Harvard Citation Checker
Paste your Harvard reference list below to review likely formatting issues — author initials, the “(year)” placement, sentence-case titles, the “Available at:” / “[Accessed date]” pairing, alphabetical order, and duplicates. Free, unlimited, no account, and it runs entirely in your browser.
Harvard has many institutional variants — this checker follows the common Cite Them Right conventions, so always defer to your own university's guide. Using MLA instead? Try the MLA Citation Checker.
What this checker looks for
- Authors abbreviated to initials — “Smith, J.”or “Smith, J.M.”, not “Smith, John”.
- The year in parentheses directly after the authors— “(2020)” — or “(no date)” for undated sources.
- Article and chapter titles in sentence case rather than Title Case.
- URLs cited as “Available at:” plus “[Accessed date]”.
- A terminal period (unless the entry ends in a URL or DOI).
- A consistent “and” or “&” connector, alphabetical order, and duplicate entries.
Every finding is advisory. Harvard is a family of styles, not one official standard — this checker targets the common Cite Them Right conventions, and your institution's guide always wins. The checker is deterministic — it never uploads your text, never uses AI, and never auto-rewrites your references.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does the Harvard citation checker check?
- It scans each entry in your reference list for likely Harvard formatting issues: authors abbreviated to initials (“Smith, J.” rather than “Smith, John”), the year in parentheses directly after the authors — “(2020)” — article titles in sentence case rather than Title Case, the “Available at:” plus “[Accessed date]” pairing for URLs, a missing terminal period, a consistent “and” or “&” connector across the list, alphabetical ordering, and duplicate entries.
- Which version of Harvard does this checker follow?
- Harvard is not a single official standard — universities publish many institutional variants that differ in small details. This checker follows the widely-taught Cite Them Right conventions, which most UK university guides are based on. If your department's guide differs (for example, using “&” instead of “and”), follow your institution's guide — every finding here is advisory, not a verdict.
- Is the Harvard citation checker free, and do I need an account?
- Yes, it is completely free with no sign-up, no source limit, and no paywall. The checker runs entirely in your browser — your reference list is never uploaded to a server.
- Does a clean result mean my reference list is perfect?
- No. The checker flags specific, deterministic formatting issues it can detect with high confidence. It does not verify that a source exists, that a URL resolves, or that every nuance of your institution's Harvard variant is correct. Treat the findings as a helpful first pass, not a guarantee, and always double-check against your assignment guidelines.
- How should I paste my references?
- Paste your reference list with one reference per line, or separate multi-line references with a blank line. The checker analyzes each entry separately and also checks the list as a whole for alphabetical order, connector consistency, and duplicates.