Harvard citation generator
Free, accurate Harvard referencing in seconds. Trusted by over 1 million students.
How to cite in Harvard style
Harvard is an author-date style used widely in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. There is no single official version, so universities publish their own. Our generator follows Cite Them Right, which many UK universities use. References go in an alphabetical Reference list.
Journal article
LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y. and Hinton, G. (2015) ‘Deep learning’, Nature, 521(7553), pp. 436–444. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539.
Book
Cormen, T.H. et al. (2009) Introduction to algorithms. 3rd edn. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press.
Website
Coltrera, F. (2025) ‘5 timeless habits for better health’, Harvard Health, 24 September. Available at: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/5-timeless-habits-for-better-health-202509243106 (Accessed: 23 September 2026).
In-text citations
Harvard puts the author’s surname and the year in brackets. Add a page number when you quote or refer to a specific part of the source.
Parenthetical: (LeCun, Bengio and Hinton, 2015)
Narrative: LeCun, Bengio and Hinton (2015)
With a page number: (LeCun, Bengio and Hinton, 2015, p. 437)
Frequently asked questions
Which version of Harvard should I use?
Use the one your university asks for. Many UK universities use Cite Them Right. If your university has its own Harvard guide, compare an example with ours and look for small differences in punctuation.
Is Harvard the same as APA?
They are close relatives, both author-date. They differ in details such as punctuation, how titles are shown and how many authors are named before et al.
Do I need an access date for websites?
Yes. Cite Them Right includes the date you accessed an online source, written as (Accessed: 23 September 2026).
Reference list or bibliography?
A reference list contains only the sources you cited. A bibliography can also include sources you read but did not cite. Most assignments ask for a reference list.