Harvard Referencing: Common Questions
Common questions
- How do I use the Harvard guide?
- What if some of the details are missing?
- How do I reference translated sources?
- How do I maintain confidentiality?
- What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography?
- Can I use reference management software?
- Can I use ibid and op.cit in Harvard referencing?
- Can I use an AI tool (like ChatGPT, Google Bard or Bing AI chat) to write parts of an assignment?
- Can I use a paraphrasing tool like QuillBot?
- Can I use an AI tool to generate media outputs for an assignment?
- How do I reference Microsoft stock images from PowerPoint or Word?
- How do I make MS Word References Tab work with BCU Harvard Style?
How do I use the Harvard guide?
These guidelines have been developed to bring consistency to the practice of citing references within the university so that there are documents and web pages to which all students and staff can refer. The Harvard style emphasises the name of the author and the publication year in the text with full bibliographic details in a reference list. Unlike other styles, there is no manual to which you can refer. This has created variations within the Harvard style so that each University has had to specify which variety of Harvard to follow. Our guidelines have been developed to bring consistency to the practice of citing references within the university so that there is a document to which all students and staff can refer.
Citing references informs your reader where you found your information and is the accepted way of giving credit to the ideas and evidence on which your argument is based. It is standard academic practice and you should do this in all the works you create. The style in these guidelines is very similar to the Harvard-style referencing format used in Microsoft Word. It is also based on the publication, Cite Them Right (Pears and Shields, 2022). The structure originally followed Anglia Ruskin University's (2019) Guide to Harvard style of referencing. However, Anglia Ruskin University, whose advice is the basis for the style in Microsoft Word, is now phasing out its own guidance and referring its students to Cite Them Right.
Facts, ideas, dates, events and information that are expected to be known by a student working in that subject area would be considered to be ‘common knowledge’ and therefore would not expect to be referenced.
What if some of the details are missing?
You should be cautious about referencing material in your work where you cannot identify the author, date or source. The following are some of the problems you may encounter with the solution:.
Problem | Solution | Example |
---|---|---|
No known date | n.d. | Langley (n.d.) advises... |
Only approximate date known | ca. [circa] | Shahn, B. (ca. 1933-34) |
Full year not known |
189- for known decade 189? for probable decade |
Peri, J. (186?) Le Musiche de Jacopo Peri. Milan: Ricordi. |
No known author | Anonymous or Anon. | A nested cohort of 270 patients with a GCS score ≤ 14 from the 2010 CRASH-2 trial demonstrated a reduction in intracranial hematoma growth, focal cerebral ischemia, and mortality in patients given TXA, although none of the results were statistically significant (Anonymous, 2011). |
No known place of publication | s.l. [sine loco] | Price, T. J. (2014) Environmental Management Systems: An easy to use guide to boosting your organization's environmental performance. 3rd edn. s.l.: CreateSpace. |
No obvious publisher | s.n. [sine nomine] | Coccioli, L. (2004) Flectar: For trombone and live electronics. s.l.: s.n. |
Information has been traced from other sources | Use square brackets | Mayer, J. [1995] Pawitri Naukari (A Sacred Service): Sacer misisterium. Birmingham: [Birmingham Conservatoire]. |
How do I reference translated sources?
As with subsidiary creators, the reference should include details of the translator, annotator and editor, as appropriate. Include their full name in the format first name last name, for example:
Boal, A. (1995) The Rainbow of Desire: The Boal method of theatre and therapy. Translated by Adrian Jackson. London: Routledge.
Derrida, J. (2002) The animal that therefore I am (more to follow). Translated by David Wills. Critical Inquiry, 28(2), pp. 369-414.
Le Corbusier (2007) Journey to The East. 2nd edn. Edited, annotated and translated by Ivan Zaknic. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
For major works of historic significance, the date of the original work may be included along with the date of the translation:
Spinoza, B. (1677) The Ethics. Translated by R. H. M. Elwes, 1989. New York: Prometheus Books.
For works in another language that have been translated, reference these in the same manner as an English language work but provide a translation of the title immediately after the original title in square brackets:
Cicero (1972) De Natura Deorum [The Nature of the Gods]. Translated by Horace C. P. McGregor. London: Penguin.
