Harvard (AGPS) Style

A guide to referencing sources used in assignments

♦ This guide uses the Harvard or author-date system for referencing books, articles and ‘non-books’,
including Internet sources. It is a modified version of the style presented in: Style manual for authors, editors
and printers, 6th ed., formerly known as the AGPS Style manual

♦ The author-date system can vary in minor features such as punctuation, capitalisation, abbreviations and the
use of italics. The most important principle in referencing is to be consistent

NB: Some Faculties and Schools prefer different styles or systems. Before you write your
bibliography, check with your lecturer/tutor as to the referencing style they prefer you to use

♦ All sources used in assignments, essays, reports and theses must be acknowledged in the text of your
document giving the author’s name followed by the publication date (these are called ‘in-text citations’)

♦ A ‘bibliography’ or ‘reference list’ at the end of your document contains the full details of all the in-text
citations, arranged alphabetically

♦ Referencing is necessary to avoid plagiarism, to verify quotations, and to enable readers to identify and
consult any item to follow-up a cited author’s arguments

FOR A BOOK
The details required, in order, are:

1. name(s) of author(s), editor(s), compiler(s) or the institution responsible

2. year of publication
3. title of publication and subtitle if any (all titles must be underlined or italicised with
sentence style capitalisation as below)
4. series title and individual volume, if any
5. edition, if other than the first
6. publisher
7. place of publication
8. page number(s) if applicable

♦ One author

AUTHOR YEAR OF PUBLICATION TITLE (italicised or underlined)

Woodward, JA 1997, Writing research papers: investigating resources in cyberspace,

NTC Publishing Group, Lincolnwood, Ill.

PUBLISHER PLACE OF PUBLICATION

♦ More than one author

Lamble, J & Morris, S 2001, Online and personal: the reality of internet relationships,
Finch Publishing, Lane Cove, NSW.
FOR A BOOK (cont.)
♦ Editor(s)
Lansbury, RD & Davis, EM (eds) 1996, Managing together: consultation and
participation in the workplace, Longman, Melbourne.

Hall, S (ed.) 1997, Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices,

Sage, London.

♦ Sponsored by institution, corporation or other organization

Australian Bureau of Statistics 1996, 1996 Census dictionary,
Cat. No. 2901.0, ABS, Canberra.

Department of Health and Family Services 1997, Youth suicide in Australia:

the National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy, AGPS, Canberra.

♦ Series
Conrad, P 1990, Balancing home and career: skills for successful life management.
The Fifty-Minute Series, Crisp Publications, Los Altos, Calif.

♦ Edition
Hoggett, JR, Edwards, L & Medlin, JF 2003, Accounting in Australia, 5th edn,
John Wiley, Milton, Qld.

♦ Chapter or part of a book to which a number of authors have contributed

Abraham, J 1997, ‘Science and politics of medicines regulation’, in MA Elston (ed.) Sociology
of medical science and technology, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.

♦ No author or editor
Cambridge advanced learner's dictionary 2003, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

FOR AN ARTICLE
The details required, in order are:

1. name(s) of author(s) of the article

2. year of publication
3. title of article, in single quotation marks and sentence style capitalisation as below
4. title of periodical (underlined or italicised with headline style capitalisation as below)
5. volume number
6. issue (or part) number
7. page number(s)

♦ Journal Article

AUTHOR YEAR OF PUBL. TITLE OF ARTICLE

Miner, M 1991, ‘The adjustment of long-term homeless youth’

Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol.26, no. 1, pp. 24-34.

TITLE OF JOURNAL VOLUME NO PAGE NOS.

(italicised or underlined) ISSUE NO

♦ Newspaper article
Jones, C & Yaman, E 1997, ‘Casino chief fights the odds’, Australian,
22 December, p. 1.
FOR A NON-BOOK
The details required are the same as those for a book: title, date, format, publisher and place.

Meetings bloody meetings 2000, video recording, Video Arts,

London. Written by John Cleese and Antony Jay.

