NWU Harvard, Faculty of Law and APA 7th, with worked examples for each source type. Check your module guide to confirm which style your module requires.
Author-date style. Cite the author, year and page in your text, and list every source in full in a reference list at the end.
31 NWU Harvard entries
Give the author's surname, the year of publication, and the page number where the specific information appears. This can be worked into your sentence or placed at the end of it.
Dlamini, N. 2019. Health communication in rural clinics. Cape Town: Juta.
Dlamini (2019:42) argues that... OR ...is widely documented (Dlamini, 2019:42).
Give both surnames every time you cite the source, joined with "and" in running text or an ampersand (&) inside parentheses.
Nkosi, T. & Van Wyk, J. 2021. Supply chain resilience in emerging markets. London: Routledge.
Nkosi and Van Wyk (2021:15) found that... OR ...was confirmed (Nkosi & Van Wyk, 2021:15).
List all authors the first time you cite the source. For every citation after that, give only the first author's surname followed by "et al." (not italicised).
Botha, R., Moyo, S., Patel, K., Adams, L. & Khumalo, P. 2020. Renewable energy policy in Southern Africa. Pretoria: Unisa Press.
First citation: (Botha, Moyo, Patel, Adams & Khumalo, 2020:9). Later citations: (Botha et al., 2020:9).
From the very first citation, give only the first author's surname followed by "et al."
In the reference list, list the first seven authors, then add "et al." for the remainder.
(Mahlangu et al., 2018:3)
When a report or publication is issued by an organisation rather than a named individual, use the organisation's full name (or a well-known abbreviation after first use) as the author.
World Health Organization. 2022. Global tuberculosis report. Geneva: WHO.
First citation: (World Health Organization [WHO], 2022:12). Later citations: (WHO, 2022:12).
If no individual or organisational author can be identified, use the first few words of the title in place of the author's name, followed by the year.
Understanding municipal finance in South Africa. 2017. Johannesburg: Financial Press.
(Understanding municipal finance, 2017:5)
Reproduce the exact wording in quotation marks and always include the page number, since the reader needs to locate the exact passage.
"Trust between patient and practitioner is the foundation of effective care" (Dlamini, 2019:42).
When you express someone else's idea in your own words, you must still credit the original author. A page number is good practice, but is not always required if you are referring to the argument of the work as a whole.
Dlamini (2019) suggests that trust is central to effective patient care.
Use this when you read about a source inside another author's work rather than reading the original yourself. Only the source you actually read goes in your reference list.
Adams, L. 2020. Organisational behaviour. 3rd ed. Cape Town: Pearson.
Smith's 1998 study (as cited in Adams, 2020:88) showed that...
Only cite a secondary source if you genuinely cannot access the original — tracking down the primary source is always preferred.
Arrange every entry alphabetically by the first author's surname. If a source has no author, alphabetise it by the first significant word of the title.
A complete reference-list entry generally follows this order: Author(s). Year. Title (italicised for standalone works). Edition (if not the first). Place of publication: Publisher.
Van der Merwe, A. 2018. Principles of macroeconomics. 5th ed. Johannesburg: Heinemann.
Author. Year. Title (italics). Place of publication: Publisher.
Khumalo, P. 2021. Foundations of public administration. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
(Khumalo, 2021:33)
Give the editor's name followed by "(ed.)" or "(eds.)" for more than one editor.
Nair, S. (ed.) 2019. Perspectives on African literature. Durban: UKZN Press.
(Nair, 2019:12)
Give the chapter author and title first, then "In" followed by the editor(s) and the book details, and the page range of the chapter.
Mokoena, T. 2019. Land reform and rural development. In Nair, S. (ed.) Perspectives on African literature. Durban: UKZN Press. pp. 45-67.
(Mokoena, 2019:50)
Follow the standard book format, but add the platform/database and, if the book has no fixed page numbers, use chapter or location numbers in the text reference instead.
Govender, R. 2020. Digital marketing essentials. [e-book] Cape Town: Juta.
