling to London (1683) reveals that this was not true.

Multiple authors: When a work by two or three authors is cited in parentheses, the textual reference should be as:

(Larsen & Green 1987)
(Larsen, Green & Withers 1987)

When the authors' names are incorporated in the text, the ampersand is replaced by 'and':

Larsen and Green (1987) were unable.... 
Larsen, Green and Withers (1987) agreed....

For a work that has more than three authors, only the surname of the first listed author is used, followed by the expression 'et al.' (or 'and others'). For example, a work by Larsen, Green, Withers and Gonzales becomes:

Larsen et al. (1987) have found....
....is the best example (Larsen et al. 1987).

Refer to Sections 9.24 - 9.52 of the AGPS Style Manual for more examples of in-text references.

Citing a Web site:To cite a Web page within the text of an assignment, give the address of the site (e.g. http://www.apa.org). To cite a document from a Web site you must follow the author/date format. In both cases an entry will still be required in the reference list.

How to create a Reference List

A list of references contains details only of those works cited in the text. If relevant sources that are not cited in the text are included, the list is called a bibliography.

The Reference List is arranged alphabetically by author. Where an item has no author it is cited by its title, and ordered in the reference list or bibliography in sequence by the first significant word of the title.

The Harvard style requires the second and subsequent lines of the reference to be indented, as shown below, to highlight the alphabetical order.

Examples of types of printed references:


Articles/chapters in book:

Bibliographic details are arranged in the sequence:

author of chapter
year of publication
chapter title
title of book
editor(s) of book
publisher
place of publication
article or chapter pages

Article or chapter in a book

Blaxter, M. 1976. 'Social class and health inequalities', in Equalities and Inequalities in Health, eds C. Carter & J. Peel, Academic Press, London, pp.120-135.

Article or chapter in a book (no author)

'Solving the Y2K problem' 1997, in Technology Today and Tomorrow, ed. D. Bowd, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, p. 27.

Article in an encyclopaedia

Stafford-Clark, D. 1987. 'Mental disorders and their treatment', in The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 5th edn., vol. 23, Chicago, Encyclopaedia Britannica, pp. 956-975.


Book
Bibliographic details are arranged in the sequence:

author/ editor(s)
year of publication
title of book
edition of book
publisher
place of publication

Book with a single author

Adam-Smith, P. 1978. The ANZACS, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne.

Book with 2 authors

Butler, J. D. & Walbert, D.F. (eds) 1986. Abortion, Medicine and the Law, Facts on File Publications, New York.

Book with 3 or more authors

Leeder, S. R., Dobson, A. J., Gibberd, R. W. & Patel, N. K. 1996. The Australian Film Industry, Dominion Press, Adelaide.

Book with no author (note edition)

The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary 1992. 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.

Refer to Sections 9.57 - 9.99 of the AGPS Style Manual for more examples of references to books.


Government and Parliamentary Publications

Act of Parliament

Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth), ss. 1-3.

Australian Bureau of Statistics bulletin

Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1985. Domestic travel and tourism survey, Australia, 1983, Cat. no. 9216.0, ABS, Canberra.

Government report

Office of the Status of Women 1981. Fair Exposure, AGPS, Canberra.

Refer to Sections 9.125 - 9.132 of the AGPS Style Manual for more examples of references to government and parliamentary publications.


Journal Article
Bibliographic details are arranged in the sequence:

author of journal article
year of publication
article title
title of journal
volume of journal
issue number of journal
article pages

Journal article

Dewhirst, C. 1986. 'Hot air over the Himalayas', World Geographic, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 44-45.

Journal article (no author)

'Anorexia nervosa' 1969. British Medical Journal, 1, 529-530.

Newspaper article

Legge, K. 1987. 'Labor to cost the "Keating Factor"', Times on Sunday, 1 Feb., p. 2.

Refer to Sections 9.100 - 9.116 of the AGPS Style Manual for more examples of references to journal articles.


More than one item by the same author published in the same year

Dewhirst, C. 1986a. 'Hot air over the Himalayas', World Geographic, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 44-45.

