LIBRARY

Research Guide 2

Citing your references using the Harvard

(Author-Date) system
Is this the correct guide for you?
Before using this guide, please check whether your Department, School or Faculty
specifies the use of a particular referencing style and, if so, if it provides its own
guidelines to that style.

This guide is in line with Cite them right online -

http://oxfordbrookes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://www.citethemrightonline.com - and the printed
book equivalent: Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2019) Cite them right: the essential referencing
guide. 11th edn. London: Red Globe Press. Call number 808.02 PEA

Why is it important to cite references?

 to enable other people to identify and trace your sources quickly and easily

 to support facts and claims you have made in your text

It is accepted practice in the academic world to acknowledge the words, ideas or work of others
and not simply to use them as if they were your own. Failure to do this could be regarded as
plagiarism – see https://www.brookes.ac.uk/library/library-services/information-skills/plagiarism

There are 2 parts to a referencing system:

(1) an in-text citation
(2) an entry in the reference list/bibliography at the end of the assignment/work

1. In-text citations
The in-text citation is placed at the exact point in your document where you refer to someone
else’s work, whether it is a book, journal, online document, website or any other source. The
following guidelines apply to all types of sources, including online documents & websites.

The in-text citation consists of author (or editor) and publication year, in brackets
e.g. Agriculture still employs half a million people in rural Britain (Shucksmith, 2000).

An author can be an organisation, corporate body or Government Department (initials or

abbreviations can be used if well known)

WWW.BROOKES.AC.UK/LIBRARY
 e.g. (English Heritage, 2010)

e.g. (NHS, 2010)

If there are 2 or 3 authors, both, or all 3, names should be given

e.g. (Lines, Pritchard and Walker, 2007)

If there are 4 or more authors, cite the first author, followed by ‘et al.’ (in italics)
e.g. (Morgan et al., 2013)

To refer to 2 or more publications at the same time, list in date order, separated by a semicolon
e.g. (Taylor, 2013; Piper, 2015)

For several documents by the same author published in the same year, use (a, b, c)
e.g. (Watson, 2009a)

If the author’s name occurs naturally in the sentence, only the year of publication is given
e.g. In his groundbreaking study, Jones (2014) …

If the date cannot be identified, use the phrase ‘no date’

e.g. (Labour Party, no date)

If there is no author, including Acts of Parliament & law cases, use a brief title instead (in italics)
e.g. (Burden of anonymity, 1948)
e.g. (Mental Health Act 2007) (No comma is needed if you’re referring to an Act)
e.g. (‘YL v. Birmingham City Council’, 2007)

For web pages with no author or title, use the URL and date (If a web page has no author or
title, you might question whether or not it is suitable for academic work.)

e.g. (https://www.brookes.ac.uk/, 2014)

In-text citations and page numbers: These should be included when there is a need to be
more specific, e.g. referring to specific information or data, or when making a direct quotation.

Use p. (for a single page) or pp. (for more than one page). If page numbers are not given (e.g.
for some ebooks), use the information that is available, such as loc, %, chapter/paragraph.

e.g. (Thompson, 2011, p.100) or (Thompson, 2011, 58%)

Secondary sources
This is a document which you have not seen but which is quoted or mentioned in a source you
do have. Link the 2 sources with the term ‘cited in’ or ‘quoted in’:
e.g. (Turner, 2000, cited in Walker, 2004, p.53).
e.g. Turner’s analysis of development trends (2000, cited in Walker, 2004, p.53 ).

You can only include the source you have actually read in your reference list, so, in this example,
you would only include Walker. (It is good practice to try to read the original source (Turner)
if possible.)
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 Handling Quotations in the text:
Short quotations may be run into the text, using single or double quotation marks (be
consistent):
e.g. As Owens stated (2008, p.97), ‘the value of...’

