The text to the right shows how citations and the reference list are typically written in the Harvard referencing style.
Note: the text itself is not designed to be a proper example of academic writing and does not use information from the sources cited; it is for illustrative purposes only.
Sample assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to show common elements of the Harvard style of referencing in Dundalk Institute of Technology. It is not intended to be an example of good quality academic writing, and indeed may not make sense in general, but it should show you how citations and a reference list are formed in the Harvard style of referencing (Cameron 2021). If you include a “direct quotation from a book you have read” (Giddens and Sutton 2021, p.117) you should include the relevant page number.
You don’t always have to write the author and year in brackets. Cameron (2021) explains that if the author’s name occurs naturally in the text then the year follows it in brackets. If there are two authors you should include both of them in the citation (Levine and Munsch 2021). If there are three or more authors you don’t have to list all of the names in the citation but you should include them all in the reference list (Robbins et al. 2020). The reference list should appear at the end of your assignment and be in alphabetical order based on the first author’s surname (Bruen 2022) rather than the order in which they appear in your assignment (Papagiannis 2022). If you are using a citation for a second time you do not need to include it twice in the reference list (Cameron 2021).
Referencing an academic journal that you find online requires more information in the reference list but uses the same format for citing as other sources (Tesseur 2022). If referencing a source from a library database you say from which database you found it (Mayombe 2021).
Don’t forget that websites need to be cited too (Dundalk Institute of Technology 2022). We recommend you look at the full version of DkIT’s Harvard referencing guidelines, and contact the Library if you have any questions. Good luck.
Reference list
Bruen, M. (2020). River flows. In: Kelly-Quinn, M. and Reynolds, J., eds. Ireland’s rivers. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, pp.39-59.
Cameron, S. (2021). The business student's handbook: skills for study and employment. 7th ed. Harlow: Pearson.
Dundalk Institute of Technology. (2022). Research support [online]. Available from: https://www.dkit.ie/research/research-support.html [accessed 25 March 2022].
Giddens, A. and Sutton, P.W. (2021). Sociology. 9th ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Levine, L.E. and Munsch, J. (2021). Child development: an active learning approach [online]. 4th ed. London: SAGE Publications. Available from: https://books.google.ie/books?id=zlrZzQEACAAJ&dq [accessed 25 March 2022].
Mayombe, C. (2021). Partnership with stakeholders as innovative model of work-integrated learning for unemployed youths. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning [online], 12(2), pp.309-327. Available from: Emerald Insight [accessed 25 March 2022].
Papagiannis, N. (2020). Effective SEO and content marketing: the ultimate guide for maximizing free web traffic [online]. Indianapolis: Wiley. Available from: EBSCOhost eBook Collection [accessed 25 March 2022].
Robbins, S.P., Coulter, M.A. and De Cenzo, D.A. (2020). Fundamentals of management. 11th ed. Harlow: Pearson.
Tesseur, W. (2022). Translation as inclusion? An analysis of international NGOs’ translation policy documents. Language Problems and Language Planning [online], 45(3), pp. 261-283. Available from: https://doras.dcu.ie/26151 [accessed 25 March 2022].
