The following information is based on the format and style presented in the Style manual for authors, editors and printers 2002, 6^th ed., AGPS, Canberra, ACT.

When using the material of other authors in our writing, it is essential that we credit these authors to ensure that others are aware of the origin of the information. As there are many different referencing styles that allow us to do this, it is important to choose a style that is best suited to the field in which we are writing.

For business students, there are many forms of referencing available; however, the Harvard system, also known as the Author-Date style, is one of the easiest and most widely used referencing styles in the field.

Like most referencing styles, Harvard contains two parts: an in-text citation and a reference list.

In-text citation

The in-text citation is a mention of the author name, year and publication, inside the essay. This is a brief portion of information which allows the reader to identify the rest of the publication details of the article within your reference list.

There are two ways to display this information.

If you wish to indicate that the author themselves is more important to your statement than the title of their work, list their name and then the year of publication in parenthesis.

E.g. Larsen (2001) suggests that…etc.

If you feel that the work itself is more important to your argument than the author, then list the information and follow it with the both the author’s name and the year of publication in parenthesis.

E.g. Studying grammar is beneficial (Larsen 2001).

Please note that if you are referring to information from a specific part of a text, you’ll also need to include the page number(s).

E.g. Studying grammar is beneficial (Larsen 2001, p. 103-104).

Reference List

While in-text citations contain a shortened version of the author’s information, the reference list contains all the information the reader needs to find the publication on their own. This allows them to check your information as well as learn more about the topics you’ve discussed from the original source.

A reference list is different from a bibliography in that it only lists works that have been directly mentioned in your essay. A bibliography, on the other hand, will list any titles you consulted when writing your paper. For instance, if we quoted a text in our paper, we would need to include it in our reference list. However, if we only read the text as a way to learn about the topic, it would be included in the bibliography.

Writing the reference list is more involved than the in-text citations as there are different formats for different types of texts. For instance, there is a different format of referencing for books than there is for journal or newspaper articles. To help with this, this article will cover the most commonly used formats. For more information, please consult Style manual for authors, editors and printers (2002) or contact one of Brighten Institute Australia’s friendly staff members.

Books

Books are the most commonly used types of text referenced in essays and are the simplest to reference. To do so, use the following form:

[Author Last name], [Author First name initials][year],[Book Title][Publisher],[Location].

E.g. Smith, J 2015, The air in here, Leopard Press, Leichhardt, New South Wales.

King, TR 2001, In the company of thieves, Jones & Brown, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Articles

Journal articles are published articles that generally contain researchers’ reports on the research they are conducting. They can be a very persuasive form of evidence as they are direct reports of the research rather than information that has been interpreted and presented second-hand as in texts such as textbooks.

As these articles are published alongside other articles in a collection, they are not a complete work like a book. As such, they require a slightly different format:

[Author Last name], [Author First name initials][Year],[‘Article Title’][Journal/Newspaper Name],[Volume Number],[Issue Number][Page Numbers].

E.g. Gao, H 1999, ‘Effect of New Zealand’s rising dollar on import restrictions’ International Journal                of Applied Finance, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 12-23.

Additional Points to note

Capitalisation: When writing your references, ensure that only the first word of the book/article title is capitalised along with proper nouns. The first word of a subtitle should also be capitalised. All other words should appear in lower case.

     E.g. Studying in Australia: Learning in a new culture.

             Speaking and communicating: New methods of teaching non-native English speakers.

For titles of journals, all words should be capitalised with the exception of articles, prepositions and conjunctions. Should one of these appear at the beginning of the title, it should also be capitalised.

E.g. The International Journal of Applied Finance and Economics.

Punctuation: When citing, it is important to use correct punctuation. This is as punctuation in reference lists tells the reader what type of text you are using. For instance, in Harvard Style, italicised words mean the words are the title of a book or published work.

So, when citing, remember to italicise all book titles and the names of complete journals or collections. Parts of published materials, such as articles and webpages, should be placed in single quotation marks. This shows the reader it is part of a whole.

Book: Brooks, R 2012, Lands apart, State University Press, South Australia.

Article: Griffin, M 2000, ‘The effects of mature soil on radish growth’, Soil Quarterly, vol. 1, no. 4, pp.                    45-56.

Also keep in mind that unlike American English, British English places the period/full stop at the end of all other punctuation in the sentence. As such, when quoting or using brackets to cite your material, ensure the period is not inside the quotation marks or brackets.

American English: She mentioned, “Dogs always look happy.”

British English:      She mentioned, ‘Dogs always look happy’.

More than one author: Oftentimes, the texts you’ll be referencing will have more than one author. Regardless of the type of text, additional authors are listed in the following format:

[First author surname], [Initials] & [Next author surname]. [Initials][Year] etc.

E.g. Park, K & Kingston, B 1999, New developments, Peters, New South Wales.

If you have more than three authors, you shorten the in-text reference by using ‘et al.’ after the primary author’s name. Please note that the reference list should contain all authors’ names.

So, an in-text reference with multiple authors would appear as: There have been several developments in the field (Murphey et al. 2009, p. 12).

Please note that in the reference list, authors should be listed in the order they appear in the book/article credits and not in alphabetical order. This is as the order reflects their contribution to the text.

Order: When writing your reference lists, entries must be placed in an alphabetical order to ensure that the reader can quickly find the information they need. Under the Harvard system, entries are alphabetised by using the surname of the author. Should there be no author, then the first letter of the article is used.

For instance:

Aronson, J 2011, Gone fishing, Times, Newton, New South Wales.

     Building a better future 1923, National University Press, Oxford.

Cunningham, H 2000, ‘An analysis of code-switching in Laos’ Linguistics Today, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1-      40.

Secondary Sources: While it is always more persuasive to use the original source, sometimes this is not possible and we have to use a different text that is reporting the information second hand. When doing this, it is best to mention that this is second-hand information within the in-text reference. Doing so ensures that the original information is not misrepresented.

To do so, use the following format to mention the information was cited from another text:

[Original Author surname] (as cited in [Secondary Source Author surname][Year],[Page])

E.g. Daniels (as cited in Nguyen 2006, p.6), states that…etc.

Online sources: Sources that are viewed online require an inclusion of both the view date and the website URL. It is important to include this as online material can change or be updated and thus at a later date, it may not match the information you present in your essay. By listing the date, you’ll ensure that the reader understands that the information presented was based on the information listed on the site at the time of viewing.

To show that a source was taken from online, add the following information to your reference list:

[viewed][Day Month Year],[URL]

For instance:

Jordan, R 1999 Dancing in the streets of Monaco, Stepford, London, viewed 28 June 2001,         http://www.booksforeveryoneinaustralia.edu.au/Jordan/dancinginthestreetsofmonaco.pdf

If you’ve accessed the information from an established database, you can simply list the date and name of the database.

For instance:

Clarks, S 2001, Increasing your internal health, Parkson, Western Australia, viewed 19 December            2012, JSTOR Database.

While each referencing style has its specific requirements that need to be learnt, developing an understanding of the basic referencing structure will improve your own writing and allow you to interpret the references of others. To learn more about the Harvard referencing style, please consult Style manual for authors, editors and printers (2002) or contact one of the friendly staff at Brighten Institute Australia.

Reference

Style manual for authors, editors and printers 2002, 6^th ed., AGPS, Canberra, ACT.

14^th March, 2016

Geoffrey Larsen

Academic Department