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How to reference a YouTube (or an online) video in Harvard style

This guide covers how to reference YouTube videos in the Harvard referencing style. Since YouTube isn’t a conventional source for academic research, the rules for citing YouTube videos are a little different from those you have used for other sources. This guide will look at the conventions to be followed when referencing YouTube videos.

Citing a video from YouTube  

Keep in mind that if you are referencing a section of the video, you should include a time code in your in-text citation. The format for the time code is minutes:seconds .  

Alternatively, if the entire video is relevant, then you don’t need to include the time code. You’ll find two examples for each scenario below.  

In-text c itation template:

(Username/screen name, Year in which video was posted, mm:ss)

Reference list template:

Username or screen name (Year in which video was posted) Video title. Upload Day Month. Available at: YouTube or URL of the video (Accessed: Date).

When a specific part is highlighted

In-text citation  

George Smoot states that it is now possible to map an entire human brain and turn it into a computer model (TEDx Talks, 2014, 12:17) …

Reference list

TEDx Talks (2014) You are a simulation & physics can prove It: George Smoot at TEDxSalford . 12 February. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chfoo9NBEow (Accessed: 24 September 2020).

When the whole video is relevant

Elon Musk thinks that it is possible to make Mars habitable by nuking it (SciShow Space, 2015) …

SciShow Space (2015) Let’s nuke Mars! 18 September. Available at:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Iiz_b_lYU (Accessed: 20 July 2020).

Citing a video embedded in a website

Sometimes, you’ll find videos embedded on a web page. To reference these, Harvard style recommends pointing the reader to where you found the source. It is possible that you will need to click through to the original source of the embedded video to obtain all the information you need to reference it, but you can still use the original URL to build your citation.

In-text c itation structure:

Reference list structure:

Username or screen name (Year in which video was posted) Video title. Upload date. Available at: URL (Accessed: Date).

During the annual Groundhog Day celebrations in Punxsutawney (CNN, 2020, 01:12) …

CNN (2015) Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring . 2 February. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/02/02/groundhog-day-2020-punxsutawney-phil-prediction-vpx.cnn (Accessed: 20 July 2020).

Key takeaways

• Keep in mind that if you are highlighting just a section of the video, you should include a time code in your in-text citation. The format to be used is minutes:seconds.
• Alternatively, if the entire video is relevant, then you don’t need to use the time code.

Published October 29, 2020.

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Harvard Referencing – How to Cite a YouTube Video

2-minute read

• 28th February 2017

Once you’ve watched all of the unboxing videos YouTube has to offer (assuming you have a spare century), you might want to check out the lectures and educational content available. In fact, you might even want to cite them in your work .

But since YouTube videos aren’t conventional academic sources, the rules for citing them are a little different. In this post, we look at how to cite an online video with Harvard referencing .

In-Text Citations

Since a YouTube video does not have an author in the conventional sense, you can instead cite the title and the year it was uploaded:

Ian Ayre describes Rawls’ veil of ignorance as important in philosophy and law ( Rawlsian Veil of Ignorance , 2015).

Here, for example, we give the name of the video, even though the video names Ian Ayre as the presenter.

You can even quote a YouTube video in your work. To do this, provide a timestamp to show where the quoted passage occurs in the video:

Decision makers behind a veil of ignorance make ‘better and less biased choices’ ( Rawlsian Veil of Ignorance , 2015, 00:02:20).

In this case, the timestamp shows that the passage occurs two minutes and twenty seconds into the video. This is equivalent to giving page numbers when quoting a print source.

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In the Reference List

As with other sources, YouTube videos cited in your work should be added to a reference list at the end of your document. The format for these references is:

Title of Video (date uploaded) YouTube video, added by Username of uploader [Online]. Available at URL [Accessed date].

For the video cited in the examples above, for instance, we’d write:

Rawlsian Veil of Ignorance  (2015) YouTube video, added by YaleCourses [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRzMeAkULc [Accessed 19 December 2016].

