Harvard Formatting Basics: A Guide

Harvard is an "author-date" referencing style. Its core principle is to provide a brief citation in the text that points the reader to a full entry in an alphabetical reference list at the end of the document.

Important Note: There is no single, official manual for the Harvard style. This means that universities and publishers may have slightly different rules. The information here covers the most common and widely accepted conventions. Always check the specific style guide provided by your institution.

1. In-Text Citation Basics

An in-text citation is a brief note you include in the body of your text every time you quote or paraphrase a source.

Key Rules:

Standard Format: Consists of the author's surname and the year of publication in parentheses.

Example: (Sharma 2023)

Including Page Numbers: When you directly quote a source, you must include the page number. Use 'p.' for a single page or 'pp.' for a range of pages.

Example: (Sharma 2023, p. 45)

Example: (Verma 2022, pp. 112-115)

Narrative vs. Parenthetical:

Narrative: The author's name is part of your sentence.
Example: Sharma (2023) argues that the policy was effective.
Parenthetical: The author's name is part of the citation in parentheses.
Example: The policy was considered effective (Sharma 2023).

Citing Multiple Authors:

One author: (Sharma 2023)
Two or three authors: List all surnames. (Sharma and Kumar 2022)
Four or more authors: List the first author's surname, followed by et al. (Sharma et al. 2021)

2. Reference List Basics

The reference list is a complete list of all sources cited in your work. It appears on a new page at the end of your document.

Key Rules:

Title: The list should be titled Reference list.
Order: Entries must be arranged in alphabetical order by the author's surname.
Author Format: Use the author's surname followed by their initials (e.g., Sharma, R. K.).
Capitalisation:
Book/Article Titles: Use 'sentence case' (only the first word and proper nouns are capitalised).
Journal/Newspaper Titles: Use 'title case' (all major words are capitalised).
Layout: It is common practice to use a 'hanging indent', where the second and subsequent lines of each reference are indented. The list is also typically double-spaced.

3. Foundational Examples

Here are basic examples for the three most common source types, showing the reference list entry and its corresponding in-text citation.

A. Book

Reference List Format: Surname, Initial(s). (Year) Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example: Guha, R. (2017) India after Gandhi: The history of the world's largest democracy. London: Pan Books.

In-Text Citation: (Guha 2017, p. 50)

B. Journal Article

Reference List Format: Surname, Initial(s). (Year) 'Title of article', Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), pp. page range.

Example: Basu, K. (2011) 'Understanding the global economic crisis', India Review, 10(1), pp. 1-13.

In-Text Citation: (Basu 2011, p. 5)

C. Webpage

Reference List Format: Author/Organisation (Year) Title of webpage. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Example: Reserve Bank of India (2025) Digital payments vision 2028. Available at: https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/vision2028.aspx (Accessed: 9 June 2025).

In-Text Citation: (Reserve Bank of India 2025)

Citing Specific and Challenging Source Types

How to Cite Sources with Multiple Authors: Mastering Teamwork in Citations!

Ever work on a project where multiple brilliant minds contributed? Research is often like that! Many sources you'll use – from groundbreaking studies to essential books – have been created by more than one author. Correctly citing these collaborative works is absolutely crucial for giving credit where it's due and avoiding plagiarism. But let's be honest, dealing with multiple names can sometimes feel a bit tricky because different citation styles handle them in different ways.

Don't worry, though! Once you understand the general principles behind how citation styles work, handling multiple authors becomes much clearer.

First Things First: Know Your Style!
The golden rule of citation is always to follow the specific style required by your instructor, university, department, or publisher. They will provide the definitive rules for both your brief in-text citations (or notes) and the full entries in your reference list or bibliography.

The Three Main Approaches to In-Text Citations

While styles differ, they generally fall into one of three categories for how they place brief citations within the body of your text:

Parenthetical Citations: These styles tuck identifying details (like author name and year or page) right into parentheses within your sentence. Think (Smith, 2023) or (Jones 45). How they handle multiple authors means adjusting what goes inside those parentheses.
Numerical Citations: Here, you simply insert a number, usually in brackets or superscript, like [1] or ¹. This number corresponds to a numbered list of full source details at the end of your paper. The list entry will show all the authors, and the number just acts as a pointer.
Note Citations: These styles use a superscript number or symbol in the text that links to a footnote or endnote at the bottom of the page or end of the document. The note contains the citation details, and there's often a separate bibliography as well.

How a style handles multiple authors in the in-text part depends heavily on which of these three approaches it uses.

Putting it into Practice: Quick Look at Different Styles

Let's see how some common styles tackle multiple authors, keeping in mind you'll always need to consult the full style guide for complete rules!

APA Style (Parenthetical - Author-Date)

Used widely in social sciences and psychology.
APA uses author last names and the publication year in parentheses (author-date).
The Multi-Author Magic:
- If a work has two authors, you connect their names with an ampersand (&) inside the parentheses.
  Example (Parenthetical): (Harris & Cook, 2020)
  Example (Narrative): Harris and Cook (2020) (Note: "and" is used in narrative citations)
- If a work has three or more authors, you only list the first author's last name followed by et al. (meaning "and others").
  Example (Parenthetical): (Harris et al., 2020)
  Example (Narrative): Harris et al. (2020)
- The full reference list entry at the end includes details about all the authors according to APA's specific formatting rules.

MLA Style (Parenthetical - Author-Page)

Popular in humanities disciplines.
MLA in-text citations typically use the author's last name and a page number in parentheses, with no punctuation between them.
Example (Single Author): (Davidson 155) or (Smith 173)
If the author's name is mentioned in your text, only the page number is needed in parentheses.
Example: Smith claims that... (173)
The MLA "Works Cited" list at the end is alphabetized by the first element (usually the author's surname) and has a specific structure for listing authors. The sources describe the components of the Works Cited entry which includes an "Author" field but do not provide specific examples or rules for how multiple authors appear within the MLA in-text citation itself (like rules for using "et al." in the in-text parenthetical). You would need the official MLA Handbook or a comprehensive guide for those specific in-text details.

IEEE Style (Numerical)

Common in engineering and IT.
IEEE uses numbers enclosed in square brackets within the text.
Example: ...end of the line for my research.
When citing multiple sources at once, you can list each number separately,,,, or use a range.
The Multi-Author Magic (or lack thereof, in-text): The in-text number simply points to the corresponding entry in the numbered "References" list at the end of your paper. The "References" list is where all the authors are listed for that specific source.
Example (IEEE Reference Entry with multiple authors): J. Ive, A. Max, and F. Yvon, “Reassessing the proper place of man and machine in translation: A pre-translation scenario,” Mach. Transl., vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 279–308, Dec. 2018, doi: 10.1007/s10590-018-9223-9.
The in-text citation would just be [1] or the number corresponding to this specific entry in your list. The number doesn't change based on how many authors are in the source.

Chicago Style (Notes & Bibliography or Author-Date)

Chicago has two main systems. Turabian style is noted as a version aimed at students with very similar rules.
Chicago Notes and Bibliography (used in humanities) uses footnotes or endnotes linked by a superscript number or symbol in the text.
Chicago Author-Date (used in sciences and social sciences) uses parenthetical author-date citations similar to APA, but with Chicago's specific formatting.
Both styles have specific rules for how multiple authors are listed in notes or parenthetical citations, as well as in the full bibliography or reference list entries. The provided sources mention these styles and show examples of single-author citations but do not detail the specific rules or examples for citing multiple authors within the note or parenthetical citation itself. You would need to consult the Chicago Manual of Style or Turabian for those specific multi-author rules.