What is Harvard Referencing?

Ravensbourne University London

Department of Business and Computing
 What is Referencing?
• Referencing is a standardised way to acknowledge the sources of information and ideas
that you have used in any written work (such as your Portfolio Project!)

• There are different referencing formats, however the Harvard Referencing System is the
most common referencing style used in most UK universities. Therefore it is the accepted
format used at Ravensbourne University London!

When do you have to reference? If you include a…..

1. Quote (use someone else’s exact words)
2. Copy (use figures, tables, graphics from another source)
3. Paraphrase (convert someone else’s ideas into your own words)
4. Summarise (use a brief account of someone else’s ideas)
 Why is Harvard Referencing
• Evidence of background reading Needed?
• Acknowledges the research of others

• Easy to trace the background research used

• Helps other researchers

• Avoids accusations of plagiarism (which impacts on your ability to graduate at Ravensbourne!  )

What is Plagiarism?
• When you copy another person’s ideas or opinions as your own
• When you don’t acknowledge the original source of the information
• A very serious offense in academia!
 What is Paraphrasing?
• Paraphrasing means to restate accurately and concisely in your own words something
you have read

• Alternative to quoting directly word-for-word.

• Still dependent on someone else’s ideas, you still need to reference the original source!

More rules:

• If you refer to specific ideas on particular pages of a source and you paraphrase, you still
need to cite the page numbers

• If you refer to general themes mentioned throughout the source and you paraphrase, you
do NOT need to cite the page numbers
 Two Stages of Harvard
1. In-text Citation Referencing
• Shortened version of the full reference

• Incorporated into the main body of your report or paper

2. References Section (End-text Citation)

• Section at the end of your report or paper

• Contains the full citation of all your sources

• Gives enough information about each source so that someone can find more details on
their own

BOTH MUST BE CONDUCTED TO BE CONSIDERED AS PROPER

CITATIONS FORMAT! (ONLY ONE ISN’T ENOUGH!)
 Harvard Referencing Rules
1) In-text Citations
1 Author:
Write your direct quote or paraphrase (surname, publication year, pages if any).
E.g. Referencing is an essential academic skill (Ching, 2023, pp. 2-20)

2 Authors:
Add direct quote or paraphrase (surname #1 and surname #2, publication year)
E.g. Referencing is an essential academic skill (Ching and Delvey, 2023, pp. 2-20)

3 Authors:
Add direct quote or paraphrase (surname #1, surname #2 and surname #3, publication year)
E.g. Referencing is an essential academic skill (Ching, Delvey and Franke, 2023, pp. 2-20)
More than 3 Authors:
Add direct quote or paraphrase (surname #1 et al., publication year)
E.g. Referencing is an essential academic skill (Ching et al., 2023, pp. 2-20)
Trivia:
1. What is “et al.”?
2. Whose surname goes first? (hint: not related to alphabetical order)

The other way of in-text citations, is if you build the author name into the sentence itself. In that
case, you only include the year of publication and page number in the brackets:
Examples:
Ching and Delvey (2023, pp. 2-20) concluded in a laboratory situation, that watching a
violent programme or scene made children more willing to be aggressors.

According to Ching et al. (2023, pp. 2-20), other researchers have concluded that television
has little or no discernible influence over the viewer.
 In-text Citations: Sources with No
Page Numbers
Some sources (e.g. websites) don’t have page numbers!

• If the source is a short text, you can simply leave out the page number.

• With longer sources, you can use an alternate locator if you need to specify where to find
the quote (e.g. a subheading or paragraph number)

For example:

The unemployment rate in 2023 is predicted to be 20% higher than a decade ago
(Bloomberg, para. 4)
 In-text Citations: Multiple Citations at
the Same Point
• When you need multiple citations to appear at the same point in your text (e.g. when you
refer to several sources with one phrase), you can present them in the same set of
brackets, separated by semicolons.

• List them in order of publication date:

For example:

Several in-depth studies have investigated this phenomenon during the last decade
(Singh, 2011; Davidson, 2015; Harding, 2018).
 In-text Citations: Multiple Sources with
the Same Author/Date
• If you are citing multiple sources by the same author which were published in the same
year, you need to distinguish them in your citations!