(Govender, 2020:ch.3)
Give the author, year, title (italics), the degree type, and the institution that awarded it.
Mahlangu, F. 2021. Water scarcity and urban planning in Gauteng. PhD thesis. North-West University.
(Mahlangu, 2021:78)
If the entry has a named author, cite that author. If not, use the dictionary/encyclopedia title as the author.
Oxford dictionary of law. 2018. 9th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(Oxford dictionary of law, 2018:212)
Author(s). Year. Title of article. Title of journal (italics), volume(issue): page range.
Pillay, K. 2020. Climate adaptation strategies in coastal farming. South African Journal of Agriculture, 45(2):112-128.
(Pillay, 2020:118)
Use the same format as a printed article, but add the DOI (preferred) or URL and a date of access if there is no DOI.
Pillay, K. 2020. Climate adaptation strategies in coastal farming. South African Journal of Agriculture, 45(2):112-128. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/sjoa.2020.0045
(Pillay, 2020:118)
Use "in press" in place of the year if the article has been accepted but not yet formally published with volume/issue/page numbers.
Ndlovu, B. (in press). Digital literacy among first-year students. Journal of Higher Education.
(Ndlovu, in press)
Give the author (person or organisation), year, title, the full URL, and the date you accessed the page — since web content can change or disappear.
Statistics South Africa. 2022. Quarterly labour force survey. https://www.statssa.gov.za/qlfs Date of access: 14 Mar. 2023.
(Statistics South Africa, 2022)
A webpage usually has no page numbers, so the text reference drops the page number unless the source clearly paginates its content.
Give the lecturer as author, year, the title of the material, "Lecture notes", the module code, institution, and that it was accessed via eFundi — without reproducing a public URL, since the material sits behind a student login.
Smit, J. 2023. Introduction to macroeconomics. Lecture notes: ECOB111. North-West University. Available on eFundi.
(Smit, 2023)
Give the account holder's name, year, the first part of the post as the title (in quotation marks if short), the platform, and the URL with date of access.
Ramaphosa, C. [@CyrilRamaphosa] 2023. "South Africa's renewable energy future..." [X post]. https://x.com/example Date of access: 2 Feb. 2023.
(Ramaphosa, 2023)
Treat a blog post like a website article. For a comment on a blog post, add "Comment on" before the original post's title.
Naidoo, R. 2021. Why urban farming matters. [Blog] GreenCity. https://example.com/blog Date of access: 10 May 2021.
(Naidoo, 2021)
Give the official short title of the act (italics) and its number and year. No publisher information is needed, since acts are publicly available from many sources.
National Health Act 61 of 2003.
The National Health Act 61 of 2003 requires...
Cite it by its full title and year, without a specific author or publisher.
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.
Section 27 of the Constitution of South Africa (1996) guarantees...
Give "South Africa" as the issuing body, the year, the gazette number, and the notice number and date.
South Africa. 2021. Government Gazette No. 44521, Notice 312, 4 Jun. 2021.
(South Africa, 2021)
Give the journalist as author where named, year, article title, newspaper name (italics), the day and month, and the page number for a printed article.
Mahlangu, I. 2018. SARS to get hard on tax defaulters. Sowetan, 3 Jul., p. 9.
(Mahlangu, 2018:9)
Give the author, year, paper title, and details of the conference (name, location, date), followed by publication details if the proceedings were published.
Zulu, M. 2022. Machine learning applications in agriculture. Paper presented at the African AI Summit, Johannesburg, 14-16 Sept.
(Zulu, 2022)
Personal communications are generally cited in text only, since the reader cannot retrieve them — give the person's name, the nature of the communication, and the date.
(T. Nkosi, personal communication, 12 April 2023)
Check with your lecturer whether personal communications also need a reference-list entry for your specific assignment.
Give the compiling lecturer or department as author, year, the title of the study guide, the module code, and the institution.
Department of Economics. 2023. Study guide: ECOB111. North-West University.
(Department of Economics, 2023)
