Harvard

Referencing Guide for First Year Biology

The phrase “Harvard referencing style” is a widely-used and very generic term used to describe an author-
date referencing and citation style. There are many different variations in this system – for example, some
guides mention the use of page numbers in in-text citations, whereas others do not.

This document presents the version preferred by First Year Biology and reflects the “Harvard referencing
style” that is widely accepted in scientific publications.

Acknowledging sources
Citations (in-text referencing)

When you use an idea, thought, result or other aspect of someone else’s work in your own work, you need
to paraphrase the other person’s work and then cite the source. That way that you cite a source depends on
the number of authors. Also, the style of citations does not change depending on whether it is the first time
or subsequent times that a source is cited in your text.

For one author, the style is (SurnameOfAuthor YearOfPublication). For example:

… reflected in a similar study on alpaca diet in the tropics (Smith 2003).

For two authors, the style is (SurnameOfFirstAuthor and SurnameOfSecondAuthor YearOfPublication). For
example:

… is greatly increased following heavy precipitation (Walker and Watson 1994).

For three or more authors, the style is (SurnameOfFirstAuthor et al. YearOfPublication). For example:

… which is more than double the rate that has been previously observed in frogs (Wu et al. 2010).

The abbreviation ‘et al.’ (short for et alia) mean ‘and others’ in Latin. Note that there is a period after ‘al’
since it is an abbreviation for ‘alia’.

Formatting citations

Some styles place a comma between the author name(s) and the year (e.g. Kalia et al., 2004), while
other styles do not (e.g. Kalia et al. 2004). It does not matter whether a comma is included or not, so long as
the formatting style is consistent throughout your report.

For two-author citations, you can choose to use ‘and’ or ‘&’ between the author surnames, so long as this is kept
consistent throughout the report.

Traditionally, ‘et al.’ has been italicised in citations, however the modern trend is to not italicise. You can
choose to itacilise or not italicise ‘et al.’ but keep the style consistent throughout your report.

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It is preferred to cite the source after paraphrasing the idea, thought or other aspect of the source. For
example:

… which is similar to the pattern observed in another species of fish (Jones 1999).

However including the citation are the beginning of a sentence is less common but acceptable. For
example:

Jones (1999) observed an increase in activity over time, which is similar…

Multiple sources within one parenthetical citation

Sometimes, multiple sources say similar things and you may want to cite all of these sources. In these
cases, list the citations within one set of parentheses in order of ascending year and separate them with
semicolons. For example:

… which has been observed in studies on beetroot leaves (Clarke 1975; Palmer et al. 1999; Fuller and
Cochrane 2007).

Citing a source that hasn’t been read

If you wish to cite a source that you have not read yourself but is cited in a source you have read, the
general rule is not to do this. Always find the original source, read it, and then paraphrase it and cite it. The
reason is that another author’s understanding or interpretation of the original source may not be exactly
correct or contextually relevant, so you should always go back to the origin of the idea or thought.

Quoting

The general rule for direct quoting and citing (as opposed to paraphrasing and citing) is not to do it. Unless
the phrase that you wish to directly quote from a source is ground-breaking and life-changing, you should
always paraphrase the idea/thought. Direct quoting is frowned upon in scientific writing, unless the quote
is indeed life-changing. If you absolutely must use a direct quote, enclose the word-for-word quote in
quotation marks and cite the source immediately after the quote. For example:

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References

All sources that you cite must be included in the reference list, and only those sources that you cite should
be in the reference list. The reference list is not a bibliography – it is not a collection of all the sources that
you have read in order to gather background information for your writing. Instead, it is a full listing of all
the sources you have cited, so that the reader can go and find the sources that you have cited.

The reference list must appear at the end of your work after the Discussion. The list of sources must be
sorted in ascending alphabetical order of the surname of the first author (not the order in which the
sources are cited). You must format the reference list so that it is easy to distinguish one source from the
next.

The way that a reference is presented in the reference list at the end of your work depends on the type of
the source.

Journal articles

Journal articles are the bread-and-butter for scientists. We publish our work in journals so that people
around the world can learn from and build upon our research. The style for referencing a journal article is:

AuthorSurname, AuthorGivenNamesInitials (YearOfPublication) TitleOfArticle.

JournalName, VolumeNumber: ArticleStartPage – ArticleEndPage.

For example:

Makino, A., Miyake, C., Yokota, A. (2002) Physiological functions of the water–water cycle (Mehler
reaction) and the cyclic electron flow around PSI in rice leaves. Plant Cell Physiology, 43: 1017–
1026.

The authors are listed in the order that they appear in the actual publication.

