Free Harvard Referencing Generator for UK Universities

A Harvard referencing generator automatically formats your sources into the Harvard referencing style (author-date system). It creates both in-text references like (Smith, 2024) and the full reference list entry, saving you time and ensuring accuracy.

They are similar author-date systems but differ in formatting. Harvard uses single quotes for titles, "and" for multiple authors, and British date formatting (day month year). APA uses italics differently and ampersands (&) for authors. Our generator handles both styles.

Harvard is the most widely used referencing style in UK universities including Oxford Brookes, LSE, UCL, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, and Bristol. It is also standard across most Australian universities including Sydney, Melbourne, Monash, and UNSW.

Cite Them Right is the most popular Harvard referencing guide used by UK universities. It provides detailed formatting rules for every source type. Our generator follows Cite Them Right conventions for Harvard formatting.

Our Harvard output follows Cite Them Right conventions, including the headline change in the 13th edition (2025): the place of publication is no longer included before the publisher. You also get single quotes for article and chapter titles, italics for book and journal titles, "and" rather than ampersands, and day-month-year dates. Two 13th-edition details depend on your source data, so review them before submitting: titles should be in sentence case (we keep the title as the database provides it), and online-first journal articles should cite the article number instead of a page number. If your module handbook specifies a local Harvard variant, use the generated reference as a baseline and adjust any department-specific punctuation.

Harvard is a family of author-date styles with university-specific variants. Our default output matches Cite Them Right Harvard (the UK default used by most British universities). Cardiff Harvard, Leeds Harvard, and Bath Harvard have minor formatting differences (punctuation, italicisation). Australian Harvard mirrors Cite Them Right closely. If your module handbook specifies a variant, use our output as a solid baseline and adjust punctuation per your guide.

Yes! CiteMe offers free Harvard referencing with a generous free tier. Generate references for essays, dissertations, and assignments without paying.