Can I cite lecture slides or course materials in Harvard?

You can, but it is not ideal. Lecture slides are not peer-reviewed, cannot always be accessed by your reader, and citing them signals to markers that you are relying on secondary summaries rather than primary sources. If the lecture introduced you to a concept or source, find and cite the original source the lecturer was drawing from. If you must cite the slides: Lecturer Surname, Initial. (Year) *Title of Lecture* [PowerPoint presentation]. Module name. University name. Available at: URL or VLE platform (Accessed: date). Some universities specify the format for this in their Harvard guide.

Harvard Citation Guide

Q: What is the difference between Harvard and APA referencing?

Both are author-date styles, but the differences are specific and consistent. Harvard uses 'and' between authors in text; APA uses '&' inside parentheses and 'and' in narrative citations. Harvard puts article titles in single quotation marks; APA puts them in plain text. Harvard italicises book and journal titles; APA does the same, but uses sentence case for all titles while Harvard uses sentence case for article/book titles and title case for journal names. APA requires a DOI as a hyperlink; Harvard formats it as 'Available at: https://doi.org/...' Harvard has no standardised edition — Cite Them Right is the most common UK guide. APA is published by the American Psychological Association and has a single authoritative edition (currently 7th).

Q: Do I use 'and' or '&' between authors in Harvard referencing?

Harvard uses 'and' — not '&'. Write (Smith and Jones, 2021) in-text and Smith, J. and Jones, K. (2021) in the reference list. The ampersand is an APA convention. Switching between the two is one of the most common errors students make when working across referencing styles. Some institutional variants (notably Anglia Ruskin) do use '&' — check your institution's specific guide before you assume.

Q: How do I cite a source with no author in Harvard?

Use the title as the author substitute. In-text, use a shortened version of the title in italics if it is a stand-alone work (book, website, report), or in single quotation marks if it is an article or chapter. For example: (*A Guide to Urban Planning*, 2020) or ('Urban planning trends', 2020). In the reference list, begin the entry with the title in full. Alphabetise it by the first significant word of the title — ignoring 'A', 'An', or 'The' at the start.

Q: How do I cite a source with no date in Harvard?

Use 'no date' in both the in-text citation and the reference list entry. In-text: (Smith, no date). Reference list: Smith, J. (no date) *Title of Work*. Place: Publisher. Do not guess or approximate. If the webpage has been updated or reviewed without a clear publication date, use the review/update date if one is given, and note it. If truly no date is available, 'no date' is the correct term — not 'n.d.' which is an APA convention, though some institutions accept both.

Q: What is Cite Them Right and does my university use it?

Cite Them Right (authored by Richard Pears and Graham Shields) is the most widely adopted Harvard referencing guide in UK higher education. Most UK universities either use Cite Them Right directly or base their own institutional Harvard variant on it. The 12th edition (2022) is current. Many university libraries provide access to Cite Them Right Online (citethemrightonline.com) through their library portal — check your library's referencing resources page. If your institution does not specify a Harvard variant, Cite Them Right is the safest default.

Q: Do I need an accessed date for online sources in Harvard?

Yes, for most online sources. Format: (Accessed: 15 January 2025). The accessed date is required because web content can change or disappear. When a DOI is available, some institutions (including Cite Them Right) consider an accessed date unnecessary — the DOI is a permanent identifier. When only a URL is available, the accessed date is always required. Check your institution's specific guidance on this, because practice varies between Leeds Harvard, Anglia Ruskin Harvard, and Cite Them Right.

Q: How do I cite the same author twice in the same year in Harvard?

Add a lowercase letter after the year — a, b, c — in both the in-text citation and the reference list entry. For example: (Smith, 2021a) and (Smith, 2021b). In the reference list, list the two entries chronologically by publication month if known, or alphabetically by title if months are the same. Apply the same letter suffixes consistently: the 'a' source in text must match the 'a' entry in the reference list.

Q: What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography in Harvard?

Technically, a reference list contains only sources you cited in your text. A bibliography includes sources you consulted during research but did not explicitly cite — background reading, for example. Harvard referencing produces a reference list by default. Some institutions and some disciplines ask for a bibliography instead, or both. Check your assignment guidelines. If your guidelines say 'reference list', include only cited sources. If they say 'bibliography', include everything you read and used, whether cited or not.

Q: How do I cite a chapter in an edited book in Harvard?

Cite the chapter author, not the book editor, as the primary author. Format: Chapter Author(s) (Year) 'Chapter title in single quotes', in Editor(s) (ed./eds.) *Book Title in Italics*. Place: Publisher, pp. x–x. Example: Brown, A. (2019) 'Memory and emotion', in Smith, J. and Jones, K. (eds.) *Handbook of Cognitive Psychology*. London: Routledge, pp. 45–67. The in-text citation uses the chapter author's surname: (Brown, 2019).