If there are multiple authors, list their names one after the other, separated by a comma.

Journal names can be full names (e.g. Plant Cell Physiology) or abbreviated (e.g. Plant Cell Physiol.)
depending on the formatting requirements of the publisher. There are many accepted lists of abbreviated
journal names available online, for example:
http://images.webofknowledge.com/WOK46/help/WOS/P_abrvjt.html

As a matter of example, this source would be cited as:

(Makino et al. 2002)

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 Book chapter

Often, scientists will publish summaries of the research in their field as book chapters. The style
for referencing book chapters varies a bit, but the general style is:

AuthorSurname, AuthorGivenNamesInitials (YearOfPublication) TitleOfChapter, in

EditorGivenNameInitials EditorSurname (ed.) TitleOfBook, PublisherName,
PublisherCity, ChapterStartPage – ChapterEndPage.

For example:

Atkin, O.K., Millar, A.H., Gardeström, P., Day, D.A. (2000) Photosynthesis, carbohydrate
metabolism and respiration in leaves of higher plants, in R.C. Leegood, T.D. Sharkey, S. von
Caemmerer (eds) Photosynthesis: Physiology and Metabolism, Kluwer Academic Publisher,
Dordrecht, 153–175.

Note that the title of the book is italicised, similar to the title of the journal when referencing journal
articles (since the journal is like a book that keeps getting updated and published). In this particular
example, also note that there are multiple book editors so the abbreviation ‘eds’ (editors) is used instead
of
‘ed.’ (editor).

As a matter of example, this source would be cited as:

(Atkin et al. 2000)

An entire book

Referencing a book is similar to referencing a book chapter. In science, books are typically divided into
chapters written by different authors who specialise in that particular area and so it is better to cite and
reference each chapter individually (see the previous section on referencing book chapters).
Occasionally, and entire book will be written by the same author(s). The referencing style for an entire
book is:

AuthorSurname, AuthorGivenNamesInitials (YearOfPublication) TitleOfBook,

PublisherName, PublisherCity.

For example:

Smith, P.T., Fuller, B.F. (2000) Rabbits and precipitation. McGraw Hill Publishers, Sydney.

As a matter of example, this source would be cited as:

(Smith and Fuller 2000)

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Websites

Using a website as a source should be avoided. Sometimes, there is information available only online
that comes from a reputable source (such as government reports) that you may use as a source. The
style for referencing websites is:

AuthorOrSourceName (YearOfPublication) TitleOfWebsite. URLOfWebsite, accessed DateOfAccess.

For example:
Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (2012) Diuron review: frequently asked
questions. http://www.apvma.gov.au/products/review/completed/diuron_faq.php, accessed 2
March
2013.

As a matter of example, this source would be cited as:

(Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority 2012)

Other guidelines
Wikipedia

Never, ever use Wikipedia (or similar websites) as a source. However, some articles on Wikipedia
contain references to other sources that may prove useful – look up those sources.

Several sources produced by the same author(s) in the same year

Sometimes, a particular author (or group of authors) publishes many sources within the same year. In
these cases, in the reference list arrange these sources according to the order they are cited in the text
with a letter after the year to distinguish them. In citations, use the year-letter combination.

For example:

Makino, A., Nakano, H. and Smith, T. (1994a) Responses of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate

carboxylase, cytochrome f, and sucrose synthesis enzymes in rice leaves to leaf nitrogen and their
relationships to photosynthesis. Plant Physiology, 105: 173–179.

Makino, A., Nakano, H. and Mae, T. (1994b) Effects of growth temperature on the responses of
ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase, electron transport components, and sucrose synthesis
enzymes to leaf nitrogen in rice, and their relationships to photosynthesis. Plant Physiology, 105:
1231–1238.

Within your body text, you would cite the first source as:

(Makino et al. 1994a)

and the second source as:

(Makino et al. 1994b)

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Using a textbook as a source

This is not preferred at all, because the information in textbooks came from scientists who have carried
out research and published their findings in journal articles or book chapters. Therefore, you should
always strive to find a research article that contains the information you need, instead of using a textbook
as a source. When writing, scientists do not use textbooks as sources. Since we are training you to write
and think like scientists, we strongly encourage you to dive into the massive body of literature and gain
your information from the collective knowledge of millions of scientists around the world and through
time.

Using lecture notes and the lab manual as a source

Lecture notes and the lab manual are not peer-reviewed published and therefore should not be used as a
source.

Using reference sources provided in the background notes

You are welcome to look up the journal articles cited in the background notes for the experiment and use
them in your report as appropriate. However, we also encourage you to look up your own sources and
integrate them in your report.

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