How to Cite a Newspaper Article in Harvard Referencing

Newspapers and magazines aren’t common sources in academic writing. Or, at least, academics tend to reference reputable journals like Nature and Science more often than Teen Vogue or the National Enquirer. But there are times when you may need to cite a magazine or newspaper article in your writing. So let’s look at how this works with Harvard referencing.

In-Text Citations for a Newspaper Article

Harvard referencing uses an author–date format for in-text citations. With a magazine or newspaper article, then, you’ll need to check whether it has a named author. If it does, use the author’s name in your citation alongside the year of publication. If it’s a print version of the article and you’re quoting it directly, you should also provide page numbers:

The team’s season was hailed as “a sporting miracle” (Wagg, 2016, p. 20).

If the article has no named author, you can simply use the newspaper or magazine’s name instead. For instance:

A Yorkshire terrier called Eddie was reunited with his owners after being missing for five years (The Guardian, 2016).

Now, let’s take a moment to appreciate Eddie’s return to his family. Good boy, Eddie. Well done on getting home. And… back to the referencing.

Reference List

If you’ve cited a print magazine or newspaper article, you will need to provide full publication information in the reference list. The format for this is:

Surname, Initial(s). (Year) “Title of Article,” Title of Newspaper/Magazine, issue number (if applicable), day and/or month of publication, page number(s).

The Wagg article in the example above would therefore appear as:

Wagg, S. (2016) “Under No Illusions,” When Saturday Comes, 352, June, pp. 20-21.

For an online newspaper article, meanwhile, you will need to give a URL and date of access in place of page numbers:

Surname, Initial(s). (Year) “Title of Article,” Title of Newspaper/Magazine, issue number (if applicable), day and/or month of publication [Online]. Available at URL [Accessed date].

We would therefore list the Guardian article from above as follows:

The Guardian (2016) “Missing dog found half a mile from owners’ home after five years,” The Guardian, May 20 [Online]. Available at http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/20/missing-dog-found-five-years-yorkshire-terrier-eddie-microchip [Accessed 24 June 2018].

As you can see in this case, when no author is named, we simply use the magazine/newspaper title at the start of the reference.

Finally, before submitting your work, don’t forget to have it proofread. This will help ensure that all of your referencing is clear and consistent.