Terms and Conditions

These Terms and Conditions govern access to and use of Harvard Reference Generator at harvardreferencegenerator.co.uk, including its citation tools, reference-list features, educational content, downloads and related services.

The service is operated by Harvard Reference Generator, trading as Harvard Reference Generator, of the United Kingdom. In these terms, "Harvard Reference Generator", "we", "us" and "our" refer to that operator.

Nothing in these terms limits any consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted.

Harvard Reference Generator provides automated citation formatting and educational information about Harvard-style author-date referencing. Features may include:

• forms for different source types;
• title, URL, DOI or ISBN lookup;
• in-text citation generation;
• full-reference generation;
• reference-list organisation;
• editing, copying, downloading or exporting references;
• university-specific guidance;
• educational articles and examples; and
• newsletters.

Features may change over time. The availability of a feature on one device, browser or location does not guarantee that it will be available everywhere.

"Harvard referencing" describes a family of author-date systems rather than one globally uniform standard. Universities, departments, journals and publishers may apply different rules.

The service provides formats and guidance intended to assist users, but it does not replace the current instructions issued by a user's institution, tutor, module, journal or publisher. Where those instructions differ from our output, the relevant institution or publisher guidance should be followed.

You are responsible for:

• selecting the correct source type;
• entering complete and accurate source information;
• checking automatically retrieved metadata against the original source;
• confirming that each source exists and has genuinely been consulted;
• reviewing the final citation and reference;
• complying with your institution's or publisher's rules; and
• ensuring that your use of sources is lawful and academically honest.

You may use Harvard Reference Generator to format and organise legitimate citations and to learn about referencing. You must not use the service to:

• fabricate sources, authors, publication details, quotations or evidence;
• present a source as read when it has not been consulted;
• conceal plagiarism or academic misconduct;
• generate misleading references intended to deceive another person;
• infringe copyright, privacy, confidentiality or other legal rights;
• upload malicious code or attempt to compromise the website;
• scrape, copy or extract the service at a scale that burdens our systems;
• reverse engineer or bypass access, security or rate-control measures;
• use automated access in breach of robots instructions or written restrictions;
• impersonate another person or organisation; or
• use the service for unlawful purposes.

We may restrict access where we reasonably believe these terms have been breached or the service is being abused.

See the Academic Integrity and Responsible Use Policy for further guidance.

The core website currently states that it can be used without registration, subscription or stated usage limits. If we introduce accounts, paid features or usage restrictions, any additional terms and prices will be shown before a user enters into a paid arrangement.

We will not charge a user merely for accessing a feature described as free.

You retain any rights you have in information entered into the citation forms. You grant us only the limited permission needed to process that information, provide the requested output, maintain security and operate the service in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Do not enter confidential, restricted, unpublished, legally privileged or sensitive personal information unless the feature clearly requires it and you are authorised to provide it.

Citation fields may be transmitted to third-party bibliographic or lookup providers when you request automatic source retrieval. Relevant provider categories and data-handling purposes are described in the Privacy Policy.

The website, software, Harvard Reference Generator branding, original text, selection and arrangement of content, databases, interface elements and other original materials are owned by or licensed to Harvard Reference Generator and are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.

You may use generated citation outputs in your academic, personal and professional work. You may also print or save reasonable extracts of our educational guidance for personal study or teaching, provided that you do not remove attribution, misrepresent the material or republish substantial parts as a competing service.

You may not copy, reproduce, sell, license, frame, mirror, republish or commercially exploit substantial parts of the website or its underlying software without written permission, except where the law permits otherwise.

Third-party names, source titles, university names and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.

The website may link to university guides, publishers, bibliographic databases, social platforms and other third-party services. We do not control these services and are not responsible for their availability, security, accuracy, policies or content.

A link does not necessarily mean that we endorse or are affiliated with the third party. Users should review the third party's terms and privacy information before using it.

We aim to keep the service available, but uninterrupted access is not guaranteed. Maintenance, technical faults, security events, supplier failures, legal requirements or circumstances beyond our reasonable control may affect availability.

We may correct, update, remove or reorganise content and features. We will not deliberately alter a user's exported document after it has been downloaded.

The service is an educational and formatting aid. It is not legal advice, academic supervision, proofreading certification, plagiarism detection, publication approval or a guarantee of marks, acceptance or compliance.

We do not guarantee that every generated reference will be error-free, that metadata from third parties will be complete, or that a particular institution will accept a format. Users must perform a final check.

Further information appears in the Disclaimer.

We do not exclude or limit liability where doing so would be unlawful, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or rights that cannot be excluded under consumer law.

Subject to those protections, we are not responsible for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable when you used the service, or for indirect academic, professional or commercial consequences caused by submitting an unverified citation.

If you use the service for business purposes, we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business opportunity, anticipated savings, goodwill or business data, except where the law does not permit that exclusion.

Nothing in this section removes your statutory rights.

Our handling of personal data is described in the Privacy Policy. Our use of cookies and similar technologies is described in the Cookie Policy.

We may update these terms to reflect changes in the service, law, security requirements or business practices. The current version will be posted on this page.

Material changes that significantly affect registered or subscribed users will be communicated by an appropriate method where reasonably possible.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you retain any mandatory protections available under the law of your home jurisdiction and may be entitled to bring proceedings in your local courts.