Harvard referencing: a complete guide
Harvard is the dominant author-date citation family across UK and Commonwealth higher education. Unlike APA, there is no single official Harvard manual — variants exist at most universities. This guide covers the canonical Cite Them Right form, with notes on common variations. Our Harvard citation generator formats sources to your institution's preferred Harvard variant.
What is Harvard referencing?
"Harvard" is a family of author-date citation styles widely used outside North America — particularly in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe. Unlike APA, Harvard has no single official manual. The most widely cited reference is Cite Them Right (Pears and Shields), which is treated as the canonical Harvard guide in UK higher education.
Because Harvard is institution-defined, your university's library guide is the authoritative source for the exact form your institution expects. The rules below describe the canonical Cite Them Right Harvard style; treat them as a starting point and check your local guide for variations.
In-text citations
Place the author's surname and the year of publication in parentheses, separated by a comma. Add a page number after a comma when quoting directly.
Recent decades have seen increasing concentration of wealth at the top of the distribution (Piketty, 2014).
Capital is defined as "all forms of wealth that can, in principle, be owned by individuals and exchanged on a market" (Piketty, 2014, p. 46).
Piketty (2014, p. 46) defines capital broadly to include all marketable wealth.
Multiple authors
Cite up to three authors by name. For four or more, use the first author's surname followed by et al.
(Acemoglu and Robinson, 2012)
(Stiglitz et al., 2010)
Reference list
The reference list — usually called References or Reference List — appears at the end of the document, alphabetized by author surname, with hanging indents. Place the year directly after the author.
Piketty, T. (2014) Capital in the twenty-first century. Translated by A. Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. (2012) 'Why nations fail: the origins of power, prosperity, and poverty', Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(2), pp. 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.26.2.17.
Books and book chapters
Author Surname, Initials. (Year) Title of book in italics. Edition (if not first). Place of publication: Publisher.
Wilkinson, R. and Marmot, M. (eds.) (2003) Social determinants of health: the solid facts. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: World Health Organization.
Marmot, M. (2003) 'Social determinants of health inequalities', in Wilkinson, R. and Marmot, M. (eds.) Social determinants of health: the solid facts. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: World Health Organization, pp. 7–20.
Websites and online sources
Web pages need an author (organization or individual), the year posted, the page title in italics, the site name (or in some institutional guides, omit the site if the author is the organization), and the URL. Include an access date because web content is unstable.
World Health Organization (2023) Mental health. Available at: https://www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health (Accessed: 24 April 2026).
Harris, J. (2023) 'Why Britain is broken: a special report', The Guardian, 14 May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/ (Accessed: 30 April 2026).
Harvard vs. APA
Harvard and APA both use author-date citations, and at first glance they look identical. The differences appear in the reference list.
| Feature | APA 7 | Harvard (CTR) |
|---|---|---|
| Article titles | Sentence case, no quotes | Sentence case, in single quotes |
| Year position | (Year). after author | (Year) directly after author, no period |
| Place of publication for books | Not required | City: Publisher |
| DOI | https://doi.org/... | https://doi.org/... or doi:... |
| Web access date | Optional, only if changing | Almost always required |
| Editor abbreviation | (Ed.) / (Eds.) | (ed.) / (eds.) |
See our Harvard vs. APA referencing guide for a side-by-side reference list comparison.
Common mistakes
Treating Harvard as one fixed style
"Harvard" varies by institution. The biggest source of marker frustration is using a different Harvard variant from the one your university specifies. Always check your library's referencing guide before submission.
Forgetting the access date
Most Harvard variants require an access date for any web source — even ones with publication dates. APA's relaxed rule does not apply here.
Using "&" inside parentheses
Harvard uses "and" everywhere — both in running text and inside parentheses: (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2012), not (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012). The ampersand is APA, not Harvard.
Quick summary
| Feature | Harvard (Cite Them Right) rule |
|---|---|
| In-text format | (Author, Year, p. page) |
| Reference list heading | References |
| Author connector | and (not &) — both inside and outside parentheses |
| 4+ authors | First author + et al. |
| Article titles | Sentence case, in single quotes |
| Book titles | Italicized, sentence case |
| Place of publication | Required: City: Publisher |
| Web access date | Almost always required |
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