Blogs can be a great source of information when researching an essay (as long as you make sure they’re reliable sources). But how do you cite a blog post or a comment on a blog in Harvard referencing? Follow the tips below to find out.
Citing a Blog in Harvard Referencing
In Harvard referencing, in-text citations include a name and a year. For a blog post, then, you need the author’s surname and the year the post was last updated:
Austerity policies invariably fail (Quiggin, 2021).
Some blog posts won’t have a named author. In this case, you can use the author’s alias or the name of the publishing organisation in citations:
Anti-poaching measures are effective (Save the Rhino, 2017).
You should then provide full source information in your reference list.
Blog Posts in a Harvard Reference List
The format for a blog post in a Harvard reference list is as follows:
Author, Initial(s). (Year of publication/last update) ‘Title of Post’, Name of Blog, day and month published/updated [Blog]. Available at URL (Accessed date).
In practice, our references for the blogs cited above would look like this:
Quiggin, J. (2021) ‘Economic lessons of the 20-year armistice’, Crooked Timber, 18 February 2021 [Blog]. Available at https://crookedtimber.org/2021/02/18/economic-lessons-of-the-20-year-armistice/ (Accessed 23 March 2021).
Save the Rhino. (2017) ‘De-horning’, Save the Rhino, 20 August 2017 [Blog]. Available at https://www.savetherhino.org/thorny-issues/de-horning/ (Accessed 21 March 2021).
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The key in all cases is making sure your reader can find the post you’ve cited.
Citing a Blog Comment in Harvard Referencing
You can also cite a comment on a blog post. For an in-text citation, use the commenter’s surname or username and the comment date in brackets:
One commenter described this as ‘blinkered’ (Rapier, 2021).
The basic reference format for a blog comment, meanwhile, is as follows:
Author, Initial(s). (Year of publication/last update) Re: ‘Title of post’, Name of Blog, day and month of comment [Blog comment]. Available at URL (Accessed date).
As such, a reference for a blog comment would look like this:
Rapier. (2021) Re: ‘Economic lessons of the 20-year armistice’, Crooked Timber, 18 February 2021 [Blog comment]. Available at https://crookedtimber.org/2021/02/18/economic-lessons-of-the-20-year-armistice/#commentid38923 (Accessed 23 March 2021).
Note that the link above points directly to the comment. If you can’t link to the comment itself or the comment section, though, just link to the blog post.
Harvard Variations and Proofreading
This post uses a version of Harvard referencing based on the Open University guide [PDF]. However, the exact rules for citing a blog post may depend on the version you’re is using, so make sure to check your style guide if you have one.
And if you’d like to be sure your citations and references are error free, you can have one of our Harvard referencing experts check them. Simply submit your work for proofreading today and let us know which version of Harvard you’ve used.