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Harvard Referencing Guide

About citing books

Basic elements needed to reference a book

  • Author (Surname Initial/s)

  • Year of publication

  • Title

  • Edition (other than the first edition)

  • Publisher

  • Place of Publication

Only include the place of publication if it’s relevant to the reader. The place of publication may be relevant if:

  • you’re citing works with editions published in multiple locations
  • the location the book was published impacts the credibility of your work

Sometimes knowing the place of publication of the sources adds credibility to the work. For example, an Australian publication may be more credible if it cites books published in Australia. Including the publishing location clearly shows the reader where the book is from. If including the place of publication, include the city listed. 

If the place of publication doesn’t add useful information for the reader, you can omit it from your citation.

One author, two authors, three or more authors

One author

Elements of the reference
Author A (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
Eades (2013) OR (Eades 2013)
Reference list
Eades D (2013) Aboriginal ways of using English, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.

Two authors

Elements of the reference
Author A and Author B (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
Strunk and White (2000) OR (Strunk and White 2000)
Reference list
Strunk W and White EB (2000) The elements of style, 4th edn, Longman, New York.

Three or more authors

Elements of the reference
Author A, Author B and Author C (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
Stoll et al. (2020) OR (Stoll et al. 2020)
Reference list
Stoll Y, Kurt JL and White EB (2020) The international economy, 3rd edn, Longman, New York.

Book with organisation as author

Elements of the reference
Organisation Name or Abbreviation (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
Oxford University Press (2016) OR (Oxford University Press 2016)
Reference list
Oxford University Press (2016) New Oxford style manual, Oxford University Press.

Ebook

  • If there is a DOI, you don’t need to include a publishing location.
  • If there is no DOI, reference as you would a print book.
  • As books are published in editions, you don’t need to include an accessed date.

With a DOI

Elements of the reference
Author A (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, doi:number.
In-text citation
Maddison (2013) OR (Maddison 2013)
Reference list
Maddison S (2013) Australian public policy: theory and practice, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, doi:10.1017/CBO9781107255920.

Without a DOI

Elements of the reference
Author A (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of publication.
Reference list
Stein-Parbury J (2013) Patient and person: interpersonal skills in nursing, 5th edn, Elsevier Australia, Sydney.

Edition other than the first

Any edition other than the first is noted after the title of the book:

  • Second edition = 2nd edn,
  • Third edition = 3rd edn,
  • Fourth edition = 4th edn,
  • Revised edition = edn, rev,
Elements of the reference
Author A (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, X edn, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
Whitebread (2009) OR (Whitebread 2009)
Reference list
Whitebread D (2009) Design manual, 2nd edn, UNSW Press, Sydney.

Edited book

Elements of the reference
Editor E (ed) (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
Carruthers (2005) OR (Carruthers 2005)
Reference list
Carruthers P (ed) (2005) The innate mind: structure and contents, Oxford University Press, New York.
Carruthers P, Laurence S, Stich S and Templeton G (eds) (2005) The innate mind: structure and contents, Oxford University Press, New York.

 

Chapter in an edited book

Elements of the reference
Author A (Year) ‘Title of chapter: subtitle of chapter’, in Editor E and Editor F (eds) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
Laurence and Margolis (2005) OR (Laurence and Margolis 2005)
Reference list
Laurence S and Margolis E (2005) ‘Number and natural language’, in Carruthers P, Laurence S and Stich S (eds) The innate mind: structure and contents, Oxford University Press, New York.

Book with author and editor listed

Elements of the reference
Author A (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book (Editor E ed), Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
Shakespeare (1600/1967) ..
Reference list
Shakespeare W (1600/1967) The merchant of Venice (Moelwyn W ed), Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth.

Translation of a book

Elements of the reference
Author A (Year) English title of book: subtitle of book (Translator T trans), Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
  • For translated works, use the original author’s name in the in-text citation.

Backman (2015) OR (Backman 2015)
Reference list
Backman F (2015) A man called Ove: a novel (Koch H trans), Washington Square Press, New York.
Backman F and Hall F (2015) A man called Ove: a novel (Koch H and Zimmer K trans), Washington Square Press, New York.

Dictionary or encyclopedia entries

  • For dictionary or encyclopedia entries when there is no author is identified, cite the title (italicised) and year in the text. No need to include an entry in the reference list.
  • Sometimes you might want to include a more detailed entry, and so would cite it according to the source type (book, chapter, web page) and include it in the reference list.
Example - in-text citation only
The Australian concise Oxford dictionary (ACOD) (2017) defines it as ...

Book - part of a series

  • When a book is part of a series, provide the series title after the book title. Editions other than the first is noted after the title of the series.
Elements of the reference
Author A (Year) Book title, Series title, Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
(Saad 2007) OR Saad (2007:16)
Reference list
Saad G (2007) The evolutionary bases of consumption, Marketing and consumer psychology series, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, New Jersey.
Pugel TA (2009) International economics, The McGraw-Hill series in economics, 14th edn, McGraw-Hill Irwin, Boston.

