Sunway JB Guide to Harvard Referencing
Unlike other citation styles, there is no definitive version of Harvard style. The overview of Harvard Referencing Style adopted by the Sunway JB Library & Learning Commons is initially based on Communication skills handbook and also adapted from wide range of Harvard guides available online. This is to provide more consistency in marking practices and in the support and guidance that can be provided.
What is referencing?
Referencing is a way of demonstrating the ideas or information from a number of sources you have used in your assignments or written work to avoid plagiarism. Usually there are two parts:
In-text citation
- The brief information appears in the text of the paper, normally include the author's surname and the year of publication, for example: (Smith 2017).
- Each in-text citation in your writing must also have a corresponding entry in your reference list.
Reference list / Bibliography
- A list of references is an alphabetical listing of the sources actually cited in the text.
- Bibliography, on the other hand, is an alphabetical listing of all the sources that have been read, or used in the preparation of the assignment, but not necessarily cited in the text of the assignment.
- This list of references or bibliography is to be placed at the end of the assignment.
General guidelines on formatting an author’s name:
- The author can be an individual, a group of persons, an organisation, corporation, institution or a government department.
- If the author is an individual or a group of persons, always begin the entry with the author's surname or family name. In Western names, the surname is the last name element, if you see a comma in between the names, this will mean the surname has been written first. However, Chinese names, the surname is the first element. In some other Asian names, there are no surname elements. As such, use the first name element.
- Where the author is an organisation, use the name of the organisation as the author (corporate author). You can use the well-known abbreviations or initials if you need to cite a corporate author several times in your paper. The first time you cite the corporate author use the full name followed by abbreviation in brackets. In your reference list, use the corporate author name in full.
Western Names
| Name | In-text citation | List of reference |
| Paul Smith | (Smith 2022) | Smith, P |
| David Whyte Macdonald | (Macdonald 2022) | Macdonald, DW |
| Davis, John Thomas | (Davis 2022) | Davis, JT |
| Franciscus Bernardus Maria de Waal | (de Waal 2020) | de Waal, FBM |
| Vincent Willem van Gogh | (van Gogh 1889) | van Goh, VW |
| John Doe Jr. | (Doe 2022) | Doe, J Jr |
| Alisa Greenwood-Nguyen | (Greenwood-Nguyen 2022) | Greenwood-Nguyen, A |
Asian Names
| Chinese Name | ||
| Chong Jia Qiang (The first name is the surname) | (Chong 2014) | Chong, JQ |
| Andrew Chong Jia Qiang (Surname interpose between Christian name and other personal name element) | (Chong 2014) | Chong, AJQ |
| Malay name without surname | ||
| Asmah Binti Omar | (Asmah 2014) | Asmah, O |
| Ungku Abdul Aziz Ungku Abdul Hamid | (Ungku Abdul Aziz 2014) | Ungku Abdul Aziz, UAH |
| Tan Sri Datuk Hamzah Sendut | (Hamzah 1989) | Hamzah, S |
| Malaysia Sikh name where Kaur or Singh is not used as surname | ||
| Mukhtiar Kaur | (Mukhtiar 2014) | Mukhtiar, K |
| Indian names with surname which is usually the last name | ||
| Romesh Chunder Dutt | (Dutt 1906) | Dutt, RC |
| Lal Bahadur Shastri | (Shastri 1962) | Shastri, LB |
| Kannad, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu names without surname | ||
| C. Sankaran Nair | (Sankaran Nair 1922) | Sankaran Nair, C |
| S. R. Ranganathan | (Ranganathan 1966) | Ranganathan, SR |
Corporate Author
| Corporate author with well-known abbreviation | ||
| Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |
Write the corporate author in full if it is not repeated citing: (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2022)
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2022) OR According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2022), …
(OECD 2022) OR According to OECD (2022), … |
Only use an abbreviation in the in-text citation. Full corporate name must be used in the reference list. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |
| Corporate author without well-known abbreviation | ||
| MyKasih Foundation |
Write the corporate author in full every time if it is not well known by abbreviation: (MyKasih Foundation 2022) |
MyKasih Foundation |
Use the first few words of a title if it is too long.
(Networks and distributed system study book 2000).
OR
Networks and distributed system study book (2000) ...
If there is no date, use ‘n.d.’ in place of the date.
... (Hong Leong Bank Berhad n.d.).
OR
As noted by Hong Leong Bank Berhad (n.d.), ...
If there is more than one reference by the same author and they each have no date, use a hyphen and then a suffix after n.d.
Refer to Citing multiple sources for more examples
... (Hong Leong Bank Berhad n.d.-a).
... (Hong Leong Bank Berhad n.d.-b).
... (Hong Leong Bank Berhad n.d.-c).