Dewhirst, C. 1986b. 'Cold water around the Antarctic', World Geographic, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 32-39.


ERIC Document (microfiche)

Davis, R.K. & Lombardi, T.P. 1996. 'The quality of life of rural high school special education graduates: A follow-up study', in Rural Goals 2000: Building Programs that Work [Microfiche]. Available: ERIC Document: ED394765.


Personal Conversation

Doe, J., Lecturer at Durban Institute of Technology 2002. Conversation with the author, 14 Apr.


Videorecording

Apartheid did not Die (video recording) 1998. London, Carlton International, Written and produced by John Pilger.


Journal Article
Bibliographic details are arranged in the sequence:

author of journal article
year of publication
article title
title of journal
type of medium (use "Electronic" if you are unsure if it is online or networked CD-ROM)
volume of journal
issue number of journal
article pages or indication of length
"available" statement: supplier/database name/identifier or number if available/item or accession number
access date

Journal article abstract from Electronic Database

Ryles, R. 1996. [Abstract of 'The impact of braille reading skills on employment, income, education and reading habits', Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, vol. 90, no. 3, pp. 219-226], [Electronic], Available: Silver Platter File: CINAHL/1996036756 [1997, June 7].

Full text journal article from CD-ROM (BPO)

La Rosa, S.M. 1992. 'Marketing slays the downsizing dragon', Information Today, [CD-ROM], vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 58-59, Available: UMI/Business Periodicals Ondisc/92-20889 [1999, Jan. 15].

Full text journal article from Electronic Database

Sale, P. & Carey, D.M. 1995. 'The sociometric status of students with disabilities in a full inclusion school', Exceptional Children [Electronic], vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 6-22, Available: Information Access/Expanded Academic ASAP/A17435391 [1998, June 12].

Fulltext journal article from an Electronic Journal

Skargren, E. I. & Öberg, B. 1998. 'Predictive factors for 1-year outcome of low-back and neck pain in patients treated in primary care: comparison between the treatment strategies chiropractic and physiotherapy', Pain [Electronic], vol. 77, no. 2, 201(7pp.), Available: Elsevier/ScienceDirect/S0304- 3959(98)00101-8 [1999, Feb. 8].

Article from Curtin Electronic Reserve

Avgerou, C, Siemer, J. & Bjørn-Anderson, N. 1999. 'The academic field of information systems in Europe', European Journal of Information Systems [Electronic], vol. 8, pp. 136-153, Available: Curtin University Library and Information Service E-Reserve/dc60005019 [2001, Jan. 22].


Electronic Mail
E-mail (Personal)

Corliss, B. 1999. News from Seattle, E-mail to X.Li (xli@uvmvm.uvm.edu), 13 Jan. [1999, Jan. 15].

Discussion List

Berkowitz, P. 1995. April 3, 'Sussy's gravestone', Mark Twain Forum [Online], Apr. 3, Available E-mail: TWAIN-L@yorkvm1.bitnet [1995, Apr. 3].


World Wide Web

World Wide Web page

Beckleheimer, J. 1994, How do you cite URL's in a bibliography? [Online], Available: http://www.nrlssc.navy.mil/meta/ bibliography.html [1995, Dec. 13].

World Wide Web page (no author)

Educating America for the 21st century: Developing a strategic plan for educational leadership for Columbia University, 1993-2000 (Initial workshop draft) 1994 [Online], Available: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/CONF/ EdPlan.html [2001, May 16].

World Wide Web page (no publication date)

Prizker, T.J. n.d., An early fragment from central Nepal, [Online], Available: http://www.ingress.com/~astanart/pritker/ pritzker.html [2000, Dec. 12].

 

More information

For more detailed information about the Harvard referencing system, and many more examples, refer to:

Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers 1994. 5th edn, AGPS, Canberra.

Detailed information about referencing electronic sources can be found in:

Li, X. & Crane, N. B. 1996. Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information, 2nd edn, Information Today, Medford, N.J.

The examples in this guide have been adapted to the Harvard format from this source.

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