Harvard is a family of author-date styles with no single governing authority, which is why two UK universities can both require "Harvard" and mark different formats correct. Cite Them Right is the most widely adopted UK variant, and your library guide is the authority that overrides every general Harvard guide online.
Why Harvard Has No Single Standard
APA is governed by the American Psychological Association, MLA by the Modern Language Association, OSCOLA by Oxford. Harvard has no equivalent body. It began as a convention rather than a published standard, so institutions developed local variants — and every one of them is called Harvard.
This is why searching "Harvard referencing" produces contradictory guides that are all correct somewhere.
The rule that resolves it: your university library's referencing guide beats any online source, including this one. If your department publishes a guide, that is your standard, and a marker comparing your work to it will not care what another university does.
What Cite Them Right Does Differently
Cite Them Right (Pears and Shields) is the most widely adopted UK variant, and most UK universities subscribe to the online version through the library. Its distinguishing features:
- Minimal punctuation. No comma between author and year in the reference list: Smith, J. (2023) rather than Smith, J., (2023).
- Titles in italics for standalone works, single quotation marks for parts: an article title in quotes, the journal in italics.
- "Available at:" and "(Accessed: date)" for online sources, with that exact punctuation.
- Extensive coverage of unusual sources — social media, datasets, AI tools, lecture notes — which is largely why UK libraries adopted it.
Side by Side
Cite Them Right:
Porter, M.E. (1985) Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: Free Press.
A common alternative variant:
Porter, M. E., 1985. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: Free Press.
The differences — brackets around the year, spacing of initials, sentence versus title case, comma placement — are small individually and add up to an inconsistent reference list if you mix guides mid-assignment.
In-Text Citation
Broadly consistent across variants: (Porter, 1985) or Porter (1985) argues…
- Direct quotation requires a page number: (Porter, 1985, p. 12).
- Two authors: (Pears and Shields, 2022) — Cite Them Right uses "and", not an ampersand, in the text.
- Three or more: (Smith et al., 2023).
- Two works by the same author in one year: (Smith, 2023a), (Smith, 2023b).
The Mistakes That Actually Lose Marks
Markers rarely deduct for a missing italic. What costs marks:
- Mixing variants within one document — visible immediately and reads as carelessness.
- Citations in the text missing from the reference list, or vice versa. Both are checked.
- No page numbers on direct quotations.
- Citing a source you found quoted in another source as if you had read it. If you only read the secondary source, cite it as such: (Porter, 1985, cited in Johnson, 2020).
- Web pages with no access date, where the variant requires one.
How to Settle It in Five Minutes
- Search your university library site for "referencing guide".
- Check whether your library subscribes to Cite Them Right Online — most UK universities do.
- Check the module handbook, which occasionally overrides the institutional default.
- If genuinely ambiguous, email the module leader and keep the reply.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cite Them Right the same as Harvard?
Cite Them Right is a particular variant of Harvard, and the most widely adopted one in UK universities. Harvard itself is a family of author-date styles with no governing authority, which is why guides disagree and why your library’s version is the one that counts.
Why do Harvard referencing guides contradict each other?
Because Harvard has no single standards body, unlike APA or MLA. It developed as a convention, and institutions created local variants that are all legitimately called Harvard. Contradictory guides online are usually all correct somewhere.
Do I need a page number for every Harvard citation?
Only for direct quotations, where a page number is required. Page numbers are also good practice when you refer to a specific argument, table or figure in a long work, because they let your marker verify the point quickly.
What if I read about a source in another book?
Cite it as a secondary reference: (Porter, 1985, cited in Johnson, 2020), and list only the source you actually read in your reference list. Presenting a secondary citation as though you read the original is treated as a referencing failure and sometimes as misconduct.
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