How to cite a website in Harvard

Harvard has no single official manual. This page follows Cite Them Right, the version many UK universities use, checked against university library guides based on it. Schools vary, so check your own guide before you submit.

Reference list format

Author (Year) Title of the page. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Alder, J. (2025) How to read a research paper in 20 minutes. Available at: https://example.org/read-a-paper (Accessed: 8 March 2025).

• Author. Surname, then initials. If no person is named, use the organisation responsible for the page. The “About us” or “Contact” page usually tells you who that is.
• Year. In round brackets, with no full stop after it.
• Title. Italic. The guides’ examples capitalise only the first word and proper nouns.
• Available at. The full web address.
• Accessed. The date you viewed the page, in brackets, written as day, month and year.

A page with no date

Write “no date” in brackets where the year would go. Use it only when you can’t find any date on the page.

Brightwell Public Library (no date) Borrowing policy. Available at: https://example.org/policy (Accessed: 8 March 2025).

In your text: (Brightwell Public Library, no date).

A page with no author

Use the organisation first. If there is no organisation either, the guides say to move the title into the author’s place, followed by the year:

Guide to recycling at home (2024) Available at: https://example.org/recycling (Accessed: 8 March 2025).

If the page has no title, guides suggest the web address. A page with no author, organisation or title may not be a good source for academic work.

In-text citation

Give the author and the year in brackets: (Alder, 2025). If you name the author in your sentence, put only the year in brackets: Alder (2025) suggests… Most web pages have no page numbers, so leave them out unless the page has numbered paragraphs or sections.

Check before you submit

• Accessed date. The guides include one on every web page reference. Note the date when you read the page.
• Who wrote it. A named person comes before the organisation.
• Test the link before you submit.