Harvard referencing for your university

Harvard isn’t one style written by one organisation. It’s a way of referencing: the author and the year in your text, and a full list of references at the end. Over the years, universities and publishers have written down their own versions of it. So the same book can look slightly different in two universities’ guides, and both can be right.

That’s why “Harvard referencing” on its own isn’t quite enough to go on. You need to know whose Harvard. This page shows what changes, and how to set up the right one in Peel.

What changes between versions

The big idea never changes: surname and year in the text, and a reference list in A to Z order. The details do. These are the ones that change most:

• The year. In brackets after the names, or after a comma or a full stop.
• Et al. Most versions below use it in the text for an article with five authors, but Stellenbosch names all five the first time. In the reference list, some use it too, and most give every author’s name. Some put et al. in italics, and some don’t.
• Article titles. In single quotation marks, or with no quotation marks at all.
• Capital letters. Most give titles a capital only on the first word and on names. A few put a capital on every main word.
• Page numbers. “p. 1777”, “p.1777”, a colon and the number, or the number on its own.
• Links. “Available at:” or “Available from:” and the DOI as a link, the link on its own, or “doi:” and the number.
• Places. Cite Them Right’s 13th edition has no place of publication for books. Many university versions still give one.
• Small marks. “and” or “&” before the last author, a word like “[Online]”, the volume in bold, or no full stop after a link.

None of these is right or wrong on its own. What matters is that you follow your course’s version, the same way every time.

The same references in eight versions

Here’s one journal article with five authors, and one book, in eight of the versions Peel has. First the in-text citation, for page 1777 of the article:

And the two references, as each version writes them in the reference list:

These were made by Peel’s own formatter. Each version was checked against the university’s own guide in October 2026; guides change, so check them against your handbook too.

Find your version in your handbook

Your course or module handbook says which referencing style to use. Look for a section called referencing, citing or academic integrity. Your library’s website usually has a referencing guide too.

• If it says Cite Them Right, use Cite Them Right. If it only says “Harvard”, Cite Them Right is the safe choice, but ask your tutor or library which version they mean.
• If it names your university’s own Harvard, look for your university in the list below.
• If one department has its own version, look for the department’s name, like the University of York’s Department of Archaeology.

Check a version against your handbook

Before you rely on any version, test it with two sources:

1. Pick a book and a journal article from your handbook’s examples.
2. Add the same two sources to Peel: paste each one’s DOI or ISBN, or type its details.
3. Compare them. Look at the year, the authors and et al., quotation marks and italics, page numbers and the link.
4. If they match, you’re set. If one small thing differs, follow your handbook.

The versions Peel lists

As well as the usual Cite Them Right, Peel lists 35 university versions of Harvard. Each one was checked against the university’s own, current guide, and Peel’s copy was corrected where it differed. Here they are, A to Z. A name that starts with “The” is listed under its next word, as it is in Peel.

• Moved to Cite Them Right. Many universities that had their own Harvard now use Cite Them Right, among them Anglia Ruskin, Oxford Brookes, Staffordshire, Westminster and the Open University. Search for one in Peel and it says so, with Cite Them Right to choose.
• Changed to something else. Some have moved to APA or to a new version of their own. Searching for them says where they went.
• Not listed yet. A few still have their own Harvard, but Peel hasn’t been able to check it against a current guide, so it isn’t listed yet. If you chose one before, it keeps working.
• Things to know. Monash’s Harvard guide retires in January 2027. Swinburne’s is no longer updated, and its library suggests APA 7th.
• Other languages. A few versions write their references in the language of their guide: Södertörns högskola, UCL University College (Dansk), Universidad de León (España) and Uppsala University Library (Svenska).

How to choose your university’s Harvard in Peel

Peel has a style for new projects, and each project can have its own. Here’s how to set it:

1. When Peel first opens, choose Find my university. Later, open the style button at the top of a project, or Settings, then Referencing, then Change.
2. Type your university’s name in Find your university’s Harvard. Every word you type has to match, in any order, so “york archaeology” or “cape town” both work.
3. Pick your university from the list.

If your university isn’t there, choose Harvard (Cite Them Right), the usual Harvard. If your university has moved to another style, Peel says so when you search for it. If nothing matches, it says that too: Cite Them Right is the safe choice, and check your handbook for small differences.

Changing version later

You can change a project’s style at any time. The details you saved don’t change, and the project’s references are written again in the new version. Anything you’ve already pasted into your essay stays as it was, so copy the reference list again after a change.

Where these versions come from

Peel’s style files come from the open style repository of the Citation Style Language (CSL) project, at CitationStyles.org. It’s the same library of styles that reference managers like Zotero and Mendeley use. Volunteers write and update the files, and each file names the people who wrote it. They’re shared under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Peel checked each listed version against the university’s own guide, and where its copy differed, it corrects it as it formats (the style files themselves stay as written). A university’s name here doesn’t mean the university has checked Peel, or that it endorses it. Guides change, so check a few references against your own handbook, especially before a big hand-in.

For the rules themselves, with examples for each kind of source, see the Harvard referencing guide. To keep references in order while you write, see how to reference as you go and how to track sources in each chapter.