Brookes Harvard Referencing:

A Quick Guide

Click here to begin

© 2017 Oxford Brookes University. This resource was created by the Upgrade Study Advice Service and is free to use
for personal and educational purposes but not for commercial gain. It is based on the version of Harvard most
commonly used at Oxford Brookes University with many examples drawn for the university library guide to Harvard.
Many thanks to Lindsay Sellar, from the library, whose gift for attention to detail has made this a better resource than
it was!
 What do you want to know?
Why do I need to reference?
Formatting in Harvard referencing: An Overview

In-text citations The Reference List

An example of how Harvard referencing is formatt
ed in the main body of your assignment
Book Newspaper article

(?) The logic of brackets

Edited book
“?” Quotations Web page

E-book
No author
Other resources
Journal
More than one author article Example
Reference List
One author quoting or citing another author
 Why reference?
(adapted from Williams & Davis, 2017)
Whether you are dealing with facts, abstract ideas, or different interpretations on a topic, providing evidence
Evidence: demonstrates that you are not making things up but engaging with the perspectives of others.

Referencing demonstrates that you are using credible sources that have been properly tested by experts in your field
Credibility: of study. These can include peer-reviewed journals, books from reputable publishers, or the web pages of some
professional organisations. Being published does not make something automatically reliable!

All academic writers need to demonstrate how they fit (or don’t fit) with existing literature and referencing is one of
Authority: the ways we do this. Think of the literature on your topic as an ongoing conversation and yourself as an expert with
something to say – say it!
Providing your reader with references allows the reader to check the information you presented for themselves.
Traceability: They can test whether your sources are credible and up-to-date and whether they agree with you on the meaning
or significance of a particular source.

Accurate referencing is a way in which you can demonstrate your attention to detail, a vital attribute in any
Reliability: discipline. Accurate referencing is likely to make your reader more confident about your writing, and being very
specific about where you got things from may also help you write with greater confidence and clarity.

If you have read 10 sources, but they all say the same thing in much the same way, then that is not much
Reach and Scope: better than reading one source. Your references will reveal a great deal about whether you have engaged
with a variety of perspectives on your topic.

Authors own their work in two ways. They own the words they write (if using these you would Return to Ind
Politeness: quote) and they own the ideas they express. Either way, you need to demonstrate that you are
ex
mindful of their work and can expect the same courtesy for anything you write.
 An example of in-text referencing

This extract from an essay shows you

Whilst Scott et al. (2011) drew attention to the
how referencing should be formatted in
effectiveness of oral feedback, and audio podcasts and the main body of your assignment.
screencasts have been enthusiastically promoted by
You will notice that some authors are in
some (Brooks & Burholt, 2009; Vincelette & Bostic, 2013), brackets and some are not.
Click here to find out why this is the case
written feedback still dominates. This project therefore .
explores how written feedback is received with particular
attention to the emotional impact it has, following on
from research by Dowden et al (2013).

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How Harvard referencing is formatted: in-text and reference list
Harvard referencing has two parts to it. In the main
body of your assignment, you refer to the sources you
have used by author and year. Whether it’s a book, a
webpage or anything else, look for author and year.
At the end of your essay there is a reference list, with
very full details of everything mentioned in your
assignment, beginning with author and year. The list is
alphabetical by the first named author. Comparing the
essay extract on the left of this page to the reference list
below will help you understand how it works.
References
Brooks, M. & Burholt, S. (2009) ‘Supporting studies through formative
feedback via podcasts’, LINK Newsletter 23, pp. 31-32.
Dowden, T., Pittaway, S., Yost, H. & McCarthy R. (2013) ‘Students
perceptions of written feedback in teacher education: ideally feedback is
a continuing two-way communication that encourages progress’.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38 (3), pp. 349-362.
doi: 10.1080/02602938.2011.632.676
Scott, J., Shields, C, Gardner, J., Hancock, A., & Nutt, A. (2011)
‘Student engagement with feedback’, Bioscience Education, 18. doi:
10.3108/beej.18.5SE
Vincelette, E. & Bostic T. (2013) ‘Show and tell: Student and instructor
perceptions of screencast assessment’, Assessing Writing 18 (4), pp.
257-277. doi: 10.1016/j.asw.2013.08.001
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Formatting references in your essay: the logic of brackets

Brackets are punctuation marks that are used in sentences for information that is not essential for the point you
are making. If you use brackets correctly, your sentence should make complete sense when you ignore any content
in brackets.
For example: Mount Everest (in the Himalayas) is the tallest mountain in the world.