HARVARD REFERENCING · CITATION FORMAT · ACADEMIC WRITING

How to Format References Across Every Subject

In-text citations, reference list rules, and correct formatting for books, journals, websites, legislation, film, reports, and secondary sources — including how institutional Harvard variants differ and which one actually governs your submission.

22–26 min read Undergraduate & Postgraduate Students Harvard Author-Date 4,500+ words

Custom University Papers Academic Writing Team

Practical Harvard referencing guidance drawing on Cite Them Right (Pears and Shields, 12th edn.), institutional Harvard variants from Leeds, Anglia Ruskin, and UWE, and the specific formatting rules that distinguish correct from incorrect across books, journals, legislation, audiovisual sources, and grey literature.

Harvard is not one thing. That is the first thing to understand. It is a family of author-date styles — and your university’s version is the only one that counts. A citation generator following a generic internet guide and your institution’s published Harvard handbook are often not the same. The difference is usually one punctuation mark, one italicised word, or one missing accessed date. Small errors, consistent across 30 references, add up fast. This guide covers the rules you actually need, source type by source type.

Harvard Author-Date In-Text Citations Reference List Books & Chapters Journal Articles Websites Legislation Film & Media Reports Secondary Sources Cite Them Right No Date Sources

What This Guide Covers

What Harvard Referencing Actually Is In-Text Citations — The Core Rules The Reference List — How It Works Books — All Variants Journal Articles Websites and Online Sources Reports, Government Documents, Grey Literature Legislation and Legal Sources Film, TV, and Audiovisual Media Secondary Sources No Date, No Author, No Page Number Subject-Specific and Institutional Variations Common Errors That Cost Marks Frequently Asked Questions

What Harvard Referencing Actually Is

No single organisation owns Harvard referencing. Unlike APA (published by the American Psychological Association) or OSCOLA (published by Oxford University), Harvard is a style convention — author-date in text, full detail in a reference list — that different publishers and institutions have codified differently. Knowing this matters because it means you cannot trust a random website’s Harvard guide. You need your institution’s version.

A Style Family, Not a Single Standard

Cite Them Right (Pears and Shields) is the most widely adopted guide in UK higher education. Leeds Harvard, Anglia Ruskin Harvard, and UWE Bristol Harvard are common institutional variants. They agree on most things and disagree on specifics — like whether to use “and” or “&” and whether accessed dates are required when a DOI is present.

Author-Date In Text, Full Detail In the List

Every Harvard citation has two parts. The in-text citation — (Smith, 2021) — signals the source and directs the reader to the reference list. The reference list entry gives everything else: full author name, full title, publisher, DOI or URL. One without the other is incomplete.

Alphabetical List, No Numbering

Harvard reference lists are alphabetical by first author surname. No numbers. No footnotes — that is OSCOLA or Chicago. No bullet points. Each entry has a hanging indent. The list is called a “reference list” when it contains only cited sources, or a “bibliography” when it includes background reading too.

In-Text Citations — The Core Rules

The in-text citation sits either in parentheses at the end of the relevant sentence or woven into the sentence itself as a narrative citation. Both are correct. The choice depends on whether the author’s name is doing grammatical work in your sentence.

Parenthetical: “Working memory capacity declines significantly under high cognitive load (Smith, 2021).” Narrative: “Smith (2021) found that working memory capacity declines significantly under high cognitive load.” The information is identical. The position changes based on sentence structure, not convention.

Situation	In-Text Format	Note
One author	`(Smith, 2021)`	Surname only, no initials.
Two authors	`(Smith and Jones, 2021)`	Use “and” — not “&”. Harvard is not APA.
Three or more authors	`(Smith et al., 2021)`	From the first citation. In the reference list, list all authors.
Direct quote — with page	`(Smith, 2021, p. 45)`	Page number required for all direct quotations.
Direct quote — no page (online)	`(Smith, 2021, para. 3)` or `(Smith, 2021, under 'Introduction')`	Use paragraph number or section heading when no page exists.
Two works, same parenthetical	`(Jones, 2020; Smith, 2021)`	Alphabetical by surname. Separated by semicolon.
Same author, same year, two works	`(Smith, 2021a; Smith, 2021b)`	Apply the same letter suffix in the reference list.
Organisation or corporate author	`(World Health Organisation, 2022)`	Full name unless an abbreviation is established: `(WHO, 2022)` after first use.
No author	`(Title of Work, 2021)`	Italicise if a stand-alone work. Single quotes if an article.
No date	`(Smith, no date)`	Not “n.d.” — that is APA. Some institutions accept both; check yours.
Secondary source	`(Brown, 2010, cited in Smith, 2021)`	Only Smith (2021) appears in your reference list.
Narrative citation, two authors	Smith and Jones (2021) found that…	“and” outside parentheses too. Never “&”.

