Harvard reference generator

Make Harvard references and in-text citations in the Cite Them Right style. Paste a DOI or ISBN to fill in the details, or type them in. Your list stays in this browser.

FreeNo sign-upCite Them Right styleUK & Australia

Source type

Author

Leave the author empty if there is none. The title then goes first.

Year published. For a web page, the year it was last updated. Leave empty for n.d.
Cite Them Right uses a capital only for the first word and names.
The day you read it online. Not needed with a DOI.

Reference

In-text citation

How Harvard referencing works

Harvard is an author–date style. Each time you use a source, you put a short citation in your text: the author's family name and the year, such as (Austen, 2003). At the end of your work, a reference list gives the full details of every source, in alphabetical order by author.

There is no single official Harvard style. Universities in the UK, Australia and elsewhere often use the Cite Them Right version, which this generator follows. If your course gives you its own guide, check small details such as punctuation against it.

Examples

Book
Austen, J. (2003) Pride and prejudice. London: Penguin.
Journal article with a DOI
LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y. and Hinton, G. (2015) 'Deep learning', Nature, 521(7553), pp. 436–444. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539.
Web page by an organisation
NHS (2023) Flu vaccine. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/flu-vaccine/ (Accessed: 22 October 2026).
Chapter in an edited book
Green, A. (2018) 'Social media and youth', in Black, T. and White, S. (eds) Digital lives. London: Routledge, pp. 45–67.

Common questions

What if there is no date?

Write n.d. (no date) in place of the year, both in the citation and in the reference list: (NHS, n.d.).

How many authors do I list?

List up to three authors. For four or more, give the first author followed by et al., such as (Smith et al., 2021). Some courses ask you to list every author in the reference list, so check your course guide.

Do I need the date I accessed a website?

Yes, for anything you read online without a DOI. A DOI is a permanent link, so a reference with a DOI does not need an access date.

Two works by the same author in the same year?

Add a, b and so on after the year, in title order: (Smith, 2020a) and (Smith, 2020b). The generator does this for you when both are in your list.

My university uses a different Harvard style. Will this work?

Most UK and Australian universities use Cite Them Right or a close variant, so the references are usually right as they are. Some schools, such as Leeds or UWE, have their own small differences in punctuation. Compare one reference with your university's guide before you hand in your work.

What is the difference between Harvard and APA?

Both are author–date styles. APA, common in the US, puts the year straight after the author with a full stop, such as Smith, J. (2020). and uses "&" between authors. Harvard uses "and", and its punctuation differs in small ways.

Is my list saved?

Your list is kept in this browser on this device only. Nothing is sent to a server, except a DOI or ISBN you choose to look up. Those go to Crossref and Open Library to fetch the details.