Harvard Referencing: A Proviso

Keep in mind that Harvard referencing is not a single, unified system. As such, you should check your style guide in case the rules your university uses differ from those described here.

If your style guide doesn’t give specific information on citing a YouTube video, the method here should be fine. Just remember to make your referencing clear and consistent throughout!

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Harvard Referencing Guide: YouTube Video

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Youtube Video

YouT ube Video

A reference to a YouTube video will generally require the following components:

• Name of person posting the video
• Year video was posted   (in round brackets)
• Title of the video             (in italics)
• Available at : URL
• (Accessed: date)

In-text citation

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To be made up of:

• Year created or uploaded.
• Title video (in italics).
• [Online video].
• Available at: URL or App.
• (Accessed: date).

In-text citation:

 (The University of Birmingham, 2020)

Reference list:

The University of Birmingham (2010). The University of Birmingham experience . [Online video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLxV5L6IaFA (Accessed: 18 June 2015).

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Harvard Referencing – Citing a YouTube Video

2-minute read

• 5th December 2016

Although most of YouTube seems to be videos of cats doing stupid things , you may occasionally come across something that you want to cite in an essay. As such, in this blogpost, we’re looking at how to cite a YouTube video in Harvard referencing.

Citing a YouTube Video in Harvard Referencing

Since a YouTube video does not have an author in the conventional sense, you can instead cite the title and the year it was uploaded:

The presence of the word ‘male’ in ‘female’ is actually a coincidence ( Words That Seem Related, But Aren’t , 2016).

It’s more unusual to quote a YouTube video directly, but when you can do this by giving a timestamp for the part of the video you are quoting:

According to Arika Okrent in  Words That Seem Related, But Aren’t (2016, 00:00:10), ‘there’s no “male” in “female”’.

For example, the citation above shows that the quote is taken from ten seconds into the video. The reader would then be able to look up the video, skip to the cited section, and find the quoted material.

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The Reference List

Any YouTube video cited in your work should also be added to the reference list at the end of your document. The format here is as follows:

Title of Video (date uploaded) YouTube video, added by Username of uploader [Online]. Available at URL [Accessed date].

For the video cited above, for instance, the correct reference would be:

Words That Seem Related, But Aren’t (2016) YouTube video, added by Arika Okrent [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_3PNlkaKs [Accessed 8 November 2016].

A Quick Note on Harvard Referencing

Although many universities use ‘Harvard referencing’ , there’s not one universally accepted version of this system. As such, you should check your style guide to confirm the format preferred by your university

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How to cite a YouTube video in Harvard

To cite a YouTube video in a reference entry in Harvard style include the following elements:

• Owner of video: Name of the person/organisation posting the video.
• Year of upload: Indicate the year the video was posted.
• Title of the video: Give the title as presented in the source. Only the first letter of the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.
• Date uploaded: Indicate day and month the video was posted.
• URL: Give the full URL of the web page including the protocol (http:// or https://).
• Date of access: Give the day, month and year of access.

Here is the basic format for a reference list entry of a YouTube video in Harvard style:

Owner of video ( Year of upload ) Title of the video . Date uploaded , Available at: URL (Accessed: Date of access ).

Take a look at our reference list examples that demonstrate the Harvard style guidelines in action:

A YouTube video by a science channel

AsapSCIENCE . ( 2017 ) How To Learn Faster . 28 September . Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9SptdjpJBQ ( Accessed: 27 November 2019 ).

A video on Vimeo by an individual filmmaker

Boyson, O. ( 2016 ) The Future of Cities . 12 December . Available at: https://vimeo.com/ ( Accessed: 27 November 2019 ).

This citation style guide is based on the Cite Them Right (10 th edition) Harvard referencing guide.

More useful guides

• Referencing with Harvard: Video or film on YouTube
• Chapter 1: Harvard Citing and Referencing Style
• Harvard Referencing for Visual Material

More great BibGuru guides

• Chicago: how to cite an online report
• Harvard: how to cite a YouTube video
• Harvard: how to cite a computer program

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Film or Talk on YouTube

Reference : Name of person posting video (Year video posted) Title of film or programme. Available at: URL (Accessed Day Month Year).

