Harvard Referencing

Table of contents


Using Harvard Referencing

Based on,

Petrie, A., 2003, UWE Library Services:Study skills - how to reference [online], England, University of Western England, Available from http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/resources/general/info_study_skills/harvard..., [Accessed 4th September 2003]

Compiled by Dr. Andy Seddon, andy [at] apiit [dot] edu [dot] my


Introduction

What is a reference?

  • You are expected to acknowledge any material in books etc that you have used in reports / dissertations, etc.
  • British Standards BS1629: 1976 and BS5605: 1990 define a bibliographical reference as:
    "A set of data or elements describing a document, or part of a document, and sufficiently precise and detailed to enable a potential reader to identify and locate it".


Why Reference?

  • To avoid plagiarism.
  • To show you have read a piece of work and understood it.
  • To show courtesy to the original author.
  • To track your reading / note-taking.
  • To back up an argument.


When to Reference?

  • To quote an individual directly.
  • To identify an authors thought / ideas.
  • To use specific information from an author, such as tables or statistics.
  • Referencing is used so that the reader can locate the source of information solely from the reference provided.


How to Reference

Citation vs Reference

  • Many methods exist.
  • APIIT and Staffordshire University uses the Harvard Name convention.
  • Citing:
    • Acknowledging within your text the document from which you have obtained your information.
  • Reference:
    • The detailed description of the document from which you have obtained your information.


Citations in your text

  • In the text you refer to a particular document by using the author's surname and year of publication.
  • If the author's name occurs naturally in a sentence, the year is given in brackets:
    ...as defined by Seddon (2003)
  • If not, then both name and year are shown in brackets:
    In a recent study (Smith, 2000), management is described as..


Special Types of Citation

  • If the same author has published more than one cited document in the same year these are distinguished by lower case letters:
    Drucker (1989a), Drucker (1989b) etc
  • If there are two authors both names should be given before the date:
    Gremlin and Jenking (1981)...
  • If there are more than three authors only the surname of the first author should be given, followed by 'et al':
    Kotler et al (1987)


Common Sources To Reference

  • You are more likely to refer to information from:
    • Books
    • Contributions to books
    • Corporate Bodies
    • Journal articles
    • Conference proceedings
  • Electronic sources are dealt with later


Referring to a Book

Introduction

The reader needs to know:

  • Author's surname
  • Author's initials
  • Year of publication
  • Title (underlined or in italics)
  • Edition (if not first)
  • Place of publication
  • Publisher

Example:
SOMERVILLE, I., 1992, Software engineering. 4th ed., Reading, MA, Addison Wesley.


Special Cases with Books

  • If there are two or three authors then all should be given.
  • If there are more than three authors then only the first is given followed by et al.
  • If the book has an editor then ed. is added after the name.

Example:
BOURNER, T. and RACE, P, 1995, How To Win As A Part-Time Student, London, Kogan Page.

  • For books without individual authors, use the title.

Example:
Turbo Assembler: users' guide version 2.0, 1991, Scotts Valley, CA: Borland.


Referring to a Contribution in a Book

The reader needs to know:

  • Author's surname
  • Author's initials
  • Year of publication
  • Title of contribution followed by the word In: in Italics
  • Author / Editor of collection
  • Title of Book (in italics or underlined)
  • Edition (if not first)
  • Volume number (if part of a series)
  • Place of publications
  • Publisher
  • Year of publication
  • Page numbers of contribution

Example:
SMITH, C., 1980, Problems of information studies in history. In: S. STONE, ed., Humanities information research, Sheffield, CRUS, 1980, pp 27-30.

NOTE: When referring to specific pages in a book 'pp' is used. Use 'p' if referring to a single page.


Referring to a Corporate Body

The reader needs to know:

  • Name of issuing body
  • Year of publication
  • Title (underlined or italics)
  • Place of publication
  • Publisher

Example:
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, 2001, Code of measuring practice: A guide for Surveyors and Valuers,5th ed., Coventry, RICS Books.


