QUICK GUIDE TO HARVARD REFERENCING

1. CITE IN THE TEXT

Every time you summarise or quote another writer’s/source’s ideas in your essay, cite that source in the text.

Normal adult pulse rate is between 60 and 80 beats per minute (Nicol, 2004). (writer’s last name, year book published)

Nurses and midwives need to maintain patients’ confidentiality (NMC, 2008). (website organisation’s name, year website created/updated)

 If the source’s name is at the beginning of a sentence or phrase, the brackets will only be around the year.

Nicol (2004) asserts that the normal adult pulse rate is 60 – 80 beats per minute.

NMC (2008) requires nurses and midwives to maintain patients’ confidentiality.

 If you quote directly (word for word) from the source, use quotation marks and include the page number in the reference.

“The pulse rate is a good indication of how the heart is working and how the body is responding to stress or illness” (Nicol, 2004, p.13).

2. LIST THE TEXT IN THE REFERENCES LIST AT THE END OF THE ESSAY

If you cited a writer/source in the essay, you must list the full details of the source in your references list.

Your references list must

:
 be in alphabetical order of author’s last name/organisation’s name
 include all sources e.g. books, journals, web pages…
 only contain sources you have referred to in the essay

Sally Thorpe, Richard Knott, Steve O’Driscoll & David Shah

Reference list examples

A book:

Nicol, M. (2004) Clinical Nursing Skills. 2nd edn. Edinburgh: Mosby.

(Edinburgh is the place of publication. Mosby is the publisher.)

A chapter/essay within an edited book:

Franklin, A.W. (2002) ‘Management of the problem’, in Smith, S.M. (ed.) The maltreatment of children. Lancaster: MTP, pp.83-95.

(Notice that the title of the essay is in quote marks, while the title of the book is in italics. pp means page numbers.)

A website:

NMC (2008) Patient Care. Available at: http://www.nmc-uk.org/aArticle.aspx?ArticleID=3057 (Accessed: 16 June 2012).

A journal article:

Zaari, S. (2009) ‘Evidence Based Practice’, Nursing Standard, 1 (3), pp. 365-372.

(1 is the volume number. 3 is the issue number.)

Sally Thorpe, Richard Knott, Steve O’Driscoll & David Shah

Texts with more than one author

In your reference list, include the name of every author of each text, no matter how many authors a particular text has.

In your citation (within the essay itself), if a text has three or more authors you can just write the first author’s surname followed by the
words et al. (and others).

Secondary sources (second-hand references)

You may come across a summary of another author's work (in the source you are reading) that you would like to make reference to in your
assignment. This is called secondary referencing. Here’s an example:

Research carried out in the Greater Manchester area by Brown (1966, cited in Bassett, 1986, p.142) found that ...

In the example, Brown is the work you wish to refer to but have not read directly for yourself. Bassett is the secondary source where you
found the summary of Brown's work.

It is important to realise that Bassett may have taken Brown's ideas forward, or altered their original meaning. If you need to cite a
secondary reference it is recommended that, where possible, you read the original source for yourself rather than rely on someone else's
interpretation of a work.

The reference list at the end of your document should only contain works that you have read.

(http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm)

Online sources

 Many websites have organisations as authors.

 If there is no clear author, such as an organisation, the information on the website may be unreliable.
 If there are no dates, the information on the website may be out of date.
 Check to see that an e-journal is peer-reviewed or edited by academic experts who have checked the accuracy of the research.

For further information, this book is available in the library:

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2010) Cite them right: The essential referencing guide. 8th edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Sally Thorpe, Richard Knott, Steve O’Driscoll & David Shah