Harvard (Author-Date) — PubMed & PMC

Harvard Citation Generator for PubMed Articles

Paste a PMID, PMCID, or PubMed URL to get a Harvard reference from the returned PubMed record instantly. Useful for nursing, public health, and health-policy papers.

Search papers or paste DOI

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How to cite a pubmed article in Harvard

Search for the pubmed article

Paste a DOI, URL, ISBN, title, or author name to find the exact source record.

Check the Harvard formatting fields

Verify author, year, title, container, and publication details before copying the final citation.

Copy the formatted result

Get the complete Harvard citation plus the matching in-text citation or footnote format.

Harvard Format for PubMed Articles

Standard (with DOI):

Author, A.A. and Author, B.B. (Year) 'Article title', Journal Name, Vol(Issue), pp. Pages. Available at: DOI (Accessed: date)

PMC article (with PMC URL):

Author, A.A. (Year) 'Article title', Journal Name, Vol, p. Pages. Available at: PMC URL (Accessed: date)

Harvard PubMed Reference Examples

PubMed article (with DOI)

Lastname, A.B. and Other, C.D. (2024) 'Title of the journal article', Journal Name, 29(4), pp. 123–145. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-00001-2 (Accessed: 15 March 2024).

Paste PMID: 38123456 — CiteMe adds the DOI automatically

PMC article (no DOI, PMC URL)

Lastname, A.B. (2022) 'Title of the study', Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 54, p. jrm00275. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMCxxxxxxx/ (Accessed: 15 March 2024).

Paste a PMC URL

In-text citation

Parenthetical: (Lastname and Other, 2024). Narrative: Lastname and Other (2024) argued that…

Harvard uses author-date in-text, same as APA structurally

Examples formatted in Harvard style

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Harvard referencing for a PubMed article?

Yes. Harvard referencing is common in UK, Australian, and some US health-sciences programs — nursing, public health, health policy, psychology-in-health — that require author-date referencing without Vancouver's numbered style. Paste the PMID into CiteMe and choose Harvard.

How do you cite a journal article in Harvard referencing?

Harvard template: Author, A.A. and Author, B.B. (Year) 'Article title', Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. Pages. Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date). The DOI is preferred over the PubMed URL when available.

Do I need to include PMID in Harvard referencing?

Not required. Harvard uses author-date with DOI as the permanent identifier. PMID can be added as supplementary information in square brackets (e.g., [PMID: 38123456]) if your department requests it, but it is not part of the standard Harvard reference format.

How do I find a PMID on PubMed?

Search PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) for your article. The PMID is displayed below the title on results pages and on the article detail page. Copy it directly into CiteMe — the tool fetches the full metadata automatically.

What is the difference between PMID and PMCID?

PMID is the identifier for the article's metadata record in PubMed. PMCID (PubMed Central ID, starting with PMC) is the identifier for the full-text version in PubMed Central. CiteMe accepts both.

How do I cite a PubMed Central article in Harvard?

Paste the PMC URL (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMCxxxxxxx/) into CiteMe. The tool fetches journal name, volume, issue, pages, and DOI, and formats the Harvard reference with the DOI or the PMC URL as the "Available at:" link.