Harvard Referencing System
The following has been reprinted from “ Departmental Policy on Referencing, Plagiarism and Assignment Presentation: Department of Medical Imaging Science”, (Knights, A.M., 2000) Medical Imaging Department, School of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Sciences Division, Curtin University of Technology. Western Australia, Australia.
Note: This document is only an introduction to the Harvard
referencing system. For a comprehensive guide refer to:
Style Manual for Authors, Editors
and Printers 1994, 5th edn, AGPS, Canberra.
(available in the Robinson Library Reference Collection at
[3] R808.02 STY and at all branch libraries)
For a guide to referencing
electronic information sources refer to:
Li, X & Crane N.B. 1996, Electronic
Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information, 2nd edn, Information Today, Medford, N.J.
(available in the Robinson Library Reference Collection at
[3] R808.027 LI and at all branch libraries)
Referencing is a standardised method of acknowledging sources of information
and ideas that you have used in your assignment, in a way that uniquely
identifies their source. Direct quotations, facts and figures, as well as ideas
and theories, from both published and unpublished works must be referenced.
There are many acceptable forms of referencing. In the Harvard referencing
system the author's name is given first, followed by the publication date
within the text of the assignment (see examples following). A reference list at
the end of the assignment contains full details of all the in-text citations
(see examples).
To avoid plagiarism; to enable the reader to verify
quotations; to enable readers to follow-up and read more fully the cited
author's arguments.
Take down the full bibliographical details including the page numbers from which the information is taken.
In the case of a book, "bibliographical details" refers to: author(s)/editor(s), year of publication, title, edition, volume number, publisher and place of publication.
In the case of a journal article it refers to: author(s) of article, year of publication, title of article, journal/serial title, volume number, issue number, page numbers on which the article appears.
In the case of electronic information it refers to: author(s)/editor(s), year of publication, article title, journal title, the type of medium (eg. CD-ROM, Online, etc.), pages or length, "Available" statement (eg. WWW address, supplier and name of electronic database, Email address, etc.), access date. (Not all of these details will necessarily be applicable).
Insert the reference at the appropriate place within the text of the assignment (see examples below).
Provide a reference list at the end of the assignment (see examples below).
When citing references within the text of an assignment use only the surname of the author, followed by the year of publication.
Larsen (1971) was the first to propound the theory.
When directly quoting from another source, ensure that quotation marks are used and the relevant page number(s) are given.
Larsen (1971, p. 245) noted that “many of the facts in this case are incorrect”.
OR: “Many of the facts in this case are incorrect” (Larsen 1971, p. 245).
Refer to Sections 14.70 – 14.74 of the AGPS Style Manual for further details for citing direct quotations.
When a work has no author (including legal materials) or the author is anonymous, cite in-text the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title) and the year. Use italics for the title.
This was apparently not the case in seventeenth century England (On travelling to London 1683)
Where 2 or 3 authors are cited in parentheses, the textual reference should be:
(Larsen & Green 1987) (Larsen, Green & Withers 1986)
When the authors’ names are incorporated into the text, the “&” is replaced by “and”
Where more than three authors are responsible for a work, only the surname of the first listed author is used followed by the term ‘et al.’ (meaning 'and others'). For example, a work by Larsen, Green, Withers and Gonzales becomes:
…….is the best example (Larsen et al. 1985)
Refer to Sections 9.24 – 9.52 of the AGPS Style Manual for more examples of in text references
In the following paragraphs some variations are given as examples.
Summers (1975) focussed attention on the control of behaviour by the removal of portions of the human brain, a procedure usually called psychosurgery. Psychosurgery has been recommended for the curing or ameliorating various psychiatric problems, including depression (Knight 1969) and criminal behaviour (Koskoff & Goldhurst 1986), and has also been used in the treatment of anorexia nervosa (Anorexia Nervosa 1969), epilepsy (Valenstein 1973) and obsessional neuroses (Brown, Wienckowski and Bivens 1969). Recent studies on the functional role of the frontal lobes (Koskoff et al. 1989; Thorne 1972a) have shown that....
Concluding a review of the medical and ethical aspects of psychosurgery, Brown et al (1977, p. 257) stated that "...the answers to the issues of psychosurgery will depend heavily upon scientific advances..."
The following is an example of the form to be used when reference is made to a book, article or report not actually read as a primary source, but reported in another article or text:
It was found by Hawley and Shein (1972, cited in Strunk and White 1973, p. 13) that 8 to 11 year old students interacted and cooperated more with their peers when they ....
The source of diagrams, images, photographs and tables must be acknowledged.
Diagrams, images and photographs should all have titles and be numbered in the text as figures. The figure number and title should be under the diagram etc.
Tables should also each have a title and be numbered as tables. In this case the table number and title should be above the table. All diagrams, tables etc should be included in an assignment for a purpose, not just as space fillers, they must therefore, be referred to in the text of the assignment (eg. Figure 2 shows that the ....). If the diagram or table has been directly copied, the source should be acknowledged under the diagram or table (for example: From Valenstein 1973, p. 213). If you have drawn the diagram by combining the ideas from diagrams in more than one reference, then this should be acknowledged as, for example: Adapted from Valenstein 1973, p. 213; Thorne 1972a.
There is a clear distinction between a reference list and a bibliography. The former provides a list of all material cited in the assignment or report, while the latter provides a list of all material consulted (both cited and read) by the writer. Both require the same method of recording at the end of the assignment. A reference list is required for every assignment submitted.
