The Harvard referencing guide is a style of citing sources that is commonly used in academic writing. It originated at Harvard University and has since been adopted by universities and academic institutions around the world. The latest edition of the guide was published in 2015, and it provides clear and concise guidelines for properly citing sources in written work.
One of the key features of the Harvard referencing guide is that it allows writers to include both in-text citations and a list of references at the end of their work. In-text citations are short citations that are included within the body of the text, and they allow readers to easily locate the source of the information that is being cited. The list of references, also known as the bibliography, is a comprehensive list of all of the sources that have been cited in the work, and it provides all of the necessary information for readers to locate the original sources.
The Harvard referencing guide specifies that in-text citations should include the author's surname and the year of publication. For example, if you were citing a book by John Smith published in 2020, your in-text citation would look like this: (Smith, 2020). If you were citing a specific page or chapter, you would also include the page number or chapter title in the citation, like this: (Smith, 2020, p. 34).
The bibliography should be organized alphabetically by the author's surname and should include all of the necessary information for readers to locate the source. For a book, this would include the author's surname and initials, the title of the book, the place of publication, and the publisher. For example:
Smith, J. (2020). The History of Ideas. London: Cambridge University Press.
In addition to books, the Harvard referencing guide also covers a wide range of other sources, including articles, websites, and multimedia sources. It provides clear guidelines for how to properly cite these sources in both in-text citations and the bibliography.
Overall, the Harvard referencing guide is an important tool for academic writers. It helps to ensure that the sources that are used in written work are properly acknowledged, and it allows readers to easily locate the original sources for further research.