In-Text Citations: Primary References
Primary references are works that you have read yourself, such as journal articles, books, book chapters, websites, government reports and a range of other information sources. When you incorporate information from a source in your text, place the author’s surname and year of publication in parentheses at the end of the sentence.
E.g: The results conclusively proved a correlation between the risk priority number and severity of occurrence (Khanal 2018).
If you use the surname of the author(s) within your sentence, place the year of publication in parentheses and omit the author’s last name from the brackets.
E.g: Khanal (2018) observes that there is a correlation between risk priority and severity of occurrence.
For two or three authors, use the word 'and' or an ampersand (&) between the last two author's names.
Use "and" if you are writing the author's names as part of your sentence as in the example below:
E.g: Khanal, Lyon and Choudhary (2018) observe that there is a strong correlation between risk priority and severity of occurrence.
Use "&" if you are placing the author's names in brackets as in the example below:
E.g: It has been shown that there is a strong correlation between risk priority and severity of occurrence (Khanal, Lyon & Choudhary 2018).
For more than three authors, the first time that you cite the authors you need to write all of the names. However, for all other references to the same authors this becomes the surname of the first listed author, followed by the term 'et al.', where ‘et al.’ is a latin term meaning ‘and others’. So, to cite a work published in 2017 with four authors, namely Annelli, Singh, Smith and Wynn, the first time you cite the reference you would write either:
E.g:: Annelli, Singh, Smith and Wynn (2017) argued that it is important to consider gross domestic product (GDP) in developing the model. OR
E.g:: It has been argued that it is important to consider gross domestic product (GDP) in developing the model (Annelli, Singh, Smith & Wynn 2017).
However, if you are citing the same reference again later in your paper you would write either:
E.g:: Annelli et al. (2017) considered GDP to be an important indicator. OR
E.g:: It has been suggested that GDP is an important indicator (Anelli et al. 2017).
If you directly quote from a source (fewer than 30 words), you must include the page number and enclose the quote in double quotation marks.
E.g:: Khanal (2018, p. 108) referred to this correlation as a “statistical anomaly” (p. 108), contributing….. OR
E.g:: It was found that the correlation was a “statistical anomaly” (Khanal 2014, p. 108).
If your quotation is 30 or more words, it does not need double quotation mark. Instead, start the quote on a new line, indent the entire quote and finish with the in-text reference.
E.g:: It was stated that:
Contractors and consultants view risks differently. Contractors always try to transfer the risk to the owner to gain more time and money on the project. The consultants try to save the owner time and money and transfer the risks to the contractor, forcing the contractor to accept the risks and mitigate the contractor’s own cost and minimize the project duration (El-Sayegh and Mansour 2015, p.120).
If you are giving a direct quote from a source that does not have a page number (such as a web page), provide the section heading and/or paragraph number:
E.g:: Retailers must not mislead customers, and “a supplier must accurately describe their goods or services” (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission 2018, ‘False or misleading claims’, para. 1).
In-Text Citations: Secondary References
Secondary references are works that you have not read yourself but which are cited in a source that you have read. For example, if you have read a book by Kirsner (2017) that refers to a finding by Smith and Rathdown (2014), but you have not actually read the work of Smith and Rathdown, then to refer to the finding of Smith and Rathdown you would use secondary referencing. You should use secondary references sparingly and rely mainly on primary references. To cite secondary references follow the conventions below.
In the text, refer to the secondary source and note that was ‘cited in’ the source that you actually read. In the example above this would be:
Smith and Rathdown (2014, cited in Kirsner 2017) stated that..…
This clearly shows that you are basing your understanding of Smith and Rathdown’s work (a secondary source) on what you have read in Kirsner’s book (a primary source).
In the reference list, include the reference to the primary source only. In the example above this would be:
Kirsner, LS 2017, Introduction to Accounting, McGraw Hill, London.
For more information on Harvard referencing style, please refer to the complete ECA Student Guide to Harvard Referencing.
All sources of information such as quotes or borrowed ideas must be acknowledged in your work.
In the Harvard 'author/date' style an in-text reference consists of the surname of the author/authors or name of the authoring body and year of publication. Click on the 'Sample In-Text References' tab above for examples of how to use in-text citations in your work.
An in-text reference will consist of:
If you quote directly from an author or to cite a specific idea or piece of information from the source, you need to include the page number of the quote in your in-text reference.