A reference list and a bibliography are both arranged alphabetically by author. The lists shall not be numbered. Where an item has no author it is cited by its title, and ordered in the reference list or bibliography in sequence by the first significant word of the title, ignoring words such as "The" in the title (see example below).
The second line of the reference is indented, as shown below, to highlight the alphabetical order.
It is usual to shorten the name and address of a publisher, so for example, W.B. Saunders Company, who have branches in Philadelphia, London, Toronto, Mexico City and Sydney should be listed as: Saunders, Philadelphia. It is rarely necessary to state the country of publication. It is usually a city (eg Philadelphia) or sometimes the city and state (eg Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
You should note that the punctuation, underlining, indenting etc, shown in the examples below, are important, and you shall conform to the examples shown.
‘AAnorexia nervosa’ 1969, British Medical Journal, vol. 1, pp. 529-530
(<use when a book has editors and all of the chapters are written by different authors)
Brrown, B.S., Wienckowski, L. & Bivens, L. 1969, ‘Psychosurgery: perspectives on a current issue’, in Contrast and controversy in modern psychology, ed D.P. Kimble,.Goodyear, Santa Monica, pp. 239-259.
Keerr, E.I. 1990, ‘Radiography in Spain’, Radiography Today, vol. 56, no. 641, Oct., pp. 12-13.
Knnight, G. 1969, ‘Stereotactic surgery for the relief of suicidal and severe depression and intractable psychoneurosis’, Postgraduate Medical Journal, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 1-13.
Koskoff, V.D. & Goldhurst, R. 1986, The dark side of the house, Dial Press, New York.
Sttafford-Clark, D. 1987, ‘Mental disorders and their treatment’, in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 5th edn, vol. 23, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., Chicago, pp. 956-975.
Strunk, W. & White, E.B. 1978, The elements of style, 3rd edn, Macmillan, London.
Valenstein, E.S. 1973, Brain control: a critical examination of brain stimulation and psychosurgery, Wiley, New York.
Thhorne, B.M. 1972a, ‘Brain lesions and effective behaviour in primates: a selected review’, Journal of General Psychology, vol. 86, no. 3, pp. 153-162.
Thhorne, B.M. 1972b, ‘The red nucleus and olfactory discrimination in the rat’, Journal of General Psychology, vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 225-229.
Summers, A. 1975, ‘How women live’, National Times, 22-27 Dec., pp. 12-14.
Tree, T. (sonographer) 2000, interviewed by A. Park, Radiology Department, Somewhere Hospital, Apr 1.
NBB: in-text reference would be (Tree 2000)
Waarwick, R. & Williams, P.L. (eds) 1973, Gray's Anatomy, 34th edn, Longman, Edinburgh.
Taank, T. 1993, Lecture, Train Engine, Physics 111, School of Physics, Curtin University, Apr. 1.
Ryles, R. 1996, [Abstract of 'The impact of Braille reading skills on employment, income, education and reading habits', Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, vol. 90, no. 3, pp. 219-226], [Electronic], Available: Silver Platter File: CINAHL/1996036756 [1997, June 7]
Skargren, E. I. & Öberg, B. 1998, 'Predictive factors for 1-year outcome of low-back and neck pain in patients treated in primary care: comparison between the treatment strategies chiropractic and physiotherapy', Pain [Electronic], vol. 77, no. 2, 201(7pp.), Available: Elsevier/ScienceDirect/S0304-3959(98)00101-8 [1999, February 8].
Corliss, B. 1999, News from Seattle, E-mail to X. Li, [Online], 13 Jan., Available: E-mail: [email protected] [1999, January 15].
Berkowitz, P. 1995, 'Sussy's gravestone', Mark Twain Forum, [Online], April 3, Available: E-mail: [email protected] [1995, April 3]
Beckleheimer, J. 1994, How do you cite URL's in a bibliography?, [Online], Available: http://www.nrlssc.navy.mil/meta/ bibliography.html [1995, December 13]
Educating America for the 21st century: Developing a strategic plan for educational leadership, [Online], 1994, Available: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/CONF/EdPlan.html [1995, May 16].
Prizker, T. J. n.d., An early fragment from central Nepal, [Online], Available: http://www.ingress.com/~astanart/pritker/pritzker.html [1996, December 12].
Curtin University of Technology Homepage [Homepage of Curtin University of Technology], [Online], (1999, February 9 - last update), Available: http://www.curtin.edu.au/ [1999, March 1].
Note: The examples above have been adapted to the Harvard format from
Li, X. & Crane, N. B. 1996, Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information, 2nd edn, Information Today, Medford, N.J.
If you have sought verbal advice from a person who is knowledgeable in the area covered by the assignment topic, it is important that you recognise their contribution by stating their name, occupation and address (see personal interview example above). It is also a requirement that the use of this advice should be recognised within the text of your assignment in the same fashion as in-text references. An acknowledgement contained in your reference list without being used in the text of your assignment will be treated in the same way as references which are not cited.
Should a person provide you with verbal information and, in addition provide you with printed material (an article the person has written, or a technical pamphlet), then an acknowledgement must be provided for both verbal advice and the article or technical pamphlet in your reference list.
Plagiarism is using another person's work and implying that it is yours. It is classified as academic stealing. It is unacceptable practice, and is punishable in the first instance by a zero grade for the assignment, automatic failure in a unit for the second and subsequent offences.