Harvard is an author-date system: a short citation in your sentence, a full entry in an alphabetical reference list. This guide shows the common pattern with nursing and health examples, and explains why your own department's version matters more than any general guide.
Unlike APA or AMA, Harvard has no single governing manual. Universities publish their own Harvard guides, and they disagree on small but visible points: whether a comma comes before the year, whether journal titles are abbreviated, whether you write Available at or Available from, and how many authors trigger et al.
Follow your department guide. If your program gives you a Harvard guide, its rules override anything on this page. Use this page to understand the logic, then copy the exact punctuation your guide shows. The examples here are illustrative; always copy details from your own sources and follow your program's style requirements.
If your school never names a version, choose one recognised guide and apply it consistently. Consistency is what markers notice first.
Put the author's surname and the year of publication in brackets at the end of the sentence, or weave the author into the sentence and bracket only the year.
| Situation | Typical form |
|---|---|
| One author | (Okafor 2021) |
| Two authors | (Nguyen and Okafor 2021) |
| Three authors | (Nguyen, Okafor and Lee 2021) |
| Four or more authors | (Nguyen et al. 2021) |
| Organisation as author | (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2023) |
| Direct quotation | (Okafor 2021, p. 45) |
| Author in the sentence | Okafor (2021) argues that handover quality shapes patient safety. |
Many guides use et al. from three authors, others from four, and some put a comma between author and year, as in (Okafor, 2021). Check which your guide expects. A page number is needed for a direct quotation and is good practice for a close paraphrase of a specific passage.
The ProNursingWriters team can help you format references and check citations against your program's guide.
Place the list at the end of the paper under the heading Reference list. Some departments reserve Bibliography for works you read but did not cite, so do not use the two words interchangeably unless your guide does.
Cite the journal, not the database you used to find it. An article retrieved through CINAHL or PubMed is cited exactly like any other journal article.
Give the author, year, italicised title, edition (only if it is not the first), place of publication and publisher. Some guides write 4th edn., others 4th ed.
Use the organisation as the author when no person is named. Harvard normally asks for the date you viewed the page, because web content changes.
If no year is shown, write n.d. in place of the year. The full pattern for agency material is on the government report citation guide.
Add a report or publication number after the title if the report carries one.
Whatever style you use, cite everything you draw on and follow your institution's academic-integrity policy. See avoiding plagiarism for the habits that keep you safe.
It is common in UK, Irish, Australian and some other international programs. Many US programs use APA 7th edition, and some clinical journals use AMA or Vancouver, so check your handbook before choosing.
Because Harvard is not owned by one authority. Each institution adopts its own conventions. When guides differ, your program's guide wins.
Yes, and you cite the journal itself. The database name does not appear in the entry unless your guide says otherwise.
Use the organisation as the author if one is responsible for the page, and n.d. for a missing date. If neither is available, use the page title in the author position, and consider whether the source is reliable enough to use.