Example : APintTurtle (2008) Zig & Zag - Christmas crises. Available at: http://youtu.be/yCv4iyPqZKQ (Accessed 12 December 2014).

In-Text-Citation :

• Poster's Last name (Year)
• (Poster's Last name, Year)
• Podge tries to foil Christmas in this Christmas special (APintTurtle, 2008)...
• APintTurtle's (2008) posted a version of 'Zig & Zag - Christmas Crises'...

Still unsure what in-text citation and referencing mean? Check here .

Still unsure why you need to reference all this information? Check here . 

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Video (Online e.g. YouTube, TED) examples

Format: in text citation   The Harvard referencing system follows the surname and year format in the text of an assignment (Username/Author, Year).

Format: reference   Username or Author surname, Author initials.  (Year) Title of video.  Source  [online]. Available from: URL [Accessed date].

Example: in text citation    The Harvard referencing system follows the surname and year format in the text of an assignment (UoWLTTU, 2008).

Example: reference    UoWLTTU (2008) Harvard Referencing with Mike Webb (Part One).  YouTube  [online]. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Laol_ALeU [Accessed 23 March 2013].

Note: When citing You Tube, always use the username as the author.

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Quick guide to Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right)

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There are different versions of the Harvard referencing style. This guide is a quick introduction to the commonly-used Cite Them Right version. You will find further guidance available through the OU Library on the Cite Them Right Database .

For help and support with referencing and the full Cite Them Right guide, have a look at the Library’s page on referencing and plagiarism . If you need guidance referencing OU module material you can check out which sections of Cite Them Right are recommended when referencing physical and online module material .

This guide does not apply to OU Law undergraduate students . If you are studying a module beginning with W1xx, W2xx or W3xx, you should refer to the Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules .

Table of contents

In-text citations and full references.

• Secondary referencing
• Page numbers
• Citing multiple sources published in the same year by the same author

Full reference examples

Referencing consists of two elements:

• in-text citations, which are inserted in the body of your text and are included in the word count. An in-text citation gives the author(s) and publication date of a source you are referring to. If the publication date is not given, the phrase 'no date' is used instead of a date. If using direct quotations or you refer to a specific section in the source you also need the page number/s if available, or paragraph number for web pages.
• full references, which are given in alphabetical order in reference list at the end of your work and are not included in the word count. Full references give full bibliographical information for all the sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

To see a reference list and intext citations check out this example assignment on Cite Them Right .

Difference between reference list and bibliography

a reference list only includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text

a bibliography includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text AND sources that were part of your background reading that you did not use in your assignment

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Examples of in-text citations

You need to include an in-text citation wherever you quote or paraphrase from a source. An in-text citation consists of the last name of the author(s), the year of publication, and a page number if relevant. There are a number of ways of incorporating in-text citations into your work - some examples are provided below. Alternatively you can see examples of setting out in-text citations in Cite Them Right .

Note: When referencing a chapter of an edited book, your in-text citation should give the author(s) of the chapter.

Online module materials

(Includes written online module activities, audio-visual material such as online tutorials, recordings or videos).

When referencing material from module websites, the date of publication is the year you started studying the module.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

OR, if there is no named author:

The Open University (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Rietdorf, K. and Bootman, M. (2022) 'Topic 3: Rare diseases'. S290: Investigating human health and disease . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1967195 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

The Open University (2022) ‘3.1 The purposes of childhood and youth research’. EK313: Issues in research with children and young people . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1949633&section=1.3 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

You can also use this template to reference videos and audio that are hosted on your module website:

The Open University (2022) ‘Video 2.7 An example of a Frith-Happé animation’. SK298: Brain, mind and mental health . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2013014&section=4.9.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

The Open University (2022) ‘Audio 2 Interview with Richard Sorabji (Part 2)’. A113: Revolutions . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1960941&section=5.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

Note: if a complete journal article has been uploaded to a module website, or if you have seen an article referred to on the website and then accessed the original version, reference the original journal article, and do not mention the module materials. If only an extract from an article is included in your module materials that you want to reference, you should use secondary referencing, with the module materials as the 'cited in' source, as described above.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of message', Title of discussion board , in Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Fitzpatrick, M. (2022) ‘A215 - presentation of TMAs', Tutor group discussion & Workbook activities , in A215: Creative writing . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=4209566 (Accessed: 24 January 2022).