Without the content in brackets, this sentence would still work:

Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world.

Harvard referencing follows exactly this logic in its use of brackets as the next page demonstrates.

? ? ? )
( ? Click here to continue

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Formatting references in your essay: the logic of brackets
Smith (2017) argues that chips taste better than salad.
In this example, Smith (the name of the author) is not in brackets because the author’s name is essential to make the sentence
work. Again, we can test that we have got it right by ignoring anything in brackets:
Smith argues that chips taste better than salad.

In the next example, neither the author nor the year are naturally a part of the sentence and that is why they are both in brackets.
Notice in this example, that the full-stop comes after the brackets, not before.
Chips taste better than salad (Smith, 2017).

Again, we can check whether the brackets are in the right place by ensuring that the sentence works if the bracketed content is ignored:
Chips taste better than salad.

You should keep author and year together when referencing and avoid having multiple sets of brackets next to each other. If, for example, you
are referring to multiple different authors writing on a similar topic, you can use a semi-colon to separate them within a single set of brackets
and should present them in date order (from oldest to newest).

There is a general consensus that the British historically favoured the taste of chips to salad (Smith, 2015; Lee, 2016; Jayne 2017).

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 Referencing quotations
Authors effectively own the material they have produced in two ways:

They own their ideas, so if you are summarising their argument in your own
words you still need to include a reference.

They also own the specific words they have used, so if you are quoting an
author’s exact words, even if it is just part of a sentence, you should make it
clear that it is a quotation, usually through the use of quotation marks e.g.

According to Smith (2017, p.6), “Whilst regular consumption of salad has

demonstrable health benefits, the smell and superior taste of chips was
frequently cited as a barrier to healthier dietary habits.”

Notice in the above example, that when you are quoting, you should include
a page number where available.

You can choose whether to use ‘single’ or “double” quotation marks for
quotations but once you have decided, stick to one or the other!
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What if there is no named author?
Occasionally, there is no named author.

A common example is a web page, when very often the

organisation that produced that page can legitimately be
named as the author of the source.

However, it is important to note that any doubts about who

wrote a particular source, should also make you consider
whether the source is appropriate to use.

Ask yourself: Is this source academically credible? Is it

reliable? What is the professional reputation of the authors?

If you don’t know the author of a particular source, it is

probably best avoided!

If, however, you feel absolutely justified in using your

authorless source, cite title and year where normally you
would cite author and year as demonstrated here.

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 Book with no named author

Book Title and Year: The book title
is placed where the author would
normally go followed by the year.
Edition Number:
Sometimes authors revise books, adding or changing
content, in which case it is important to be specific about
which edition you are using.
This is not necessary for first editions.

Facilities Resource Handbook (1997). 2nd edn. London: Kogan Page.

Place of publication:
This should be a city Publisher
or town.

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 More than one author

Where several authors have collaborated on a piece of writing, your referencing needs to reflect
this. If there are two or three authors, name them all.

e.g. In a recent interview the scientists agreed that the new book on anti-gravity was impossible to put
down (Smith, Green and Walker, 2016).

If there are four or more authors, including all of them in the main body of your essay will look
messy and, therefore, you should use the abbreviation et al. (which is an abbreviation of et alia,
meaning ‘and others’).

e.g. The study concluded that using relative terms in advertising was only acceptable if the aspects of
comparison were clearly defined (Roe et al., 2017)

In your reference list at the end of your assignment, you should include all named authors. i.e. use et al.
only in the main body of your writing.

