A Guide to Harvard Referencing
The following is a guide to writing references in essays and reports. There are several different ways of writing references according to whether they come from a book, edited book or journal article.

What is the Harvard System of Referencing?

Harvard referencing is a system of in–text referencing which is used by academics and others to illustrate ideas, concepts, theories and arguments by drawing attention to supporting published evidence both in the text of any essay or report and at the end in a references section.

1 How to write references in the text of an essay/report

Examples of Text:

Benson, Roberts and Smith (1993) have suggested that there is a relationship between academic excellence and shoe size. They have argued that a student with large feet has the capacity to learn more in a lecture than a student with small feet. Support for this theory has come from Dawson (1976) and Franks and Miller (1991) who have found that men who wear size 8–10 shoes tend to score three points higher on Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.) tests than men with shoe size ranges from 5–7. However, research suggests that women obtain a higher I.Q. score if their shoe size ranges from 3–4 in comparison to those with shoe sizes ranging from 5–7 (Bunion and Foot 1987). Despite such gender differences, Benson et al. believe that the relationship between I.Q. and foot size only occurs in industrialised societies and so “we should consider why foot size has little or no significance for those living in rural societies”. (p 15).

Critics of Benson et al. (1993) cite a number of papers where no relationship between shoe size and I.Q. has been found (see Bell, 1967; Carmichael, 1972; Cat and Fiddle, 1988). However, research is underway to assess the relationship between degree classification at graduation and shoe size in the hope that “some indication of a student’s likely performance at university can be made by measuring their feet during their interview” (Benson et al. 1993 pp 26–27).

When introducing a particular piece of research you should do the following:

Authors and Dates

If there are two authors you state both of their family names (in the correct order) followed by the publication date (e.g. Bunion and Foot (1987)).

If there are more than two authors you state all their family names (in correct order) followed by the publication date e.g. Benson, Roberts and Smith (1993). Subsequently, you can refer to them as Benson et al. in the same paragraph or Benson et al. (1993) in following paragraphs.

Note

Where there are more than four authors, when first introducing them you list the first three names that appear and then use the suffix “et al.” followed by the date of publication (in brackets). Subsequently, you refer to them as illustrated above.

Quoting

If you take a quote from a referenced article or book you should always put the page number in brackets after it. Where the sentence begins with the reference you should always put the page number in brackets following the quote, for example:

Benson et.al. believe that the relationship between I.Q. and foot size only occurs in industrialised societies and so “we should consider why foot size has little or no significance for those living in rural societies” (p15).

If a sentence does not start with the reference then you should give the reference and page number, in brackets, after the quote. For example:

However, research is underway to assess the relationship between degree classification or graduation and shoes size in the hope that “some indication of a student’s likely performance at university can be made by measuring their feet during the interview” (Benson et al. 1993. pp 26–27).

Backing Up Statements

If you make statements in your essay or report which are supported by research then you should place the supporting references in brackets:

Critics of Benson et al. (1993) cite a number of papers where no relationship between foot size and I.Q. have been found (see Bell, 1967; Carmichael, 1972; Cat and Fiddle, 1988).

You do not have to use the term “see” all of the time; it depends upon whether the argument or statement is your own or taken from another researcher. If it is your own then “see” is a good ploy; if it is another researcher you need only cite the references.

2 How To Write References In A References List

Books:

Storr, A. (1974). Human Aggression. Harmondsworth: Penguin

Harris, J.R. and Liebert, R.M. (]992). Infant and Child: development from birth through middle childhood. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall.

As the above examples show you first name the author (using their family name first and then their initials); then you give the title of the book which must be underlined or italicised; finally you give the town where the publishers are based which is followed by a colon (:) and then the name of the publisher. In the case of US publishers, it is usual to include the state where the book was published e.g. Englewood Cliffs NJ (in New Jersey).

Edited Books

Whitney, I., Rivers, I., Smith, P.K and Sharpe, S. (1994). The Sheffield Project: methodology and findings. In P.K. Smith and S. Sharp (eds), School Bullying: insights and perspectives. London: Routledge, pp 20–56.

In edited books, the chapters are written by different people. When citing a chapter from an edited book, you list the names of the authors (family name followed by initials), then the date of publication (in brackets), and then the title of the chapter. Subsequently, you indicate which book the chapter is from by stating “in” and then you list the editor or editors (initials first then family name) followed by the abbreviation “(eds)”. After that, you give the title of the book which must be underlined or italicised; finally you give the town where the publishers are based which is followed by a colon (:) and then the name of the publisher. It is often worth stating the page numbers of the chapter you have referred to by using the abbreviation ‘pp’.

Journal Articles:

Ogilvy, C.M., Boath, E.H., Cheyne, W.M., Jahoda, J. and Schaffer, H.R. (1992). Staff–child interaction styles in multi–ethnic nursery schools. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10, 85–97.

Journal articles differ from books in several ways. Like book references you state the name of the authors (family name followed by initials) and then the date of publication in brackets (). Next you state the title of the article which is followed by a full stop. You then give the full name of the journal in which the article was published and its volume number (both of which must be underlined or italicised). You then state the page numbers of the article (from page ? to page ?).

Taking Primary References from Secondary Sources

When you are writing up your reference list, the likelihood is that some of your references may have been taken from textbooks or other sources. When this happens it is usual to employ the “cited in” method. Not all writers use this method, but is often useful if you are referring to an obscure publication which you are unlikely to have read (e.g. The Martian Journal of Psychology). For those wishing to be totally scrupulous the following format is used:

Kirk, J.T (1992) a study of stress factors among starship commanders. Martian Journal of Psychology, 13, 12–26. Cited in M.R. Spock and L. McCoy. (1994). Enterprising initiatives in Space New York: Planet Press.

Using Articles from Newspapers or Periodicals

Increasingly, research items from the popular press are used to illustrate arguments or issues relating to applied psychology. In some cases it is acceptable to incorporate the full reference into the text of an essay without having to cite it in the reference section. For example:

Popular newspapers report that 35 per cent of the electorate do not make up their mind about who to vote for until they have seen the colour of the candidate’s eyes. (Sunday Chronicle, 4th August 1987).

However, references from the popular press can also be cited using the Harvard system. Within the text of the essay the reference will appear like any other [e.g. Robinson (1995)], however in the references list, it should appear as follows:

Robinson, J. (1995). Psychology Students Strike at University. The Daily Correspondent, 1st April, p·3.

‘And’ or ‘&’

If you look at the reference section of a book or journal article you will notice that some books and journals favour the written word ‘and’ in the list of authors whilst others favour the symbol ‘&’. Both are acceptable, however, you must remember to be consistent.

Harris, J. R. and Liebert, R.M. (1992) Infant and Child: development from birth through middle childhood. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall

or

Harris, J. R. & Liebert, R.M. (1992) Infant and Child: development from birth through middle childhood. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall