In this blog post, we will be looking at how to use the Harvard referencing system to cite a book, both in the reference list and in the main body of your writing. We will start by asking why referencing is important and what the basic format is for a book reference, then look at this in more detail. We will also consider the in-text citation. Finally, we will ask how to evaluate a source to determine whether it is suitable for inclusion in your work.
Referencing is important because it allows you to acknowledge other creators when you use their work as a starting point for your own. This is vital to avoid plagiarism in your work. In addition, carefully referencing your sources means that your readers should be able to look these up to find out more, check the context of the source you are citing and broaden their own research.
The basic format for a book in your reference list using the Harvard system is:
Surname or surnames, Initial(s)., (Year published) Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher.
For example:
Middleton, N., (2009) Deserts: a very short introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
We will now look at each part of this reference in turn.
Surname
For this, simply put the surname of the author. If they have multiple surnames or a double-barrelled name, write this out in full. Use capitals as they appear in the author’s name on the cover.
Initials
You don’t need to write out the author’s full first name or names; instead, simply use initials. If they have more than one name, use both; for example, M.G. Always use capitals for this.
Multiple Authors
If there are two authors, link them with “and”. For example:
Green, H. and Baxter, B.
If there are more than two authors, the full list should be given in the reference list with commas between them and an “and” linking the last two:
Green, H., Baxter, B. and Tomlinson, S.
Year Published
Include the year the book was published as four digits (i.e. 2009 not 09) and place this inside round brackets. You should be able to find this on the copyright page of the book.
Title
The title of the book should be given in full and placed in italics. Capitalise the first letter of the title and any proper nouns; otherwise, remove all capitals. For example, “A Referencing Guide” would become “A referencing guide”.
Edition
Sometimes there will be multiple editions of the same book. Write which edition you have, using the abbreviation “ed”, followed by a full stop, for example:
Deserts: a very short introduction. 3rd ed.
Make sure you always reference the one you are using, even if it is not the most recent one (although ideally, this is the one you would read). If your copy is the first edition, do not include this, just move straight on to the place of publication.
Place of Publication
Next, you will need the place of publication followed by a colon. The place must be a town or city, not a country. You will usually find this on the back of the title page of the book with the publisher’s address. If there are multiple locations given, choose the one that is in your country; for example, if you are in the UK, choose a UK location over a US one. If there is a chance a place name could be confused with one in another country, include a state or country abbreviation after it for clarity.
Publisher
Finally, include the publisher after the colon following the place of publication and finish the reference with a full stop. For well-known publishers, you can often use an abbreviation; for example, the end of the Middleton reference above could be written as:
New York: OUP.
In-Text Citation
For an in-text citation, you always need to include the author’s name and the year of publication. There are two ways of doing this. Firstly, if you mention the author by name in the text, you just need to add the year in brackets. For example:
This is explained in Middleton (2009).
Alternatively, if you use a reference to support a statement but do not mention the author’s name, include both the name and year in brackets.
(Middleton, 2009)
If there are two or three authors, include them all in a similar way to in the reference list. For example:
Green, Baxter and Tomlinson (2002)
If there are four or more authors, write the first name then “et al.”, which means “and others”.
Green, et al. (2002)
Evaluating Source Reliability
To assess a source, you need to consider a few things. Firstly, how recently was it written? A book published in the last few years will be much more accurate than one from twenty years ago. Ask who the author is and why they are qualified to write about that topic.
In addition, consider why the book was written. If it was written purely to inform, it will be more reliable than one written to persuade. Finally, check that the source is actually relevant to what you are writing about.
Wrapping Up
I hope that this helps you reference books using the Harvard system. Next time, we will be looking at how to reference journal articles, so come back in two weeks for that!
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