Citations are used to identify the sources you've used in your writing. You can think of them as shortcuts directing your reader to the corresponding reference list entry, where the full details of the source can be found.

The citation will be inserted in your text, where you have quoted or paraphrased someone else’s work. They are also known as in-text citations because of this.

Citations may appear as part of sentences, or in captions attached to figures or tables. You may find that longer sentences will contain several citations, demonstrating the breadth of your research and literature synthesis.

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The Elements of Citations

• round brackets ( )
• the surnames of authors/editors, followed by the publication year
• a comma between names and publication year
• a page reference in some instances (e.g. when you quote, or are referring to an illustration)

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Citation Types

There are two basic forms of citations in Harvard, depending on how they are incorporated in the sentence. Let's look at the differences.

Parenthetical Citations

In these cases, all the citation information is placed within the brackets, or parentheses (hence the name). They normally appear within the section of your writing that contains the paraphrased or summarised information.

While citations may be placed anywhere within a sentence, it is important to note that if they are at the end of a sentence, they must be located before the full stop.

Narrative Citations

These citations occur when the author’s name forms part of your written sentence. In these cases, we can simply add the publication year in brackets after the author’s name is mentioned.

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