Note: When an ebook looks like a printed book, with publication details and pagination, reference as a printed book.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title . Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.

For ebooks that do not contain print publication details

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title of book . Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).

Example with one author:

Bell, J. (2014) Doing your research project . Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy . Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-ebooks (Accessed: 23 June 2021).

Example with two or three authors:

Goddard, J. and Barrett, S. (2015) The health needs of young people leaving care . Norwich: University of East Anglia, School of Social Work and Psychosocial Studies.

Example with four or more authors:

Young, H.D. et al. (2015) Sears and Zemansky's university physics . San Francisco, CA: Addison-Wesley.

Note: You can choose one or other method to reference four or more authors (unless your School requires you to name all authors in your reference list) and your approach should be consistent.

Note: Books that have an editor, or editors, where each chapter is written by a different author or authors.

Surname of chapter author, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of chapter or section', in Initial. Surname of book editor (ed.) Title of book . Place of publication: publisher, Page reference.

Franklin, A.W. (2012) 'Management of the problem', in S.M. Smith (ed.) The maltreatment of children . Lancaster: MTP, pp. 83–95.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference.

If accessed online:

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference. Available at: DOI or URL (if required) (Accessed: date).

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326.

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326. Available at: https://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/log... (Accessed: 27 January 2023).

Barke, M. and Mowl, G. (2016) 'Málaga – a failed resort of the early twentieth century?', Journal of Tourism History , 2(3), pp. 187–212. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2010.523145

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference if available. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Mansell, W. and Bloom, A. (2012) ‘£10,000 carrot to tempt physics experts’, The Guardian , 20 June, p. 5.

Roberts, D. and Ackerman, S. (2013) 'US draft resolution allows Obama 90 days for military action against Syria', The Guardian , 4 September. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/04/syria-strikes-draft-resolut... (Accessed: 9 September 2015).

Surname, Initial. (Year that the site was published/last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Robinson, J. (2007) Social variation across the UK . Available at: https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/social-variation... (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

The British Psychological Society (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct . Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct (Accessed: 22 March 2019).

Note: Cite Them Right Online offers guidance for referencing webpages that do not include authors' names and dates. However, be extra vigilant about the suitability of such webpages.

Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of photograph . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Kitton, J. (2013) Golden sunset . Available at: https://www.jameskittophotography.co.uk/photo_8692150.html (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

stanitsa_dance (2021) Cossack dance ensemble . Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/COI_slphWJ_/ (Accessed: 13 June 2023).

Note: If no title can be found then replace it with a short description.

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• Referencing
• Leeds Harvard referencing examples

Leeds Harvard: Video

Reference examples, video (recorded eg on dvd or videocassette).

Reference this using the same format as  Film .

Video (online)

Screen name or username. Year.  Title.  [Online]. [Date Accessed]. Available from: URL

Common Craft. 2008.  Twitter in plain English.  [Online]. [Accessed 19 August 2019]. Available from:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Citation examples

Film, video or broadcast.

If you refer to a film, video, video game or broadcast, you should cite the title and the date.

When the title is not mentioned in the text, the citation should consist of the title and the date in brackets:

Example: The way the characters interact reveals... (The Godfather, 1972)

If you have already named the title in the text, only the year needs to be included in brackets.

Example: The way the characters interact in The Godfather (1972) reveals...

If you are referring to a particular scene or quote, you should include in the citation the times (hours, minutes and seconds) between which it takes place in the film. 

The conversation between the characters Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara reveals... (Gone with the Wind, 1939, 01:32:03-01:33:05).

Author and date

When the author name is not mentioned in the text, the citation consists of the author’s name and the year of publication in brackets.

