Free Harvard PubMed Referencing Generator
Paste a PMID, PMC ID, or PubMed URL to generate a Harvard (Cite Them Right) reference. Built for UK nursing, public health, and allied-health programmes that use Harvard on biomedical literature.
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Harvard PubMed Reference Format
Standard journal article (with DOI):
PMC open-access copy:
Pre-DOI article (URL locator):
Harvard PubMed Reference Examples
Cite by PMID
Tip: Paste the PMID directly: 38123456
Cite from PMC URL
Tip: Paste the full PMC article URL
Older Article (no DOI)
Tip: Use PubMed URL as the locator when no DOI exists
Harvard vs Vancouver for PubMed Articles
UK biomedical and allied-health programmes split between these two styles. Harvard is the default in most UK nursing, midwifery, and public-health courses. Vancouver is the default in medicine, surgery, and biomedical science.
- Harvard: author-date in-text, full author names in the reference list, alphabetical order.
- Vancouver: numbered in-text (1), abbreviated journal titles, numeric order matching first appearance.
If your course guide says "numbered references" or "ICMJE", you want Vancouver PubMed referencing instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I reference a PubMed article in Harvard style?
Harvard (Cite Them Right) treats a PubMed article as a journal article. Format: Author(s) (Year) 'Title of article', Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. Page range. doi: DOI. Example: Khan, S. and Patel, A. (2024) 'Community pharmacy-led hypertension screening: a cluster-randomised trial', British Journal of General Practice, 74(742), pp. e301–e310. doi: 10.3399/BJGP.2023.0412.
Does Harvard referencing require the PMID?
Cite Them Right does not require a PMID. DOI is preferred where available. Include the PMID only when your institution explicitly asks (some UK nursing and pharmacy programmes do) — add it at the end of the reference as "PMID: 38123456".
How do I reference an article from PubMed Central (PMC)?
Reference it as a journal article. If the PMC copy is the open-access version, add the PMC URL as Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMCxxxxxxx/ (Accessed: day month year) after the DOI. CiteMe auto-fills the PMC URL when you paste a PMC link.
What if the article has no DOI?
Older PubMed articles without DOIs should include the journal issue details and, if accessed online, the URL. Harvard accepts a PubMed URL (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PMID) as the locator when no DOI exists.
How do I cite a PubMed article in-text?
Use author-date: (Khan and Patel, 2024). For three or more authors, Cite Them Right uses (Khan et al., 2024). Page numbers are required for direct quotes and strongly recommended when paraphrasing a specific figure or claim.
Does CiteMe check the PubMed article for retractions?
CiteMe pulls metadata from NCBI. Retraction notices appear in the PubMed record and are surfaced in the generator output. Verify the retraction status of any article you cite — PubMed flags retractions but review articles sometimes lag.
Related source types
PubMed articles are journal articles — the same generator handles them. For other source types in the same course, start from the links below.
Reference PubMed Articles in Harvard
Paste a PMID, PMC link, or PubMed URL — get a verified Harvard reference in seconds.
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