What do I do in Harvard when there is no author?

Look for an organisation first, because most unsigned web pages and reports have one. If there is genuinely nobody, move the title into the author position and cite by title. Never write "Anonymous" unless the work is actually published under that name.

What does n.d. mean in Harvard referencing?

No date. It goes where the year would be, in brackets: (Murphy, n.d.). Use it only after looking properly: copyright lines, page footers, PDF properties and the earliest date in an archived version are all worth checking first.

When do I use et al.?

In the in-text citation, when a source has four or more authors: (Doyle et al., 2025). It is short for et alia, so it takes a full stop after al. and not after et. In the reference list most Irish institutions still want every author named.

How do I cite something I read about in another book?

That is a secondary citation: (Freud, 1930, cited in Byrne, 2024, p. 88). Only Byrne goes in your reference list, because Byrne is what you actually read. Track down the original if it matters to your argument.

Two sources by the same author in the same year, how do I tell them apart?

Add letters after the year: (Kiberd, 2023a) and (Kiberd, 2023b). Assign the letters by ordering the titles alphabetically, then use the same letters consistently in the text and the reference list.

What if two different authors share a surname?

Add initials in the in-text citation to separate them: (K. Walsh, 2025) and (M. Walsh, 2024). Without the initials your reader cannot tell which reference list entry you mean.

Is a page number always needed?

For a direct quote, yes. For paraphrasing, most Irish handbooks encourage one anyway, because it helps your marker check you. If the source has no pages, point at a chapter, section or paragraph.

Harvard Referencing: No Author, No Date, Multiple Authors

No author. No date. Six authors. A quote inside a quote. Two papers by the same person in the same year. Every one of these has a settled answer, and none of them is guesswork.

No author

Work through this in order, and stop at the first one that applies.

Look for an organisation. Most unsigned reports and web pages belong to a body: the HSE, Revenue, a university, a charity. That body is your author.
Check the small print. Footers, About pages, PDF document properties and the copyright line often name someone the page itself does not.
Move the title up. If nobody is named anywhere, the title takes the author’s place: Irish coastal walking guide (2024). Dublin: Sportsfile.

Do not write “Anonymous” or “Anon.” unless the work is genuinely published under that name, which does happen with older literary texts.

One thing worth saying plainly: a source with no author at all is usually a weak source. Before you spend twenty minutes on how to cite it, ask whether it belongs in the essay.

No date

Write n.d. where the year goes, in the same brackets: Murphy, T. (n.d.) Notes on the Burren flora.

In the text: (Murphy, n.d.).

Before you settle for it, check:

the copyright line at the bottom of the page,
a last-updated or published line near the heading,
PDF properties, which often carry a creation date,
the Internet Archive, where the earliest capture gives you a “no later than” date.

If you find a probable but unconfirmed year, some handbooks accept [2019?] with the square brackets and question mark. Check yours before using it.

Four or more authors: et al.

In the text, name the first author and add et al.: (O’Sullivan et al., 2024).

The punctuation catches people out. It is short for et alia, Latin for “and others”. “Et” is a whole word, so no full stop. “Al.” is an abbreviation, so it takes one. Not “et. al”, not “et al” on its own.

In the reference list, most Irish and UK institutions want every author written out, however many there are. A few cap it at six or twenty. This is one to check rather than assume.

With two or three authors, name them all in the text every time: (Doyle, Murphy and Ní Bhriain, 2025).

Secondary citations: something quoted in something else

You read Byrne. Byrne quotes Freud. You never opened Freud.

In the text: (Freud, 1930, cited in Byrne, 2024, p. 88).

In the reference list: Byrne only. You reference what you read, and you did not read Freud. Listing Freud would imply you did.

Use these sparingly. If the original idea is load-bearing in your argument, find the original. Markers notice a paper built entirely out of second-hand quotes.

Same author, same year, two works

Letters after the year, assigned by putting the titles in alphabetical order:

Kiberd, D. (2023a) After Ireland. London: Head of Zeus.
Kiberd, D. (2023b) Inventing Ireland. London: Vintage.

Then cite (Kiberd, 2023a) or (Kiberd, 2023b) and keep the letters consistent everywhere. Sorting by title, not by which one you happened to read first, is what makes the letters predictable for your reader.

Different authors with the same surname

Add initials so the reader knows which entry you mean: (K. Walsh, 2025) and (M. Walsh, 2024). Without them, two different references look identical in the text.

Citing several sources at once

Separate with semicolons, and order them either by year or alphabetically, consistently through the whole essay: (Doyle, 2024; Kiberd, 2023; Walsh, 2025).

No page numbers

Web pages, ebooks with reflowing text and online-only articles often have none. Point at the nearest structural landmark instead:

(Hughes, 2025, ch. 4)
(Department of Health, 2026, Chapter 3)
(Osei, 2026, Methods)
(Murphy, n.d., para. 7) when a page is genuinely featureless

The one rule under all of these

Every in-text citation must lead the reader to exactly one entry in your reference list, and every entry must be something you actually read. Every rule on this page is a way of keeping that true when the source refuses to cooperate.

Harvard referencing: the awkward cases