Harvard Referencing

You need to follow the referencing guidelines for your subject area:

School of Arts and Creative Industries

• Fine Art: MLA
• All other subjects: Harvard: Cite them right online

School of Computing, Engineering & Digital Technologies

• Harvard: Cite them right online

School of Health & Life Sciences

• Harvard: Cite them right online

School of Social Sciences, Humanities & Law

• Crime and Investigation: check with module leader
• English Studies: MHRA - see guidance on the English and Creative Writing LibGude
• History
• Law: OSCOLA
• Politics: Chicago (Notes and Bibliography)
• Psychology: APA
• All other subjects: Harvard: Cite them right online

Teesside University International Business School

• Harvard: Cite them right online

The book 'Cite Them Right' by Pears and Shields details the Harvard referencing standard used by Teesside University.  

Click here for the online version of

Click on the book image below for location details of paper copies in the Library. 

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 four or more authors, you should use the first named author, followed by et al.

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

1. 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 you viewpoint

2. 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.

Paraphrasing means putting an author's writing into your own words, without changing the meaning.  

You need to paraphrase within academic writing to demonstrate to your lecturer that you understand the material.  

Paraphrasing also allows you to summarise the evidence so that it fits in with the case you are making, and improves the flow of your assignment.

In academic writing, your lecturers will want you to limit the number and length of quotations you use, restricting them to key phrases.  Instead, you should develop your skills in paraphrasing.

Remember you still need to reference any material you have paraphrased.

There is a temptation when you find one author quoting (or citing) another to just lift the quote and use it:

BUT

1. You didn’t find the quote
2. How do you know it is correct?

SO

1. Try and find the original source and make your own citation & reference.

2. If it isn’t possible to check the original source - acknowledge both writers in the text but only reference the source you have read. This is called secondary referencing.

Example.

Imagine you’ve read a book by Chalmers (1999) and on page 141 it cites a piece of work by Worrall (1985) and has the full reference to it in the reference list.

You too would also like to refer to the work done by Worrall, but cannot locate his original work, only the reference to it in Chalmers.

The solution, in the text of your work, cite the original author ‘cited in’ then the author of the work you have read. BUT in your reference list only reference the work you have read – do not mention the original at all.

So our example would read as follows.

•In-text citation

(Worrall, 1985, cited in Chalmers, 1999, p. 141)

•In the reference list

Chalmers, A.F. (1999) What is this thing called science? Maidenhead: Open University Press.

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.

References need to be:

• Correct: are spellings and other details accurate?
   
• Complete: is all the required information included?
   
• Consistent: are all the references presented in the same way, fitting in with Cite them Right if the referencing is in Harvard style?

There are many tools available to help you with referencing.  At Teesside, we support RefWorks which enables you to create and manage your own personal database of useful references. You can then use these to quickly compile a reference list .

Whichever tool you use, you'll need to adjust your references to make sure that they fit in with the appropriate style required for your subject, for example as Harvard Style outlined in Cite them Right.

You can also use Turnitin as a tool to help you prevent plagiarism in your writing.  It is available from Blackboard - see the link to 'Check your work for plagiarism'.

How to reference a journal article 

Journal articles with up to 3 authors (applies to paper and electronic versions)

In-text citation

(Parton and Fleming, 2008) or Parton and Fleming (2008)

Reference list

Parton, S. and Fleming, H. (2008) 'Academic libraries and learning support in collaboration', New Review of Academic Librarianship, 13(1), pp. 79-89. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13614530802021698

Journal articles with 4 or more authors (applies to both paper and electronic formats - for instance this article is electronic and includes a doi * see below for information on doi's).

In-text citation

(Norrie et al., 2012) or Norrie et al. (2012)

Reference list

Norrie, C. et al. (2012) 'Doing it differently? A review of literature on teaching reflective practice across health and social care professions', Reflective Practice, 13(4), pp. 565-578. Available at: https://doi-org.ezproxy.tees.ac.uk/10.1080/14623943.2012.670628 

How to Reference an electronic journal article with doi

In-text citation

Barke, Mowl and Shield's study (2010) ....

Reference list

Barke, M., Mowl, S. and Shields, G. (2010) 'Malaga - a failed resort of the early twentieth century?', Journal of Tourism History, 2(3), pp. 187-212. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2010.523145

* a doi (Digital Object Identifier) is used to identify individual digital (online) sources, such as journal articles and conference papers. No accessed date is needed.

How to Reference an electronic journal article with URL

In-text citation

An example cited by Dutta and Marjit (2016, p. 120).

Reference list

Dutta, M. and Marjit, S. (2016) 'Intra-country technology transfer', Indian Ecomonic Review, 51(1/2), new series, pp. 117-127. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44376239 (Accessed: 27 May 2021). 

How to reference a website 

In-text citation

BBC (2018) or (BBC, 2018)

Reference list

BBC (2018) News. Available at: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news 

(Accessed: 14 May 2018).

How to reference an Act of Parliament (for UK after 1963)

Whole act:

In-text citation

(Wild Animals in Circuses Act 2019)

Reference list

Wild Animals in Circuses Act 2019, c. 24. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/24/contents (Accessed: 23 November 2023).

Section of an Act:

In-text citation

As outlined in section 20(2) of the Act (Children and Families Act 2014)....

Reference List

Children and Families Act 2014, c. 6. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/6/contents (Accessed: 23 November 2023).