How to reference a chapter in a book using Harvard style

scu.edu.au/learning-zone/how-to-videos/
2021
Hi everyone, and welcome to this short video. Today we’ll look at how to write a reference for a chapter in an edited book using Harvard referencing style.

An edited book usually comprises a number of chapters that are each written by a different author. When you use information from a chapter in a collected work, the author or authors of the chapter must be credited. So let’s take a look at how to do this.

We can find all the information we need on the first few pages of the book itself, or in the library catalogue. So, here’s an example of an online library catalogue. Let’s look at where the referencing information might be found:

Now, it’s difficult to fit the whole catalogue entry on this screen, so we will need to scroll down to find some of the necessary elements. For example, the first thing we need is the Chapter Author names, so we would scroll down to the Chapter information to find this:

Chapter author name(s)
Year of publication
Title of the chapter
Name(s) of editor(s)
Title of the whole book
Publisher name
Publisher location
Page range

So here is our Chapter information, and we’re interested in Chapter 3 in particular. So the first thing we need is the Chapter author names, which as you can see are:

Chapter author name(s) – Wendy D. Manning and Susan L. Brown
Year of publication
Title of the chapter - American Families: Demographic Trends and Social Class
Name(s) of editor(s)
Title of the whole book
Publisher name
Publisher location
Page range

Here is an example of the basic format for referencing an edited book.

First we have the chapter author names. Notice that all the names are inverted, so that the last name comes first, followed by a comma and then the initial or initials for each chapter author. Note that there is an ampersand separating the second-last chapter author and the last author – there is no comma. Then we have a space after the last author’s initial before the year of publication, which is followed by a comma.

The title of the chapter comes next, which is in single quotation marks and in sentence case. This is also followed by a comma. Then, we have the word “in” in lower case, followed by the editors’ names. Notice that these names are not inverted, so that their initials come first, before their last name – and there is no punctuation between the initials and the last name. Then we have an abbreviated form of the word “editors” which is denoted by eds – and punctuated with a full stop and placed within round brackets.

Then we have the title of the whole book, which is in italics and sentence case. This is followed by a comma before we have the Publisher name, a comma, and the publisher location, and another comma, before the page range of the chapter. Note that the page range is denoted by a pp – no punctuation – and then the page range, which ends with a full stop.

And here it is.

Again, we can see same general pattern as our previous example: First we have the chapter author names, which are arranged with the last name first, followed by a comma, and then the initials, and in this case we have only two authors, which are separated by an ampersand. Then, after a space, we have the year of publication, followed by a comma. Then the title of the chapter in single quotes, followed by a comma, then the word “in” and the editor names, in the normal order so that their initial or initials precede their last name.

The editors’ names are followed by the abbreviated word for editors, which is punctuated and contained in round brackets, then a comma before the title of the whole book. Notice that in this title, we have capitalised the name Wiley Blackwell. Next, we have the name of the publisher, the location of the publisher, and the page range of the chapter.

So this brings us to the end of the video. Remember to include all the citations you’ve used in the text of your assignment in your reference list at the end of your document. This should also be on a new page, with the heading “References” in bold and centred. The reference entries should be ordered alphabetically based on the first author’s name.

So we hope this short video has been helpful. You can find more information about referencing through a link on the library’s homepage, or you can contact your SCU librarian, or one of the Learning Experience Team who would be happy to help you. So…good luck with your referencing and we’ll see you next time!