Skip to Main Content
Banner Image Main site Library home page Library home page

How to: Reference

What is Harvard Referencing?

Harvard referencing is a specific style of referencing. This style is often referred to as the 'author-date' style. As there is no single authority to define this style, several different versions of Harvard Referencing exist. Please refer to this guide for the specific version used within Dublin Business School.

All Business students within Dublin Business School are required to use the Harvard referencing format in their assignments and exams.

DBS recommends using Cite them Right for more information about Harvard Referencing.

Click on the link above to be taken to the eBook version.

Books and eBooks

Authors 

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

According to Trott (2017, p.59) innovation has...
Innovation has... (Trott, 2017, p.59)

Reference List

Author Surname, Initial(s). (Year) Title. Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.

Trott, P. (2017) Innovation management and new product development. 6th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education.

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Lechner and Boli (2012, p.4) argue that...
...global warming is a result of the release of greenhouse gases in developed countries (Lechner and Boli, 2012, p.4)

Reference List

Editor Surname, Initial(s). (ed.) (Year) Title. Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.

Lechner, F.J. and Boli, J. (eds.) (2012) The globalization reader. 4th edn. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

In Larson and Gray (2014, p.26) the duties of project managers...
The duties of project managers have expanded from an operational to a more strategic level (Larson and Gray, 2014, p.26).

Reference List

First Author Surname, Initial(s), Second Author Surname, Initial(s), and tThird Author Surname, Initial(s). (Year) Title. Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.

Larson, E.W. and Gray, C.F. (2014) Project management: the managerial process. 6th edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Slack et al. (2015, p.6) explains that large business have used operations and process management principles...
...large business have used operations and process management principles (Slack et al., 2015, p.6)

Reference List

First Author Surname, Initial(s), Second Author Surname, Initial(s), Third Author Surname, Initial(s), and Fourth Author Surname, Initial(s). (Year) Title. Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.

Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A., Johnston, R. and Betts, A. (2015) Operations and process management: principles and practice for strategic impact. 4th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education.

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

In the (2018, p.40)...
Debenture is defined as...(Dictionary of Business Terms, 2008, p.40)

Reference List

Title. (Year) Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.
Dictionary of Business Terms (2008) Wokingham: Kaplan Publishing.

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Statistics from the Department of Agriculture (2000) show that...
Statistics from sheep breeding programmes show...(Department of Agriculture, 2000)

Reference List

Organisation Name (Year) Title. Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.

Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (2000) Pedigree sheep breed improvement programme: performance results for lambs summer 2000. Cavan: Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.

Special cases

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Hamad (2018, p.21) discusses the idea that...
The idea that information architecture is...(Hamad, 2018, p.21)

Reference List

Chapter Author(s) Surname, Initials. (Year) 'Chapter Title', in Editor(s) Surname, Initials (ed). Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, page range.

Hamad, F. (2018) 'Approaches to information architecture', in Urquhart C., Hamad, F., Tbaishat, D. and Yeoman, A. (eds). Information systems: process and practice. London: Facet Publishing, pp. 9-31.

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Laudon and Traver (2017, 2018) explain that...

Reference List

Author(s) Surname, Initial(s). (Year) Title. Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.
Author(s) Surname, Initial(s). (Year) Title. Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.

Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G. (2017) E-commerce 2017: business, technology, society. 13th edn. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education.
Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G. (2018) E-commerce 2018: business, technology, society. 14th edn. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education.

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

The view proposed by Godfrey (2013a, 2013b) ...

Reference List

Author(s) Surname, Initial(s). (Year a) Title. Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.
Author(s) Surname, Initial(s). (Year b) Title. Edition (if not first edition). Place of publication: Publisher.

Godfrey, J. (2013a) How to use your reading in your essays. 2nd edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Godfrey, J. (2013b) The student phrase book: vocabulary for writing at university. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Notes: 

Use the name of the city in which the publisher is located in your reference. If there is more than one city listed (e.g. New York, London, etc.) use the nearest geographical place or the location of the publisher’s head office.

If the town/city is not well known, you may add a county, region or state. For instance if the book was published in Harlow, you add the county Harlow is located in e.g. Essex. Note, in the USA states are denoted by a two letter code, e.g. NJ = New Jersey.

