The Complete Harvard Referencing Guide for UK Students

Harvard referencing is an author–date system used by many UK universities. To use it correctly, cite the author’s surname and year in the text (e.g., Smith, 2023) and give full details in an alphabetised reference list. Follow your department’s variant, keep punctuation consistent, and include page numbers for quotes.

What Is Harvard Referencing?

Harvard is a family of closely related styles rather than one rigid rulebook. UK universities often publish their own guides that tweak punctuation, capitalisation, and the order of elements. Still, the core principles stay the same:

• In-text citations use the author’s surname and year, plus a page number for direct quotations: (Khan, 2022, p. 14).

• The reference list at the end includes full publication details, alphabetised by the first author’s surname.

• Consistency beats perfection. Once you choose a pattern for punctuation and capitalisation, keep it throughout.

Why do lecturers prefer Harvard? It’s transparent. In-text citations show the reader who said what and when, without breaking the flow of your paragraph. The full reference then lets the reader locate the exact source. This combination supports academic integrity and makes your writing easier to verify.

Anatomy of a standard Harvard reference

While variants exist, most items follow a predictable pattern. Consider a print book:

Author, Initial(s). (Year) Title: Subtitle. Edition. Place: Publisher.

Example
Mason, A. (2021) Social Research Methods. 2nd edn. London: Sage.

A journal article usually looks like this:

Author, Initial(s). (Year) ‘Article title’, Journal Title, Volume(Issue), page range. DOI if provided.

Example
Fernandez, P. and Cole, J. (2019) ‘Digital literacy in first-year seminars’, Teaching in Higher Education, 24(3), pp. 301–315.

Digital sources add an Accessed date because pages change over time. Some departments also require a DOI for journal articles, when available.

In-Text Citations in Harvard Style: Rules and Examples

In-text citations are short signposts that keep your prose readable. They appear in round brackets and contain just enough information to link to the full reference.

Basic formats

• One author: (Ali, 2020)

• Two authors: (Ali and Patel, 2020)

• Three or more authors: use et al. after the first author’s surname: (Ali et al., 2020)

• Corporate author: use the organisation name: (NHS, 2021)

• No author: use the title or source name: (Infection Control Guidelines, 2020)

• Multiple works in the same brackets: separate with semicolons: (Smith, 2018; Brown, 2020)

When your sentence already names the author, move only the year (and page) into brackets:

• Narrative style: As Brown (2020, p. 77) argues, feedback timing matters.

• Parenthetical style: Feedback timing matters (Brown, 2020, p. 77).

Quotations and paraphrases

Use page numbers (or paragraph numbers online) for direct quotations. For paraphrases, page numbers are optional but helpful.

• Short quotation (under ~40 words):
  Student wellbeing improves when assessments are “spread evenly across the term” (Lewis, 2019, p. 112).

• Long quotation: Present as an indented block, no quotation marks, with a citation after the punctuation:
  Assessment bunching can reduce learning quality by encouraging surface-level strategies rather than sustained engagement with the material.
  (Lewis, 2019, p. 113).

• Paraphrase:
  Even distribution of assessments supports deeper learning (Lewis, 2019).

Same author, same year

If you cite more than one work by the same author in the same year, add lowercase letters in both the citation and the reference list:

• (Nguyen, 2022a; Nguyen, 2022b)

Secondary citations (use sparingly)

When you read one source that quotes another you cannot access, cite the original in your sentence, but reference the source you actually read:

• Tinto’s model (cited in Harris, 2017) remains influential…

Your reference list includes Harris (2017) only. Where possible, track down the original.

Two helpful habits

1. Place citations where they support the claim most directly—usually at the end of the sentence or clause.

2. Match every in-text citation to a full reference entry and vice versa.

Reference List: Core Formats and Examples

Your reference list appears on a new page at the end under the heading References. Alphabetise by the first author’s surname and use a hanging indent so the second line of each entry is indented. Keep spacing and punctuation consistent across all items.

Below are dependable templates with model entries you can adapt. Replace names, dates and titles with your own sources, and follow your department’s punctuation preferences.