• To do this, insert an ‘a’ after the year in the first one you reference, a ‘b’ in the second,
and so on:

For example:

The results of the first study (Woodhouse, 2018a) were inconclusive, but a follow up
study (Woodhouse, 2018b) achieved a clearer outcome.
 Harvard Referencing Rules
2) References Section (End-Text
• Citations)
List all sources in alphabetical order based on primary author’s surname
• Included at the end of your report or paper

Reference list entries vary according to source type. Some common examples are as follows:

Books – With one author

Order of information:

Surname of author, Initial. (year) Title, Place of publication: Publisher In your

bibliography: Massumi, B. (2002) Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation,
Durham & London: Duke University Press

In the text: (Massumi, 2002, p. 215)

 Harvard Referencing Rules
2) References Section (End-Text
Citations)
Books – With Two or Three authors

Order of information:

Surname of author, Initial. and Surname of author, Initial. (year) Title. Edition (if
applicable). Place of publication: Publisher. Series and volume number if relevant
In the bibliography:
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizofrenia,
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

In the text:
(Deleuze and Guattari, 1987)

In the text:
(Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 406)
 Harvard Referencing Rules
2) References Section (End-Text
Citations)
Books – With four or more authors

Order of information:

Surnames, Initials.(year) Title. Edition (if applicable).Place of publication:

Publisher.Series and volume number if relevant

In the bibliography:
Buchloh, B., Hollier, D. and Vidler, A. (1998) Premises: Invested Spaces in Visual Arts
and Architecture from France 1958-98. New York: Harry N.Abrams, Inc

In the text (write the first author’s surname followed by et al instead of all the other
surnames):
(Buchloh et al, 1998)
Journals & Articles
Journal (electronic or print or both)

Order of information:
Surname, First name (year) 'Title of article', Title of journal, Issue Information (if applicable),
page number/s

In the bibliography:
O’Sullivan, Simon (2006) 'Pragmatics for the Production of Subjectivity: Time for Probe-
Heads'. Journal for Cultural Research. Vol. 10 (4) pp. 309-322

In the text:
(O'Sullivan, 2006)
Journal (only electronic with no print equivalent)

Order of information:
Surname, Initial (year) ‘Title of article’, Title of journal, Issue Information, page reference.
Available at: URL (Accessed: date

In the bibliography:
Barke, M. and Mowl, G.(2016) ‘Malaga - a failed resort of the early twentieth century?’,
Journal of Tourism History, Vol. 2(3), pp. 187 - 2121.Available at:
http://www.tanfonline.com/full/1755182.2016 (Accessed: 23 April 2016)

In the text:
(Barke and Mowl, 2016)
 Webpages
Web Pages
Web pages with individual authors

Order of information:
Surname/s, Initial/s (year the site was published/last updated) Title of web page Available
at: URL
(Accessed: date)

In the bibliography:
Buchannan,Val(2002) Web Guides: Fashion Available at:
http://www.lint.ac.uk/library/webguides/fashion.htm (Accessed: 21 March 2005)

In the text:
(Buchannan, 2002)
 Webpages
Web pages with organisations as authors

Order of information:
Organisation (year the site was published/last updated) Title of web page Available at: URL
(Accessed:date)

In the bibliography:
Royal Institute of British Architects (2013) The New RIBAExhibition Gallery Available:
http://www.architecture.com/TheRIBA/NewRIBAExhibitionGallery/
Thegallery.aspx#.UaX4MZwTwgM (Accessed 29 May 2013)

In the text:
(Royal Institute of British Architects, 2013)

Web pages with no author

Order of information:
Title of web page (year the site was published/last updated) Available at: URL
(Accessed:date)
 Webpages
Web pages with no author

Order of information:
Title of web page (year the site was published/last updated) Available at: URL
(Accessed:date)

In the bibliography:
Palladio’s Italian villas (2005) Available at: http://www.boglewood.com/palladio/ (Accessed:
23 August 2015)

In the text:
(Palladio’s Italian villas, 2005)

Web pages with no author or title

Order of information:
URL (year the site was published/last updated) (Accessed: date)
In the bibliography:
 Webpages
Web pages with no author or title
Order of information:
URL (year the site was published/last updated) (Accessed: date)

In the bibliography:
http://www.levistrauss.com/Cpmpany/Cpmpamy/Tranformation.aspx (Accessed: 28
September 2006)

In the text:
(www.levistrauss.com)

Web pages with no date

Order of information:
Author (no date) Title of web page. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).
In the bibliography:
New media Republic (no date) Compression. Available at
http://www.newmediarepublic.com/dvideo/compression.html (Accessed: 16 June 2015).
 Webpages
Web pages with no date

Order of information:

Author (no date) Title of web page. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).
In the bibliography:

New media Republic (no date) Compression. Available at

http://www.newmediarepublic.com/dvideo/compression.html (Accessed: 16 June 2015).