Apartheid & the history of the struggle for freedom 1994, CD-ROM, Mayibuye CD-ROM
Bellville, South Africa.

FOR ELECTRONIC SOURCES

This could include sources from full text compact disk products, electronic journals or other
sources from the Internet.

The basic form of the citations follow the principles listed for print sources:

1. name(s) of author(s) or the organisation responsible for document, web page or site
2. year of publication of document, creation of page/site or date last revised
Note: if you cannot establish the date of publication, use n.d. (no date)
3. title of document or page, if applicable
4. edition, if other than first
5. type of medium, if necessary
6. name and place of the publisher, sponsor or host of the source
7. date item viewed
8. web page or site address, or name of database on internet (if applicable)

♦ Web site
Law Institute of Victoria 2003, Law Institute of Victoria, Melbourne, viewed 28 November
2003, <http://www.liv.asn.au/>.

♦ Web document
Pezzey, JC 2002, Sustainability policy and environmental policy, draft, 17 October,
Economics and Environmental Network, ANU, viewed 18 November 2003,
<http://een.anu.edu.au/download_files/een0211.pdf>.

♦ Electronic journal
Chappell, C 2003, ‘Researching vocational education and training: where to from here?’
Journal of Vocational Education and Training, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 21-32,
viewed 25 November 2003, <http://www.triangle.co.uk/vae/>.

♦ Electronic journal from a database

Conley, T 2002, ‘The state of globalisation and the globalisation of the state’ Australian
Journal of International Affairs, vol. 56 Issue 3, pp. 447-471, viewed 17 November 2003,
retrieved from Academic Search Elite database.

If no author is given, the title is used as the first element of the citation

If you require further information or examples, refer to:

For print & electronic sources

Style manual for authors, editors and printers 2002, 6th edn, rev. Snooks & Co., John Wiley
& Sons, Australia (formerly known as the AGPS Style manual).

Victoria University Library 2003, Style manuals, viewed 4 December 2004,

<http://w2.vu.edu.au/library/infolink/vrc/style.htm>.
 REFERENCE IN THE TEXT OF YOUR ESSAY

♦ In the author-date (Harvard) system, a textual citation generally requires only the name of the author(s)
and the year of publication (and specific page(s) if necessary). Page numbers are necessary for quotations

♦ The citation may appear at the end of a sentence, before the full stop

♦ Alternatively, the author’s surname may be integrated into the text, followed by the year of publication in
parentheses

♦ The full reference must be listed at the end of your essay

Examples

Poverty was an inherent feature of a market economy (Macintyre 1985).

Macintyre (1985) has shown that poverty was an inherent feature of a market economy.

Abraham (1997, p.153) claims “research in medical sociology is not often concerned
with medicines themselves”.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/LIST OF REFERENCES
The following are examples of entries in a bibliography or list of references.
They should be arranged alphabetically by the first element of the citation.
(N.B. A list of references contains details only of those works cited in the text).

Abraham, J 1997, ‘Science and politics of medicines regulation’, in MA Elston (ed.)

Sociology of medical science and technology, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.

Australian Bureau of Statistics 1991, Balance of payments, Australia, 1989-90,

Cat. no. 5303.0, ABS, Canberra.

Cambridge advanced learner's dictionary 2003, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Conley, T 2002, ‘The state of globalisation and the globalisation of the state’ Australian
Journal of International Affairs, vol. 56 Issue 3, pp. 447-471, viewed 17 November 2003,
retrieved from Academic Search Elite database.

Hoggett, JR, Edwards, L & Medlin, JF 2003, Accounting in Australia, 5th edn, John Wiley,
Milton, Qld.

Lamble, J & Morris, S 2001, Online and personal: the reality of internet relationships,
Finch Publishing, Lane Cove, NSW.

Macintyre, S 1985, Winners and losers: the pursuit of social justice in Australian
history, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.