Books

Template
Author, Initial(s). (Year) Title: Subtitle. Edition. Place: Publisher.

Example
Hughes, L. and Norton, M. (2020) Learning Analytics for Teaching. 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

For an e-book accessed on a platform, add the platform and Accessed date if your department requires it.

Book chapters in edited collections

Template
Chapter Author, Initial(s). (Year) ‘Chapter title’, in Editor, Initial(s). (ed./eds) Book Title. Place: Publisher, page range.

Example
Rahman, S. (2018) ‘Designing effective rubrics’, in Chen, Y. and Taylor, G. (eds) Assessment in Higher Education. London: Routledge, pp. 59–78.

Journal articles

Template
Author, Initial(s). (Year) ‘Article title’, Journal Title, Volume(Issue), page range. DOI if available.

Example
Okeke, D., Wang, H. and Doyle, R. (2021) ‘Micro-credentials and employability’, Journal of Education Policy, 36(4), pp. 455–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2020.1835619

(If your department discourages including clickable links, present the DOI as plain text without hyperlinking.)

Websites and online pages

Because page content can change, most UK variants ask for an Accessed date.

Template
Author/Organisation (Year) Page title. Available at: page address (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Example
University Teaching Centre (2023) Guidance on Group Work. Available at: the centre’s website (Accessed: 12 March 2025).

If no individual author is listed, use the organisation as the author. If neither is available, begin with the page title.

Reports and grey literature

Template
Organisation/Author, Initial(s). (Year) Report title. Place: Publisher or Organisation. Report number if relevant.

Example
Department for Education (2022) Graduate Outcomes and Skills. London: Department for Education.

Conference papers

Template
Author, Initial(s). (Year) ‘Paper title’, Conference Name, location, Day–Day Month Year. Publisher (if published), page range.

Example
Campos, R. (2020) ‘Immersive labs for chemistry’, British Conference on Learning and Teaching, Manchester, 7–9 July 2020.

Videos and media

Template
Creator, Initial(s)./Organisation (Year) Video title. Medium. Channel or Platform. (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Example
Open Education Lab (2021) Flipped Classroom Basics. Video. Platform: the lab’s channel. (Accessed: 28 January 2025).

Theses and dissertations

Template
Author, Initial(s). (Year) Thesis title. Degree statement. Institution.

Example
Chowdhury, N. (2019) Peer Feedback in Engineering Education. PhD thesis. University of Bristol.

Legal sources (brief note)

Harvard is often paired with OSCOLA for law coursework. If your programme uses Harvard for general content and OSCOLA for case law, follow the law school’s guide. If Harvard is required for everything, give the case name, year, and law report details in the reference list and use consistent punctuation.

Formatting practicalities

• Use sentence case for article and chapter titles unless your department requires headline case.

• Italicise book and journal titles.

• Include edition numbers for any edition beyond the first (2nd edn., 3rd edn., etc.).

• Keep author initials together (no spaces between initials unless specified, e.g., “A.J.” vs “A. J.” as your guide dictates).

Special Cases: Authors, Dates, Page Numbers, and Online Nuances

Harvard’s trickiest part is handling exceptions smoothly. Here’s how to keep edge cases tidy and consistent.

Multiple works by the same author
Arrange your reference list in year order from oldest to newest. If the same year repeats, add a, b, c letters in the order they appear in your work:

• In-text: (Graham, 2021a; Graham, 2021b)

• References:
  Graham, T. (2021a) …
  Graham, T. (2021b) …

No date (n.d.)
If a source gives no year, use (n.d.) in both citation and reference:

• In-text: (Creative Skills Network, n.d.)

• Reference: Creative Skills Network (n.d.) Workshop Handbook. Available at: the network’s site (Accessed: 15 February 2025).

Multiple authors
Most UK variants use the full list of authors in the reference list (up to the number specified by your guide). In the text, show the first author followed by et al. from three authors upwards:
(Parker et al., 2018). If only two authors, list both: (Parker and Shah, 2018).

Chapters with editors
Remember the “in” before the editor names and the label (ed.) or (eds) after them. It signals your reader that the item you used is a chapter in a larger edited book.

