What is the Harvard format for a book?

Surname, Initials. (Year) Title in italics. Edition if not the first. Place of publication: Publisher. For example: Keane, R. (2024) Company law in Ireland. 6th edn. Dublin: Bloomsbury Professional.

How do I reference a book with two or three authors?

List them all in the order printed on the title page, with "and" before the last one: Doyle, A., Murphy, B. and Ní Bhriain, C. (2025). In the text you also name all of them the first time: (Doyle, Murphy and Ní Bhriain, 2025).

What about four or more authors?

Give the first author then et al. in the in-text citation: (Doyle et al., 2025). In the reference list most Irish and UK institutions want every author named, so check your handbook before shortening it there.

Do I need the edition number?

Only when it is not the first edition. Write it after the title as 2nd edn, 3rd edn and so on. Page numbers move between editions, so getting this right matters if you are quoting.

How do I reference one chapter in an edited book?

Start with the chapter author, then the chapter title in plain text, then "in" with the editors and the book title in italics, then the page range. Example: Byrne, S. (2024) The Free State courts, in M. Walsh and T. Ó Dónaill (eds) Irish legal history. Cork: Cork University Press, pp. 55-78.

Do ebooks need anything extra?

If it is a straight digital copy of a print book with the same pagination, reference it as the print book. If it only exists online, or has no page numbers, add the URL and the accessed date the way you would for a website.

What if there is no place of publication?

Use s.l. (from the Latin sine loco) in place of the city. If the publisher is missing, s.n. does the same job. Both are rare in modern academic books, and their absence is a hint the source may not be a reliable one.

How to Reference a Book in Harvard Style

One author or six, a chapter inside an edited collection, a third edition, an ebook with no page numbers. Here is the pattern for each, with the in-text citation beside it.

The basic pattern

Every Harvard book reference is the same five pieces in the same order. Get the order right and the punctuation follows.

Surname, Initials. (Year) Title in italics. Edition if not the first. Place: Publisher.

Only the first word of the title takes a capital letter, plus any proper nouns. That trips people up more than anything else on this page, because book covers are usually set in title case.

One author

Kiberd, D. (2023) Inventing Ireland. London: Vintage.

In the text: (Kiberd, 2023) or Kiberd (2023) argues that…

Two or three authors

Doyle, A., Murphy, B. and Ní Bhriain, C. (2025) Irish employment law in practice. 2nd edn. Dublin: Clarus Press.

In the text, name all of them: (Doyle, Murphy and Ní Bhriain, 2025). Note the ampersand is not used in Harvard, it is the word “and”.

Four or more authors

The in-text citation shortens to the first author plus et al.: (O’Sullivan et al., 2024). In the reference list, most Irish colleges still want the full list of names, so write them all out unless your handbook says otherwise. When in doubt, longer is safer than shorter.

An organisation as author

Central Statistics Office (2026) Statistical yearbook of Ireland. Cork: CSO.

Use the organisation exactly as it names itself. In the text you can give the abbreviation after the first mention: (Central Statistics Office [CSO], 2026), then (CSO, 2026) after that.

A chapter in an edited book

This is the one people get wrong most often, because there are two sets of names. The chapter author comes first, the editors come after the word “in”.

Byrne, S. (2024) The Free State courts, in M. Walsh and T. Ó Dónaill (eds) Irish legal history. Cork: Cork University Press, pp. 55–78.

Note what is italic: the book title, not the chapter title. The chapter is in plain text because it is a part, not a whole. In the text you cite the chapter author: (Byrne, 2024).

An edition that is not the first

Put it straight after the title, abbreviated: 2nd edn, 3rd edn, 4th edn. Not “Second Edition”, not “2nd ed.” in Harvard.

Faulkner, M. (2022) Constitutional law. 4th edn. Dublin: Round Hall.

A translated book

Name the translator after the title, so your reader knows whose words they are reading.

Ó Cadhain, M. (2015) The dirty dust. Translated by A. Titley. New Haven: Yale University Press.

An ebook

If the ebook matches the printed book page for page, reference the print version and save yourself the trouble. If it has no fixed pages, or exists only online, add where you got it and when.

Hughes, P. (2025) Digital skills for research. Available at: https://www.example.ie/digital-skills (Accessed: 28 August 2026).

Without page numbers you cannot give one in the in-text citation. Point at the chapter or section instead: (Hughes, 2025, ch. 4).

Quoting a page

A direct quote needs the page: (Kiberd, 2023, p. 91). A range takes pp.: (Kiberd, 2023, pp. 91–92). This goes in the in-text citation only, never in the reference list, because the reference covers the whole book.

Where the book goes in your reference list

Alphabetically by the first author’s surname, mixed in with your websites and journal articles. Harvard has one single list, not one per source type. Same author with two books in the same year? Add letters: (Kiberd, 2023a) and (Kiberd, 2023b), ordered by title.

How to reference a book in Harvard style