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Agriculture, policy and development: Citing references

A guide to finding information in agriculture, policy and development. Includes links to key resources and sources of help.

Whenever you refer to another person's work in your own essay, dissertation or article you must acknowledge them and give full details of your source. You risk being accused of plagiarism if you fail to do so.

The School of Agriculture, policy & Development uses a version of the Harvard style for undergraduate and masters work. This page includes guidance on using this style. For general information on referencing, including an explanation of different citation systems, and guidance on citing specific types of publication, see our Citing references guide.

For general information on referencing, including an explanation of different citation systems, and guidance on citing specific types of publication, see our Citing references guide.

For help with citing specific types of publication contact your subject librarian, Tim Chapman

For advice on using references in your work, and how to use them to support your arguments, consult the guidance on the Study Advice website or make an appointment with them.

 

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EndNote

EndNote logoWhen you do your dissertation you could consider using EndNote to manage your references. This bibliographic management package can be used to store references, and then insert the citation in your Word document, automatically building the bibliography for you in the correct style.

Find out more on our EndNote webpages:

For information on other options for electronic management of your references see our guide to Managing references:

General rules for citations and references in the Harvard Style

In-text citations in the 'Cite Them Right' Harvard style

When citing someone’s work in your assignments you should include the author surname and year of publication in the text where you have used that information. The in-text citation should match the first part of the full reference, so that someone reading your work can easily find the full reference in the list at the end of your document. Full references are listed at the end in alphabetical order by the author's surname. See the other tabs in this box for guidance on citing specific types of publication in this style.

For the Harvard style, your in-text citation should include:

  • The surname of the author of the cited work
  • The year of publication of the cited work.

There are two ways of including an in-text citation and you can use both depending on how you want to structure each sentence:

  • put the whole citation in brackets at the end of the sentence or information taken from a source e.g.
    ... (Jeukendrup and Gleeson, 2019)
  • put just the year in brackets if you want to include the author names as part of your sentence e.g. 
    Jeukendrup and Gleeson (2019) argue that...

The citation must be within the sentence to which it refers, usually either at the beginning or end of the sentence unless a comparison is being made, in which case the authors concerned must be cited as appropriate within the sentence. If you have multiple, consecutive sentences from one source you should include a citation in each sentence - but this is poor academic practice, and you should instead look to use more sources and compare and contrast the information from each one. 

How many authors should I include in the in-text citation?
  • One author - just include their surname and the year
    e.g.:     (Cauvain, 2017)    OR    “Cauvain (2017) stated…..” 
     
  • Two authors - cite both surnames with 'and' or '&' between them (be consistent in your use of 'and' or '&') and the year
    e.g.:     (Jeukendrup and Gleeson, 2019)    OR   "According to Jeukendrup and Gleeson (2019)..."
     
  • Three authors - include all surnames using a comma between the first two and 'and' or '&' before the last one (be consistent in your use of 'and' or '&') and the year
    e.g.:     (Collins, Wang and Gibson, 2022)    OR    "Recently Collins, Wang & Gibson (2022)..."
     
  • Four or more authors - cite the first author plus the abbreviation et al. in italics and the year
    e.g.:     (Gibson et al., 2021)     OR    "Gibson et al. (2021) have suggested that..."
    Note that you will need to include all the author names in the full reference at the end.

 If you use the same source more than once, just use the same in-text citation as previously to refer to the same full reference. 

Other in-text citation questions

How do I cite more than one source for a sentence?

List the sources chronologically, separated by semi-colons, e.g.

There are many studies that have examined the effect of alcohol on cognitive impairment (Chen, 2012; Patel, 2020; Hussein et al., 2022).

How do I differentiate references by the same author in the same year?

Differentiate them using letters starting with 'a' after the year. Use the same letter in the in-text citation and the full reference so they match, e.g.:

(Chen and Hussein, 2021a)... and (Chen and Hussein, 2021b)...

Can I cite a work by a company or organisation?

