Harvard referencing generator: references done right in seconds.
Books, journals, websites and newspapers — Cite Them Right style, with the in-text citation included. Copy into Word with the italics kept.
Your reference
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Reference list (0)
References you add appear here, alphabetised and ready to paste into your assignment. They stay saved in your browser.
What each source type looks like
Book
Murphy, S. (2021) Irish economic history. Dublin: Gill Books.
Journal article
Murphy, S. (2023) ‘Housing policy after the crash’, Irish Political Studies, 38(2), pp. 112–130.
Website
Central Statistics Office (2026) Census of population 2026. Available at: https://www.cso.ie/census (Accessed: 20 August 2026).
Newspaper
Byrne, A. (2026) ‘Budget 2027 explained’, The Irish Times, 14 October, p. 3.
Five Harvard rules markers actually check
- Alphabetical order. The reference list is sorted by first author surname — the “Copy all” button above does this for you.
- Every citation has a reference, and vice versa. Anything cited in the text must appear in the list; anything in the list must be cited.
- Italics in the right place. Book titles and journal names are italicised; article and chapter titles go in quotation marks instead.
- Page numbers for quotes. Direct quotations need (Author, Year, p. X) — paraphrases just need the author and year.
- Accessed dates for web sources. Web pages change, so Harvard wants the date you read them: (Accessed: 20 August 2026).
Questions students ask
Harvard is an author–date referencing style: you cite sources in the text as (Author, Year) and give the full details in an alphabetised reference list at the end. It’s the default style in most Irish and UK universities and ITs, usually following the "Cite Them Right" conventions this generator uses.
Author surname, Initials. (Year) Title of book in italics. Edition (if not the first). Place of publication: Publisher. Example: Murphy, S. (2021) Irish economic history. Dublin: Gill Books.
Use the organisation as the author: Central Statistics Office (2026) Census of population 2026. Available at: URL (Accessed: 20 August 2026). If there is no date either, write (no date) — this generator handles that automatically.
The author’s surname and year in brackets: (Murphy, 2024). Quoting a specific page? Add it: (Murphy, 2024, p. 12). Two authors: (Murphy and Byrne, 2024). Four or more: (Murphy et al., 2024).
In Cite Them Right Harvard, use the first author followed by et al. when a source has four or more authors — both in the reference list and in the text. Sources with two or three authors name them all.
Yes. The copy buttons put a formatted version on your clipboard, so book and journal titles stay in italics when you paste into Word, Google Docs or Pages. If an editor only accepts plain text, the same text is pasted without styling.
Your list is stored in your own browser (nothing is uploaded anywhere), so you can close the tab and come back to it. Clearing your browser data clears the list.
The "Cite Them Right" flavour of Harvard, which most Irish and UK institutions follow. Always skim your department’s style guide — a few colleges tweak details like punctuation or access-date formats.