My Information Skills

Self-paced tutorials on research and study skills for TAFE SA students

Examples - Books with one author

Bibliographic info for a book

To find the bibliographic information to reference this book, you need to look at its title page, and reverse title page (the page at the back of the title page). Sometimes this information might be at the back of a book.

 

To create an end-text reference in the Harvard style for a book, we need to follow the following formatting pattern:

Formatting requirements for books

 

The Harvard end-text reference for this book will be:

Howes, M 2005, Politics and the environment: risk and the role of government and industry, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW.

 

The in-text reference will look like this:

(Howes 2005, pp. 53-55)

 

Notes for Harvard end-text references:

  • When writing the author's name, the surname or family name always comes first, then the initials.
  • If there is more than one initial, do not leave any spaces between the initials.
    For example, the author Albert P. Box would be written as Box, AP
  • Do not include the author's initials in your in-text reference.
  • When establishing when the book was published, look for the latest edition (not the latest printing). Also note if the latest edition is a revision.
  • Only the year is required for the publication date.
  • Sometimes you may find that the book title is slightly different on the cover or spine to how it is written on the title page. When this happens, use the title from the title page.
  • Include any sub-titles. Separate the title and sub-title with a colon (:).
  • The title of a book is written in italics. Only use a capital letter for the first word and any proper nouns in the title.
  • When naming a publisher be sure to name the publisher, not the printer.
  • List the city where the publisher is located. If the city is not a capital city, also list the state.
  • Sometimes publishers will give multiple locations. Only one is needed.