Quantz, J. J. (1752) Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte Traversière du Spielen [On Playing the Flute]. 2nd edn. Translated by Edward R. Reilly, 2001. London: Faber and Faber.
If the source is in a non-Roman script, provide a translation in English and make it clear that the source you have used is not in English.
For a web page, for example, the required elements would appear as:
- Authorship
- (Year)
- Title.
- [in Chinese].
- Available at: URL
- [Accessed date].
For example:
The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China (2008) White Paper on China's Drug Supervision. [in Chinese]. Available at: http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2008-07/18/content_1048848.htm [Accessed 21 August 2019].
For books, an example is:
Xu, Y. (2009) IPv6 In-depth Analysis. [in Chinese]. Tsinghua: Tsinghua University Press.
For articles, an example is:
Guoyu, T. and Dalong, Z. (2017) Interpretation of clinical practice guidelines and expert consensuses for the evaluation and management of diabetic kidney disease at home and abroad. [in Chinese]. Chinese Journal of Practical Internal Medicine, 37(3), pp. 211-216. https://doi.org/10.19538/j.nk2017030108.
How do I maintain confidentiality?
For some forms of academic writing, it is not possible to provide the name of a cited source for reasons of confidentiality. This is especially the case in a health context.
This includes:
- Not identifying individuals when writing about individual circumstances
- Making it clear when you are using pseudonyms
- Maintaining confidentiality in both your reference list and written work
In-text example:
Reference list example:
NHS Trust (2005) Disciplinary Policy. NHS Trust name withheld.
School A (Name withheld) (2018) School A’s Sex Education Policy. Available at: (URL withheld) (Accessed 19 December 2018).
For documents available to the general public, for example patient information leaflets produced by a Trust:
In your appendices, these documents would then be labelled as Appendix 1, Appendix 2 and Appendix 3.
Notes:
The following statement of confidentiality can be found in the Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences' Policy on Confidentiality, Section 3.4:
You must always ensure that when documents are used that relate to individual circumstances, there is no possibility that the individual(s) can be identified.
When you submit academic work for assessment, you sign to state that the work is your own, that confidentiality has been maintained and that any names used in the work are pseudonyms. It is good practice for you to state at the outset of your work that pseudonyms have been used.
Please see the full BCU policy.
Confidentiality must be maintained within referencing as well as your written work.
If internal documents from Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Local Authorities or Special Health Authorities are being cited, for example, policies, procedures or care plans, it is essential that the name is never divulged as these documents are not available to the general public.
The Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences' Policy on Confidentiality, Section 3.5 states:
If names of individuals or organisations used in assessments are not available to the general public, the work has ... breached confidentiality...Assessments that have breached confidentiality will achieve a mark of 1%
What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography?
The reference list should include details of all the sources you have cited in your work.
Sometimes your tutors ask you to produce a bibliography as well as a reference list. The term bibliography normally refers to a list of items that you have used for background reading to inform your opinion but which are not cited directly in your text.
A reference list is always required when you cite other people's work within your own work.
The terms reference list and bibliography are sometimes used interchangeably. Make sure that you know what is required from you before you complete your work.
An annotated bibliography includes the full reference to sources with the addition of notes which summarise and evaluate each source. Depending on the assessment this may be an independent project or part of a larger research project.
Can I use reference management software?
The EndNote referencing software and EndNote Web both contain the BCU Harvard referencing style. The software also connects as a plug-in shown as a separate tab in Microsoft Word. EndNote Web is supported by IT Training.
Free open source reference management software is also available. The University’s databases will often export references to software such as Zotero, CiteULike and Mendeley which all contain Word plug-ins. If you wish to export and import citations between software packages, use the .ris format. JabRef is open source reference management software that uses BibTeX as its native file format and is therefore used to create references within LaTeX.
Can I use ibid and op.cit in Harvard referencing?
There is no reason why you cannot use ibid and op.cit. in the Harvard system because the Harvard system has no manual so there is no authoritative source.
However, if you are using BCU Harvard style, then you are not required to use these terms in your work. Instead, each time you cite a source you enter a citation in the format required for the specific source you are using.