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 One author quoting or citing another author

First of all, here’s an example:

“If anyone at my funeral has a long face,

I’ll never speak to him again.”

(Lawrence, 2011)

These words were originally
attributed to comedy film star, Stan
Laurel.
Stan Laurel’s words were then reported by
Danny Lawrence in the book above.
There’s no way of knowing from the book
whether his words are accurately reported.
Now I want to include Stan Laurel’s words,
as reported by Danny Lawrence in my
essay.

Click to continue
This is me citing Danny Lawrence citing Stan Laurel
.

(Lawrence, 2011)

Where possible, try to find the original source rather than using a secondary citation but if you do need
to do it, make sure the reader knows where you got it from.

e.g. As Stan Laurel (no date, cited in Lawrence, 2011, p. 95) quipped, “If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I’ll
never speak to him again.”

In this example, Lawrence would be included in the reference list but Laurel would not because you have not seen
the original source of the quotation. Note also that it is good practice to include the date of the original source as this
may be significant to the reader. In this example, we do not know the date of the original source and this is signified
with the phrase ‘no date’.

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 Referencing a book

Have a look at the book you want to reference and click on the most appropriate link
below. Select very carefully:

The book was written by one named author or a group of authors who wrote the whole thing
together.

The book is an edited collection and every chapter is written by a different nam
ed author or authors.

The book is an e-book

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Author (Year)
Echoing your essay, author and year
appear at the beginning of every entry in
your reference list. Organise the list
alphabetically by the first named author
in each entry.
Note the inclusion of initials which do not
appear in the main body of your
assignment.
Edition Number:
Book reference Sometimes authors revise
books, adding or changing
content, in which case it is
important to be specific about
Book Title: in italics and sentence which edition you are using.
case.
This means capitalise as you would This is not necessary for first
a normal sentence. editions.

Shone, A. and Parry, B. (2013) Successful event management: a practical handbook. 4th edn.
Andover: Cengage Learning.

Place of publication:
This should be a city Publisher
or town.

For books in which each chapter is written by a different named author, see chapter in an edited book.

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A chapter in an edited book:

Note that each chapter is written by a

different author.

This is the editor who asked different people to Click here for how to reference a chapter in
contribute different chapters to the book an edited book

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 Chapter in an edited book
Author of the chapter (Year) Title of the chapter Editor details
Echoing your essay, author and year appear at (in single quotation marks and sentence (ed. for single
the beginning of every entry in your reference
case) editor and eds. for
list. Organise the list alphabetically by the first
named author in each entry. multiple editors)
This means capitalise as you would a
Note the inclusion of initials which do not normal sentence
appear in the main body of your assignment.

Ravenscroft, J. (2006) ‘Invisible friends: questioning the role of the court dwarf in Hapsburg Spain’ in Waltraud, E. (ed.) Histories of
the normal and the abnormal: social and cultural histories of norms and normativities. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 26-52.

Book Title: in italics and sentence Place of publication: Publisher Page numbers of
case. This should be a city whole chapter
This means capitalise as you would or town.
a normal sentence.

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 E-book

If the e-book you are referencing looks the same as a printed book, with
publication details and page numbers,
then go back to the referencing a book page and select one of the first
two options. Most e-books can be dealt with in this way.

Occasionally, you may encounter books that are available only in

electronic format and for which publication and / or page numbers are
not available. Where this is the case, follow this guidance.

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 E-book with no page numbers and / or publication details

Author (Year)
Echoing your essay, author and
year appear at the beginning of
every entry in your reference list.
Organise the list alphabetically by Book Title: Webpage Details:
the first named author in each In italics and sentence case. Here you need to cite where on the world
entry. wide web, the book can be found. Make
This means capitalise as you sure you are consistent in the way you
Note the inclusion of initials
would a normal sentence. phrase this, and ensure the link you
which do not appear in the main
body of your assignment. provide actually works!