It was emphasised that citations in the text should be consistent (Jones, 2017).

If you have already named the author in the text, only the publication year needs to be mentioned in brackets.

Jones (2017) emphasised that citations in the text should be consistent.

Three or more authors

If a source has three or more authors, the name of the first author should be given, followed by the phrase "et al."

It was emphasised that citations in a text should be consistent (Jones et al., 2017).

Jones et al. (2017) emphasised that citations in a text should be consistent.

Leeds Harvard does not use ibid to refer to previously cited items. If you are citing the same item twice in a row (i.e. you do not cite any other items in the text between the two citations) you must write the full citation again. As usual, if you are directly quoting or paraphrasing specific ideas, you should include a page number (if there is one). 

Jones et al. (2017, p.24) emphasised that citations in a text should be consistent and argued that referencing is a key part of academic integrity (2017, p.27). Furthermore, having a broad range of references in a text is an indicator of the breadth of a scholar's reading and research (Jones et al., 2017, p.14).

Corporate author

If the item is produced by an organisation, treat the organisation as a "corporate author". This means you can use the name of the organisation instead of that of an individual author. This includes government departments, universities or companies. Cite the corporate author in the text the same way as you would an individual author.

According to a recent report, flu jabs are as important as travel vaccines (Department of Health, 2017).  

Common issues

When you're referencing with Leeds Harvard you may come across issues with missing details, multiple authors, edited books, references to another author's work or online items, to name a few. Here are some tips on how to deal with some common issues when using Leeds Harvard.

Skip straight to the issue that affects you:

• Online items
• URL web addresses
• Multiple authors
• Corporate author(s) or organisation(s)
• Multiple publisher details
• Editions and reprints
• Missing details
• Multiple sources with different authors
• Sources written by the same author in the same year
• Sources with the same author in different years
• Two authors with the same surname in the same year
• The work of one author referred to by another
• Anonymising sources for confidentiality
• Identifying the authors’ family name (surname)

• Bibliography
• More Referencing guides Blog Automated transliteration Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Automated transliteration
• Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Referencing guides

Online video: how to cite in Harvard style?

Create a spot-on reference in harvard, general rules.

In the Harvard referencing system, few details are required to identify an online video. To create a bibliographic reference, it suffices to provide the following information about the video: channel title, year of publication, video title, title of the website where the video was published, and the video’s URL address. The date when the video was last accessed should also be given.

N.B. Give the year of publication instead the full date in the reference.

Bibliographic reference template:

Channel title , ( Year ). Video title [online]. Website title . [Viewed date viewed ]. Available from: URL

This template can be used for the videos published on online platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, etc. To make your work easier, use the online references generator Grafiati. With the help of our website, you can retrieve automatically all the details of an online video by pasting the link to it into the appropriate field. To do this, go to our homepage and select ‘Video (online)’ from the list of available source types.

Examples in a list of references

Nathan the Beach Cat, (2019). Adorable cats swimming together for the first time! [online]. YouTube . [Viewed 25 June 2021]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LolJNcy4rso

Cream Electric Art, (2015). Glass brain [online]. Vimeo . [Viewed 22 June 2021]. Available from: https://vimeo.com/129401620

Other citation styles:

• What is APA Style (7th ed.)?
• Examples of bibliographic references in APA (7th ed.)
• APA 7 vs APA 6: key differences
• How to cite authors?
• How to format the references page with APA (7th ed.)?
• In-text citations
• Archival document
• Book chapter
• Conference paper
• Dictionary/encyclopedia/dictionary entry/encyclopedia article
• Dissertation (thesis)
• Journal article
• Newspaper article
• Press release
• Religious text
• Social media post
• Software / mobile app
• Video (online)
• Video game / computer game
• What is MLA Style (8th ed.)?
• Examples of references in works cited in MLA (8th ed.)
• How to format the works cited page in MLA (8th ed.)?
• What is Chicago Style?
• Examples of bibliographic references in Chicago Style – notes and bibliography (17th ed.)
• How to format the bibliography page?
• Notes and in-text citations
• Examples of bibliographic references in Chicago Style – author-date (17th ed.)
• What is Harvard referencing style?
• Examples of bibliographic references in Harvard style
• Online video
• What is IEEE Style?
• Examples of bibliographic references in IEEE Style
• How to format the references pages in IEEE Style?
• What is Vancouver Style?
• Examples of bibliographic references in Vancouver Style

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• Knowledge Base
• Referencing
• Reference a Website in Harvard Style | Templates & Examples

Reference a Website in Harvard Style | Templates & Examples

Published on 19 May 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 7 November 2022.

