Citation Guide: Name-year system

There are many variations on the name-year system, which are used also at some departments of the Aalto University.

APA
APA style is most commonly used to cite sources within the human and social sciences.

APA manual

Reference examples

The Harvard referencing system is the most common variant of name-year systems, and the instructions and examples of this guide are based on it. In this system, the author's surname and publication year are mentioned in in-text citations. Including page numbers is also recommended. This system shows the reader the author and the age of the information cited. The bibliography should be in alphabetical order by author. The Harvard referencing system is easy to maintain without reference management software.

Please note that ISBN and ISSN numbers are not included in the original Harvard system. The SFS 5989 standard Guidelines for bibliographic references and citations to information resources recommends including these numbers. The ISBN and ISSN numbers should either be used throughout the text where possible, or not at all. From a reader's point of view, the numbers are a great help when trying to locate the cited materials in e.g. a library database.

In-text citations include the author's surname, the publication year and page numbers (if needed). The examples follow guidance offered by the standard SFS 5989.

Examples:

• ... (Mattila 2006, p. 32).
• ... (Lahtinen & Järvinen 2007). When there are two authors, both should be noted.
  
• ... (Meikäläinen et al. 2003). When there are several authors (three or more), only the first author should be noted, followed by "et al." 
• ... (Huovinen 2003a). If there are several works published by the same author in the same year, they should be differentiated by adding a lower case letter. 
• ... (Huovinen 2003a; Mattila 2006, p. 40). There can be references to several sources in one citation. 

Amjad, Z. 2000. Advances in crystal growth inhibition. New York, New York, USA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 277 p. ISBN 0-3064-6924-3 (electronic). ISBN 0-3064-6499-3 (printed).