Taine, J. (1924) The purple sapphire. Available at:

https://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/tainej-purplesapphire/tainej-purplesapphire-00-h.h
tml
(Accessed: 30 May 2017).
Date accessed: Include the date when you looked at an online
resource, as it might be removed or changed at any time.
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Does your journal article have a doi number?

Yes No

What is a doi number?

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Author (Year)
Echoing your essay, author and
year appear at the beginning of
every entry in your reference list.
Organise the list alphabetically by
the first named author in each
entry.
Note the inclusion of initials
which do not appear in-text.
Journal article
Title of Journal
Title of the article in Italics and Title Case.
In single quotation marks and sentence In Brookes Harvard, journal
case. titles are referenced using
Title Case, which makes
This means capitalise as you would a
normal sentence
them clearly distinct from
book titles.

Matsaganis, M. (2011) ‘The welfare state and the crisis: the case of Greece’, Journal of European Social
Policy, 21 (5), pp. 501-512.

Volume and Issue Page numbers of whole article

Information
Volume is presented just as a
number and issue number (if
there is one) is bracketed.
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 Journal article with doi number

A doi is a ‘digital object identifier’ and is a long number that makes an online article
relatively easy to find. Pasting a doi into your web browser’s address bar will
produce a list of locations where that article currently exists.

Therefore, if your article has a doi number, please follow these instructions.

If your article does not have a doi number, follow these instructions.

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 Journal article with doi
Author (Year)
Echoing your essay, author and
year appear at the beginning of Title of the article Title of Journal
every entry in your reference list. In single quotation marks and sentence in Italics and title case.
Organise the list alphabetically by case.
the first named author in each This means capitalise the first
entry. This means capitalise as you would a letter of each word except
normal sentence. minor words like ‘a’ or ‘the’.
Note the inclusion of initials
which do not appear in-text.

Williams, J. (2000) ‘Tools for achieving sustainable housing strategies in rural Gloucestershire’, Planning Practice &
Research, 15 (3), pp. 155-174. doi: 10.1080.02697450020000131

Volume and Issue

doi number
Information
Page numbers of whole article Notice there is no full-stop
Volume is presented just
on the end to make it easy
as a number and issue
to cut and paste.
number (if there is one)
is bracketed. Return to Index
Is your newspaper article a paper copy or from the
online version of the newspaper?

Paper Online

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Author (Year)
Echoing your essay, author and
year appear at the beginning of
every entry in your reference list.
Organise the list alphabetically by
the first named author in each
entry.
Note the inclusion of initials
which do not appear the main
body of your assignment.
Try to find a named author rather
than just citing the name of the
newspaper
Potter, R. (2013) ‘Time to take stock’, The Guardian, 20 May, p. 15.
Newspaper article (paper version)
Title of the article
in single quotation
marks and sentence
case
Title of Newspaper
in Italics and Title Case.
Exact day of publication
to make it easier for your reader to find.
Page number or numbers of whole article
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 Newspaper article (online version)

Author (Year) Title of the article

Echoing your essay, author and year appear at in single quotation marks
the beginning of every entry in your reference and sentence case
list. Organise the list alphabetically by the first
named author in each entry.
Title of Newspaper
Note the inclusion of initials which do not in Italics and Title Case.
appear in-text.
Exact day of publication
Try to find a named author rather than just
to make it easier for your reader to find.
citing the name of the newspaper.

Davis, N. (2017) ‘Air pollution linked to poor sleep, study finds’, The Guardian, 21 May. Available
at:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/21/air-pollution-linked-to-poor-sleep-stu
dy-finds
(Accessed: 30 May 2017).
Webpage Details:
Here you need to cite where the article Date accessed:
can be found. Make sure you are Always include the date when you looked at an online
consistent in the way you phrase this, resource, as it might be removed or changed at any
and ensure the link you provide actually time.
works! Return to Index
Author (Year)
Echoing your essay, author and year
appear at the beginning of every
entry in your reference list.
Organise the list alphabetically by
the first named author in each
entry.
In this case there is no named
author so the organisation
responsible for the webpage
material is cited as author.
Web pages
Title of the web page
(in italics)
Webpage Details:
Here you need to cite where the article
can be found. Make sure you are
consistent in the way you phrase this,
and ensure the link you provide actually
works!

