Harvard - Cite Them Right - PubMed / PMID

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.

Search papers or paste DOI

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 PubMed Reference Format

Standard journal article (with DOI):

Author (Year) 'Title of article', Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. Pages. doi: DOI.

PMC open-access copy:

Author (Year) 'Title of article', Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. Pages. Available at: PMC URL (Accessed: day month year).

Pre-DOI article (URL locator):

Author (Year) 'Title of article', Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. Pages. Available at: PubMed URL (Accessed: day month year).

Harvard PubMed Reference Examples

Tip:

Cite by PMID

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.

Paste the PMID directly: 38123456

Cite from PMC URL

Williams, A.B. and Thompson, L.M. (2022) 'Functional independence and domiciliary care', Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 54, jrm00275. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4031825/ (Accessed: 18 April 2026).

Paste the full PMC article URL

Older Article (no DOI)

Patel, R. (1998) 'Early intervention in stroke rehabilitation', Physiotherapy, 84(5), pp. 213–218. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9744567 (Accessed: 18 April 2026).

Use PubMed URL as the locator when no DOI exists

Examples formatted in Harvard style

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. If your course guide says "numbered references" or "ICMJE", you want Vancouver PubMed referencing instead.

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.

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.