Work translated from a foreign language
In the reference list, include the translator’s name after the title with a prefix of ‘trans.’ and the initial is before the surname (reverse the usual order).
| In-text citation | List of reference |
| (Gaarder 1994) | Gaarder, J 1994, Sophie's world: a novel about the history of philosophy, trans. P Moller, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. |
| (Von der Luhe 1982) | Von der Luhe, I 1982, ‘I without guarantees: Ingeborg Bachmann's Frankfurt lectures on Poetics’, trans. MT Kraus, New German Critique, vol. 8, no. 27, pp. 31-56. |
| (Lim 2014) | Lim, SG 2014, ‘The most mysterious disappearance’, trans. PJ Soong, Mysinchew.com, 18 March, viewed 19 March 2014, <http://www.mysinchew.com/node/96696>. |
Work written in language other than English
If referencing a work in its original language other than English, give the title exactly as shown in the work. Convert the title and author name into Hanyu Pinyin if the work was published in Chinese characters.
| In-text citation | List of reference |
| (Leroux 1959) | Leroux, G 1959, Le fantôme de l'opéra, Le livre de poche, Paris. |
| (Thurfjell 1975) | Thurfjell, W 1975, ‘Vart har våran doktor tagit vägen?’, Läkartidningen, vol. 72, p. 789. |
| (Bernama 2014) | Bernama 2014, ‘Malaysia bantu negara asing ekosistem halal’, Berita Harian Online, 19 March, viewed 19 March 2014, <http://www.bharian.com.my/>. |
| (Liu 2014) | Liu, GT 2014, ‘Zhongguo jing ji fang huan yi lü’, Sinchew.com.my, 18 March, viewed 19 March 2014, <http://biz.sinchew.com.my/node/91824?tid=17>. |
There are no specific instructions on how to use the Harvard Referencing style in slide presentations. You are advised to apply the same conventions you would use if you were writing a research paper. You should reference any ideas or data that are not your own.
In-text citations in slide presentations
Include in-text citations on slides if you are citing information from outside sources. In a slide, you can resize the citation if you like.
Using visuals on slides
Figures, tables, charts, graphs, illustrations, photos, images or video clips used in a presentation should be cited.
List of references
Include a slide with the complete references at the end of the presentation. The sources listed on individual slides should match with the sources on the References slide. References on the slide are formatted exactly as they would be formatted for the Reference page of a paper.
Examples on slides
| ed. or eds | editor or editors |
| edn | edition |
| et al. | This means 'and others'; used in in-text citations when there are more than three authors |
| n.d. | no date |
| no. | issue |
| p. | page |
| pp. | pages |
| trans. | translator or translated by |
| vol. | volume |
Avoid citing unreliable sources in your assignment. Even if they are very informative, they are deemed to be untrustworthy. Evaluate the reliability and credibility of the source before deciding whether to cite any source.
Example of potentially unreliable sources:
- Personal blog
- Wikipedia
- Ask.com
- Yahoo! Answers
- QuickMBA.com
- NetMBA.com
- Slideshare.net
- Scribd
- wiseGEEK
- 123helpme.com
- Anti Essays.com
- Brainia.com
- BuyEssayOnline.org
- Essaybank.com
- Ezine Articles
- Feeessays123.com
- Studymode.com
- TermPaperWarehouse.com
- UK Essays
Sample (in-text citation and list of references)
Introduction
Educators are like orchestra conductors, keeping the tempo and rhythm of a lesson. Just like an orchestra consists of many different types of musical instruments, any class is a potpourri of students. The purely traditional teacher-centered mode of teaching is not always effective in imparting knowledge to a diversity of learners. In this mode of teaching, the students become passive learners. To encourage students to become active learners, student- centered teaching is preferred. This paper focuses on classroom discourse and technology use.
Methods
‘A strong relationship exists between language and thinking…’ (Arends 2012, p. 432). Kosminsky and Kosminsky (2003, cited in Arends 2012) noted that classroom discussion, where by there is social interaction, helps students learn how to think, analyse and solve problems. Similarly, for Kolb (1984), ‘learner-centered learning’ is student participation in the learning and teaching process, where students themselves engage with and, to an extent, create their own learning experience. Rowe (1986, p. 43) summarised it as follows:
To grow, a complex thought system requires a great deal of shared experience and conversation. It is in talking about what we have done and observed, and in arguing about what we make of our experiences, that ideas multiply, become refined and finally produce new questions and further explorations.
Technology could be in the form of calculators, computers and others. Researchers such as Law et al. (2000) discovered that technology becomes a useful tool for teachers in the delivery of the subject.
The paper will be based on other similar research as well as the authors’ reflections on past and present experiences teaching Mathematics and English to MUFY and Diploma students, successes and challenges, to class sizes of 35 on average.
Results and Discussion
Classroom participation and technology promote interaction, clarify issues and provides hands on environment. Their importance is evident in the final results of students.
References
Arends, RI 2012, Learning to teach, 9th edn, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Kolb, DA 1984, Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
Law, N, Yuen, H, Ki, W, Li, S, Lee, Y & Chow, Y 2000, Changing classrooms: a study of good practices in using ICT in Hong Kong schools, Hong Kong Centre for Information Technology in School and Teacher Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Rowe, MB 1986, ‘Wait time: slowing down may be a way of speeding up’, Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 37, no. 1, p. 43.