Referencing – Harvard v APA
Harvard Referencing
“One of the most standard practices expected from the writers of any article or research paper is the proper referencing of the resources”
The key difference between Harvard referencing and APA citation
One of the most standard practices expected from the writers of any article or research paper is the proper referencing of the resources wherefrom the ideas and thoughts have been taken to develop the piece of text. The citation must be done methodically and by following standard set of rules so that every resource could be found by the readers or the examiners of the writings.
The citation is important to reflect the depth of the research of the writer in forming the piece of text and, for a student, it is also important to save the dissertation or the research project from being marked as plagiarised by the examiners of the papers.
There are mainly four kinds of citation systems which are used by the writers for referencing purpose.
American Psychological Association developed the APA style of referencing to use it mainly for education, social and behavioural science.
MLA format of referencing has been created by the Modern Language Association and is used frequently by the writers working in the field of humanities and literature.
The Chicago referencing style also known as the Note and Bibliography (NB) system is widely used by the writers dealing with the subjects of arts and humanities.
The Harvard referencing system is used for the citation of the source materials especially in case of scientific writing. Every referencing system is different from the other in some way. Here we will be discussing few differences in between the Harvard and the APA referencing system.
a) “Reference List” is used in the Harvard system to list out the references at the end of the piece of text, whereas the same is indicated by “References” in the APA system of referencing.
b) Any edited work are cited by using “ed[s]” or “edited by” in the Harvard system of referencing whereas the APA system used the “(Ed[s])” for the same purpose. In Harvard referencing the names of the editor[s] are put after writing the title of edited work, whereas in the APA referencing the same is put before the title of the edited work.
c) In the APA system the page numbers are cited by “(year: page number)”, like (2010:82). The same is referenced in the Harvard System as (2012, p.82).
d) In case of referencing the chapter of a book which has not yet been edited, the Harvard referencing system is used as follows –
Chandra, P. ((2010). The Financial Management. Chapter 10 in the Management of Receivables. Kolkata: Tata McGrew & Hill. The same is referenced as follows in the APA system –
Chandra, P. (2010). The Financial management. The Management of Receivable (pp. 350-381). Kolkata: Tata McGrew & Hill
e) For referencing the electronic source of the ideas used by the author, the Harvard referencing system uses the following approach – Pandey, M. (2010). The Principles of Financial management. Available from:
Difference between Harvard & APA>(Accessed 10 January 2014).
In the APA system the same is referenced as follows –
Pandey, M. (2010). The Principles of Financial management. Retrieved January 10 2014 from: Difference between Harvard & APA>
f) For referencing Booklet, pamphlet or leaflet, the Harvard referencing system uses the following approach: Centre for Social Research and Development. (2010). Effect of environment on the society (Brochure). 4th edition. Amy, Pandey.: Author
The same is referenced in the APA style as follows:
Centre for Social Research and Development. (2010). Effect of environment on the society (4th ed.). [Brochure]. Amy, Pandey.: Author
g) For referencing conference proceedings without any author or title, the Harvard system follows the following approach of referencing –
National Nuclear Conference. (2010). Conference proceedings held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, 10-20 May 2010. Conducted by Department of Nuclear Physics. Mumbai: Indian Institute of Technology.
In the APA system the same is referenced as follows –
National Nuclear Conference. (2010). Conference proceedings held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, 10-20 May 2010. Indian Institute of Technology.
There are quite a few tools for referencing like Harvard Referencing Generator and APA Citation from the ‘Home of Dissertations’ which is easy to access and free to use.
Jake Philip from the Home of Dissertations