Reference

Information Services Academic Skills Know-how Harvard Reference examples

The Harvard referencing system is the most frequently used style at Staffordshire and is also known as the Author-Date style. It emphasises the name of the creator of a piece of information and the date of publication, with the list of references in alphabetical order at the end of your piece of work. A few subject areas use a different style of referencing, so you should check your module handbook for confirmation of what style is required by your tutor for a particular assignment. This guide provides examples of how a wide range of information sources should be referenced according to the Harvard style, including the order of the elements and punctuation used. For each source there are examples of how to cite within the text and how to write your list of references. If you cannot find the type of information you wish to reference included in this document please contact us at ask@staffs.ac.uk.

Punctuation and capitalisation when using Harvard

The recommended University style suggests that you should use capitals for authors’ names within your bibliography but, if you decide to use upper and lower case within the authors’ names instead, you will not be marked down for this as long as you are consistent in the style you use. Likewise, Staffordshire’s recommended version of Harvard does not stipulate specific styles of punctuation – rather it suggests a style to which you can adhere but, if you prefer not to use the recommended punctuation as shown in this guide, you will not be marked down as long as you are consistent in what you do.

Citing two or more authors at the same time

When citing two or more authors at the same time you should list the authors in date order within the parenthesis with the earliest date first and with each reference separated by a semi-colon. For example: (Smith, 2001; Brown & Black, 2007) or (Fish, 2001; Campbell 2008; Wilson, 2012). Once again there is no...