Harvard Citation
Generator.

Paste a source — a title, an existing reference, or a citation from another style — and get it correctly formatted for Harvard style in seconds. No signup required to try it.

Unlike other generators, we confirm your source is real before formatting it — cross-checked against 6 academic databases instead of taking whatever you paste at face value.

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What Is Harvard Citation Style?

Harvard is an author-date citation system, similar in structure to APA, widely used across UK and Australian universities in business, social sciences, and humanities. In-text, sources are cited as (Author, Year) or, for a direct quote, (Author, Year, p. X), with a reference list at the end alphabetized by author surname. Unlike APA or MLA, there's no single publishing body that owns "Harvard style" — it's a convention that individual universities and publishers each codify slightly differently, so the exact punctuation (comma placement, "and" versus "&", single quotes around titles) varies by institution. A common version reads: Author, A. (Year) 'Title of article', Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. XXX–XXX. Available at: URL.

Common Harvard Citation Mistakes

Why We Verify Before We Format

Most citation generators will format whatever you paste in, whether or not the source is real. We check your reference against OpenAlex, Crossref, Semantic Scholar, PubMed, DBLP, and arXiv first, looking for independent agreement between sources, before handing back the formatted Harvard citation. If we can't confirm it, we tell you rather than silently formatting a source that may not exist.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the correct Harvard citation format?

A common Harvard reference list entry reads: Author, A. (Year) 'Title of article', Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. XXX-XXX. Available at: URL. In-text, sources are cited as (Author, Year) or, for a direct quote, (Author, Year, p. X).

Is there one official Harvard citation style?

No — unlike APA or MLA, "Harvard style" isn't defined by a single publishing body. It's an author-date convention that individual universities and publishers each codify slightly differently (comma placement, "and" versus "&", quotation marks around titles). Always check your own institution's style guide for the exact variant expected; we generate the common convention (title in single quotes, "pp." for page ranges) used across most UK Harvard guides.

Can I generate a Harvard citation from just a DOI or URL?

Paste in what you already have — the fuller the reference (title, authors, journal or publisher), the more reliably we can verify it against academic databases before formatting. A DOI included alongside the rest of the reference helps confirm the match; a bare DOI or URL with nothing else attached is the least reliable input on its own.

Is AccuraCite's Harvard citation generator free?

Yes. A free account includes monthly credits for citation verification and citation search, no credit card required.

Other Citation Styles

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