Academic students often have questions related to citing their sources, and it’s important to ascertain which citation style the students need. In the U.S. the most common citation styles are APA, MLA and Chicago Style. In the UK, a popular style is Harvard referencing. The chief distinction with Harvard referencing is there are no footnotes. Instead, partial citations— for example (Smith 2010, p. 1)—are enclosed within parentheses and embedded in the text, either within or after a sentence. The list of full citations, or “references”, appear in an end section, in alphabetical order.
While you can find style guides for Harvard referencing on the web, be cautious! There are two main styles of Harvard referencing: author-date and author-title, with variations. Several UK universities use a modified version of Harvard which varies by school. Students must use the version of Harvard approved by their school. So, when helping a student with formatting citations, be sure to determine the citation format required. If the student says “Harvard”, please consult the library’s policy page! The University of the West of England, for example, has a nice web page (linked from their policy page) specifically designed to help students format their citations based on UWE-specific citation principles. Open University also has a link to their specific Harvard reference guidelines – which are different from UWE – in the Alerts section of their policy page.
Following the correct referencing guidelines is important: UWE had a formal complaint this year because a student failed coursework having been given incorrect referencing information. If in doubt, be sure to code the session for Follow Up, so the patron library can provide the correct information. This is preferable to the chatting librarian sending an incorrect guide, and having the student rely on this to their detriment.
Don’t just give the students a guide – give them the correct guide, and to do that, consult the library’s policy page.
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