Many works by organisations do not have individually named authors. In this case, you can use the name of the organisation or company, such as Cancer Research UK or National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), as the author. This is known as a corporate author. 

A British Nutrition Foundation (2015) study showed that...    ... (British Nutrtion Foundation, 2015).

What if I have multiple references by the same author in a sentence?

If you need to refer to two or more sources by the same author in different years, you do not need to keep repeating the author's surname in the citation. Include the surname and the oldest year first, then separate the other years by semicolons (;). The sources should be ordered by year of publication, with the oldest first, e.g.:

NHS (2016; 2019; 2021) studies have consistently shown    OR     ...(NHS, 2016; 2019; 2021)

You must include all of the sources separately in your reference list.

Do I need to include page numbers in my citation?

You only need to include a page number if directly quoting from a work. Enclose the quote in single quotation marks and include a page number in the in-text citation. For example:

More recently, a paper by Walker et al. (2020) stated that 'prebiotics can be beneficial for management of irritable bowel syndrome' (p. 47).

A recent paper stated that 'prebiotics can be beneficial for the management of irritable bowel syndrome' (Walker et al., 2020, p. 47).

How do I refer to a source referenced in another work?

This type of referencing is known as secondary referencing and should be avoided wherever possible, as the author citing the work may bring their own bias or misinterpretation. It is better to seek out the original reference and cite it directly if it is useful.

See further guidance on secondary referencing below.

Reference list in the 'Cite Them Right' Harvard style

All sources that you use must be cited in the text AND listed in the Reference list at the end of your document.

  • List in alphabetical order by author surname/organisation name.
  • Author names are in the format surname comma space initials (with full stops between initials) e.g. Chen, Z.L.
  • Do not include first names for authors.
  • Include all the authors/editors in your full reference using a comma between the names. Use 'and' or '&' before the last name (be consistent and use the same throughout).
  • Authors should be listed in the order they appear on the publication.
  • Titles are in lower case apart from the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns e.g. A review of Listeria monocytogenes: an update on outbreaks, virulence, dose-response, ecology, and risk assessments.
  • Journal names - give in full and use initial capital letters on all significant words e.g. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety
Example reference list

Cauvain, S.P. (2017) Baking problems solved. 2nd edn. Duxford: Woodhead Publishing.

Lanham-New, S.A., MacDonald, I.A., Roche, H.M., Williams, C. and Yaqoob, P. (eds) (2011). Nutrition and metabolism, 2nd edn. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Li, H., Zhang, T., Li, C., Zheng, S., Li, H. and Yu, J. (2020) 'Development of a microencapsulated synbiotic product and its application in yoghurt', Food Science & Technology, 122, pp. 109033.

Niranhan, K., Tellez-Medina, D.I. and Gutierrez-Lopez, G.F. (2018) 'Food physics', in Campbell-Platt, G. (ed.) Food science and technology. 2nd edn. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 211-226.

Office of Dietary Supplements (2018) Dietary supplement fact sheet: folate. Available at: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Folate-HealthProfessional/ (Accessed: 7 April 2022).

Teferra, T.F. (2021) 'Possible actions of inulin as prebiotic polysaccharide: a review', Food Frontiers, 2(4), pp. 407-416.

See the guidance below for details on how to construct and format a full reference for different types of publication.

Citing the most common types of publication

Citing books

Include the following in your reference:

  1. Author/Editor name(s) in the format 'Surname, Initials'
  2. Year of publication (in round brackets)
  3. Book title (in italics) followed by a full stop (in lower case apart from the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns)
  4. Edition (if 2nd edn or later)
  5. Place of publication followed by a colon e.g. London:
  6. Publisher.

Copy the format and punctuation of these examples.

Example: book with a single author/editor

Citation in the text:     (Cauvain, 2017)

Full reference:     
Cauvain, S.P. (2017) Baking problems solved. 2nd edn. Duxford: Woodhead Publishing.

Example: book with two authors/editors

Citation in the text:   (Jeukendrup and Gleeson, 2019)

Full reference:
Jeukendrup, A. and Gleeson, M. (2019) Sport nutrition. 3rd edn. Champaign: Human Kinetics.

Example: book with four or more authors/editors

Citation in the text:    (Lanham-New et al., 2011)

Full reference:
Lanham-New, S.A., MacDonald, I.A., Roche, H.M., Williams, C. and Yaqoob, P. (eds) (2011) Nutrition and metabolism. 2nd edn. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Note that all authors are included in the full reference.

E-books

Where an e-book looks like a printed book (usually PDFs) and you can find all the publication information (including place published and publisher) - cite it in the same way as a printed book (above). You do not need to include the web address.

Where it is not possible to find the publication information include the web address and date accessed instead, as in the example below:

Citation in the text:   (TetraPak, 2022)

Full reference:
TetraPak (2022) The orange book. Available at: https://orangebook.tetrapak.com/ (Accessed: 7 April 2022).

EndNote tips

  • Print and e-books
    • Use the Reference Type 'Book'
    • Fields to complete:
      • Author: in the format surname, initials, each author on a separate line
      • Year:
      • Title:
      • Place published:
      • Publisher:
      • Edition: if not the first - just add the number e.g. 2nd, 3rd
  • Edited books
    • Use the Reference Type  'Edited book'
    • Fields to add:
      • Editor: in the format surname, initials, each editor on a separate line
      • Other fields the same as above
  • Online only books 
    • Use the Reference Type 'Electronic Book'
    • Complete the same fields as above. Also add:
      • Date Accessed: the date you looked looked at the book in the format day month year e.g. 17 June 2022
      • URL: the web address

Citing book chapters in edited books

Include the following in your reference:

  1. Chapter author name(s) in the format 'Surname, Initials'
  2. Year of publication (in round brackets)
  3. Chapter title in single quotation marks (in lower case apart from the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns)
  4. in followed by book editor(s) name(s) in the format 'Surname, Initials' followed by (ed.) or (eds)
  5. Book title (in italics and in lower case apart from the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns)
  6. Edition (if second edition or later)
  7. Place of publication followed by a colon e.g. London:
  8. Publisher's name followed by a comma
  9. Chapter pagination preceeded by pp.

Include the page extent of the whole chapter when writing your full citation. Put just the pages you have referred to in the in-text citation.

Copy the format and punctuation of these examples.

Example: book chapter with three authors

Citation in the text:     (Niranhan, Tellez-Medina and Gutierrez-Lopez, 2018, p. 213)

Full reference:    
Niranhan, K., Tellez-Medina, D.I. and Gutierrez-Lopez, G.F. (2018) 'Food physics', in Campbell-Platt, G. (ed.) Food science and technology. 2nd edn. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 211-226.

Example: book chapter with four or more authors

Citation in the text:     (Patterson et al., 2012, p. 199)

Full reference:
Patterson, M.F., Ledward, D.A., Leadley, C. and Rogers, N. (2012) 'High pressure processing', in Brennan, J.G. and Grandison, A.S. (eds) Food processing handbook. 2nd edn. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, pp. 179-204.

Note that all authors are included in the full reference.

EndNote tips

  • Use the Reference Type 'Book Section'
  • Fields to complete:
    • Author: in the format surname, initials. Each author on a separate line.
    • Year:
    • Title: title of chapter 
    • Place published:
    • Publisher:
    • Pages: page numbers for the chapter
    • Edition: if not the first - just add the number e.g. 2nd, 3rd
  • Note that the 'Book Section' reference type will incorrectly label any editions as ed. not edn. To correct this, as a final step before submission, create a plain text version of your document. Go to the EndNote toolbar in Word and select 'Convert citations and bibliography' to 'Plain text' (this will be under 'Tools' on the Mac version of the toolbar). This will create a copy of your document which is divorced from EndNote so that you can make final tweaks to the references to match the guidance above.

Citing journal articles which have page numbers or article reference numbers

Include the following in your reference:

  1. ALL Author name(s) in the format 'Surname, Initials'
  2. Year of publication (in brackets)
  3. Article title (in lower case apart from the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns)
  4. Journal title (in italics) - give the journal name in full, not abbreviated. Use initial capital letters on all significant words.
  5. Volume number
  6. Issue number (if present, in round brackets)
  7. Page numbers or reference number (Include the page numbers of the whole article when writing your full citation, not just the pages you have referred to)

Copy the format and punctuation of these examples.

Example: journal article with a single author

Citation in the text:   (Teferra, 2021)

Full reference:   
Teferra, T.F. (2021) 'Possible actions of inulin as prebiotic polysaccharide: a review', Food Frontiers, 2(4), pp. 407-416.

Example: journal article with two authors

Citation in the text:   (Neri-Numa and Pastore, 2020)

Full reference:    

Neri-Numa, I.A. and Pastore, G.M. (2020) 'Novel insights into prebiotic properties on human health: a review', Food Research International, 131, pp. 108973-108973.

Example: journal article with four or more authors

Citation in the text:    (Li et al., 2020)

Full reference:
Li, H., Zhang, T., Li, C., Zheng, S., Li, H. and Yu, J. (2020) 'Development of a microencapsulated synbiotic product and its application in yoghurt', Food Science & Technology, 122, pp. 109033.

You must include all authors in the full reference.

Citing online journal articles without page numbers or article reference numbers

Include the following in your reference:

  1. ALL Author name(s) in the format 'Surname, Initials'
  2. Year of publication (in brackets)
  3. Article title
  4. Journal title (in italics) - give the journal name in full, not abbreviated
  5. Volume number
  6. Issue number (if present, in round brackets)
  7. Available at: DOI (preceded by https://doi.org/) or Web link
  8. Accessed: date you looked at the article in the format day month year e.g. 12 June 2022

Copy the format and punctuation of these examples:

Example: online only journal article without page numbers

Citation in the text:    (Han et al., 2015)

Full reference:
Han, F., Zhou, D., Liu, X., Cheng, J., Zhang, Q. and Shelton, A.M. (2015) 'Attitudes in China about crops and foods developed by biotechnology'. PLoS ONE, 10(9). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143474 (Accessed: 12 June 2022)

Example: an 'In press' article

Articles are often made available before they receive their official publication details (volume and issue number). If an article is shown as 'In press' and doesn't yet have these details, just use (in press) instead.

Citation in the text:    (Benardout et al., 2021)

Full reference:
Benardout, M., Le Gresley, A., ElShaer, A. and Wren, S. P. (2021) 'Fructose malabsorption: causes, diagnosis and treatment'. British Journal of Nutrition (in press). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114521001215 (Accessed: 20 June 2022)

EndNote tips

You should be able to download details for most articles from databases such as Summon, Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed. If you need to type one in from scratch this is the information to include.

For most articles
  • Use the Reference Type 'Journal Article'
  • Complete these fields:
    • Author: in the format surname, initials - each author on a separate line
    • Year:
    • Title: title of the article
    • Journal: name of the journal 
    • Volume:
    • Issue: (if present)
    • Pages: page numbers or article reference number
For online only articles without page numbers or an article reference number and 'In press' articles
  • Use the reference Type 'Electronic Article'
  • Fields to complete:
    • Author: in the format surname, initials - each author on a separate line
    • Year:
    • Title: title of the article
    • Periodical Title: name of the journal 
    • Volume:
    • Issue: (put in press here for articles currently being published)
    • Date Accessed: the date you looked at the article in the format day month year e.g. 17 June 2022
    • URL: If there isn't a DOI add the web address for the article in the URL field. If there is already a URL in the box check that it goes to the article, not back to the reference on the database you downloaded it from. 

