Harvard referencing style (Leeds)

Citation of sources in Harvard style

This resource provides guidance in citation for a commonly used Harvard style. Some subject-areas may prefer a 'house style' variation, which will be specified by the relevant section of your course handbook and should be adhered to within your work.

Unlike many referencing styles, there is no official source document for Harvard style; for a comprehensive guide to citing a wider range of sources, including unpublished archive resources and media:

Overview

Harvard referencing style features author-date citations in parentheses within the main body of your text. Full publishing information is provided in a bibliography/reference list, ordered alphabetically by author surname, which is placed at the end of your essay.

Parenthical (indirect) citations:

If the author’s name does not form a natural part of your sentence, then the surname, publication year, and page number (where relevant) should all be included in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

Example: Clearly, ‘the concept of the mind admits different connotations’ (Misra, 2019, p.2).

Narrative (direct) citations:

If the author’s name forms a natural part of your sentence, then the surname should be followed by the year of publication and page number in parentheses immediately following the surname.

Example: Misra (2019, p.2) notes that ‘the concept of the mind admits different connotations’.

Multiple Sources:

If you want to reference multiple sources in the same sentence, then do so parenthetically, placing the citations by date of publication and separating them with semicolons.

Example: There is a positive correlation between meditation and stress reduction (Shumway and Shulman, 2015; Westinghouse, 2017; Adams, et al., 2019).

Your reference list links with your in-text citations, enabling readers to easily trace the sources cited within your work. The reference list is a list of the documents from which any information has been taken and used in your work. Your reference list should be arranged alphabetically by authors' surnames. Sources without authors are arranged alphabetically by title within the same list.

These examples cover the most common types of sources, but you can find guidelines on how to reference different source types on the Leeds Harvard website.

Remember that there are different types of 'Harvard' referencing styles, so make sure to check your course Moodle to see if you have been advised to use a specific type.

Books (one author)

Citation format

Required information: (Author’s surname, Year of publication, p.Page number)

Narrative example: Coira (2012, pp.13-21) identifies three main categories of eulogy.

Parenthetical example: The role of eulogy may vary, depending on the patron’s age and status (Coira, 2012, p.47).

Note: page numbers are required for paraphrasing specific information and/or pinpointing a quote. Use "pp.Page-range" if citing multiple pages. E.g. (Coira, 2012, pp.47-48)

Bibliography format

Required information: Author’s surname, Initial(s). Publication year. Italicised title of book with only first letter of first word and proper nouns capitalised. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example: Coira, P. 2012. By poetic authority: The rhetoric of panegyric in Gaelic poetry of Scotland to c. 1700. Edinburgh: John Donald.

Note: Since the bibliography comes in alphabetical order, begin with the author’s last name instead of first name.

Further information:

If the book is an electronic copy use the following format: Author’s surname, Initial(s). Publication year. Italicised title of book with only first letter of first word and proper nouns capitalised. [Online]. Place of publication: Publisher. [Accessed Date accessed]. Available from: URL/DOI

Example: Garner, K. 2017. Romantic women writers and Arthurian legend: The quest for knowledge. [Online]. London: Palgrave Macmillan. [Accessed 30 June 2020]. Available from: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137597113

Further information: 

Books (multiple authors)

Citation format:

Required information (Two authors): (Author 1 Surname and Author 2 Surname, Year of publication, p.Page number)

Narrative example: Clemens and Graham (2008) provide a meticulously researched introduction to medieval manuscript studies.

Parenthetical example: A thorough introduction to manuscript studies, however, ‘may not be introduced comprehensively until postgraduate level’ (Clemens and Graham, 2008, p. 43).

Note: Provide page numbers if quoting or paraphrasing.

Required information (Three or more authors): (Author 1 Surname et al., Year of publication, p.Page number).

If a source has three or more authors, the name of the first author should be given, followed by the phrase "et al."

Parenthetical example: The SAMUELS project led to the development of the Historical Thesaurus semantic tagger (Alexander et al., 2015).

Narrative example: Alexander et al. (2015) developed the HT semantic tagger as part of the SAMUELS project.

Bibliography format:

Required information (Two authors): Author 1 Surname, Author 1 Initial(s). and Author 2 Surname, Author 2 Initial(s). Publication year. Italicised title of book with only first letter of first word and proper nouns capitalised. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example: Clemens, R. and Graham, T. 2008. An introduction to manuscript studies. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Required information (Three or more authors): Author 1 Surname, Author 1 Initial(s)., Author 2 Surname, Author 2 Initial(s) and Author 3 Surname, Author 3 Initial(s). Publication year. Italicised title of book with only first letter of first word and proper nouns capitalised. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example: Clayden, J., Greeves, N. and Warren, S. 2012. Organic chemistry. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Note: List all authors in the bibliography, even if there are three or more, retaining the order the names are presented in the original.