Harvard Uses “and” — Not “&”

This is the most common error students make when switching from APA. In APA, “&” appears inside parentheses and “and” appears in narrative citations. In Harvard, “and” is used everywhere — both inside and outside parentheses, both in text and in the reference list. Some institutions (Anglia Ruskin is one) do use “&”. That is why checking your institution’s specific guide matters. But Cite Them Right — the most widely adopted UK standard — uses “and” throughout.

The Reference List — How It Works

Reference List Rules

Starts on a new page after the main text
Heading: “References” or “Reference List” — centred or left-aligned per institution
Alphabetical by first author’s surname, letter by letter
Hanging indent — first line flush left, subsequent lines indented
No numbering, no bullets, no bold on author names
Every in-text citation has one entry here
Every entry here is cited somewhere in the text
Same author, multiple works: oldest first, then chronological
Same author, same year: differentiate with a, b, c

Order of Elements — Standard Harvard

Author(s): Surname, Initial(s).
Year: (Year of publication).
Title: Italicised for books/reports. ‘Single quotes’ for articles/chapters.
Edition: Only if not first — 2nd edn., 3rd edn.
Place: City of publication.
Publisher: Publisher name.
DOI or URL: Available at: https://… (Accessed: date).

Not every element applies to every source type. The sections below show exactly which elements each source type requires.

1Alphabetical Order — Letter by Letter

Alphabetise by the first author’s surname, comparing letter by letter. “Macdonald” comes before “McKenzie” because “a” comes before “k”. Ignore “A”, “An”, and “The” at the beginning of a title when the title is acting as the author substitute. Corporate authors like government departments are alphabetised by the first significant word of the organisation name.

2Same Author, Multiple Works

List chronologically — oldest publication first, most recent last. If the same author has both sole-authored and co-authored works, sole-authored entries come first, then works with one co-author (alphabetical by the second author’s surname), then works with two or more co-authors.

3Same Author, Same Year

Add a lowercase letter immediately after the year: (2021a), (2021b). Apply the same suffix in the in-text citation and the reference list entry. If you know publication months, “a” goes to the earlier month. If months are identical or unknown, alphabetise by the first significant word of the title to assign a and b.

Reference List vs. Bibliography — Not Interchangeable

A reference list contains only sources you cited in your text. A bibliography includes everything you read during research, whether or not it was cited — background reading, consulted but not quoted sources, and so on. Most Harvard assignments ask for a reference list. If your guidelines say “bibliography”, include all consulted sources. If they say “reference list”, include only cited ones. When guidelines are silent, ask your tutor. Submitting one when the other was required is a formatting error.

Books — Single Author, Multiple Authors, Edited, Chapters, E-books

Books have more variants than any other source type. Get the anatomy right first, then the variations follow logically.

Author(s) — Surname, Initial(s).

Always surname first, then initials with a full stop after each. Two authors: Smith, J. and Jones, K. Three or more: Smith, J., Jones, K. and Brown, L. — list all of them in the reference list. Et al. is for in-text citations only.

Year in Parentheses — (2021)

Immediately after the author name(s), with a full stop after the closing parenthesis. If no date: (no date). If a reprint or new edition: (Original year/Reprint year) — e.g. (1958/2021).

Title in Italics — Sentence Case

Only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon are capitalised. “The psychology of everyday life: a practical guide” — that is correct sentence case. Title case (every major word capitalised) is wrong for book and article titles in Harvard.

Edition — Only If Not First

If this is the second or later edition, include it: 2nd edn. or 3rd edn. — abbreviated, after the title. If it is the first edition, nothing is needed. “1st edn.” is redundant and technically incorrect in Harvard.

Place: Publisher.

City of publication, colon, publisher name, full stop. In APA 7th edition, the city was dropped — Harvard still requires it. If multiple cities are listed on the title page, use the first one. If the city is not listed, use [no place].

Book Reference Examples — Harvard Format // Single author — print book Smith, J. (2021) The psychology of everyday decisions. London: Routledge. // Two authors Smith, J. and Jones, K. (2019) Research methods in social science. 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press. // Three or more authors — all listed in reference list Smith, J., Jones, K. and Brown, L. (2020) Cognitive behavioural therapy: theory and practice. London: Sage. // Edited book — (ed.) or (eds.) Williams, P. (ed.) (2018) Handbook of developmental psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. // Chapter in an edited book — cite the chapter author, not the editor, in text Brown, A. (2019) ‘Memory and emotion’, in Smith, J. and Jones, K. (eds.) Handbook of cognitive psychology. London: Routledge, pp. 45–67. // E-book with DOI Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2022) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 12th edn. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350945678 // E-book with URL only (no DOI) — accessed date required Jones, K. (2020) Urban planning in the 21st century. Available at: https://www.example.com/urban-planning (Accessed: 10 March 2024). // WRONG — do not use et al. in the reference list Smith, J. et al. (2020) Cognitive behavioural therapy: theory and practice. London: Sage. // Et al. is for in-text only. All authors go in the reference list.