In the text:
(New Media Republic, no date)
 References Section – Source with
No Date:
No Date/Author
• When a source doesn’t have a clear publication date (e.g. a constantly updated reference
source like Wikipedia), you can replace it with the words ‘no date’:

• For example: Scribbr (no date) How to structure a dissertation. Available at:
https://www.scribbr.co.uk/category/thesis-dissertation/ (Accessed: 14
February 2020).

No Author:
• When a source doesn’t have a clear author name, you can replace it with an appropriate
corporate source (i.e. the organization responsible for the source such as Google, Wikipedia
etc.)

• For example: ‘Divest’ (no date) Available at: https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/divest (Accessed: 27 January 2020).
References Section – Example
 General Tips for a Well-Sourced
Paper
• The more sources are included, the more you can prove that you’ve done your research and
considered all perspectives

• Typically for a 2000-word paper, it is suggested to aim for approx. 15 sources

• Consider the quality of the source.

 The more academically-credible the source is, the better (e.g. academic journals,
textbooks)

 Avoid Wikipedia and other “casual” non-peer reviewed sources (

https://nypost.com/2021/07/16/wikipedia-co-founder-says-site-is-now-propaganda-for-left-l
eaning-establishment/
)

• A well balanced use of sources can significantly add credibility to your arguments, and greatly
increase your assessment performance!
 How We “Catch” Plagiarism:
Turnitin
Turninin is a software used at Ravensbourne to check your submitted work for similarities to
other academic work in a database.
• Before submitting your work via Canvas, you need to upload the document to Turnitin!
• The software will generate an originality report which gives you an in-depth look at any
matching text or other elements (e.g. poor citations).

Your work is checked against:

• Student papers from Ravensbourne,
• Internet and archived copies of websites,
• Academic journal articles,
• Student papers from other universities subscribed to Turnitin!
Generally if your work is considered too similarly worded to other academic work (above 30%):

• It will NOT be graded

• You may be flagged for intentional plagiarism and be called to a RUL Conduct Panel where
your Originality Report could be presented as evidence of cheating!

Tips:

• Before your project deadline, upload your file to Turnitin on Aula. Check that your Originality
Report Score is below 30%.

• If it is above 30%, you should double check for proper referencing and modify the paper to
lower the similarity score before submitting the final improved version.

• Each student can upload their work 3 times on Turnitin before the final submission

• Accurate Harvard Referencing is the main way to ensure a low similarity score on the report!
 More Information:
• Refer to “Harvard Reference Guide” document on Canvas

• Summary of Harvard Referencing (7 min, University of Derby):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDgqqPvMn0U&t=1s

• How to Interpret Turnitin Originality Reports (Sheffield Hallam University):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD4Cr5WDfss&feature=youtu.be
 INFORMAL ACTIVITY #1: HARVARD REFERENCE
Read the below text and references list. Use the information to fill in all the missing details.
Bonta, Law, and Hanson ((a)_______) assert that it is now possible to accurately assess the risk of offending "especially...when
predictions are based on actuarially derived information rather than professional and clinical judgement" (1998, p.124). Measures
such as previous offences, age, income and drug or alcohol dependency have been used successfully to predict criminal
behaviour ((b)_______, 1993). Despite this evidence many violent offenders are still being assessed using professional
judgement rather than by actuarial measures ((c)_________, 2005).

References

Andrews, D. A., & Bonta, J. (2003). The psychology of criminal conduct (3rd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing.

Blackburn, R. (1993). The psychology of criminal conduct: Theory, research and practice. Chichester: Wiley.

Bonta, J., Law, M., & Hanson, K. (1998). The prediction of criminal and violent recidivism among mentally disordered offenders: A
meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 123, 123-142.

Polaschek, D. L. L., & Reynolds, N. (2004). Assessment and treatment: Violent offenders. In C. R. Hollin (Ed.), The essential
handbook of offender assessment and treatment (pp. 201-218). Chichester: Wiley.

Webster, C., Johne, B., & Bailes, G. (2005). Assessing violence risk. In C. R. Hollin (Ed.), The essential handbook of offender
assessment and treatment (pp. 1-13). Chichester: Wiley.
Answers:
(a) 1998 (b) Blackburn (c) Webster et al.