Hi All,

I'm supposed to be using Harvard referencing but am starting to get a bit lost with it, can you help with the following? ...

- Are you allowed to use 'ibid'? (my 2nd supervisor told me he isn't sure if you can, but my other supervisor has never raised this an issue)
- Should 'ibid' and 'et al' always be italicised?
- Do you always put a date after the author's name when you first cite them? (e.g. Bloggs (2001) argues that ...)
- Do you do '2001, p. 3' or '2001: 3' (and do you put the date in again even if you've cited this after the author)?
- Is it ok (if you put the date after the author's name), just to do 'p. 3' then 'p. 4'? (if you are saying lots about one book)
- Can anyone recommend a good guide for following (i.e. web link/book)?

I've seen so many different versions, I'm not sure which one to go with.

Cheers!

This won't be much help but what about looking at the recommended reference guide : Harvard referencing guide or the one thats related to your subject area. I am sure that these books are in your "reference only section".

Do you have a departmental handbook for postgrads? Mine has examples of the referencing style required so maybe that would help. The Uni library website also has a guide for Harvard. I woudl try there as I know it differs slightly.

I hope that this can be of help.
http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/harvard.html

At the front of my reference for referencing (!)it says you can do some things any number of ways - but you have to be consistent - that is, use p. or pg. but don't swap between the two. In the text I always put the date after the name for every ref and then the page no if it is a direct quote e.g. - Smith, J. (2003, p.7)if before the quote and (Smith, J., 2003, p.7)if after the quote. et. al. should always be italicised, as should ibid, not used ibid myself anywhere butI've come across it in articles referenced using the Harvard system. I think its Bournemouth uni that has the definitive Harvard ref stuff on its website where you can find how to reference almost anything - or so I've heard anyway refs are a pain, especially those that are a bit out of the ordinary, I'm making sure I do them as I go along