This and other bibliographic information, can be found on the back of the book's title page

When an eBook looks like a printed book (has publication details and page information), you should reference it the same way as a printed book. When no page information is available use what you do have:

  1. loc: Kindles allow users to see the location of text, you can use this as an identifier (Stiglitz, 2013, loc. 1956)
  2. %: You can also use the percentage of the text read as an identifier (Richards, 2012, 67%)
  3. chapter/page/paragraph: (Smith, 2012, cha. 5, sec. 4, para. 9)
  4. If there is no page information you can use 'no pagination' (Jones, 2011, no pagination)

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

The principles of good accounting practice, as set out by Dyson and Franklin (2017, p. 19)

Reference List

Author(s) Surname, Initial(s). (Year) Title. Edition (if not the first edition). Place of Publication: Publisher. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Dyson, J. and Franklin, E. (2017) Accounting for non-accounting students 9th edn. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education. Available at: ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/dbsie/reader.action?docID=5185890 (Accessed: 26 October 2023)

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

A powerful narrative by Lara James (2017, no pagination) ...

Reference List

Author(s) Surname, Initial(s). (Year) Title. Edition (if not the first edition). Place of Publication: Publisher (if available). Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

James, L. (2017) Odd girl out: an autistic woman in a neurotypical world. Available at: Audible https://www.audible.co.uk/ (Accessed: 26 October 2023)

Journals, newspapers and reports

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

...small businesses struggle to measure the value of sponsorship (Meenaghan, 2018, p. 16) .

Reference List

Author(s) Surname, Initial(s). (Year) 'Article title', Journal Title , Volume Number(Issue Number), page range.

Meenaghan, T. (2018) 'Taking sponsorship to the next level', Irish Marketing Journal, 44(6), pp. 16-18.

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

According to Satell (2018, p. 21) , "We need to prepare for a new era of innovation, one in which technologies such as genomics, materials science, and robotics rise to the fore".

Reference List

Author(s) Surname, Initial(s). (Year) 'Article title', Journal Title , Volume Number(Issue Number), page range. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Satell, G. (2018) 'The industrial era ended, and so will the digital era: interaction', Harvard Business Review, 96(5), pp. 21. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib,cookie,url&db=bth&AN=131374484&site=ehost-live&scope=site (Accessed: 26 October 2023).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Findings by Sweeney and Hughes (2017, p. 24) indicate...

Reference List

Author(s) Surname, Initial(s). (Year) 'Article title', Journal Title , Volume Number(Issue Number), page range. Available at: DOI (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Sweeney, S. and Hughes, D. (2017) 'Integrating visual literacy training into the business curriculum. A case study at Dublin Business School', DBS Business Review, 1(10). Available at: https://doi.org/10.22375/dbsbr.v1.7 (Accessed: 16 November 2018).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Reference List

Special Cases

With digital publishing becoming more prevalent, new research articles are now being made available before they have completed peer review, or before they have been allocated to a specific issue of a journal.

As this may change the pagination or content of the article state which version you have read in your in-text citation.

In your reference list give the DOI and the date you accesses the article.
If you are specifically referencing the abstract of a journal article, you must make this clear in your in-text citation.

For example: 'The abstract highlights...'

Note: The reference would follow the same rules as a journal article.
In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

...to curb their public debts and deficit spending (Peel, 2010) .

Reference List

Author Surname, Initials (Year) 'Article title', Newspaper Name , Day and Month, Section and page number (if available).

Peel, Q. (2010) 'Berlin pushes for global curbs'. Financial Times, , 21 May, p.6.

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

...Google is in danger of incurring large fines from the EU ( The Irish Times , 2018) .

Reference List

Author Surname, Initials (if not available, Newspaper Name) (Year) 'Article title', Newspaper Name , Day and Month. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

The Irish Times (2018) 'Google accused of abusing location tracking tools', The Irish Times , 27 November. Available at: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0524/breaking29.html (Accessed: 27 November 2018).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

It was recently noted by Mintel (2018) ...

Reference List

Mintel (2018) 'Broadband Providers - Ireland - June 2018', Mintel market research reports, Irish series [Online]. (Accessed: 16 November 2018).

