Harvard Referencing for UK Students, The Practical Guide
Harvard referencing made simple for UK university students, including Cite Them Right examples and the common mistakes that cost marks.
Which Harvard? The one your university uses
Harvard isn't a single style, UK universities use slightly different variants. The most widely-adopted is Cite Them Right Harvard. Always check your module handbook for the exact variant required.
In-text citations
Cite Them Right uses author-date format: (Smith, 2024). For direct quotes add a page number: (Smith, 2024, p. 12). Two authors are joined with 'and'; three or more use 'et al.'
The reference list
Alphabetised by author surname. Each entry includes author, year, title, place of publication and publisher (for books) or journal name, volume, issue and pages (for journal articles).
Online sources
Add the URL and the date accessed in square brackets. Stable DOIs are preferred over plain URLs.
The mistakes that cost marks
Inconsistent capitalisation in titles, missing page numbers on direct quotes, mixing-up et al. punctuation, and citing secondary sources without flagging them. Use Zotero with the Cite Them Right CSL style to avoid most of these.