Guide to Preparing Reference Lists in the Harvard Style

3 February 2010

The Harvard Style, also known as the author-date system, is a style of citing and referencing published material when writing and preparing documents. The Harvard style is commonly used by British-based universities and other educational institutions. The style has been standardized by the British Standards Institution (BSI) in their publication Recommendations for citing and referencing published material. This article describes how to present different types of publications in a Harvard style reference list or bibliography.

Note that the Australian Government Publication Service (AGPS) style guide is also referred to as Harvard, but differs from the British system described here. We will cover the AGPS style in a future article.

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Books

Printed Books

The general format for a book reference in the Harvard Style is:

Surname, initials. Year. Title in italics. Edition (if not 1st). Place: Publisher.

For example:

Sterne, J., 2003. The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Durham: Duke University Press.

When a book has two or three authors, you should list each in the order they appear in the book. For example:

Kaye, D. & LeBrecht, J., 2000. Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art and Technique of Design. 2 ed. Boston: Focal Press.

If a book has more than three authors you should write the first author's name followed by the abbreviation 'et al.'. For example:

Gamma, E., et al., 1995. Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison Wesley.

When you are referencing an edited book, you should use the name of the editor, followed by the abbreviation 'ed.', for example:

Heath, T. L., ed. 2009. The Works of Archimedes: Edited in Modern Notation with Introductory Chapters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Chapters in Books

When you are referencing a single chapter in an edited book or collection, the format differs form a the simple book above. The general format is:

Chapter author surname, initials. Year. Title of Chapter. In Editor initials. Surname, ed. Title of Book in italics. Edition (if not 1st). Place: Publisher Page Numbers.

For example:

Bourdieu, P., 1997. The Forms of Capital. In A. H. Halsey et al., ed. Education: Culture, Economy and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press p. 46-58.

 

EBooks

The reference format for an eBook (electronic book) is similar to that of a paper book with the addition of the information on the media type and download location. The general format is:

Surname, initials. Year. Title in italics. [Media type] Edition (if not 1st). Place: Publisher.
(new line) Available From:URL
(new line) [accessed date]

They media type is the file format in which you have the eBook. Examples include PDF, ePUB, HTML, etc. The URL is the Internet address where the eBook can be found. As webpages and Internet resources can change regularly, it is important that you note the date on which you accessed the version of the eBook you are referencing.

An example eBook reference:

Hooper, W. G., 2008. Aether and Gravitation. [PDF]. Salt Lake City: Project Gutenberg. Available from: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/24667 [accessed 2 February 2010]

 

Articles

Article in Printed Journal

The general format for a journal article is:

Author Surname, initials, Year. Title of Article. Title of Journal in Italics, Volume Number in Bold (Issue Number), Page Numbers.

The same rules regarding multiple authors in books also applies to articles. An example article reference:

Degeorge, F. and Zeckhauser, R., 1993. The reverse LBO decision and firm performance: Theory and evidence. The Journal of Finance, 48 (4), p. 1323-1348.

 

Article in Online Journal

If you are referencing an article that was published in an online journal, or an online version of a print journal, in your reference list you should add media type, internet address and date accessed information, just like when referencing an eBook. The general format is:

Author Surname, initials, Year. Title of Article. [Media Type]. Title of Journal in Italics. Volume Number in Bold (Issue Number).
(new line) Available From:URL
(new line) [accessed date]

For example:

Grim, K. D. and Wasko, C. A., 2009. Symmetrical bilateral Becker melanosis: A rare presentation. [Webpage]. Dermatology Online Journal, 15 (12).
Available from: http://dermatology-s10.cdlib.org/1512/articles/becker/wasko.html
[accessed 2 February 2010]

 

Article in Blog

The general format for a blog article is:

Author Surname, initials, Year. Title of Article. [Media Type]. Blog/Website Title in Italics, Day and Month of Publication.
(new line) Available From:URL
(new line) [accessed date]

For example:

Hammad, M. and Elhawary, M., 2010. A recent improvement for Arabic searches. [Webpage]. The Official Google Blog, February 2nd.
Available from: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/recent-improvement-for-arabic-searches.html
[accessed 2 February 2010]

 

Article in Newspaper

The general format for a newspaper article is:

Author Surname, initials, Year. Title of Article. Newspaper Name in Italics, Day and Month of Publication, Page Numbers.

For example:

Leland, J., 2110. In Baghdad, it's time to talk. International Herald Tribune, February 3rd. p. 2.

 

Conferences

Conference Paper

If you are referencing a paper delivered at a conference and subsequently published in the conference proceedings, the general format is:

Author Surname, initials, Year of Proceedings Publication. Title of Paper. In: Proceedings Editor's Initial., Surname, ed. Title of Conference or Proceedings in Italics, Date of Conference in Italics, Location of Conference in Italics. Place of Publication: Publisher, Page Numbers.

For example:

Prescott, N. and Nichols, L. M., 1998. International Comparison of Medical Savings Accounts. In: N. Prescott, ed. Choices in Financing Health Care & Old Age Security, 8 November 1997, Singapore. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Publications, p. 19-32.

If you are referencing a paper delivered at a conference which you attended, and the proceedings have not been published, provide as much detail as you can, in the general format:

Author Surname, initials, Year of Conference. Title of Paper. In: Conference Title in Italics. Date of Conference in Italics, Location of Conference in Italics..

For example:

Matthews, K.E., Adams, P. and Gannaway, D., 2009. The impact of social learning spaces on student engagement. In: The First Year in Higher Education Conference 2009, 29 June, Brisbane, Australia.

 

Conference Proceedings

If your are referencing the published proceedings of a conference, but not a specific paper (for example the introduction or other editorial content), the general format is:

Editor Surname, Initials, ed. Year of Proceedings Publication. Title of Proceedings. 'Proceedings of' and the Conference name in Italics, if the conference name differs from the Proceedings Title, Date of Conference in Italics, Location of Conference in Italics. Place of Publication: Publisher, Page Numbers if relevant.

For example:

Ochaita, C. E. L. and Malik, W. H., ed. 2002. Furthering Judicial Education. Proceedings of The Conference of Judicial Schools in Latin America, 8 October 2001, Guatemala. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Publications.

 

Internet and Audio/Visual Material

Websites and Webpages

The general format for referencing a webpage is:

Author, Year. Title of Webpage in Italics [Media type].
(new line) Available From:URL
(new line) [accessed date]

It is not always clear who the actual author of a webpage is. If you cannot find the name of the author you should use the name of the organization owning the website, for example 'Google' for the website 'www.google.com'. Likewise it it can be difficult to locate the publication date of a particular webpage or website. Look for a 'Last updated on' item, often found at the very top or bottom of a webpage.

An example of webpage reference:

Apple, 2009. Xserve (2009) - Technical Specifications [Webpage].
Available from: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP511
[accessed Wednesday, 3 February 2010]

 

Email, Newsgroup and Forum Messages

The general format for email and other personal electronic messages is:

Sender Surname, Initial, and/or email address, Message Title in Italics. [Media Type]. Message to Recipient Surname, Initials. Sent on date sent.
(new line) Available From:URL if available
(new line) [accessed date]

For example:

Davies, F., fdavies@example.com, Prelimanary findings from Hamilton Centre. [Email]. Message to Jacobs, A. Sent on 2 February 2010.
[accessed 3 February 2010]

Jennings, E., ejennings@example.com, 2010 ICDD Educational Training in XRF & XRD. [Newsgroup Message]. Sent on 14 January 2010.
Available from: http://groups.google.com/group/sci.chem.analytical/browse_thread/thread/ffadd6ee13e1763a#
[accessed 3 February 2010]

 

Television and Radio Broadcasts

The general format for broadcasts is:

Creator Surname, Initial (Creator's role on the broadcast), Broadcast Year. Programme Title in Italics. [Broadcast Medium] Series Title, Broadcaster or Station, Date of Broadcast.

For example:

Smight, A. (Director), 2010. Long Ball. [Television] CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, January 21.

Nelson, S. (Presenter), 2010. Dark Matter. [Radio] Discovery, BBC World Service, January 28.

 

Audio and Video Recordings

The general format for recorded media is:

Creator Surname, Initial. Publication or Recording Year. Title in Italics. [Media type]. Place of Publication: Publisher.
(new line) (Any other relevant details)

For example:

Attenborough D., 2003. Life of Mammals. [DVD]. London: BBC.

Brahms, J., 1997. The Complete Symphonies. [Audio CD]. Decca.
(Performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan)

 

Academic Papers

The general format for academic papers, such as dissertations and theses, is:

Surname, Initial, Year, Title in Italics. Academic Level University Name.

For example:

Williams, D., 2009. Managing Multimedia Advertising in Asian Markets. PhD University of Glasgow.

 

Hopefully you have found this guide useful if you are required to prepare reference lists or bibliographies in the Harvard style for you studies or other writing. You should note however, that between different Universities, and even between different departments in the same University, there may be specific referencing requirements that are not covered here. If you are writing papers for your studies, you should always check with your faculty or librarian in you are unsure of the referencing style.

Remember our Reference Tracker application for Mac OS X can take the pain out of managing and formatting citations and references. You can add publications and internet resources to Reference Tracker with a few clicks, add notes and other details, and with one click create a reference list formatted in the Harvard style. You can download a free 21 day trial of Reference Tracker and we provide discounts to students.