Websites

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

… 14% of all 9-11 year olds already had significant hearing loss (Gottlieb and Gottlieb, 2018).

Reference List

Author Surname, Initials. (Year) 'Title' . Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Gottlieb, J. and Gottlieb, J. (2018) 'Custom earbuds could say your hearing. Why haven't they taken off?' Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90266524/customearbuds-could-save-your-hearing-why-havent-theytaken-off (Accessed: 16 November 2018).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

... outlines the measures government departments have taken to remove barriers to employment creation (Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, 2018).

Reference List

Organisation Name (Year) 'Title' . Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation (2018) 'Action-Plan-for-Jobs-2018-Progress-Report.pdf' . Available at: https://dbei.gov.ie/en/Publications/Publication-files/Action-Plan-for-Jobs-2018-First-Progress-Report.pdf (Accessed: 16 November 2018).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

...explains the features of an investment scam (Investments Scams, 2018).

Reference List

Title (Year) Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Investment Scams (2018) Available at: https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/scams/investmentscams (Accessed: 16 November 2018).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

The prime minister will say "progress will not always be smooth"

Reference List

Title. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Theresa May: 'We can prove Brexit doomsayers wrong' (2017). Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-41546701 (Accessed: 9th October 2017).

Media

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Verity et al. (2018) noted that the Olympics had a detrimental effect on sales.

Reference List

Author Surname, Initial (Year) Title of podcast [Podcast]. Day/Month of posting. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Verity, A. et al. (2018) Retail sales figures [Podcast]. 4 September. Available at: http://bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/money (Accessed: 25 September 2018).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Internal networks are critical (Oracle Business Sense, 2018)

Reference List

Title of podcast (Year). [Podcast]. Day/Month of posting. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Oracle Business Sense (2018) Structure [Podcast]. 12 June. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/podcast/0,,329509709,00.xml (Accessed: 17 October 2018).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

When mixing the plaster (Leponline, 2017, 02:00) ...

Reference List

Person/Organisation posting the video (Year) Title Date of upload if available. Available at: URL or name of streaming service (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Lancashire Post (2009) Ask the experts - plastering . Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9wpceIlxCU (Accessed: 13 January 2017).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

By making Mars inhabitable (National Geographic, 2018) ...

Reference List

Person/Organisation posting the video (Year) Title Date of upload if available. Available at: URL or name of streaming service (Accessed: Day Month Year).

National Geographic (2018) Could we terraform Mars? 1 November. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BppNEWllmRh/ (Accessed: 21 July 2018).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

The HIQUA report noted the need for investment in ambulance services (Vradkar, 2014) .

Reference List

Author of the post (Year) 'Title or description of the post' [Name of social media platform]. Day/month of post. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Vradkar, L. (2014). HIQUA report can be catalyst for further improvement of ambulance services. [Facebook]. 2 December. Available at: http://leovaradkar.ie/2014/12/hiqa-report-can-be-catalyst-for-further-improvement-of-ambulance-services-varadkar (Accessed: 7 February 2019).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

He offered her a slice of cake (Tusk, 2018) ...

Reference List

Author of the post (Year) 'Title or description of the post' [Name of social media platform]. Day/month of post. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Tusk, D. (2018) 'A piece of cake perhaps?' [Instagram]. 20 September. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn8Luwbjzf9/ (Accessed: 7 February 2019).

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

Laura Kuenssberg (2018) tweeted on the party conference.

Reference List

Author of the post (Year) 'Title or description of the post' [Name of social media platform]. Day/month of post. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Kuenssberg, L. (2018) 'Anyone might imagine that inside he's a tiny bit pleased' [Twitter] 25 September. Available at: https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/104455397227781733 (Accessed: 19 December 2018).

Datasets

In-Text Citation

For an in-text citation, you would cite the source as follows:

General house characterisitcs were recorded by Ambrose (2018) .

Reference List

Author Surname, Initials (Year) 'Title of data'. Available: URL or DOI (Accessed: Day Month Year)

Ambrose, M. (2018) 'Air infiltration results for 129 Australian dwellings, vol. 1'. Available at: https://doi.org/10.25919/5ca54346ef256 (Accessed: 4 July 2019).