QuickRef 14b

Citing - author-date (Harvard)

Used for: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Education, Business, Engineering, Medicine

With this system the writer, when referring to an author, instantly identifies both the author's surname and the year of publication of the work. Where relevant, page numbers are also given. A list of references provides details of all the cited texts, listed in alphabetical order, on a separate page.

Note: There is some variation in the formatting of citations even within a particular referencing style. Always check your own faculty/department's guidelines and be consistent in whatever format you use.

In-text citations

• Citations should always include the author's surname and the date of publication. These are often placed at the end of the sentence with the full stop coming after the brackets. For example:

The history of educational innovations is far from encouraging (Nord 1986).

• If the surname of the author is included in the text it should be followed immediately by the year of publication in brackets. For example:

Henman (2002) states that...

• If the citation is particular to a page or pages, these should appear thus:

Papert (1993, p. 23) claims...

Wilson (1983, pp. 30-33) states that...

Note the commas after the dates.

• If the citation contains more than one work it should appear thus:

...our social history (Henman 2002; Palmer and Short 2002).

Note the semi-colons separating the authors.

• Works by two or three authors appear thus:

Palmer and Short (2000) contend...

However, if the authors' names are within brackets an ampersand (&) is used:

Current research has shown (Palmer & Short 2000) that...

• If a work has three or more authors, after the first citation, you can simply use the first author followed by the expression 'et al.' (and others). For example:

Goldschmidt et al. (2003) report that...

It has been reported (Goldschmidt et al. 2003)...

• If the citation is a direct quote, the page number or numbers must be given:

Swales (1990, p. 42) points out that 'the propensity for early categorization can lead to failure'.

• When quoting a source which was reported by another author:

Saunders (cited in Henman 2001, p. 74) proposes that...

The Williams Report (cited in Edgar 1980, p. 432) claims that...

List of references

For books, book chapters, journals, or periodicals, the information should be in this order:

• author's family name followed by initials, or editor's name (for edited book)
• year of publication
• title of article (in journal) or chapter (in book) in quotation marks
• editor's name (for chapter in an edited book)
• title of the book, journal or periodical in italics or underlined with subtitle (if any) separated from the title by a colon (:)
• edition (for book, if other than 1st edition) or volume and issue numbers (for journal)
• publisher's name (if applicable)
• place of publication (for book)
• page numbers (for book chapter or journal article)

For online sources, the information should follow the same basic order and include the type of medium, the URL and the date you accessed the page. Note: A PDF or scanned version of a journal article is listed as for a hardcopy version.

• name of the author, editor or authoring organisation
• title of the page (look in the bar at the top of your browser) or online journal article
• title of the site (go to the site's homepage) or online journal
• date the page was last updated, or the copyright date
• type of medium (eg. 'CD-ROM', 'etworked CD-ROM' or 'electronic' if you are not sure which)
• date you accessed the page
• the full internet address (URL) of the page (i.e. http://etc.) or the distributor (for CD-ROMS and networked databases).

Example list of references

Ansari, A 1999, 'Langevin modes of analysis of myoglobin', Journal of Chemical Physics, vol. 110, no. 3, viewed 19 April, 2003, http://ojps.aip.org/journals/doc/vol_110/iss.html.

Austroads, Rural road design: guide to the geometric design of rural roads 1999, Austroads, Sydney.

Burka, LP November 22, 2003, A hypertext history of multi-user dungeons, viewed January 22, 2004, http://www.utopia.com/talent/lpb/muddex/muddex.htm.

Dowling, RK 1999, 'Marketing the key to successful wine tourism', Australian-and-New-Zealand-Wine-Industry-Journal, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 63-65, networked CD-ROM, Available: Tour CD/CAB Abstracts/CAB International/19991811764.

Goldschmidt, S, Junghagen, S and Harris, U 2003, Strategic affiliate marketing, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.

Henman, P 2002a, 'Myths of welfare reform', Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 71-84.

Henman, P 2002b, 'Social theories', Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 38, no. 21, pp. 91-98.

International Narcotics Control Board 2002, viewed 2 July, 2002, http:www.incb.org.

Paige, RM (ed.) 1993, Education for the intercultural experience, Intercultural Press, Maine.

Palmer, GR and Short, SD 2000, Healthcare and public policy: an Australian analysis, 3rd edn, Macmillan, South Yarra.

Pritchard, M 2003, Water Conservation, Lecture notes ENG1200, Monash University.

Sked, A 2003, 'The political parties', in J. Hollowell (ed.), Britain since 1945, Blackwell, Oxford, pp.40-58.

Other useful references

Style manual for authors, editors and printers 2002, 6th edn, John Wiley and Sons Australia.

The virtual library online tutorial for Harvard