Life and Health Sciences Harvard Referencing Guidelines: Sample In-text Citations

A recent study shows a correlation between engagement with the academic library’s support and retention (Delaney 2019). According to Atkinson (2015, 2020), the correlation is fundamental to development of the Library’s strategy. The key recommendations of this study include development of video support. These recommendations were further examined by the User Services Team (Campbell 2017). Campbell (2017) proposes synchronous and asynchronous sessions, would increase engagement, and alleviate research stress. McCoo and McGill (2019) further suggest that audio captioning and transcription would provide improved accessibility. The correlation between engagement with the academic library’s support and retention should be developed to facilitate widening participation (Campbell 2017; Atkinson 2020). McGill et al. (2021) support this view and illustrate accessibility issues involved. McCoo and McGill (2019) further suggest that audio captioning and transcription would improve accessibility. 

Atkinson, J. (2015) Students and the Library. New Review of Libraries, 2(4), 12-15.

Atkinson, J. (2020) Fundamentals of something and something else. 2nd ed. Harlow: Learning Matters.

Campbell, M. (2017) Challenges in something. New Review of Something, 15(1), 15-24.

Delaney, G. (2019) Critical approaches to something. New York: Pearson.

McCoo, K. and McGill, C. (2019) Demystifying something. 3rd ed. London: Sage.

McGill, C., Delaney, G. and Atkinson, J. (2021) Reimaging library services. New Review of Academic Writing, 5(9), 52-63.

Points to note:

• For every in-text citation, there needs to be a corresponding reference in the reference list.
• The elements for an in-text citation are a set of brackets, the author's surname and date of publication.
• For two authors, we use the connector 'and' (McCoo and McGill 2019); for more than two authors in-text, we can use the abbreviation 'et al.' (McGill et al. 2021). et al. must be italicised and completed with a full stop. However, all authors must be listed in the reference list.
• For more fluid writing include a mixture of information and author focused in-text citations.
• When citing multiple studies by the same author use a comma to differentiate between studies in text (Atkinson 2015, 2020). List the dates in ascending date order.
• When citing multiple studies for the same point, with different authors, use a semicolon to distinguish between citations, in ascending date order (Campbell 2017; Atkinson 2020).
• When using corporate authors in-text, use the full corporate name (Ulster University Library 2021).
• If there are information sources in your assignment with the same authors and year of publication, these can be differentiated in-text by small letters after the date of publication i.e. (Braidwood 2021a) and (Braidwood 2021b). Here, the two information sources would have exactly the same authors and dates, but are two different publications. In the reference list, they would be listed by which occurs first in text:

          Braidwood, B. (2021a) Helping students reference. Journal of Academic Studies, 17(1), 12-15.

          Braidwood, B. (2021b) Enabling students to study. 4th ed. London: SAGE.