Museums Association (2017) Museums across world celebrate Museums Day 2017. Available at:
http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/17052017-museums-across-world-celebrate-intern
ational-museums-day-2017
(Accessed: 30 May 2017).

Date accessed:
Always include the date when you looked at an
online resource, as it might be removed or
changed at any time. Return to Index
 Other resources

This resource is not a comprehensive guide to Harvard referencing but you can find more on our web page,
including Cite them Right, an excellent resource for finding the answers to some of the more obscure
questions: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/students/upgrade/study-skills/referencing/

How to read might seem obvious but how do you really know when you have read something? Improve your
techniques with the tips on our reading page: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/students/upgrade/study-skills/reading/

You can find a wide range of resources on different aspects of studying in our A-Z study advice pages:
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/students/upgrade/study-skills/

If you are a student at Oxford Brookes, you can also access one-to-one appointments and group study skills
sessions: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/upgrade/
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The following page is a reference list (which includes sources
used in this resource). Once you get very familiar with Harvard
referencing, you should be able to tell what type of source is
being referenced, just by the formatting style e.g. book, chapter
in a book, journal article etc.

Can you identify what type of source each entry is?

Click to continue
 References
Davis, N. (2017) ‘Air pollution linked to poor sleep, study finds’, The Guardian, 21 May. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/21/air-pollution-linked-to-poor-sleep-study-finds (Accessed: 30 May
2017).

Lawrence, D. (2011) The making of Stan Laurel: echoes of a British boyhood. Jefferson: McFarland & Co.

Matsaganis, M. (2011) ‘The welfare state and the crisis: the case of Greece’, Journal of European Social Policy, 21 (5), pp. 501-
512.

Museums Association (2017) Museums across world celebrate Museums Day 2017. Available at:
http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/17052017-museums-across-world-celebrate-international-museu
ms-day-2017
(Accessed: 30 May 2017).

Ravenscroft, J. (2006) ‘Invisible friends: questioning the role of the court dwarf in Hapsburg Spain’ in Waltraud, E. (ed.) Histories
of the normal and the abnormal: social and cultural histories of norms and normativities. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 26-52.

Shone, A. and Parry, B. (2013) Successful event management: a practical handbook. 4th edn. Andover: Cengage Learning.

Williams, K. and Davis M. (2017) Referencing and understanding plagiarism. 2nd ed. Basingtoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Click here to see what types of source are listed above

Return to Index
 References
Davis, N. (2017) ‘Air pollution linked to poor sleep, study finds’, The Guardian, 21 May. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/21/air-pollution-linked-to-poor-sleep-study-finds
Online newspaper article
(Accessed: 30 May 2017).

Lawrence, D. (2011) The making of Stan Laurel: echoes of a British boyhood. Jefferson: McFarland & Co. Book

Matsaganis, M. (2011) ‘The welfare state and the crisis: the case of Greece’, Journal of European Social
Policy, 21 (5), pp. 501-512.
Journal

Museums Association (2017) Museums across world celebrate Museums Day 2017. Available at:
http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/17052017-museums-across-world-celebrat Web page
e-international-museums-day-2017
(Accessed: 30 May 2017).

Ravenscroft, J. (2006) ‘Invisible friends: questioning the role of the court dwarf in Hapsburg Spain’ in Chapter in an edited book
Waltraud, E. (ed.) Histories of the normal and the abnormal: social and cultural histories of norms and
normativities. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 26-52.
Book
Shone, A. and Parry, B. (2013) Successful event management: a practical handbook. 4th edn. Andover:
Cengage Learning.

Williams, K. and Davis M. (2017) Referencing and understanding plagiarism. 2nd ed. Basingtoke: Palgrave
Book
Macmillan.

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