Avoiding plagiarism and how to use the Harvard
referencing system
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is passing off someone else’s work, whether intentionally or
unintentionally, as your own for your own benefit
-Quoted in Jude Carroll (2002), A Handbook for Deterring Plagiarism, Oxford:
Oxford Brookes University; 9.
This means you cannot copy another person’s work, or use their ideas, without
crediting them as the source of your information. Please refer to the College’s (and
your award body’s) Plagiarism Policy for more details and on the consequences of
plagiarising someone else’s work.
Harvard referencing system
This system uses a ‘flag’ (usually the authors surname and date of publication in
brackets) in your text at the point where you make reference to another author’s
work. This referencing system is also known as the author-date system because of
its use of the author-date ‘flag’.
Referring to an author’s ideas/work in general (when not referring to a specific
page)
1 For a single author:
The traditional position (Smith, 1989) has now been surpassed by a more modern
approach (Johnson, 2005).
2 For works with two authors:
It has been argued (Smith and Jones, 1982) …
3 For works by more than two authors use the first authors name and et al. (et alia
is Latin for ‘and others’):
Some commentators (Stephenson et al., 1987) have argued that …
4 When referring to more than one work:
Others (Enfield, 1996; Whitehouse, 1994) contradict this viewpoint …
1
Referring to specific ideas
1 When referring to a single page:
This has now been disproved (Everitt, 2006; 6).
2 When referring to multiple pages:
The best study (Vaughan, 2001; 56-67) …
Second-hand references
Also known as ‘secondary sources’ – this is when you cite or quote a work which you
have not consulted directly but which you saw cited in another work e.g.
Research recently carried out (Jones, 2001 cited in Davies, 2006; 67-8) …
Referring to a work when the author is mentioned in the text
Only the date and pages are bracketed:
Morecombe (1998; 67-70) illustrates this approach …
Referring to an author who has published more than one work in the same year
Assign each work a letter alphabetically:
This view is now seen as outdated (Wise, 2006b)…
Referring to works with no date
If you know roughly the year that the work was published in, then use the
abbreviation c for circa (about) e.g. (Jones, c2000). If you do not know the publication
date then use n.d. (no date) e.g. (Smith, n.d.).
Referring to works with no author
Give the title (in italics if it is a complete work or without italics if the work is part of
another work e.g. if it is an unsigned newspaper article) followed by the date.
2
Referring to images, diagrams, tables or works of art
When referencing in your text then use the same conventions as for written works. A
whole table or diagram can be incorporated into your work and referenced with the
author and date. If you have adapted the table or diagram you will need to state this.
All photographic images (or still images from films) are copyrighted so should include
a copyright notice and you will need the permission of the rights holder if you want to
reproduce the image for publication of your article.
General references to works of art (e.g. literature, paintings, photographs etc) only
require the name of the author (or artist) and the title of the work (in italics) – you do
not normally have to include the date the work was produced e.g. In Orwell’s Animal
Farm the character of ….
For works of art you should state the dimensions - these can be put in brackets under
the image you have used.
Quotations
1 For short quotations:
Quotations of up to two lines in length can be included in the body of your text and
are shown by using single quotation marks (‘) around the text e.g.
Plagiarism can be defined as ‘passing off someone else’s work, whether intentionally
or unintentionally, as your own for your own benefit’ (Caroll, 2002; 9).
2 For long quotations:
Quotations should be indented and in a new paragraph – they do not need quotation
marks e.g.
If there’s unanimity about any aspect of the Information Age economy, it’s that
you have a better chance of getting a gold watch from a street vendor than
you do from a corporation (Stewart, 1997; 136).
3 For quotations within quotations:
Quotations within quotations need to be in double quotation marks (“) in short
quotations and in single quotation marks (‘) in long quotations e.g.
Mrs Gorse replies that ‘Master Miles only said “We must do nothing but what she
likes!”’.
3
References and bibliography
At the end of your assignment you will have a list of works (books, websites, films
etc) you have referred to – these will be headed ‘References’. References should be
listed alphabetically by author in the formats given below. You will also have a
Bibliography which is the list of works you have looked at but not referred to in your
assignment. These are also listed alphabetically by the author’s surname and the
format is the same as for references.
You may find it more convenient to present your sources in a table (as in the
examples below) or by using indents. When using tables the author-date goes in the
first column and the other details in the second column - this makes it easier to sort
references alphabetically.
Books
Author’s surname, Initials, (year and letter if there is more than one worked listed for
that author in that year), title of the book in italics with the first letter of all principal
words capitalized – separate the title from the sub title by using a colon, edition,
place of publication : publisher e.g.
Buckley Owen, T. (2003b)
Success at the Enquiry Desk: Successful Enquiry
Answering – Every Time, 4th edn, London: Facet.