Et al. Is for In-Text Citations Only

In the reference list, every author’s name is listed — regardless of how many there are. “Smith et al. (2020)” in your text becomes “Smith, J., Jones, K., Brown, L. and Williams, P. (2020)” in the reference list. Cutting the reference list entry to et al. is wrong in Harvard. It is also a practical problem: readers who want to locate the source need the full author list to search effectively.

Journal Articles

Journal articles have a specific anatomy that differs from books in three key ways: article titles go in single quotation marks (not italics), journal names are italicised (not article titles), and volume and issue numbers follow the journal name before the page range.

Sentence Case vs. Title Case — Where Each Applies

Article titles: sentence case — only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon are capitalised. ‘The effect of social media on adolescent self-esteem: a systematic review’ is correct.

Journal names: title case — every major word capitalised. Journal of Educational Psychology is correct. Getting these backwards is one of the most common journal reference errors.

DOI vs. URL — Always DOI First

Use a DOI whenever one is available. A DOI is a permanent identifier that will not break. A URL can change or disappear. Format DOIs as: Available at: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Cite Them Right does not require an accessed date when a DOI is present — the DOI makes the source permanently locatable. When only a URL is available, the accessed date is always required.

Journal Article Reference Examples — Harvard Format // Print journal article Brown, A. and Davies, R. (2020) ‘Social media use and adolescent wellbeing: a longitudinal study’, Journal of Adolescent Health, 67(3), pp. 312–319. // Online journal article — with DOI (preferred) Smith, J. (2022) ‘Cognitive load and working memory: revisiting Baddeley’s model’, Psychological Review, 129(4), pp. 541–558. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000342 // Online journal article — URL only (no DOI), accessed date required Jones, K. (2021) ‘Urban heat islands and public health in sub-Saharan Africa’, Environmental Health Perspectives, 129(2), pp. 45–58. Available at: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP7072 (Accessed: 20 January 2025). // Article with no volume or issue number Williams, P. (2023) ‘Remote work and employee burnout: early evidence’, Work and Stress, pp. 1–18. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2023.2234567 // WRONG — article title in italics, journal name not italicised Social media use and adolescent wellbeing, Journal of Adolescent Health, 67(3), pp. 312–319. // Article titles go in single quotes. Journal names are italicised. Never the other way around.

Websites and Online Sources

Websites are the source type with the most missing information — no author, no date, no page number. Each gap has a specific fix. The key is to capture every element that is available before concluding that something is genuinely missing.

Element 1

Author or Organisation

Who published this page? A named person gets surname and initial. An organisation gets its full name as the author. If no individual or organisation is identifiable, the page title becomes the author substitute.

Element 2

Year

Year the page was published or last updated. Check the page footer, the “About” section, or the URL for date clues. If genuinely none is available: “no date”.

Element 3

Title in Italics

Page or article title in italics, sentence case. If the webpage is part of a larger site, the page title goes in italics and the site name is added after: Page Title. Site Name.

Element 4

Available at: URL

Write the full URL in plain text — not as a hyperlink, not shortened. Available at: https://www.example.com/full-path. Do not use a URL shortener.

Element 5

(Accessed: date)

Day Month Year — (Accessed: 15 January 2025). Always required when citing from a URL. Not required if the source has a DOI. This documents the version of the page you read, since web content can change.

Common Problem

No Author, No Date

Start the reference with the page title. In-text: (Title of Page, no date). Reference list: Title of page (no date) Available at: URL (Accessed: date). If you cannot establish who published it or when, consider whether it is a reliable enough source to cite.

Website Reference Examples — Harvard Format // Named author, with date NHS (2023) Overview: depression. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/depression/overview/ (Accessed: 12 February 2025). // Named person as author Walker, M. (2022) Why sleep deprivation is destroying your brain. Matthew Walker. Available at: https://www.sleepdiplomat.com/blog/sleep-deprivation (Accessed: 5 March 2025). // No date World Bank (no date) Poverty overview. Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview (Accessed: 20 January 2025). // No author, no date — title as author substitute Guide to urban planning regulations (no date) Available at: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/guide (Accessed: 8 April 2025). // WRONG — no accessed date, URL as hyperlink only NHS (2023) Overview: depression. Click here // Write the full URL in plain text. Always include the accessed date when using a URL.