Citing web pages or web sites

You should avoid citing webpages unless you are clear of their quality and suitability for inclusion in academic work. See the 'Websites' tab within this guide for more information on evaluating webpages.

Only follow this guidance if the item you want to reference is not a book, a book chapter or a journal article. When you search the internet you will find many different types of content. The first step to referencing correctly is to recognise what you are looking at.

  • Could it be a book?
    Is it a PDF? Does it have a title page giving the title and the authors/editors? Does it have a place published and publisher on the following page? If 'Yes' it is probably a book - follow the guidance on citing a book.
  • Could it be a book chapter?
    Does it say 'Chapter' on it? Does it have page numbers? If 'Yes' it could be a book chapter - follow the guidance on citing a book chapter.
  • Could it be journal article?
    Does it have an abstract or summary? Does it mention the name of a journal and have a volume number? If 'Yes' it could be a journal article - follow the guidance on citing a journal article.
Citing reputable websites and webpages

Include the following in your reference:

  1. Author name(s) in the format 'Surname, Initials', or organisation that created the page
  2. Year information was created or last edited (in brackets). You might need to scroll to the bottom of the page to find it. If there is no date put (no date)
  3. Page title (in italics and in lower case apart from the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns)
  4. Available at: followed by the web address
  5. Accessed: date in round brackets

Copy the format and punctuation of these examples.

Example: webpage with a named author

Citation in the text:    (Zoecklein, 2018)

Full reference: 
Zoecklein, B.W. (2018) Sensory analysis. Available at: https://www.apps.fst.vt.edu/extension/enology/downloads/wm_issues/Sensory%20Analysis/Sensory%20Analysis%20-%20Section%205.pdf (Accessed: 7 April 2022).

Example: webpage with an organisation as the author

Citation in the text:     (Office of Dietary supplements, 2018)

Full reference: 
Office of Dietary Supplements (2018) Dietary supplement fact sheet: folate. Available at: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Folate-HealthProfessional/ (Accessed: 7 April 2022).

Example: webpage without a date

If there isn't a date on the website, even at the bottom of the page, use 'no date'. 

Citation in the text:  (Action on Salt, no date)

Full reference:
Action on Salt (no date) UK salt reduction. Available at: https://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/reformulation/uk-salt-reduction-timeline (Accessed: 9 April 2022).

EndNote tips

  • Use the Reference Type 'Web Page'
  • Fields to complete:
    • Author: in the format surname, initials - each author on a separate line
      Organisation as the author? Put a comma after the name to ensure it formats correctly e.g. British Nutrition Foundation,
    • Year: use the updated date for the page, if there isn't a date use 'no date'
    • Title:
    • Access Date: the date you looked at the site in the format day month year e.g. 17 June 2022
    • URL: web address for the page

Secondary references (citing a source you have read about in a different source)

A secondary reference is used when you are referring to a source which you have not read yourself, but have read about in another source. Where possible, you should always try to go back to the original source and cite that; otherwise you are relying on the author who cited the reference to have interpreted it correctly and not taken it out of context. Use the reference list at the end of the source you are reading to find details of the reference and search for it using the search boxes below.

Search for books on Enterprise

Just type in the first author's surname and a few words from the title.


Search for journal articles on Summon

Type in the first author's surname and first part of the title.


If you can't get hold of the original source you will only be able to refer it as part of your in-text citation, you won't be able to include it in your reference list. Only include the source you have used in your list of references following the guidance above on citing that type of publication.

Example: secondary reference

In-text citation:

According to Gustaffson et al. (2011, cited in Ustunol, 2014), the industrial world generates more food waste than developing countries.

OR if they have quoted them:

According to Gustaffson et al. (2011, quoted in Ustunol, 2014, p. 9), the industrial world generates more food waste than developing countries.

Full reference for the book chapter which has been read: 

Ustunol, Z. (2014) 'Overview of food proteins', in Ustunol, Z. (ed.) Applied food protein chemistry. Chichester: Wiley, pp. 5-9.