To reference a website in Harvard style , include the name of the author or organization, the year of publication, the title of the page, the URL, and the date on which you accessed the website.

Different formats are used for other kinds of online source, such as articles, social media posts and multimedia content. You can generate accurate Harvard references for all kinds of sources with our free reference generator:

Harvard Reference Generator

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Table of contents

Online articles, social media posts, images, videos and podcasts, referencing websites with missing information, frequently asked questions about harvard website references.

Blog posts and online newspaper articles are both referenced in the same format: include the title of the article in quotation marks, the name of the blog or newspaper in italics, and the date of publication.

The format for a magazine article is slightly different. Instead of a precise date, include the month, season, or volume and issue number, depending on what the magazine uses to identify its issues.

The URL and access date information are included only when the article is online-exclusive.

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To reference posts from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, include the username and the platform in square brackets. Write usernames the way they appear on the platform, with the same capitalization and symbols.

If the post has a title, use it (in quotation marks). If the post is untitled, use the text of the post instead. Do not use italics. If the text is long, you can replace some of it with an ellipsis.

Online content is referenced differently if it is in video, audio or image form.

To cite an image found online, such as an artwork, photograph, or infographic, include the image format (e.g. ‘Photograph’, ‘Oil on canvas’) in square brackets.

Online videos, such as those on YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo and Dailymotion, are cited similarly to general web pages. Where a video is uploaded under the name of an individual, write the name in the usual format. Otherwise, write the username of the uploader as it appears on the site.

If you want to locate a specific point in a video in an in-text citation, you can do so using a timestamp.

For a podcast reference, you just need the name of the individual episode, not of the whole series. The word ‘Podcast’ is always included in square brackets. As with videos, you can use a timestamp to locate a specific point in the in-text citation.

Online sources are often missing information you would usually need for a citation: author, title or date. Here’s what to do when these details are not available.

When a website doesn’t list a specific individual author, you can usually find a corporate author to list instead. This is the organisation responsible for the source:

In cases where there’s no suitable corporate author (such as online dictionaries or Wikis), use the title of the source in the author position instead:

In Harvard style, when a source doesn’t list a specific date of publication, replace it with the words ‘no date’ in both the in-text citation and the reference list. You should still include an access date:

It’s important to assess the reliability of information found online. Look for sources from established publications and institutions with expertise (e.g. peer-reviewed journals and government agencies).

The CRAAP test (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose) can aid you in assessing sources, as can our list of credible sources . You should generally avoid citing websites like Wikipedia that can be edited by anyone – instead, look for the original source of the information in the “References” section.

You can generally omit page numbers in your in-text citations of online sources which don’t have them. But when you quote or paraphrase a specific passage from a particularly long online source, it’s useful to find an alternate location marker.

For text-based sources, you can use paragraph numbers (e.g. ‘para. 4’) or headings (e.g. ‘under “Methodology”’). With video or audio sources, use a timestamp (e.g. ‘10:15’).

In Harvard referencing, up to three author names are included in an in-text citation or reference list entry. When there are four or more authors, include only the first, followed by ‘ et al. ’

A Harvard in-text citation should appear in brackets every time you quote, paraphrase, or refer to information from a source.

The citation can appear immediately after the quotation or paraphrase, or at the end of the sentence. If you’re quoting, place the citation outside of the quotation marks but before any other punctuation like a comma or full stop.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, November 07). Reference a Website in Harvard Style | Templates & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 22 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-website-reference/

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