Wikipedia Is Not a Citable Academic Source

Not because it is always wrong — but because it is not peer-reviewed, can be edited by anyone, and is not a primary or secondary academic source. If Wikipedia’s reference list led you to something useful, go to that original source and cite it directly. Citing Wikipedia in a university assignment signals that you have not traced the evidence back to its actual source.

Reports, Government Documents, and Grey Literature

Grey literature — reports, policy documents, working papers, statistical releases — is widely cited in social sciences, public health, business, and policy-related subjects. These sources are citable. The key is identifying the correct author (often an organisation) and including any report series number.

Government Report

Department or Organisation as Author

Department for Education (2023) Schools, pupils and their characteristics: academic year 2022/23. Available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics (Accessed: 15 March 2025).

WHO / UN / NGO Report

International Organisation as Author

World Health Organisation (2023) World mental health report: transforming mental health for all. Geneva: World Health Organisation. Available at: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240049338 (Accessed: 10 January 2025).

Conference Paper

Author, Conference Name, Date, Pages

Brown, A. (2022) ‘AI governance in low-income economies’, Proceedings of the International Conference on Technology and Development, Nairobi, 14–16 September 2022, pp. 103–117.

Dissertation or Thesis

Author, Degree Type, University

Osei, K. (2023) The impact of mobile banking on financial inclusion in rural Ghana. PhD thesis. University of Ghana.

Statistical Release / Dataset

Publishing Body as Author, Dataset Title

Office for National Statistics (2024) Consumer price inflation, UK: December 2023 [Dataset]. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/december2023 (Accessed: 5 February 2025).

Legislation and Legal Sources

Most non-law students encounter legislation occasionally — a social policy essay citing the Children Act, a business paper referencing the Companies Act. Harvard handles this differently from OSCOLA. The rules are simpler. OSCOLA is the standard for law degrees — see the FAQ on this below.

UK Acts of Parliament

Act Title Year (year). Chapter number. Place: Publisher. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Example:

Children Act 1989 (c. 41). London: HMSO. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents (Accessed: 3 March 2025).

In text: (Children Act 1989). The title and year together form the unique identifier — no author name.

Statutory Instruments and Other Sources

Statutory Instrument: Title Year, SI Year/Number. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).
Court case: Party v Party [Year] Court Abbreviation Volume, Page. In text: (Donoghue v Stevenson, 1932).
EU Regulation: Regulation (EU) No xxx/xxxx of [date] on [subject], OJ [series] [volume/date/page].
Command Paper: Author/Department (Year) Title (Cm. number). Place: Publisher.

Legislation titles are always in italics in Harvard. The year is part of the title, not a separate publication year element — so it is not put in parentheses in the reference list for Acts.

If You Are Studying Law — Check Whether Your Department Uses OSCOLA

OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) uses footnotes — not author-date in-text citations. It has completely different rules for cases, statutes, journals, and secondary sources. Most UK law degrees require OSCOLA. Social science, policy, and business students who reference legislation incidentally typically use Harvard for those legal sources, following Cite Them Right guidance. If you are a law student and your department has not specified a style, ask before submitting — do not assume Harvard.

Film, TV, and Audiovisual Media

The format descriptor in square brackets — [film], , [podcast] — is the element most students forget. It tells the reader what kind of source this is. Without it, a film reference looks like a book reference with a director where an author should be.

Audiovisual Reference Examples — Harvard Format // Film Nolan, C. (dir.) (2010) Inception [film]. Warner Bros. // TV episode — with broadcast details ‘Ozymandias’ (2013) Breaking bad, Series 5, Episode 14. AMC, 15 September 2013. // Documentary Attenborough, D. (dir.) (2020) A life on our planet [documentary film]. Netflix. Available at: https://www.netflix.com/title/80216393 (Accessed: 10 February 2025). // YouTube video TED (2023) The psychology of self-motivation . Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxx (Accessed: 5 April 2025). // Podcast episode Hari, J. (2022) ‘Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen’, The diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett [podcast], 14 November. Available at: https://stevenbartlett.com/episode/johann-hari (Accessed: 22 March 2025). // Photograph or image McCurry, S. (1984) Afghan girl [photograph]. National Geographic. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/2002/6/afghan-girl (Accessed: 1 May 2025). // WRONG — missing format descriptor Nolan, C. (dir.) (2010) Inception. Warner Bros. // [film] in square brackets is required. Without it, this reads as a book.

Secondary Sources — Citing a Source Within a Source

A secondary source is one you did not read directly. You read Smith (2021), who summarised or quoted Brown (2010). You want to use Brown’s idea. The right move is always to find and read Brown directly. Secondary citing is a fallback for when the original is genuinely inaccessible — out of print, untranslated, unavailable through your library.

Wrong — Citing Brown as if You Read It

“Working memory has a limited capacity of approximately four chunks (Brown, 2010).”

