Harvard vs APA: 7 Differences That Trip Students Up

Harvard and APA both use parenthetical author-date citations, so they look alike at a glance. The differences are in punctuation, capitalization, author formatting, and what counts as a complete reference. Get any of those wrong and your marker will catch it.

One catch first: "Harvard" is not a single style. There is no Harvard University manual. Most UK universities use a local flavor (Cite Them Right Harvard, Anglia Ruskin Harvard, Leeds Harvard, and so on). APA is one style, governed by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020). Check your course handbook before assuming what "Harvard" means for you.

The notes below compare APA 7 with Cite Them Right Harvard, the most common UK flavor.

1. Comma between author and year

APA puts a comma between the author and the year inside parentheses. Most Harvard flavors do not.

• APA: (Smith, 2020)
• Harvard: (Smith 2020)

Cite Them Right adds the comma; Leeds and Anglia do not. This is the single most common mix-up.

2. Page numbers and the abbreviation

APA writes "p." with a space before the number. Harvard usually does the same, but some flavors use a colon instead.

• APA: (Smith, 2020, p. 15)
• Harvard: (Smith 2020, p. 15) or (Smith 2020: 15)

Never use the colon form in APA.

3. "And" versus ampersand for two authors

APA uses an ampersand inside parentheses and "and" in running prose. Harvard usually uses "and" in both.

• APA narrative: Smith and Jones (2020) argue...
• APA parenthetical: (Smith & Jones, 2020)
• Harvard parenthetical: (Smith and Jones 2020)

4. When et al. kicks in

APA 7 uses "et al." from the first citation when a source has three or more authors. Harvard typically waits until four or more, listing all three on first mention.

• APA (3 authors, first cite): (Smith et al., 2020)
• Harvard (3 authors, first cite): (Smith, Jones and Lee 2020)

This change in APA 7 catches out students who learned APA 6.

5. Title capitalization in the reference list

APA uses sentence case for book and article titles: only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon are capitalized. Journal names stay in title case. Harvard does roughly the same for articles, but several flavors put book titles in title case.

• APA: Smith, J. (2020). The psychology of citation errors. Routledge.
• Harvard: Smith, J. (2020) The Psychology of Citation Errors. London: Routledge.

Two extras in that one example: APA has a period after the year in parentheses, Harvard does not, and Harvard keeps the place of publication while APA 7 dropped it.

6. Author initials and punctuation

APA: surname, comma, initials with periods and no space between them when there are two ("Smith, J. K." has a thin space; many style checkers accept "Smith, J.K."). Harvard usually keeps periods after each initial too, but a few flavors drop them. Always check your handbook for spacing rules before mass-formatting your list.

7. Reference list formatting

• APA calls it "References", centered and bold at the top.
• Harvard calls it "Reference list" or "References", usually left-aligned.
• Both use a hanging indent.
• APA italicizes the journal name and the volume number. Harvard italicizes the journal name only.

Worked example: the same article in both styles

Source: an article by Chen and Park, published 2022, in Journal of Memory and Language, volume 124, article 104321.

APA 7:

Chen, L., & Park, S. (2022). Retrieval practice and long-term retention. Journal of Memory and Language, 124, 104321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2022.104321

Cite Them Right Harvard:

Chen, L. and Park, S. (2022) 'Retrieval practice and long-term retention', Journal of Memory and Language, 124, 104321. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2022.104321 (Accessed: 14 May 2026).

Differences in that single entry: ampersand vs "and", quotation marks around the article title in Harvard, italic volume number in APA only, and Harvard's "Available at" plus access date for online sources.

Quick rule of thumb

If your handbook says APA, follow APA 7 exactly. If it says Harvard, find the specific flavor your department uses and copy its example reference list. "Harvard" without a flavor name is not enough information to format a list correctly.

Generate APA or Harvard citations →

Recommended

If you cite often, the manual on your shelf saves a lot of second-guessing.

Publication Manual of the APA, 7th edition (affiliate link — you pay the same price, we earn a small commission).