Harvard and APA are the two author–date styles students meet most often, and they look so alike that they are easy to mix up. In both, you write the author’s surname and the year in the text, (Suri and Jack, 2016) or (Suri & Jack, 2016), and list full references alphabetically at the end. The differences are in the punctuation and the details, and markers notice them.
This guide compares Harvard (Cite Them Right), the version most universities use, with APA 7th edition.
The same article in both styles
Suri, T. and Jack, W. (2016) ‘The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money’, Science, 354(6317), pp. 1288–1292. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.
In-text: (Suri and Jack, 2016)
Suri, T., & Jack, W. (2016). The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science, 354(6317), 1288–1292. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309
In-text: (Suri & Jack, 2016)
Spot the differences:
- Two authors: Harvard joins them with and; APA uses & (in the reference list and in brackets in the text).
- The year: Harvard has no full stop after the bracket, (2016); APA does, (2016).
- Article title: Harvard puts it in single quotation marks; APA uses plain text.
- Pages: Harvard writes pp. before the range; APA gives just the numbers.
- DOI: Harvard writes Available at: before the link; APA gives the link on its own.
The same book in both styles
Creswell, J.W. and Creswell, J.D. (2018) Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 5th edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
- Edition: Harvard writes 5th edn.; APA writes (5th ed.).
- Place of publication: Harvard keeps it (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications); APA 7 gives only the publisher.
In-text citations
Both styles put the surname and year in the text, but count authors differently:
Banerjee, A. et al. (2015) ‘The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation’, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 7(1), pp. 22–53. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20130533.
In-text: (Banerjee et al., 2015)
Banerjee, A., Duflo, E., Glennerster, R., & Kinnan, C. (2015). The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 7(1), 22–53. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20130533
In-text: (Banerjee et al., 2015)
| Authors | Harvard (Cite Them Right) | APA 7 |
|---|---|---|
| One | (Granovetter, 1973) | (Granovetter, 1973) |
| Two | (Suri and Jack, 2016) | (Suri & Jack, 2016) |
| Three | (Okafor, Bello and Eze, 2021) | (Okafor et al., 2021) |
| Four or more | (Banerjee et al., 2015) | (Banerjee et al., 2015) |
| Quotation | (Suri and Jack, 2016, p. 1290) | (Suri & Jack, 2016, p. 1290) |
In the narrative form both styles write “and”: Suri and Jack (2016) found that…
Websites
The clearest difference is in web references. Harvard always ends with the date you viewed the page, while APA only adds a retrieval date for pages that change over time:
World Health Organization (2023) Malaria. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
World Health Organization. (2023, December 4). Malaria. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria
The reference list
Both list references alphabetically by the first author’s surname, with a hanging indent. The heading differs: Reference list (or References) in Harvard, References in APA. In both, only sources you actually cited belong in the list.
How to tell which one you are reading
- & between authors, or a full stop straight after the year’s bracket: APA.
- ‘Single quotes’ around article titles, pp., Available at: or (Accessed: …): Harvard.
Switching between them
If your supervisor asks you to change style, you don’t need to retype anything. Paste your list into the APA to Harvard converter or the Harvard to APA converter: every reference is matched against the publisher’s record, rewritten and re-sorted.