Referencing Help  

Guide to Referencing and Citations

The definitive guide!

The Sheffield Hallam University Guide to Referencing and Citations offers detailed and comprehensive guidance on the Harvard referencing style recommended at SHU, including why you need to reference, how to cite in your work and how to produce a bibliography. It gives examples of how to cite and reference a large number of different types of material.

You may also find these useful:

Referencing - a quick guide - a leaflet available from learning centres.  An introduction to the Harvard system of referencing recommended at SHU with some examples of how to reference commonly used materials.  

Referencing: more than just commas and full stops - an online tutorial available via the Library Catalogue.

The re:Search tutorial on How do I reference the information I've used including guides to Recognising and referencing internet resources such as e-journal articles and e-books.

The Harvard system of referencing uses the author and date of a publication to identify and organise references.  There are many variations of the Harvard system.  The Harvard-SHU version presented in these guides is used across most of the University. 

When you are using Library Search, databases and other sources, you may be given the option to view or save your references in the Harvard style.  However, this will not be the same as the Harvard style recommended at SHU or by your tutors.

When using RefWorks and Microsoft Word, there is an option to reference in the Harvard-SHU style which follows the guidelines given here.

If you are asked to produce your references in a different way or to use a different system of referencing, please refer to your course handbook or tutor for guidance.

Not all students at SHU are expected to use the Harvard-SHU system for referencing. Please follow the guidance you are given by your tutors.

If you are a student in the Faculty of Development and Society, you may be asked to use another system, such as a numeric system or footnotes. If this is the case, please refer to your course handbook or tutors for guidance.  

If you are a student studying History or Law, you should use the relevant guidance below.  The OSCOLA guidelines are also available for law students

If you are studying English you should use the guidance you are given by your tutors.

Students doing Biosciences use a modified version of Harvard-SHU as described on the Biosciences subject guide. 

Please always check the guidance given by your tutors.

If you copy or export reference details from Library Search, please be aware that some author names may be incorrect.  Where a source has multiple authors they may be listed in the wrong order or authors' family and given names might be reversed.

When you are referencing, use the authors' details provided on the source itself - the book, article or paper you have used.  Do not rely on the author details provided in Library Search. 

If a source has more than one author, make sure that the authors appear in your references in the same order as they appear in the source.  

Authors' family names should appear before their given name(s) in a reference.

Some newspaper articles are being assigned the author "Anonymous" in Library Search.  It is preferable to use the title and year to cite sources where the author cannot be identified.  Anonymous should not usually be used.

Some author names are being given in uppercase (all capital letters) in Library Search.

If you are exporting references to RefWorks from Library Search you will need to amend the author details in your RefWorks database.

re: Search is an online tutorial available in a series of bite-size units. One of these units is about How do I reference the information I've used and contains information, short videos and quizzes about Harvard referencing and how referencing can help you to avoid plagiarism.

Information about academic integrity and plagiarism can be found in the guide I didn't know I was cheating: a brief guide to academic integrity.

This guide is also available in printed format from learning centres.