Miner, M. 1991, ‘The adjustment of long-term homeless youth’, Australian Journal of Social Issues,
vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 24-34.

Pezzey, JC 2002 Sustainability policy and environmental policy, draft, 17 October, Economics
and Environmental Network, ANU, viewed 18 November 2003,
<http://een.anu.edu.au/download_files/een0211.pdf>.

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The Harvard System Sample Essay

Introduction

With the recent proliferation of many new types of electronic information sources,

it is important that you have clear guidelines on how to cite the types of information

sources that are now available. This “Sample Essay” shows you how to cite most of

the different types of references that you might encounter. This particular essay

illustrates the Harvard, or “Author-Date” system and uses the 6th edition of the

Australian Government style manual (Snooks & Co. 2002). By the way, the terms

“citing” and “referencing” are used interchangeably.

Why Reference your Work?

In academic writing it is important that your reader can follow up your claims and

validate your argument by finding and reading the sources you have used. Citations

also acknowledge the source of your ideas. Correct referencing ensures that you avoid

plagiarism (claiming another person’s work or ideas as your own), which is a serious

academic offence. The University of Tasmania has a comprehensive web page that

discusses all aspects of plagiarism (2003).

Systems and Styles

It is common to refer to the Harvard style, but in fact, Harvard is a system (the

Author-Date system) of referencing, and not a style per se. The two other most

common systems in use are the Note-Bibliography (or Footnoting) system and the

Vancouver (or Number-Reference List) system.

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 In the Harvard system you make an author and year reference in the text, with an

additional page reference if needed. This citation is placed in curved brackets. A full

reference list entry is then made, for each reference, at the end of the chapter or

article, in alphabetical order, usually in a section headed “References”.

The Note-Bibliography system relies on a number inserted “in-text”, a

corresponding full reference in a footnote on the same page and usually a full

alphabetically arranged bibliography at the end. It is used in arts and humanities

disciplines such as history.

The Vancouver System is used mainly in medically related disciplines and relies

on an “in-text” number which refers to a numbered reference in a list at the end of the

article or chapter.

Why use the Harvard System?

Systems of referencing have been in use for centuries, but since the 1950’s, the

Harvard system has gained such a following that most science, social science and

many humanities books and journals now use it. It is the most common system

recommended for use in the University of Tasmania. You should always check which

system and style is required by your lecturer. Whichever system and style you use you

must try to apply it consistently.

Harvard Style?

It is confusing when lecturers say, “Use the Harvard style!” As you have seen,

Harvard is a system and not a style and many organizations have applied their own

publishing styles to the Harvard system. Some publishers have adapted their

publishing house style to both the Harvard and the Footnoting systems. Two very

2
important examples are the style manuals used by the Australian Government

Publishing Service (AGPS) and the University of Chicago Press (Chicago manual of

style 2003). I have used the 6th edition of the style manual of the AGPS (Snooks &

Co. 2002) for this essay. In fact, this manual applies its style to all three common

systems: Harvard, Footnoting and Vancouver (pp. 187-232).

In-Text Citations

This section shows you how to make a citation in the text of your essay or

assignment in different situations. Just look at the References section at the end of this

essay to see the full citations.

The basic principle is to mention the author’s surname and year of publication of

the text. A journal article by Adler (2003) or this one: (Horitz 1982), shows the most

common method. Direct quotations are cited like this one from a book: “The intended

audience… are still librarians, scholars and students” (Li & Crane 1996, p. xvii). Note

how pages can be included after the date if necessary. If the same author has two

citations from the same year, they are distinguished by a letter, for example: (Peterson

1996a) and (Peterson 1996b).

If a work has no author or is a film, video, DVD, TV or radio program, it is cited

using the title like this: (Man with the movie camera 1998) or (The search for

meaning 1998)

Citing Different Publication Types

Here are examples of the most common types of items you may want to cite. There
are many other possibilities however and you may need to consult Snooks & Co. for
these (2002, pp. 187-232).

