Skip to Main Content

How to Reference a Book (Open Learning)

Guidance on Harvard referencing

You need to learn how to reference accurately in order to acknowledge your sources and to demonstrate that your writing is based on evidence.  

There are two parts to referencing:

1: in-text citations - this is what you include within your writing.  The in-text citation gives very limited information, just the surname/corporate name and the year eg (Cottrell, 2019)

2: reference list - this appears at the end of your assignment.  Your reference list gives the full details of your sources, in a specific order and format as dictated by Cite Them Write

Example 

A comparative study on properties built within the last twenty years illustrated the financial and environmental benefits of investing time and money in improving home insulation (Bowman and Jenkins, 2019).

Bowman, R. and Jenkins, S. (2019) Financial and environmental issues and comparisons in new and old build properties. London: Pinbury. 

A comparative study on properties built within the last twenty years illustrated the financial and environmental benefits of investing time and money in improving home insulation.

Harvard is an author-date referencing style.  This means that in the text of your work, you just need to include the author's surname (family name), the year, and page number if you are referring to a specific page or pages e.g. (Godwin, 2014, p. 15). This is called an in-text citation.

This format is the same regardless of whether the source is a book, journal article or website.

If there isn't an individual author, you may need to use an organisation instead - this frequently occurs with websites, e.g. (BBC, 2015).

For more than one author follow the advice below.

Author punctuation table

There are two styles of in-text citation - each style has advantages and disadvantages:

1. the author is not part of the sentence so both the author's name and the year go in brackets at the end of the sentence, e.g. (Norman, 2012).

Advantages/disadvantages:

  • Emphasises the information
  • Positive: can help your assignment to flow
  • Negative: references can sometimes appear too far away from the point
  • Ensure that you reference appears at the end of a sentence not just the end of the paragraph.

2. the author is part of the sentence, so the year goes into brackets, e.g. "Norman (2012) states that ..."

Advantages/disadvantages:

  • Emphasises the author
  • Positive: good for introducing reference early in a paragraph
  • Negative: can reduce the impact of you points
  • Negative: can can become repetitive
  • Ensure that you use the correct verb for your viewpoint

Citation style positives and negatives

Your reference list should be presented in one list in alphabetical author order, regardless of whether the reference is to a book, journal article, website or any other kind of source.

If there is no author, the item should come under the title (in italics).

The list should Include everything referred to in the text of your work.

Example of referencing

In-text

Hardiness, described as a “group of personality characteristics that function as a resistance in the encounter with stressful life events” (Judkins, Arris, and Keener, 2005, p. 319), includes commitment, personal control over events and outcomes, and the belief that change is a challenge versus a threat (Turnipseed, 1999). Hardiness contributed to students’ ability to progress and succeed in college in several studies (Pagana, 1990; Mathis and Lecci, 1999; Patton and Goldenberg, 1999; Sansone, Wiebe, and Morgan, 1999; Lifton, Seay and Bushko, 2000). Most studies found focused on undergraduate populations.  Sansone, Wiebe and Morgan (1999) investigated hardiness and conscientiousness as moderators of the self-regulatory process in 131 undergraduate college students from various disciplines.

References

Judkins, S., Arris, L. and Keener, E. (2005) ‘Program evaluation in graduate nursing education: hardiness as a predictor of success among nursing administration students’, Journal of Professional Nursing, 21(5), pp. 314–321.

Lifton, E., Seay, S. and Bushko, A. (2000) ‘Can student hardiness serve as an indicator of likely persistence to graduation?’, Academic Exchange Quarterly, 4(2), pp. 73–81.

Mathis, M. and Lecci, L. (1999) ‘Hardiness and college adjustment: individual differences in the experience of stress’, Journal of Student Development, 40(3), pp. 305–309.

Pagana, K.D. (1990) ‘The relationship of hardiness and social support to student appraisal of stress in an initial clinical nursing situation’, The Journal of Nursing Education, 29(6), pp. 255–261.

Patton, T.J. and Goldenberg, D. (1999) ‘Hardiness and anxiety as predictors of academic success in first-year, full-time and part-time RN students’, Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 30(4), pp. 158–167.

Sansone, C., Wiebe, D.J. and Morgan, C. (1999) ‘Self-regulating interest: the moderating role of hardiness and conscientiousness’, The Journal of Personality, 67(4), pp. 701–733.

Turnipseed, D.L. (1999) ‘An exploratory study of the hardy personality at work in the health care industry’, Psychological Reports, 85(3), pp. 1119–1217.

(Adapted from: Bond, M.L. et al. (2012) ‘Hardiness, perceived social support, perceived institutional support, and progression of minority students in a Masters of Nursing Program’, Hispanic Health Care International, 10(3), pp. 109-117.)