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Harvard Referencing
Generator

Build accurate Harvard citations in seconds. This Harvard citation generator follows Cite Them Right 12th edition — the author–date variant UK universities expect — and formats the in-text citation and reference list entry for you from a URL, DOI, or ISBN.

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How to cite in Harvard

Harvard is an author–date style: in the body of your text you give the author's surname and the year of publication in parentheses — (Chen, 2021) — and every source is listed in full in a Reference list at the end. Add a page number for direct quotes, as in (Chen, 2021, p. 47). Two authors are joined by the word and, never an ampersand, and you only switch to et al. at four or more authors. For the full rules and worked examples, read our Harvard citation guide.

In the reference list, invert the first author as surname-then-initials with no spaces (Chen, M.S.) and place the year in parentheses after it. Book titles are italicised in sentence case, journal names are italicised in title case, and article and chapter titles sit in quotation marks in sentence case. Online sources are prefixed with Available at: and an access date, while DOIs use the same prefix without a date. Entries are alphabetised by surname and set with a hanging indent.

Remember that "Harvard" is a family of conventions rather than one official standard — this tool produces the widely cited Cite Them Right variant, but your institution may publish a slightly different house style, so check your assignment brief if it names a specific sheet.

Need a different style, or citing across several? Use the main free citation generator for APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, IEEE, and AMA as well as Harvard.

Harvard referencing FAQs

Which Harvard variant does this generator use?

This Harvard referencing generator follows Cite Them Right by Pears and Shields (12th edition, 2022, Bloomsbury Academic) — the variant most UK university libraries treat as the default. "Harvard" is a family of author–date conventions with no single governing body, so many institutions publish their own style sheet that differs in small ways. If your assignment grades against a specific local sheet, check it against your output. Full detail is in our Harvard citation guide.

How do I write a Harvard in-text citation?

Harvard in-text citations are author–date: the author's surname and the publication year in parentheses, separated by a comma — for example (Chen, 2021). Add a page number for direct quotes: (Chen, 2021, p. 47). Two authors are joined by "and" (never "&"), and "et al." is used only at four or more authors. See our in-text citations guide for every case.

Does Harvard use "Available at:" before URLs?

Yes. Cite Them Right Harvard prefixes every URL with "Available at:" and follows it with an access date, such as (Accessed: 20 May 2026). DOIs take the same "Available at:" prefix but no access date, because a DOI is a stable identifier. This "Available at:" prefix is one of the clearest visual differences between Harvard and APA 7.

Is Harvard the same as APA?

No. Both are author–date systems and look similar, but they differ in detail. Cite Them Right Harvard joins two authors with "and" — (Lin and Patel, 2022) — where APA 7 uses an ampersand, and Harvard switches to "et al." only at four authors where APA does so at three. Harvard also adds "Available at:" before URLs. Use whichever your course requires.

How do I list authors in a Harvard reference?

In the reference list, invert the first author as surname-then-initials with no spaces between initials — Chen, M.S. — and put the year in parentheses after the author block: Chen, M.S. (2021). List up to three authors in full, joining the last two with "and"; for four or more, give the first author followed by "et al." Book and article titles take sentence case. Worked examples for every source type are in our Harvard guide.