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Harvard Referencing (AGSM)

Guide to the Harvard Referencing Style, as used by Australian Government bodies

Number of authors

Number of authors In-text citation Reference list
1 author

(Surname year)

Cats can be catagorised into three separate groups (Gyles 2019).

Surname (year)

Gyles (2019) states that outdoor cats can be catagorised into three separate groups.

Surname (year)

Gyles C (2019) ''Outdoor cats - or community cats?', The Canadian Veterinary Journal, 60(4):349-352.
2 authors

(Surname and Surname year)

Conductive, sensory or neuronal are the three general forms of hearing loss in white cats (Kral and Lomber 2015).

Surname and Surname (year)

Kral and Lomber (2015) reported the association of deafness found in cats with white coats and blue eyes is greatest compared to other cat types. 

Surname and Surname (year)

Kral A and Lomber SG (2015) 'Deaf white cats', Current Biology, 25(9):R351-R353, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.02.040.
3 or more authors

(Surname et al. year)

Quaranta et al. (2020) reported that the human-cat bond can be strengthened through a cat's understanding of human emotional signals.

Surname et al. (year)

The human-cat bond can be strengthened through a cat's understanding of human emotional signals (Quaranta et al. 2020). 

Surname, ..., Surname and Surname (year)

Quaranta A, d'Ingeo S, Amoruso R and Siniscalchi M (2020) 'Emotion recognition in cats', Animals, 10(7):1-13, doi:10.3390/ani10071107

 

Note: all authors need to be listed in the reference list, irrespective of numbers.

Note:

  • For works with more than one author, the full word and should always be be used for in-text citations and in the reference list instead of an ampersand symbol (&).
    • For two authors, use the word and between the surnames. 
    • For three or more authors, use the word and between the second last surname and the last surname

Format of authors

Surname of authors appear before initials. Capitalise initials of given names. Do not use any puncutation when formatting authors names. Don't separate initials with spaces, commas or full stops.

e.g.  Author AA

All authors' names are included in the reference list.

For works with more than one author, the full word and should always be be used for in-text citations and in the reference list instead of an ampersand symbol (&).

  • For two authors, use the word and between the surnames. 
  • For three or more authors, use the word and between the second last surname and the last surname. Other surnames are separated by a comma.

 

Formatting names with multiple parts:

  • For hyphenated surnames include both names and the hyphen in the reference list and the in text citation. For example: (Jones-Smith 2015)
  • For surnames with multiple parts that do not include a hyphen, include both names separated by a space in the reference list and the in text citation. For example: Arce Arias A (2017).
  • If the surname includes a particle (for example, van, der, den, la, von, D', Del, Du etc), inlcude the particle before the surname in the reference list and the in text citation as it appears.  Order the reference by the first letter of particle in the reference list. 

For example:   (van der Woodsen 2021) - In the reference list this would appear under v for van.

  • If the author's first name is hyphenated then format as initial, hyphen and second initial. For example, Jean-Luc Picard is formatted as Picard J-L
  • If the authors name has a suffix, include the suffix after the second initial in the reference list. For example, Jones HW Jr and Jones HW Sr (1941) . . .  Do not include the suffix in the in-text citation.

Order of authors

Your reference list will be placed in alphabetical order based on the name of the first author for each reference.          

Do not alter the order of the authors within a citation. You should leave them in the order they appear on the work.

See the page on Reference List for more information about the structure and order of your references.

 

If you cite more than one work in the same set of brackets in text, your citations will go in the same order in which they will appear in your reference list (i.e. alphabetical order, then oldest to newest for works by the same author) and be separated by a semi-colon. E.g.:

(Corbin 2015; James and Waterson, 2017; Smith et al. 2016).

(Corbin 2015; 2018)

(Queensland Health 2017a; 2017b)

Use only the surnames of your authors in text however, if you have two authors with the same surname who have published in the same year, then you will need to use their initials to distinguish between the two of them (e.g., K Smith 2014; N Smith 2014). Otherwise, do not use initials in text.

When the author isn't a person

There are circumstances where you cannot find a person to use as your author because the "author" is a group, a company or an organisation. Some times there is no author, in which case see 'No author or anonymous'.

Is the author a company or organisation?

  • Government bodies (such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics or the Department of Education and Training) are often the official "author" of the works they publish.
  • Companies are usually the authors of their web pages

In text

  • Use short forms and abbreviations for long organisation names at the in-text citations part.
  • Only use a shortened form of an agency's name if it is regularly referred to by the short name.  For example the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals regularly uses RSCPA, so use the shortform after the first mention and in the reference list.

E.G. There are certain cosmetic products that test their products on animals overseas and indeed end up on shelves in Australia (RSPCA n.d.).

Reference list

  • If you used a shortened form for an organisation's name in the in-text citation, then use the same shortened form in the reference list, followed by the spelt-out version.
  • If the organisation's name is both the author of the webpage and the publisher/site sponsor, use the shortened form for the name of the website after the title even if the short form has not been used previously.

E.G. RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals) (n.d.) Animal testing, RSPCA website, accessed 20 October 2021. https://www.rspca.org.au/take-action/animal-testing

 

No author or anonymous

Is there a corporate body (like a government department or a company) who is responsible for the work? They are probably your author.  Take a look at Organisation as an author.

If you are citing a newspaper, blog or magazine article that does not list an author place the title of the newspaper, blog or magazine in the position of the author as well as the title of the publication.

Reference List

Facebook for Business (29 April 2021) ' How businesses are meeting the new needs of today's shoppers', Facebook for Business, accessed 20 October 2021. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/how-businesses-are-meeting-the-new-needs-of-todays-shoppers

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