Skip to Main Content

Harvard Referencing : How to cite

Citation

What is a citation?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a citation is an action or an act of quoting or referring to a passage, text, author, legal precedent, etc., esp. as an authority or in support of an argument; quotation.
The citation is the partial reference you give in your text. It is also called in-text citing. 
The citation is the last name of the author you are citing followed by the year of publication. You also need to put the page number(s) if you quote directly. 
You have to link those citations to the full reference in the reference list, at the end of your work. This list has to be arranged in alphabetical order by author. 
When do you need to cite?

Quoting directly

Harris (2014, p.56) argued that "nursing staff..."

Citation refers to a complete work

In a recent study (Evans, 2015), qualifications of school-leavers were analysed... 

Citing one author

In his autobiography (Fry, 2014)...

Citing two or three authors/editors

They are all listed

In an important study of the subject (Hill, Smith and Reid, 2014)

Citing four or more authors/editors

Cite the first name listed in the source followed by et al. 

New research on health awareness by Tipton et al. (2016)... 

Citing different editions of the same work by the same author

Separate the dates of publication with a semicolon (;) with the earliest date first

In both editions (Hawksworth, 2009; 2013)...

Citing a source with no date

Use the phrase no date

In an interesting survey of youth participation in sport, the authors (Harvey and Williams, no date)... 

Citing a source with no author or date

Use the title and no date

Integrated transport systems clearly work (Trends in European transport systems, no date) 

Citing a web page

Should follow the preceding guidelines - author and date where possible. 
Title and date if no author
By URL if no author or title

The latest survey of health professionals (http://www.onlinehealthsurvey.org, 2015) reveals that...

You can find all those examples and more in:

Pears, R. and Shields, G.J. (2016) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. . Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Extra Resources