Harvard Referencing System
What is referencing?
A reference is a description of any document from which you have taken information, e.g. a complete book, a chapter from it, a journal, a newspaper article, a web page, or DVD etc.
Importance of referencing
It is required academic practice to provide references to guide your reader to the sources you have used,
- To support the arguments you are making,
- To demonstrate the breadth of your research,
- To credit the established work of others.
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What is a citation?
When you use another person’s work in your own work, either by referring to their ideas, or by including a direct quotation, you must acknowledge this in the text of your work. This acknowledgement is called a citation.
When you are using the Harvard style, your citation should include:
- The author or editor of the cited work
- The year of publication of the cited work
Plagiarism:
Failure to acknowledge your sources is likely to lead to a suspicion of plagiarism – i.e. trying to pass off someone else’s work as your own: it is a form of cheating.
Paraphrase:
A paraphrase is when you state all the ideas of the passage in your own words. This is normally the same length as the original passage.
Summary
A summary is when you state the overall/main idea of the whole paragraph/passage, in your own words.
This is normally a shortened version of the original passage.
Direct quote
A direct quote is when you use the exact words of the author.
The Harvard System:
The Harvard System (also called the Author – Date System) is one of several available methods of referencing and is the preferred choice of most departments in the University. The Harvard System has the advantages of flexibility, simplicity, clarity and ease of use for both author and reader. References are listed alphabetically in a Reference List and cited in the text by simply giving the author’s surname and date of publication.
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What is a bibliography?
There may be items which you have consulted for your work, but not cited. These can be listed at the end of your assignment in a ‘bibliography’. These items should be listed in alphabetical order by author and laid out in the same way as items in your reference list. If you can cite from every work you consulted, you will only need a reference list. If you wish to show to your reader (examiner) the unused research you carried out, the bibliography will show your extra effort.
Harvard method of listing references at the end of the text
References should be listed in alphabetical order by author’s name and then by date (earliest first), and then if more than one item has been published during a specific year by letter (1995a, 1995b etc). Whenever possible details should be taken from the title page of a publication and not from the front cover, which may be different. Each reference should include the elements and punctuation given in the examples below. Authors’ forenames can be included if given on the title page but they are not required to be. The title of the publication should either be in italics or underlined.
Difference between reference list and bibliography list
The main difference between a reference and bibliography section is based on whether the source has been cited in the main text or not. That is, the reference section is a list of sources that have been cited in the main text whereas the bibliography is a list of sources that have been read but not cited or referred to within the main text.
Some course tutors will use the term ‘reference’ and ‘bibliography’ interchangeably, when asking you to produce a list of sources that you have used in your assignment. One thing to remember is that you will always need to produce a list of sources that you have cited in the main text, regardless of whether this list is entitled ‘bibliography’ or ‘references’. If in doubt, ask the course tutor for their preference.