3
Books - authored: (CSIRO Division of Entomology 1991; Dorward & Davidson

2000)

Books - edited: (Befu & Guichard-Anguis 2001; Douglas, Douglas & Derrett 2001)

Book chapters: (O'Regan 2002; Staats 1965) Hint: Cite the chapter author, not the

book author or editor.

Book reviews: (Baker 2003; Masterton 2003) Hint: cite the review’s author, not the

author of the book being reviewed.

Journal articles - print: (Funahashi & Inoue 2000; Genoni 2001; Peterson 1996b)

Journal articles - web version of a print journal: (McDougall et al. 2003, p. 114)

Journals - web only, no print version: (Wallis 1992)

Magazine articles: (Callister 2003; Wang & Zhou 2003)

Conference papers: (Wood et al. 2003)

Theses: (MacFarlane 2002)

Reports: (Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education 1995) or for

electronic versions of reports: (Rathbun, West & Hausken 2003) Hint: There are

many variations, see Snooks & Co. (2002).

Patents: (Bean 1975)

Newspaper articles: (Harmon 2002), but if there is no obvious author, just give an in-

text reference and no bibliography entry. E.g. “It was stated in The Mercury (11 July

1999, p. 2) that…”

Newspaper articles – web version: (Ker & Shiell 2003)

4
Personal Communications: In-text reference only, but nothing in reference list. Eg.

(J Slater 2002, pers. comm., 23 May) or “Mr J Slater confirmed by letter on 23 May

2002 that this was so”.

Emails: Treat as a personal communication. In-text reference, no entry in References.

E.g. “P Richardson confirmed this by email on 24 November 2001” or (P Richardson,

2001, email, 24 November, <[email protected]>)

CD-Roms: (Dr Brain thinking games 1998)

Films, DVDs Videos: (Man with the movie camera 1998)

Radio and TV programs: (The search for meaning 1998)

Web pages: (University of Tasmania Library 2003)

Newsgroup posts: (Aton 2002)

Additional Information

If you want more citation examples, see the book by Snooks & Co. (2002, Chap

12). The RMIT University Library (2003) has also produced an excellent Harvard

guide.

Roger Carter
University of Tasmania Library
6 February 2004

5
REFERENCES

Adler, DG 2003, 'The Clinton wars: the constitution, Congress, and war powers',
Political Science Quarterly, vol. 118, no. 1, pp. 134-5.
Aton, Max <[email protected]>, 2002, Easilix freeware download, viewed 12
September 2003, <http://groups.google.com.au/groups>.
Baker, R 2003, 'The awful truth, review of The great unravelling: losing our way in
the new century by Paul Krugman.' New York Review of Books, vol. 50, no.
17, 6 November, pp. 6, 8, 12.
Bean, CT 1975, Stringed musical instrument with aluminum made integral unit, US
Patent 3,915,049, filed 21 October 1974, and issued 28 October 1975.
Befu, H & Guichard-Anguis, S (eds) 2001, Globalizing Japan : ethnography of the
Japanese presence in Asia, Europe and America, Nissan Institute/Routledge
Japanese studies series, Routledge, London.
Callister, F 2003, 'Liberia's child soldiers', The Tablet, 4 October, pp. 7-8.
Chicago manual of style, 2003, 15th edn, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education 1995, Report on 1995 quality
reviews, 2 vols., AGPS, Canberra.
CSIRO Division of Entomology 1991, The insects of Australia : a textbook for
students and research workers, 2nd edn, Melbourne University Press, Carlton
South, Vic.
Dorward, C & Davidson, R 2000, Anything but ordinary : the nine lives of Cecile,
Freemantle Arts Centre Press, Freemantle, W.A.
Douglas, N, Douglas, G & Derrett, R (eds) 2001, Special interest groups : context and
cases, John Wiley & Sons, Brisbane, Qld.
Dr Brain thinking games 1998, CD-ROM, Knowledge Adventure Inc., Torrance,
California.
Funahashi, S & Inoue, M 2000, 'Neuronal interactions related to working memory
processes in the primate prefrontal cortex revealed by cross-correlation
analysis', Cerebral Cortex, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 535-51.
Genoni, P 2001, 'Subverting the empire: exploration in the fiction of Thea Astley and
Peter Carey', Journal of Australian Studies, no. 70, pp. 13-21; notes 151-2.
Harmon, A 2002, 'A call for partnership, a hint of regulation', New York Times, 30
December, p. C.3.
Horitz, C 1982, 'Bee lines', Humanity, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 33-66.
Ker, P & Shiell, A 2003, 'Port lacks respect: Malthouse', The Age, 18 September,
viewed 20 September 2003,
<http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/17/1063625091530.html>.
Li, X & Crane, NB 1996, Electronic styles : a handbook for citing electronic
information, 2nd edn, Information Today, Inc., Medford, N.J.
MacFarlane, I 2002, 'Aboriginal society in North West Tasmania : dispossession and
genocide', PhD thesis, University of Tasmania.
Man with the movie camera 1998, video recording, Chatsworth, California.
Distributed by Image Entertainment. Directed by Dziga Vertov.
Masterton, M 2003, 'Martha C. Nussbaum and Juha Sihvola, eds. The sleep of reason:
erotic experience and sexual ethics in ancient Rome [Review]', American
Journal of Philology, vol. 124, no. 3, pp. 477-81.