Anglia Ruskin University, whose advice is the basis for the style in Microsoft Word, is now phasing out its own guidance and referring its students to Cite Them Right. Cite Them Right is widely adopted in British universities as the definitive source of guidance and its 12th edition advises (Pears and Shields, 2022: 237):
“Ibid.: (From the Latin ibidem meaning ‘in the same place’.) A term used with citations that refer to an immediately preceding cited work. It is not used in the Harvard system, where works appear only once in the alphabetical list of references.”
“Op.cit.: (From the Latin opera citato meaning ‘in the work already cited’. A term used with citations that refer to a previously cited work. It is not used in the Harvard system, where works appear only once in the alphabetical list of references.”
This would therefore seem to be the current academic practice.
Can I use an AI tool (like ChatGPT, Google Bard or Bing AI chat) to write parts of an assignment?
Your assignment is expected to be your own original work, not produced by someone else or an AI tool. If you decide to use a generative AI tool, you must reference this within your work.
For example, the citation should appear as (OpenAI, 2023) or OpenAI (2023) with the reference in the format: AI tool provider (Year) AI tool. The person marking your work will decide whether you have effectively demonstrated your own understanding of the subject, and whether your use of AI is reasonable in the context of the assignment, and this will be reflected in the mark.
There are three key limitations on the use of AI tools in your assignment:
- Tools like ChatGPT can hallucinate by making up facts and inventing sources that simply do not exist. Therefore, you must do your own research to independently verify/substantiate AI content.
- AI models can excessively focus on datasets, which can create evident bias towards a particular viewpoint, such as a one-sided political perspective. Again, it is your responsibility to engage critically with the source materials, to avoid this scenario in your completed assignment.
- To gain higher grades, tutors will want to see evidence of wider reading and, if your work over-relies on AI model content, this will not be possible. Consequently, as much as possible, you need to conduct your own independent research and cite/reference specific author(s)/organisation(s) etc.
Can I use a paraphrasing tool like QuillBot?
You can use Grammarly’s free ‘writing suggestions’ to help you revise your spelling, punctuation and grammar. You are not required to include an in-text citation for this. However, the newer, GrammarlyGO feature is generative AI. Students should not use generative AI tools such as GrammarlyGO, ChatGPT, Google Bard etc. to improve spelling and grammar. As these will be highlighted by Turnitin’s AI detection tool, their use needs to be avoided. If you use a paraphrasing tool to reword a source, e.g. a journal article, you will need to cite both the text source and the tool, e.g. (Jones, 2020 paraphrased by QuillBot, 2023).
Please be advised that excessive use of paraphrasing tools presents your tutors with only limited evidence of your academic writing ability. For this reason, it is recommended that, should you choose to use paraphrasing tools such as QuillBot, this should be restricted to only a few sentences per assignment. Otherwise, you should be paraphrasing any source material into your own words by yourself. Students should not use AI writing assistants (such as QuillBot) to paraphrase content that was created by generative AI tools such as ChatGPT.
Can I use an AI tool to generate media outputs for an assignment?
This depends on the nature of the assignment. If the assignment requires you to create media outputs yourself, and marks are assigned to the outputs, you may not use AI tools to generate them. If media outputs are used to assist the illustration of a point within a written piece of work where no marks are allocated to the media output, you may use AI tools if you wish. However, you must reference the use of AI using the following formats:
In text: (AI tool provider, year). e.g. (OpenAI, 2023) or OpenAI (2023).
In your reference list:
- AI tool provider
- (Year)
- AI tool.
- Response to prompt made by your name, date, time.
Example:
OpenAI (2023) DALL-E. Response to prompt made by Isabel Gupta, 4 May 2023, 11.58am.
Please see the generative AI referencing guidelines for further information.
How do I reference Microsoft stock images from PowerPoint or Word?
PowerPoint stock images are free to Microsoft Office subscribers such as BCU as long as the images are used within a Microsoft 365 app or a SharePoint site.
Students therefore do not need to reference the image if it used within Microsoft PowerPoint or Word which are probably the most likely applications.
The university does not have a license for the Microsoft 365 images for general use, so you can’t take the pictures outside of Microsoft 365 or SharePoint and use it in a different context. This is the difference between content you get from Microsoft 365 or SharePoint and content from stock sites (see the Microsoft page).