British Broadcasting
Corporation (2005)
Satisfying the viewer, London: BBC.
Articles in books
The title of the article appears in single quotes, the reference should finish with the
full page range for that article:
Martin, A. (2003)
‘Towards E-literacy’ in Information and IT Literacy:
Enabling Learning in the 21st Century, ed. by Martin, A.
and Rader, H., London: Facet, 2-23.
Articles in journals
The journal name is shown in italics and the volume number is put before the page
numbers of the whole article:
Spikes, J.D. (1970)
‘The Jacobean History Play and the Myth of the Elect
Nation’, Renaissance Drama, 8, 117-149.
4
Articles in newspapers
The newspaper is shown in italics and the date of the original article is put before the
page numbers:
Raphael, F. (1978)
‘France’s Final Solution’, Sunday Times, 19 February,
14-15.
Theses/Dissertations
Unlike for books the title is given in quotation marks rather than being italicized:
Ingram, R. (1988)
‘Historical Drama in Great Britain from 1935 to the
Present’, unpublished doctoral thesis, University of
Manchester.
Audio visual works (films, CDs etc)
Unlike for books the place of publication is not required. Cond. can be used to show
conductors of classical works and Dir. for film directors:
Clash (1977)
London Calling, CBS.
Shostakovich, D. (1984)
Symphony No. 2, Wiener Philharmoniker, Cond. Giulini,
C.M., Naxos.
The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Dir. Ford, J., 20th Century
Fox.
Unpublished works
References are the same as for a book but include a note on the unpublished nature
of the work:
Kregel, J.A. (1989)
Factors in Business Investment, unpublished conference
paper presented at the New Business Technologies
conference, Berlin.
Official Publications
The author of these documents should usually be given as the Government
Department responsible rather than an individual. Therefore the report of the Leitch
Review would be:
HM Treasury (2006)
Prosperity for All in the Global Economy: World Class
Skills, London: HMSO
5
Internet references
The author is included as for books (this may be a corporate author if only the
organisation responsible for the website is known). The web address and the date
accessed are given as in the example below:
Aldrich, C. (2000)
Learning Portals and the E-learning Hype Cycle,
http://gartner.jmu.edu/research/ras/86903.html,
accessed on 17 May 2005.
E-mails and online discussion lists/blogs
These should include the author’s name or e-mail address (where known), the
subject/discussion heading, the name of the recipient(s), the date sent/posted, the
web address and the date accessed (for discussion lists/blogs etc) e.g.
Jones, J.
j.jones@jones.com
(2005)
Mobile phone developments, message to R.G. Schmidt
(r.g.schmidt@nowhere.ac.uk), sent 7 June 2005, 08:13,
www.gog.defer.com/archive123/ , accessed 7 July 2006.
Personal Communication
This would be an interview or informal discussion with the person cited. In the body
of the text this would be noted as follows:
Most teacher training providers in England have been implementing a mentoring
approach since 2005 (pers.comm. Hooker, 2006).
Usually you would not include a reference for this type of citation in your list of
references because it cannot be checked by the reader.
Works with no author
These are arranged by title, with the year of publication given after the title (see The
Grapes of Wrath film example above). These can go at start of your list of references
or file them in with the authors by treating the title as the author’s surname.
6
Example list of references (using a table)
British Broadcasting
Corporation (2005)
Satisfying the viewer, London: BBC.
Buckley Owen, T.
(2003a)
Does Informa's recent acquisition of Datamonitor change
the market research information landscape?, Information
World Review, 12 July, 14-15.
Buckley Owen, T.
(2003b)
Success at the Enquiry Desk: Successful Enquiry
Answering – Every Time, 4th edn, London: Facet.
Clash (1977)
London Calling, CBS.
Martin, A. (2003)
‘Towards E-literacy’ in Information and IT Literacy:
Enabling Learning in the 21st Century, ed. by Martin, A.
and Rader, H., London: Facet, 2-23.
Shostakovich, D. (1984)
Symphony No. 2, Wiener Philharmoniker, Cond. Giulini,
C.M., Naxos.
Example list of references (without using a table)
British Broadcasting Corporation (2005), Satisfying the viewer, London: BBC.
Buckley Owen, T. (2003a), Does Informa's recent acquisition of Datamonitor change
the market research information landscape?, Information World Review, 12 July, 1415.
Buckley Owen, T. (2003b), Success at the Enquiry Desk: Successful Enquiry
Answering – Every Time, 4th edn, London: Facet.
Clash (1977), London Calling, CBS.
Martin, A. (2003), ‘Towards E-literacy’ in Information and IT Literacy: Enabling
Learning in the 21st Century, ed. by Martin, A. and Rader, H., London: Facet, 2-23.
Shostakovich, D. (1984), Symphony No. 2, Wiener Philharmoniker, Cond. Giulini,
C.M., Naxos.
7