6
McDougall, KL, Summerell, BA, Coburn, D & Newton, M 2003, 'Phytophthora
cinnamomi causing disease in subalpine vegetation in New South Wales',
Australasian Plant Pathology, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 113-5, viewed 20 November,
2003, <http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=AP02074.pdf>.
O'Regan, T 2002, 'A national cinema', in G Turner (ed.), The film cultures reader,
Routledge, London, pp. 139-64.
Peterson, PE 1996a, 'The price of federal government', American Sociology, vol. 102,
no. 1, pp. 290-1.
---- 1996b, 'School choice in Atlanta', The Public School, vol. 125, pp. 38-56.
Rathbun, AH, West, J & Hausken, EG 2003, Young children's access to computers in
the home and at school in 1999 and 2000, NCES-2003-036, National Center
for Education Statistics, Washington, DC,
<http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003036.pdf>.
RMIT University Library 2003, Harvard style, RMIT University Library, viewed 21
November 2003, <http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse?SIMID=4iyjc0b60eqaz>.
The search for meaning 1998, radio program, ABC Radio, Sydney, 24 March.
Snooks & Co. 2002, Style manual for authors, editors and printers, 6th edn, John
Wiley & Sons, Milton, Qld.
Staats, AW 1965, 'A cases in and a learning strategy for the extension of learning
principles to problems of human behavior', in L Krasner & LP Ullmann (eds),
Research in behavior modification, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York,
pp. 27-55.
University of Tasmania 2003, Plagiarism : University statement on plagiarism and
referencing, University of Tasmania, viewed 20 November 2003,
<http://www.utas.edu.au/plagiarism/>.
University of Tasmania Library 2003, Management subject guide, University of
Tasmania Library, viewed 10 September 2003,
<http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/subj/management.html>.
Wallis, C 1992, 'Asymmetric dependence and mental representation', Psycoloquy, vol.
3, no. 70, viewed 18 November 2003,
<http://psycprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000294/>.
Wang, Y & Zhou, X 2003, 'Peace by piece', Beijing Review, vol. 46, no. 37, 11
September, pp. 10-4.
Wood, R, Shoureshi, R, Simoes, MG & Wang, X 2003, 'Optical sensor for
transformer monitoring', in IEEE international symposium on diagnostics for
electric machines, power electronics and drives, Atlanta, Georgia, 24-26
August, IEEE, Piscataway, New Jersey, pp. 142-5.