Harvard referencing

• Concise PDF guide (31 pages)
• Short guide with ADM examples (2 pages)
• Short guide with BLSS examples (2 pages)
• Short guide with CEBE examples (2 pages)
• Short guide with HELS examples (2 pages) 

• BCU Concise Guide for Screen Readers

These guidelines have been developed to bring consistency to the practice of citing references within the University so that there are documents and web pages to which all students and staff can refer. The Harvard style emphasises the name of the author and the publication year in the text with full bibliographic details in a reference list. Unlike other styles, there is no manual to which you can refer. This has created variations within the Harvard style so that each University has had to specify which variety of Harvard to follow. Our guidelines have been developed to bring consistency to the practice of citing references within the University so that there is a document to which all students and staff can refer.

Citing references informs your reader where you found your information and is the accepted way of giving credit to the ideas and evidence on which your argument is based. It is standard academic practice and you should do this in all the works you create. The style in these guidelines is very similar to the Harvard-style referencing format used in Microsoft Word. It is also based on the publication, Cite Them Right (Pears and Shields, 2022). The structure originally followed Anglia Ruskin University's (2019) Guide to Harvard style of referencing. However, Anglia Ruskin University, whose advice is the basis for the style in Microsoft Word, is now phasing out its own guidance and referring its students to Cite Them Right.

Facts, ideas, dates, events and information that are expected to be known by a student working in that subject area would be considered to be ‘common knowledge’ and therefore would not expect to be referenced.

There are two inter-related parts of the referencing process:

i. The citation is essentially a marker you put in your text to show that you are referring to a source. For example, you may have given a direct quotation or summarised the ideas from the source. The marker you use links to the full reference in your reference list.

ii. The reference gives full details about the source you have cited in your text so that you can go from the source to the original from the details given. References are listed in an organized, structured and consistent way, at the end of your work, before any appendices. Footnotes and endnotes are not used in the Harvard (author-date) referencing style.

You should be cautious about referencing material in your work where you cannot identify the author, date or source. The following are some of the problems you may encounter with the solution:.

As with subsidiary creators, the reference should include details of the translator, annotator and editor, as appropriate. Include their full name in the format first name last name, for example:

For major works of historic significance, the date of the original work may be included along with the date of the translation:

For works in another language that have been translated, reference these in the same manner as an English language work but provide a translation of the title immediately after the original title in square brackets:

If the source is in a non-Roman script, provide a translation in English and make it clear that the source you have used is not in English.

For a web page, for example, the required elements would appear as:

• Authorship
• (Year)
• Title.
• [in Chinese].
• Available at: URL
• [Accessed date].

For example:

For books, an example is:

For articles, an example is:

For some forms of academic writing, it is not possible to provide the name of a cited source for reasons of confidentiality. This is especially the case in a health context.

This includes:

• Not identifying individuals when writing about individual circumstances
• Making it clear when you are using pseudonyms
• Maintaining confidentiality in both your reference list and written work

In-text example:

Reference list example:

For documents available to the general public, for example patient information leaflets produced by a Trust:

In your appendices, these documents would then be labelled as Appendix 1, Appendix 2 and Appendix 3.

The reference list should include details of all the sources you have cited in your work.

Sometimes your tutors ask you to produce a bibliography as well as a reference list. The term bibliography normally refers to a list of items that you have used for background reading to inform your opinion but which are not cited directly in your text.

A reference list is always required when you cite other people's work within your own work.

The terms reference list and bibliography are sometimes used interchangeably. Make sure that you know what is required from you before you complete your work.

An annotated bibliography includes the full reference to sources with the addition of notes which summarise and evaluate each source. Depending on the assessment this may be an independent project or part of a larger research project.

The EndNote referencing software and EndNote Web both contain the BCU Harvard referencing style. The software also connects as a plug-in shown as a separate tab in Microsoft Word. EndNote Web is supported by IT Training.

Free open source reference management software is also available. The University’s databases will often export references to software such as Zotero, CiteULike and Mendeley which all contain Word plug-ins. If you wish to export and import citations between software packages, use the .ris format. JabRef is open source reference management software that uses BibTeX as its native file format and is therefore used to create references within LaTeX.

There is no reason why you cannot use ibid and op.cit. in the Harvard system because the Harvard system has no manual so there is no authoritative source.

However, if you are using BCU Harvard style, then you are not required to use these terms in your work. Instead, each time you cite a source you enter a citation in the format required for the specific source you are using.

Anglia Ruskin University, whose advice is the basis for the style in Microsoft Word, is now phasing out its own guidance and referring its students to Cite Them Right. Cite Them Right is widely adopted in British universities as the definitive source of guidance and its 12^th edition advises (Pears and Shields, 2022: 237):

“Ibid.: (From the Latin ibidem meaning ‘in the same place’.) A term used with citations that refer to an immediately preceding cited work. It is not used in the Harvard system, where works appear only once in the alphabetical list of references.”

“Op.cit.: (From the Latin opera citato meaning ‘in the work already cited’. A term used with citations that refer to a previously cited work. It is not used in the Harvard system, where works appear only once in the alphabetical list of references.”

This would therefore seem to be the current academic practice.

Your assignment is expected to be your own original work, not produced by someone else or an AI tool. If you decide to use an AI tool for research, you must reference within your work using the format (AI tool provider, year). For example, the citation should appear as (OpenAI, 2023) or OpenAI (2023) with the reference in the format: AI tool provider (Year) AI tool.

The person marking your work will decide whether you have effectively demonstrated your own understanding of the subject, and whether your use of AI is reasonable in the context of the assignment, and this will be reflected in the mark. Please see the guidance on referencing generative AI tools for further examples and information. If you are uncertain, you should avoid the use of AI tools when creating assessed work; it is highly unlikely that you are permitted to use it.

Occasionally an assignment may involve AI as part of the assessment – in this case this will be made very clear in the assignment brief. Please contact your module leader with any questions about your assessments if you are not sure what is allowed.

You should not use a paraphrasing tool to paraphrase text generated by ChatGPT or similar tool as this will not be your own original work. If you use a paraphrasing tool with your own text, you must reference it using the format (AI writing assistant, year). For example, the citation should appear as (QuillBot, 2023) or QuillBot (2023).

Students should not use AI writing assistants (such as Quillbot) to paraphrase content that was created by generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. If you use a paraphrasing tool to paraphrase a source e.g. a journal article, you would need to cite both the text source and the tool e.g. (Jones, 2020 paraphrased by QuillBot, 2023).

In your reference list, the tool would be referenced in the format: AI tool provider (Year) AI tool. Response to prompt made by your name, date, time. For example, QuillBot (2023) QuillBot Paraphraser. Response to prompt made by Isabel Gupta, 4 May 2023, 11.58am

This depends on the nature of the assignment. If the assignment requires you to create media outputs yourself, and marks are assigned to the outputs, you may not use AI tools to generate them.

If media outputs are used to assist the illustration of a point within a written piece of work where no marks are allocated to the media output, you may use AI tools if you wish. However, you must reference the use of AI using the following format (AI tool provider, year). For example, the citation should appear as (Adobe, 2023) or Adobe (2023) with the reference in the format: AI tool provider (Year) AI tool. Response to prompt made by your name, date, time.

If you are uncertain, you should avoid the use of AI tools when creating assessed work; it is highly unlikely that you are permitted to use it. Occasionally an assignment may involve AI as part of the assessment – in this case this will be made very clear in the assignment brief. Please contact your module leader with any questions about your assessments if you are not sure what is allowed.