Plays or poetry

Plays

  • Use the edition of the play you cited. If the play was written well before the edition, place the original date in parentheses with the edition’s publishing date.
Elements of the reference
Author A (Year of Original Publication/Year of Edition) Title of play: subtitle of play, Name of Publisher of Edition, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
  • Include a page number after a colon if you’re citing a specific page. Use the original and edition dates if citing an old work.
(Murray-Smith 2002:5)
(Ross 1979:15)
(Yeats 1892/2018)
Reference list
Murray-Smith J (2002) Rapture, Currency Press, Sydney.
Ross K (1979) Breaker Morant: a play in two acts, Edward Arnold Pty Ltd, Melbourne.
Yeats WB (1892/2018) The Countess Cathleen: a play, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Scotts Valley.

Citing reviews of plays

  • Follow the rules of citation for the source (for example, a newspaper) that published the review. Use italics for the title of the play.
Elements of the reference
Reviewer R (Day Month Year) ‘Title of review: subtitle of review’ [Review of Title of work by Creator], Name of Blog, Newspaper or Magazine, accessed Day Month Year.
Reference list
Wilkins P (5 April 2019) ‘How to rule the world a timely reminder of issues facing the nation’ [Review of How to rule the world by Nakkiah Lui], The Canberra Times.
Wakelin O (25 January 2019) ‘Review: The big time, Ensemble Theatre’ [Review of The big time by David Williamson], ArtsHub, accessed 18 December 2019.

Poems

Elements of the reference
Author A (Year of Original Publication/Year of Edition) ‘Title of poem: subtitle of poem’, Name of collection, Name of Publisher of Edition, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
  • Include a page number after a colon if you’re citing a specific page. Use the original and edition dates if citing an old work.
(Poe 1845/2012)
(Harrison 2008:133)
(Grono 1973)
(Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, part 2, verse 29, lines 121-2).
Reference list
  • As in text, use the original capitalisation of the poem in the reference list entry.
Poe EA (1845/2012) The raven, Arcturus Publishing Limited, London.
Harrison M (2008) Wild bees, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley.
Taylor A (1982) ‘The cool change’, Selected poems, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia.
Grono W (1973) ‘A Postcard from Perth’, in Hewett D (ed.), Sandgropers: a Western Australian anthology, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands.
Dong-Jip Shin (1974) ‘Ordinary autumn evening’, Best loved poems of Korea, (Ko Ch’ang-su, trans.), Hollym International, Republic of Korea.
White TW (1944) Sky saga: a story of empire airmen, 2nd edn, Hutchinson & Co., Melbourne.
Harwood G (1963) ‘Critic’s nightwatch’, Poems, Poem Hunter website, accessed 18 December 2019.

Open educational resource (OER)

Elements of the reference
Author Surname, Initial(s) Year, Book title, OER Publisher/Repository.
In-text citation
Skripak et al. (2020) OR (Skripak et al. 2020)
Reference list
Skripak SJ, Parsons R and Cortes A (2020) Fundamentals of business, Open Textbook Library.

Classics

  • Disciplines and sources define the term ‘classics’ in different ways. This guidance covers ancient Greek and Roman works (until the 5th century) and works from the medieval period (from the fall of the Roman empire until the middle of the 15th century).
In references and in-text citations, treat the titles of classics as you would other book titles.
  • Use sentence case – capitalise only the first letter of the title and the first letter of any proper noun.
  • Use italics for the titles of books, series and anthologies.
  • Use quotation marks for the titles of chapters, poems or sections.
In-text citations
  • Often there will not be much information for classics. For example, you might not know the date of publication.
  • Include the information that you know in in-text citations.
  • If you don’t know the name of the author, don’t use ‘Anon’‘unknown’ or ‘Anonymous’ in the in-text citation, simply place the date at the end of the sentence.
Example
Beowulf is the story of a hero who defeats a dragon.
Reference list
  • If you don’t know the author or the date of a work, use the name of the translator (trans) and the date of publication of the edition you’re working with. Place the date at the end of the reference.
Beowulf (Heaney S, trans), Faber & Faber Ltd, London, 2002.

Book in foreign language

  •  Provide English translation in parentheses immediately after the original title.
  • The names of foreign publishers should not be translated. Use the anglicised spelling of foreign places of publications, e.g. Rome, not Roma.
Elements of the reference
Author A (Year) Title of book in original language (English translation), Publisher, Place of Publication.
In-text citation
(Greau 2008) OR Greau (2008)
Reference list
Greau, J 2008, La trahison des économistes (The betrayal of economists), Gallimard, Paris.
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