If you only read Smith (2021)’s description of Brown’s work, this citation is misleading. You are presenting secondhand information as if it were firsthand. If Smith misrepresented Brown, you will repeat that error — and your marker may know the original and notice.

Correct — Acknowledging the Secondary Source

“Working memory has a limited capacity of approximately four chunks (Brown, 2010, cited in Smith, 2021).”

In the reference list: include only Smith (2021) — the source you actually read. Brown (2010) does not appear in your reference list unless you located and read the original directly.

Secondary Citing Should Be Rare

Overuse of “cited in” signals to markers that you are working from summaries and textbooks rather than primary evidence. If Brown (2010) is important to your argument, find it. Most university libraries have interlibrary loan services. Google Scholar often links to open-access versions. If the original is in a language you cannot read, that is a legitimate reason for secondary citing — say so if necessary. But “I couldn’t be bothered to find it” is not.

No Date, No Author, No Page Number

These three gaps come up regularly, especially with online sources. Each has a standard Harvard solution. Do not leave the field blank — that is not the fix.

No Date Available

Use “no date” in both in-text citation and reference list entry. In text: (Smith, no date). Reference list: Smith, J. (no date) Title. Place: Publisher. Cite Them Right uses “no date” — not “n.d.” which is APA convention. Some institutions accept both. Check yours.

No Author Identifiable

Use the title as the author substitute. Italicise it in the reference list if a stand-alone work. In text, shorten to a recognisable version of the title. Alphabetise in the reference list by the first significant word — ignore “A”, “An”, “The”.

No Page Number (Online Sources)

For direct quotes from sources without page numbers: use paragraph number (para. 3), section heading (under ‘Introduction’), or timestamp for video (00:04:22). This is required for any direct quotation — do not leave the location reference out just because there is no page number.

No Publisher or Place

If the place of publication is not stated: [no place] or use the Latin abbreviation [s.l.] (sine loco). If the publisher is not stated: [no publisher] or [s.n.] (sine nomine). Both are uncommon in modern published sources — if multiple elements are missing, question whether this source is reliable enough to cite.

Subject-Specific and Institutional Harvard Variations

This is where students get caught out. Two students at different universities, both “using Harvard,” can produce reference lists that look different — and both can be correct within their institution’s guidelines. The table below shows where common institutional variants diverge.

Element	Cite Them Right (Pears & Shields)	Leeds Harvard	Anglia Ruskin Harvard
Two authors in text	Smith and Jones (2021)	Smith and Jones (2021)	Smith & Jones (2021)
Three or more authors, first cite	Smith et al. (2021)	Smith et al. (2021)	Smith et al. (2021)
No date	no date	no date	no date
Accessed date when DOI present	Not required	Not required	Required
Edition abbreviation	edn.	edn.	edn.
Page range in reference list	pp. x–x	pp. x–x	pp. x–x
DOI format	Available at: https://doi.org/…	Available at: https://doi.org/…	Available at: https://doi.org/…
Place of publication required	Yes	Yes	Yes

The differences are small. But they are real, and they matter when your marker is checking against a specific institutional guide. The practical implication is straightforward: find your institution’s published Harvard guide (usually on the library website), download it, and follow it — not a generic internet version, and not the guide from a different institution.

The Primary Verified Source — Cite Them Right

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2022) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 12th edn. London: Bloomsbury Academic. This is the most widely adopted Harvard referencing guide in UK higher education. Most institutional Harvard variants are based on it. The current edition is the 12th (2022). Many university libraries provide access to Cite Them Right Online at www.citethemrightonline.com through the library portal — check your library’s referencing resources page before paying for access elsewhere.

If your institution does not specify a Harvard variant, Cite Them Right is the safest and most defensible default. For APA referencing — used in psychology and some social sciences — the equivalent primary source is the APA Publication Manual (7th edn., 2020), covered in detail in our APA psychology lab report guide.

Common Errors That Cost Marks

These are consistent across submitted work. None of them require advanced knowledge to fix. They require one careful read of your reference list against the rules above before submitting.

Using “&” Instead of “and”

(Smith & Jones, 2021) is APA format. Harvard uses (Smith and Jones, 2021) in text and Smith, J. and Jones, K. in the reference list. Switching between referencing styles within one assignment is a common error when students use citation generators set to the wrong style.

“and” Throughout — Unless Your Institution Specifies Otherwise

Cite Them Right and most UK institutional Harvard variants use “and” everywhere. Anglia Ruskin is the main exception using “&”. Check your institutional guide once, note the rule, apply it consistently. One style only.

Et al. in the Reference List

“Smith, J. et al. (2020)…” in the reference list is wrong. All authors must be listed in the reference list entry, regardless of how many there are. Et al. is shorthand for in-text citations only, where listing every name would be disruptive to reading.