Page numbers

• Paraphrases: optional but useful when you discuss a specific idea.

• Direct quotes: required. Use p. for a single page and pp. for a range.

Online-first and DOIs
If an article is published online ahead of print, include the DOI and, if your guide requires, the status (advance online publication). When the final volume and issue later appear, update your reference if you resubmit the work.

Long organisation names
If an organisational author has an easily recognisable abbreviation, write the full name the first time with the abbreviation in brackets. Then you can use the abbreviation in later citations:

• First citation: (World Health Organization (WHO), 2020)

• Later citation: (WHO, 2020)

Secondary referencing
Use it only when the original is inaccessible. Clearly signal it: Taylor’s 2012 model (cited in Ahmed, 2019) … Then reference Ahmed (2019) only, because that is what you actually read.

Personal communications
Emails, interviews, and conversations are usually cited in the text only, not in the reference list, because they are not recoverable by readers: (Lecturer’s surname, personal communication, 3 March 2025). Always check your departmental policy.

A short, practical workflow

1. Record full details as you research—author, year, title, journal, pages, DOI, and access dates for anything online.

2. Insert in-text citations as you draft.

3. Build the reference list from your notes, alphabetise, and apply a hanging indent.

4. Run a final consistency check on punctuation and capitalisation.

Harvard vs APA at a Glance

Different programmes sometimes switch between Harvard and APA, which can cause confusion. This table clarifies the most visible differences so you can spot—and fix—mismatches quickly.

How to choose? Use the style specified by your module handbook. If it says “Harvard,” apply the Harvard patterns above and stay consistent from first citation to last. If a lecturer switches to APA, adjust punctuation and the order of elements to the APA column.

Putting it all together: a compact example

Imagine your essay cites a mixture of sources. Your in-text citations might look like this:

• (Hughes and Norton, 2020) for a concept from a book.

• (Okeke, Wang and Doyle, 2021, p. 460) for a quoted line from a journal article.

• (University Teaching Centre, 2023) for a web guideline you paraphrase.

• (Graham, 2021a; Graham, 2021b) when you draw on the same author’s two works from the same year.

Your References might then include entries similar to:

Hughes, L. and Norton, M. (2020) Learning Analytics for Teaching. 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Okeke, D., Wang, H. and Doyle, R. (2021) ‘Micro-credentials and employability’, Journal of Education Policy, 36(4), pp. 455–472. DOI available.
University Teaching Centre (2023) Guidance on Group Work. Available at: the centre’s website (Accessed: 12 March 2025).
Graham, T. (2021a) Student Feedback Strategies. London: Taylor & Francis.
Graham, T. (2021b) Designing Assessments That Motivate. London: Taylor & Francis.

Notice the consistent punctuation, the italics for titles of standalone works, and the sentence case for article and chapter titles. If your department uses a slightly different punctuation style—say, using commas where this guide uses full stops—apply that variation consistently to every entry.

Final drafting tips (keep within Harvard’s spirit)

• Anchor every claim. If a sentence uses a specific idea, concept, or statistic, include a citation close to that sentence.

• Don’t over-cite. When you summarise one source across several sentences, one well-placed citation at the end of the passage is often sufficient—unless you quote directly inside that passage.

• Check names and years. Misspelt surnames and mismatched years are the most common errors markers notice.

• Mind the details. Page range uses an en dash (pp. 24–39). Edition numbers include “edn.” in many UK variants. Journal titles are italicised; article titles are not.

• Be consistent with “et al.” Use it from the third author onwards in the text, but list all authors in the reference (unless your local guide limits the number).

• Record Accessed dates for online materials as you go; guessing later invites mistakes.

Conclusion

Harvard is straightforward once you learn its rhythm: author and year in the text, full details in a neat, alphabetised list at the end. Focus on clarity, accuracy, and consistency. Follow your programme’s local variant for punctuation and capitalisation, include page numbers for quotations, and keep complete notes as you research. With these habits, your citations will be clean, your reference list will look professional, and your assignments will meet UK academic standards without last-minute stress.