The essentials
How Harvard works
Business, economics, science, engineering and multidisciplinary university work.
Patel (2025) or (Patel 2025); some institutional variants require a comma before the year.
Reference list
Alphabetical by author, with works by the same author commonly ordered by year.
For a direct quotation, add the page number in the form required by your institution, for example (Patel 2025, p. 42).
Copy the pattern, verify the facts
Harvard reference examples
Patel, SI & Khan, A 2025, ‘Digital research habits among university students’, Journal of Learning Practice, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 44–59.
Rahman, L 2024, Research skills for modern learners, Horizon Academic, London.
National Research Council 2026, Evaluating online evidence, viewed 20 August 2026, <https://example.org/evidence>.
These examples use invented publication details to demonstrate structure. Replace every element with information from your actual source.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Assuming every university uses identical Harvard punctuation.
- Mixing APA punctuation into an institutional Harvard guide.
- Omitting the access date when your guide requires one.
- Using initials or organisation names inconsistently.
- Listing sources that are never cited in the text.
Final review
Harvard checklist
- Confirm the exact Harvard variant required.
- Use one punctuation pattern consistently.
- Include page numbers for quotations.
- Check every URL and access date.
- Apply a hanging indent if your guide requires it.
Course, institution and publisher rules can override general examples.