Further information:

Chapter in an edited book

Citation format:

If you are referencing a book with chapters written by different authors, you need to give details of the chapter and the book that the chapter is in.

Required information: (Surname of the chapter author, Year of publication, p.Page number)

Parenthetical example: An earlier survey of the types and usage of elegy composed in Scots, Latin, and Gaelic further examines these stylistic differences (Martin and Mathis, 2018).

Note: In the body of your essay you should only cite the author of the chapter you are referencing.

Bibliography format:

Required information: Surname of the chapter author, Initial(s). Publication year. Chapter title. In: Surname of the Editor, Initial(s). ed(s). Italicised title of book with only first letter of first word and proper nouns capitalised. Place of publication: Publisher, pp. Page numbers (xx-xx).

Example: Martin, J. and Mathis, K.L. 2018. Elegy and commemorative writing. In: Royan, N. ed. The International Companion to Scottish literature, 1400–1650. Glasgow: Scottish Literature International, pp.173‒99.

Further information:

Journal articles

Citation format:

Required information: (Author’s surname, Year of publication, p.Page number)

Parenthetical example: (Woolf, 2017, p.215)

Note: page numbers are required for paraphrasing specific information and/or pinpointing the quote

Bibliography format:

Required information: Author’s surname, Initial(s). Publication year. Title of article. Italicised Journal Title. Volume number in bold(issue number), pp.page numbers of the article (xx-xx)

Example: Woolf, A. 2017. On the nature of the Picts. The Scottish Historical Review. 96(2), pp.214–17.

Example: Pajunen, K. 2008. Institutions and inflows of foreign direct investment: a fuzzy-set analysis. Journal of International Business Studies. 34(4), pp.652-669.

If you are referencing a journal article which you have read online (on a website or as a PDF), you do not need to include [online], the URL or the access date in your reference. This is different from all other online items.

Further information:

Websites

Citation format:

Required information: (Author’s surname, publication date of website) or (Corporate author, publication date of website).

Where there is no obvious author, begin citation with the webpage or site title.

Example: (Higley, 2007)

Example: (National Library of Scotland, 2020)

Note: do not include the URL of the website in your in-text citation. If you are citing specific information from a website that does not have page numbers, you do not need to include anything to indicate this in the in-text citation.

Bibliography format:

Required information: Author’s surname, Initial(s). Publication year. Italicised title of website with only first letter of first word and proper nouns capitalised. [Online]. [Accessed Date accessed]. Available from: URL

OR

Company name. Publication year. Italicised title of website with only first letter of first word and proper nouns capitalised. [Online]. [Accessed Date accessed]. Available from: URL

Example: National Library of Scotland. 2020. Bàird Ghàidhlig na Ceapaich/Gaelic Bards of Keppoc. [Online]. [Accessed 30 June 2020]. Available from: https://digital.nls.uk/learning/gaelic-bards/

If you are referencing a specific section of a website then the format is similar to the ‘Journal Article’ style.

Required information: Author’s surname, Initial(s) (or company name). Publication year. Webpage title. Italicised title of website with only first letter of first word and proper nouns capitalised. [Online]. [Accessed Date accessed]. Available from: URL

Example: Higley, S. 2007. Preiddiau Annwn: The Spoils of Annwn. The Camelot Project. [Online]. [Accessed 30 June 2020]. Available at: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/preiddeu-annwn

Example: Alexander, M. and Kay, C. 2020. Facts and Figures. About the Historical Thesaurus of English. [Online]. [Accessed 28 October 2020]. Available https://ht.ac.uk/facts-and-figures/

Further information: 

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

General guidance

When referencing generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the current consensus is to reference the use of any AI software/tool as private correspondence. The reasons for this are as follows:

  • Like private correspondence, the prompts and responses you enter into and receive from AI are unique to you.
  • Like private correspondence, AI is a problematic source as it cannot be easily replicated and verified.
  • Like private correspondence, each prompt and response session with AI is time-bound, specific and unique to that moment in time.

Note: When using generative AI it is also good academic practice to keep a record of the input prompt(s) and output response(s), even if you do not include these in the submission itself.

For more guidance regarding the use of generative AI, see Student Learning Development (SLD)'s AI guidance.

Citation format:

Required information: (AI company and software/tool names, Year used)

Example: (OpenAI ChatGPT, 2023)

Example: (Google Bard, 2023)

Bibliography/Referencing list format:

Required information: AI company and software/tool names. Year used. Software/tool name Response to Name of person who entered prompt(s) and received response(s) [this would be your name if you used the AI], Date Month prompts entered/responses received.

Example: OpenAI ChatGPT. 2023. Response to John Doe, 14 September.