All Authors in the Reference List

However many authors a source has, they all appear in the reference list. In text, three or more authors collapse to et al. from the first citation. In the reference list, list every name in the order they appear on the source.

Article Title in Italics

‘The effect of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance’ does not get italics. Article and chapter titles go in single quotation marks in Harvard. Italics are for the journal name, book title, or report title — the container, not the piece within it.

Single Quotes for Articles, Italics for Journals

‘Article title in single quotes’ followed by Journal Name in Italics. That is the pattern for every journal reference. Book chapter titles also go in single quotes; the book title goes in italics. The rule is: the piece is quoted, the container is italicised.

No Accessed Date on Website References

A URL without an accessed date is an incomplete Harvard reference. Web content changes. The accessed date documents which version of the page you read. Omitting it is a consistent minor error that signals inattention to format requirements.

(Accessed: DD Month YYYY) on Every URL

Format: (Accessed: 15 January 2025). Day, written-out month, four-digit year. Required for all website and online sources cited by URL. Not required when a DOI is present, according to Cite Them Right — but check your institution’s guide, as Anglia Ruskin requires it even with DOIs.

Secondary Source Cited as Primary

Citing Brown (2010) when you only read Smith (2021)’s summary of Brown. This misrepresents your reading, passes off a secondhand account as firsthand evidence, and risks repeating any errors or misrepresentations in the intermediary source.

Use “cited in” and Find the Original Where Possible

(Brown, 2010, cited in Smith, 2021) in-text, and only Smith (2021) in the reference list. Better still: find Brown (2010) directly through your library. Interlibrary loan, Google Scholar, or your institution’s database access will usually surface it.

Reference List Not Alphabetical

A reference list submitted in the order sources were used in the essay rather than alphabetically by surname. This is a basic formatting requirement and a mark-losing error that takes under five minutes to fix.

Alphabetical by Surname — Check Before Submitting

Sort by first author’s surname, letter by letter. If you use a word processor, select all reference list entries and use the Sort function (Table > Sort in Word) to alphabetise automatically — then check the result manually for entries starting with organisations or titles.

Year Not Immediately After Author Name

Placing the publication year at the end of the reference entry rather than immediately after the author name. “Smith, J. The psychology of decision-making. London: Routledge. 2021.” is wrong. The year belongs in parentheses right after the author.

Author (Year) Every Time — No Exceptions

Smith, J. (2021) The psychology of decision-making. London: Routledge. Author, then year in parentheses, then everything else. This order is what makes the author-date system function — the in-text citation (Smith, 2021) maps directly to the same Author (Year) pattern in the reference list.

Missing Format Descriptor on Audiovisual Sources

Citing a film, YouTube video, podcast, or photograph without the [format] descriptor in square brackets. Without it, a film reference looks like a book, a podcast looks like a journal article.

Always Include [Format] for Non-Text Sources

[film], , [podcast], [photograph], [documentary film], [online image] — placed after the italicised title, before the production company or available-at statement. This is a small addition that makes the source type immediately clear to the reader.

Frequently Asked Questions About Harvard Referencing

What is the difference between Harvard and APA referencing?

Both are author-date styles, but the differences are consistent and specific. Harvard uses “and” between authors in text; APA uses “&” inside parentheses and “and” in narrative citations. Harvard puts article titles in single quotation marks in plain text; APA puts them in plain text without any quotation marks. Both italicise book and journal titles, but Harvard uses sentence case for article and book titles while journal names get title case — APA does the same. APA requires DOIs as formatted hyperlinks; Harvard writes them out as “Available at: https://doi.org/…” Harvard has no single authoritative edition and varies by institution. APA is published by the American Psychological Association and is currently in its 7th edition (2020). If you are writing a psychology lab report, see our APA psychology lab report format guide for full APA conventions.

Do I use “and” or “&” between authors in Harvard referencing?

Harvard uses “and” — not “&”. Write (Smith and Jones, 2021) in-text and Smith, J. and Jones, K. (2021) in the reference list. The ampersand is an APA convention. Cite Them Right — the most widely adopted UK Harvard guide — uses “and” throughout. The main exception is Anglia Ruskin Harvard, which uses “&”. Check your institution’s specific guide. Switching between “&” and “and” inconsistently within one document is worse than choosing one and sticking with it.

How do I cite a source with no author in Harvard?

Use the title as the author substitute. In text, use a shortened italicised version of the title if it is a stand-alone work: (Guide to Urban Planning, 2020). Use single quotation marks if it is an article: (‘Urban planning trends’, 2020). In the reference list, begin the entry with the full title and alphabetise by its first significant word — ignoring “A”, “An”, or “The” at the start. If the source has an identifiable publishing organisation but no individual author, use the organisation name as the author: (NHS, 2023).