Longer quotations should be a separate, indented, paragraph – no need for quotation

marks:
e.g. Simone de Beauvoir examined her own past and wrote rather gloomily:
The past is not a peaceful landscape lying there behind me, a country in
which I can stroll wherever I please, and will gradually show me all its
secret hills and dales. As I was moving forward, so it was crumbling
(Simone de Beauvoir, 1972, p.365).

2. Reference list/bibliography
At the end of your assignment/work you need to provide a complete list of all sources used.
Please note that some Departments, Schools or Faculties may expect 2 lists – (1) a reference list
of all sources cited in your text and (2) a general bibliography of sources used but not specifically
cited as in-text citations.

The entries in the list(s) are arranged in one alphabetical sequence by author’s name, title if
there is no author, URL if no author or title – whatever has been used in the in-text citation, so
that your reader can go easily from an in-text citation to the correct point in your list.

What details should be in the reference?

All references, including those for online resources, must contain author, year of publication
and title (if known) in that order. Further details are also required, varying according to type of
source (see below).

Top tips
 If referencing where both print and online versions exist, take care to reference the
version you have used (especially if they are updated at different times, or vary in any
way – e.g. newspapers often vary)
 URLs: When using the URL for web pages, you can shorten it if the route is still clear
 DOIs (digital object identifiers): DOIs may be given for online sources (including
journals). In the reference this replaces the URL and date accessed (see example in
box on next page)

Printed books or reports AND Ebooks which look the same as a printed book,
with publication details and pagination

1 Author/Editor:
 Surname/family name first, followed by initials
 Include all authors, except where there are 4 or more, when you should give the first name
followed by et al. (in italics)
(Please note: Some courses or publishers may want you to list all authors. If you’re
not sure whether you need to list them, check with your module leader.)
 For editors, use (ed.) or (eds)

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  If an abbreviation has been used for a corporate author in the in-text citation, use the
abbreviation in the reference list too (e.g. NHS)
2 Year of publication: Give the year of publication in round brackets, or (no date)
3 Title:
 Include title as given on the title page of a book
 Include any sub-title, separating it from the title by a colon
 Capitalise the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns
 Use italics
4 Edition: Only include if not the first edition. Edition is abbreviated to ‘edn’.
5 Place of publication and publisher: Use a colon to separate these elements. If there is
more than one place of publication, include only the most local.
6 Series: Include if relevant, after the publisher.

Example of printed book, or ebook which looks like a printed book, or report:
e.g. Shone, A. and Parry, B. (2013) Successful event management: a practical handbook.
4th edn. Andover: Cengage Learning.

Example of organisation/corporate body/Government Department as author:

e.g. Department of Health (2012) Manual of nutrition. 12th edn. London: TSO.

Example of book with no author:

e.g. Whitaker’s 2019 (2018) London: Bloomsbury Yearbooks.

Ebooks for which publication details and page numbers are not available
AND Online reports
1 Author/editor
2 Year of publication (in round brackets)
3 Title (in italics)
4/5 Available at: URL (Accessed: date) OR (Downloaded: date)

e.g. NMC (2018) Standards of proficiency for nursing associates. Available at:
https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/education-standards/nursing-associates-
proficiency-standards.pdf (Downloaded: 23 June 2014).

Chapter in book
1 Author of chapter
2 Year of publication
3 Title of chapter (in single quotation marks)
4 ‘in’ and then author, title of complete book (in italics), place of publication, publisher, page
nos.

e.g. Smith, H. (1990) ‘Innovation at large’, in James, S. (ed.) Science and innovation.
Manchester: Novon, pp. 46-50.

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Journal articles, print and electronic
1 Author
2 Year of publication
3 Title of article (in single quotation marks)
4 Title of journal (in italics). Capitalise the first letter of each word in title, except for words
such as ‘and’, ‘the’, ‘of’
5 Volume number (no brackets), issue number and/or date (all in round brackets)
6 Page numbers or equivalent (issue and page numbers may be replaced by article
numbers)
7/8 Available at: URL (Accessed: date) (if required) OR DOI (if available) (URL is required
for an article which is ONLY available online)

Example of print or online journal article:

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

Example of online journal article including doi:

e.g. Williams, J. (2000) ‘Tools for achieving sustainable housing strategies in rural
Gloucestershire’, Planning Practice & Research, 15(3), pp.155-174. doi:
10.1080/02697450020000131.