Referring to a Journal

The reader needs to know:

  • Author's surname
  • Author's initials
  • Year of publication
  • Title of article
  • Title of Journal (in italics or underlined)
  • Volume number
  • Part number (in brackets)
  • Page number of article

Example:
SEDDON, A. and BRERETON O.P., 1996, Component selection using non-monotonic reasoning, Artificial Intelligence in Engineering, Design and Manufacture, 10 (3), pp 235-241


Referring to a Conference Paper

The reader needs to know:

  • Author's surname
  • Author's initials
  • Year of publication
  • Title of contribution followed by the word In: in Italics
  • Author / Editor of collection
  • Title of Book (in italics or underlined)
  • Editor of Conference proceeding. (Initials, surname with ed(s) if relevant).
  • Title of Conference proceeding. (In italics or underlined, include date or place of conference).
  • Place of publications
  • Publisher
  • Page of contribution

Example:
SILVER, K.,1989. Electronic mail the new way to communicate. In: D.I. RAITT, ed. 9th International Information Meeting, London 3-5 December 1988. Oxford: Learned Information, pp 323-330


Referring Electronic Sources of Information

  • In recent years electronic sources of information have become widely used.
  • Some electronic sources are not suitable.
  • Anyone can publish / update anything they want to on the internet - does this make it correct / suitable?
  • Where is the quality control as seen in books / articles etc?


Referring to an Internet site

The reader needs to know:

  • Author's surname
  • Author's initials
  • Year
  • Title (in italics or underlined) [online]
  • Edition (if applicable)
  • Place of publication
  • Publisher
  • Available from http:// .....
  • [Accessed Date]

Example:
SEDDON, A., 2002, Research Methods and Proposal [online], England, Staffordshire University, Available from http://gawain.soc.staffs.ac.uk/~cmtas/teaching/rmp_page.htm, [Accessed 4th September 2003]


General Comments on Referring to Internet Sources

  • It is difficult to attribute ownership to some internet sources.
  • Terms used in examples

Author : Owner of the document - if no author given then use the smallest organisational unit possible e.g. Library Services.

Publisher : Organisation responsible for maintaining the Internet site.

[online] : Type of medium. Used for all Internet resources.

[Accessed Date] : Date on which the document was viewed. This allows for any subsequent modifications to the document.


Referring to an Electronic Book

The reader needs to know:

  • Author / Editor's surname
  • Author / Editor's initials
  • Year of publication
  • Title (in italics or underlined)
  • Type of Medium
  • Edition (if applicable)
  • Place of publications
  • Publisher
  • Date of update / revision (if applicable)
  • Available from http:// .....
  • [Accessed Date]

Example:
GUNDAVARAM, S., 1996, CGI Programming on the World Wide Web, [online], 1st Edition, O’Reilly, Available from http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/cgi/ [Accessed 11th September 2003]


Referring to an Electronic Journal

The reader needs to know:

  • Author / Editor's surname
  • Author / Editor's initials
  • Year
  • Title of article (in italics or underlined)
  • Title of Journal [online]
  • Volume Number
  • Part / Issue number (in brackets)
  • Location within host
  • Where available from (URL)
  • [Accessed Date]

Example:
ALJIFRI H.A. et al, 2003, Global e-commerce: a framework for understanding and overcoming the trust barrier, Information Management & Computer Security [online], 11(3), pp. 130-138(9), Available from http://www.ingenta.com, [Accessed 11th September 2003]


Referring to an Electronic Discussion Board

The reader needs to know:

  • Author / Editor's surname
  • Author / Editor's initials
  • Day / Month / Year
  • Subject of message
  • Discussion Board Name [online] (in italics)
  • Available from URL
  • [Accessed Date]

Example:
BRITTAIN, B.V., 5 March 2001, Re: Computing in academic institutions. Lis-link [online]. Available from: lis-link [at] jiscmail [dot] ac [dot] uk [Assessed on 23 April 2001].


Referring to an E-Mail

The reader needs to know:

  • Author / Editor's surname
  • Author / Editor's initials
  • (Sender's e-mail address)
  • Day / Month / Year
  • Subject of message
  • Email to recipient
  • (Recipient's e-mail address)

Example:
SINGH, T., (Tejinder [at] apiit [dot] edu [dot] my), 21st August 2003, Session on Sept 15, 2003, Email to A.Seddon, (andy [at] apiit [dot] edu [dot] my)


Listing the Reference

  • The Reference section must be included at the end of the document.
  • References are listed in alphabetical order by surname.
  • Numbers are not used.
  • There must be an entry in the reference list for every citation.
  • If a reference is included in the reference section then there must be a citation in the text.