How do I cite a source with no date in Harvard?

Use “no date” in both the in-text citation and the reference list entry. In text: (Smith, no date). Reference list: Smith, J. (no date) Title of Work. Place: Publisher. Do not guess or approximate a year. Cite Them Right uses “no date” — not “n.d.” which is APA convention. Some institutions accept both. Before concluding that no date is available, check the page footer, the “About” section, the URL structure, and any “last updated” information on the page.

What is Cite Them Right and does my university use it?

Cite Them Right, authored by Richard Pears and Graham Shields and now in its 12th edition (2022), is the most widely adopted Harvard referencing guide in UK higher education. Most UK universities either use it directly or base their institutional Harvard guide on it. Many university libraries provide access to Cite Them Right Online at citethemrightonline.com through the library portal — check your library’s referencing resources page before paying for access yourself. If your institution’s guidelines do not specify a Harvard variant, Cite Them Right is the safest and most widely defensible default to follow.

Do I need an accessed date for online sources in Harvard?

Yes, for any source cited by URL. Format: (Accessed: 15 January 2025). When a DOI is available, Cite Them Right does not require an accessed date — the DOI permanently identifies the source regardless of URL changes. When only a URL is available, the accessed date is always required. Anglia Ruskin Harvard requires the accessed date even when a DOI is present. The practical rule: if you are citing via URL, include the accessed date. If you are citing via DOI, check your institution’s specific guidance.

How do I cite the same author twice in the same year in Harvard?

Add a lowercase letter immediately after the year — a, b, c — in both the in-text citation and the reference list entry. (Smith, 2021a) and (Smith, 2021b). In the reference list, the two entries appear consecutively under the same author. If publication months are known, “a” goes to the earlier publication. If months are the same or unknown, assign letters alphabetically by the first significant word of the title. Apply the suffix consistently: the “a” source in text must match the “a” entry in the reference list.

What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography in Harvard?

A reference list contains only sources you cited in your text. A bibliography includes everything you read and consulted during research, whether or not you cited it directly — background reading, sources that informed your thinking without being quoted, and so on. Harvard referencing produces a reference list by default. Some assignments and some disciplines ask for a bibliography instead. If your guidelines say “reference list”, include only cited sources. If they say “bibliography”, include all consulted material. When the guidelines do not specify, ask your tutor before submitting.

How do I cite a chapter in an edited book in Harvard?

Cite the chapter author — not the book editor — as the primary author of the reference. Format: Chapter Author(s) (Year) ‘Chapter title in single quotes’, in Editor(s) (ed./eds.) Book Title in Italics. Place: Publisher, pp. x–x. Example: Brown, A. (2019) ‘Memory and emotion’, in Smith, J. and Jones, K. (eds.) Handbook of cognitive psychology. London: Routledge, pp. 45–67. The in-text citation uses the chapter author’s surname: (Brown, 2019) — not the editor’s name.

Is OSCOLA the same as Harvard for law students?

No. OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) is a completely different referencing system used specifically for law. It uses footnotes, not in-text author-date citations. The rules for citing cases, statutes, journal articles, and secondary sources are entirely different from Harvard conventions. Most UK law degrees require OSCOLA. Non-law students who reference legislation incidentally in social science, policy, or business essays typically use Harvard for those legal sources, following Cite Them Right guidance. If you are a law student and your department has not specified a referencing style, ask your department before submitting — do not assume Harvard. For reflective academic writing that sits within counselling and social sciences programmes, our counselling practicum journal guide covers citation integration in professional reflective contexts.

Harvard References Eating Your Time?

From reference list formatting and in-text citation checks to full academic writing support across Harvard, APA, OSCOLA, and other referencing styles — our specialist team helps students get citations right the first time.

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What Getting Harvard Right Actually Takes

The students who lose marks on Harvard referencing are not usually the ones who do not care. They are the ones who trust a citation generator’s output without checking it against their institution’s guide, or who follow a generic internet version of “Harvard” that differs from what their marker is checking against.

Three things prevent almost every Harvard error. First: know which variant your institution uses — find the PDF guide on your library website and download it. Second: read the format rules for each source type before you cite it, not after. The book reference format and the journal reference format are not the same. The website format is different again. Third: audit your reference list before submission — check that every in-text citation has a matching entry, every entry is cited, and the list is alphabetical.

No citation generator does all three for you. They help with structure. They do not know your institution’s variant, they do not catch mismatches between in-text and reference list, and they frequently get accessed dates, edition numbers, and page ranges wrong. Use them as a starting point. Then check the output.

For structured support with Harvard referencing, APA citations, reference list auditing, and broader academic writing — from undergraduate essays to postgraduate dissertations — our academic writing services, citation and referencing support, and proofreading and editing services cover every referencing style and every level of study.

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