Newspaper articles, print and electronic

e.g. Potter, R. (2013) ‘Time to take stock’, The Guardian, 20 May, p.15.
(If using an online version, include the URL and date accessed OR doi (if available))

Web page (the main web page, not a pdf on the web page)
e.g. OXFAM (2013) Gender justice. Available at: http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/our-
work/gender-justice (Accessed: 12 June 2014).

Pdf on web page

Follow guidelines above either for Ebooks which look the same as a printed book or for Ebooks
for which publication details and page numbers are not available and online reports

Report from a database

e.g. Mintel Oxygen (2016) Car insurance UK. Available at: http://academic.mintel.com
(Accessed: 12 June 2018).

Systematic review
e.g. Pasquali, S. et al. (2018) ‘Systemic treatments for metastatic cutaneous melanoma’,
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2, CD011123.
doi:10.1002/14651858.CD011123.pub2.

Technical Report
e.g. White, G., Cunningham, G., Doyle, D. (2019) 'Design of an electric drive transmission for a
Formula Student race car', SAE Technical Paper, 2019-01-1295. doi:10.4271/2019-01-1295.

Thesis
e.g. Matheson, C. M. (2004) Products and passions: explorations of authenticity within Celtic
music festivities. PhD thesis. Glasgow Caledonian University. Available at:
http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=5&uin=uk.bl.ethos.414865 (Accessed: 23 June 2014).

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UK Act of Parliament
e.g. Mental Health Act 2007, c.12. Available at:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/12/contents/enacted (Accessed: 3 July 2018).

Law report (Cases)

e.g. 'YL v. Birmingham City Council' (2007) United Kingdom House of Lords, case 27.
Available at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200607/ldjudgmt/jd070620/birm-
1.htm (Accessed: 3 July 2018).

Email
e.g. Saunders, L. (2010) Email to Linda Hinton, 18 August. (You can also use this pattern
for other personal communications e.g. letter, conversation)

Interview
e.g. Taylor, F. (2014) ‘The future is bright’. Interview with Francis Taylor. Interviewed by Sally
Ross for BBC News, 15 March. (If published on the internet also include the URL and date
accessed)

Video on YouTube
e.g. Page, D. (2008) How to draw cartoon characters: how to draw the head on a cartoon
character. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g18gHMKFlhM (Accessed: 26
August 2016).

Photograph from the internet

e.g. Lake, Q. (2010) Emperors’ heads outside the entrance to the Sheldonian Theatre, Broad
Street, Oxford. Available at: https://blog.quintinlake.com/2010/11/05/photos-of-the-emperors-
heads-sheldonian-theatre-oxford/ (Accessed: 26 August 2016).

Figure, graph, diagram, image etc from a book

As well as including a page number in your in-text citation, you might also want to include any
ID the author has used e.g. a figure or table number.
e.g. (Chen, Orum and Paulsen, 2018, p.103, Table 5.1)
(This could be a caption under the figure if you are reproducing it.)

In the reference list, you reference the whole book

e.g. Chen, X., Orum, A.M., Paulsen, K.E. (2018) Introduction to cities: How place and space
shape human experience. 2nd edn. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

For further Harvard referencing examples see: Cite them right online -
http://oxfordbrookes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://www.citethemrightonline.com

The print equivalent is: Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2019) Cite them right: the essential referencing
guide. 11th edn. London: Red Globe Press. Call number: 808.02 PEA

You might like to try using EndNote

This service enables you to build up a database of your references and then automatically format
both in-text citations and your reference list in the Brookes Harvard style (like this guide). For full
details see https://www.brookes.ac.uk/library/library-sevices/endnote

VF/Oxford Brookes University July 2019

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