Although APA 7th edition and the Coventry University Guide to Referencing in Harvard Style are similar styles of referencing, there are some differences between them. This page covers the main differences you are likely to encounter when switching between the two styles. Click the tabs above to learn more.
For more examples and a wider range of source types, see the APA LibGuide
APA and the Coventry University Guide to Referencing in Harvard Style are both author-date systems. There are a few small differences between them when it comes to in-text citations.
Harvard | APA | Explanation |
---|---|---|
(Shadid 2020) | (Shadid, 2020) | When your in-text citation is in brackets, add a comma between the author and date. |
(Armstrong 2015: 3-17) | (Armstrong, 2015, pp. 3-17) | When you are referencing a specific page or pages, add p. for one page or pp. for multiple pages. Put a comma after the date instead of a colon. |
Suliman (2018) claims... | Suliman (2018) claims... | When the author's name is in your sentence, there is no difference between Harvard and APA. |
Soto (2018: 598) argues that '...' | Soto (2018) argues that '...' (p.598). | When the author's name is in your sentence and you are including a page number, the page number should normally go in brackets after the quotation or paraphrase. |
(Salas and D'Agnostino 2020) | (Salas & D'Agnostino, 2020) but Salas and D'Agnostino (2020) | When your in-text citation is in brackets, use an ampersand (&) to separate two authors' names. If the authors' names are in your sentence, you should still type out the word 'and' in full. |
(Kapoor, Bloom, and Montez 2017) | (Kapoor et al., 2017) | In APA, if a source has more than two authors you only need to give the first one followed by 'et al.'. This is different to Harvard, which only allows et al. when there are more than three authors. |
Below are examples of the most common types of references you are likely to write. For more extensive guidance, see the APA LibGuide.