Information Resources Library

Harvard Style Guide
In-text references, reference lIsts and bIblIographIes

www.swinburne.edu.au/lib

Swinburne University of Technology Library – Harvard Style Guide 1. The purpose of Harvard Style
Harvard Style is an academic citation system that allows you to use and then acknowledge other people’s information and ideas in your own work. Using Harvard Style ensures that people who read your work can locate and read the same sources you used; using it also reduces the risk of being accused of plagiarism. Using Harvard Style means acknowledging the author of an information source and the date the source was published by inserting the author’s family name/surname and year of publication in the body of your work each time you use their information and ideas. These author and date details, together with all other identifying details (such as the title of an information source – known as bibliographic details), are also listed at the end of your work. If you use more than one information source, arrange the sources in a list at the end of your work alphabetically by author surname. Always be consistent when using Harvard Style. All information sources of the same type should be treated in the same way. Students are advised to check with their school, department or faculty which citation style guide is required, as not everyone in the University uses this style guide.

For example, consider this sentence from a book: Volunteer programmes are successful when volunteers are working in positions they look forward to undertaking and want to fill. If you copy it from the book and insert it into your work, the in-text reference should look like this: “Volunteer programmes are successful when volunteers are working in positions they look forward to undertaking and want to fill” (McCurley, Lynch & Jackson 2012, p. 78).

Authors’ surnames

Year of publication

Page number

If you paraphrase it by rewriting the information using your own words, the sentence and the in-text reference could look like this: If the volunteers are employed in roles that they want to do, then the volunteer programmes will perform well (McCurley, Lynch & Jackson 2012, p. 78).

Authors’ surnames

Year of publication

Page number

2. Acknowledging sources in the body of your work; to paraphrase and to quote
The two most important details to acknowledge whenever you use someone’s information are: a) the name(s) of the author, authors or organisation who created it, and b) the year they created it. You must insert them each time you use their information in your own work. The details are usually placed at the end of the sentence and are called ‘in-text references’, as you are placing them in the text (the body) of your work. The two main ways of using an information source are to paraphrase it or quote from it. To paraphrase is to look at someone’s information and then write it using your own words. To quote is to copy exactly what someone has written and insert it into your work. You should only quote when you feel that the author’s words are perfect and that trying to paraphrase them would weaken their message and power. When you paraphrase or quote, always include the page number or page numbers in the in-text reference, placed after the year it was published. When you quote a sentence, enclose the text in double quotation marks: “ ”. If you quote more than one sentence, then do not use double quotation marks – instead, place the quoted material on a new line, indent the quote and finish with the in-text reference. New text after that quote should commence on a new line and not be indented.

If the author of the work is very well known in their subject field, you may want to state their name as part of your writing. If you do so, you must still include the year of publication (and the page number too, if you are quoting or paraphrasing them). For example: Dawkins (2012, p. 226) states that the universe