Harvard Referencing Guide

Harvard referencing is one of the most widely encountered author-date approaches to academic source documentation.

Students may encounter Harvard referencing in:

• universities
• colleges
• business schools
• social sciences
• education
• health-related programmes
• management
• economics
• environmental studies
• engineering
• professional qualifications
• research reports

One important fact should be understood immediately:

Harvard referencing is not a single universally controlled style in the same way that some other named academic styles are tied to a particular official manual.

Different universities, departments, publishers, and institutions can use different Harvard variants.

As a result, a student should never assume that a Harvard citation found online automatically matches their institution’s requirements.

The underlying principle is generally an author-date system:

Author + Year