Cite Them Right Harvard for OU TMAs: Worked Examples

Most Open University modules ask you to reference in Cite Them Right Harvard, and the OU Library publishes its own quick guide to the style. The rules are simple once you have seen them laid out, but small details such as where the italics go, how to date module materials and when to use “et al.” trip up even experienced students. This guide walks through the formats you will use most in OU TMAs, with worked examples you can copy.

Which Harvard style does the Open University use for TMAs?

The OU recommends the Harvard style as set out in Cite Them Right, a widely used UK referencing guide. The OU Library’s quick guide is based on it and adds examples for OU-specific sources such as module websites and study units. There is also a separate OU guide to Cite Them Right referencing for law modules, so if you study law, use that version.

Your module guide or assessment guidance always has the final say. If it asks for something different, follow it.

How do I write in-text citations in OU Harvard referencing?

Each time you quote, paraphrase or summarise a source, add a short citation in brackets with the author’s surname and the year. Add a page number when you quote directly or refer to a specific part of a source. Use “p.” for one page and “pp.” for a range.

Situation	In-text example
One author	(Harris, 2015, p. 5)
Two authors	(Shah and Papadopoulos, 2015)
Three authors	(Wong, Smith and Adebole, 2015)
Four or more authors	(Wong et al., 2015)
Page range	(Author, 2020, pp. 585–586)
No page numbers	(Organisation Name, 2025, para. 3)
Video or podcast	(Johnson, 2020, 6:20)
No date	(Harvey and Williams, no date)

The main differences from APA are worth noticing. Cite Them Right Harvard uses “and” rather than “&”, lists up to three authors in full before switching to et al., and writes “no date” in full rather than “n.d.”. The OU guide also shows et al. in italics.

Here is how citations look inside a short TMA paragraph, using fictional sources:

Remote working can blur the line between home and work life (Carter, 2021). Green and Ali (2023, p. 104) describe this as “a constant low-level availability”, while the module material suggests that clear routines can reduce the strain (The Open University, 2025). However, these studies mainly focus on office workers, so their findings may not apply to shift-based jobs.

Notice the mix of narrative citations, where the author’s name is part of the sentence, and bracketed citations at the end of a point. The final sentence is your own evaluation, so it needs no citation. Tutors look for this balance: sources support your argument, but the argument is yours.

If an author has two works from the same year, add a lower-case letter to the year, for example (Smith, 2021a) and (Smith, 2021b), and use the same letters in your reference list.

How do I reference OU module materials and study units?

This is the format most OU students need and the one most often got wrong. The key rule from the OU guide is that the year is the year you started studying the module, not the year the material was first written. When no individual author is named, the author is The Open University.

The pattern is:

Author (Year) ‘Title of item’. Module code: Module title. Available at: URL of the module website (Accessed: date).

Worked examples, using a made-up module:

• Named author: Patel, R. (2025) ‘Topic 2: Measuring wellbeing’. XY123: Introducing social science. Available at: module website URL (Accessed: 3 November 2025).
• No named author: The Open University (2025) ‘3.1 What is evidence?’. XY123: Introducing social science. Available at: module website URL (Accessed: 3 November 2025).
• Module video or audio: The Open University (2025) ‘Video 1.4 Interview with a researcher’. XY123: Introducing social science. Available at: module website URL (Accessed: 3 November 2025).

In the text, these become (Patel, 2025) and (The Open University, 2025). If you cite several items from the module by The Open University in the same year, add letters: (The Open University, 2025a), (The Open University, 2025b).

One more rule from the OU guide: if a complete journal article has been uploaded to the module website, reference the original article, not the module site.

What do full Cite Them Right Harvard references look like?

Your reference list goes at the end of your TMA, in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname. Keep authors in the order they appear on the source. Below are the core layouts with fictional examples.

Book

Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of book. Publisher.

Example: Carter, J. (2021) Understanding everyday life. Example Press.

Chapter in an edited book

Surname, Initial. (Year) ‘Title of chapter’, in Initial. Surname (ed.) Title of book. Publisher, pp. page range.

Example: Brown, L. (2020) ‘Families and change’, in K. Ahmed (ed.) Social lives today. Example Press, pp. 45–67.

In the text, cite the chapter author (Brown, 2020), not the editor.

Online journal article

Surname, Initial. and Surname, Initial. (Year) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal, volume(issue), pp. page range. Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).

Example: Green, P. and Ali, S. (2023) ‘Remote learning and motivation’, Journal of Example Studies, 8(2), pp. 101–118. Available at: DOI (Accessed: 12 January 2026).

Note that the article title sits in single quotation marks and the journal title is in italics, with its main words capitalised.

Webpage

Surname, Initial. or Organisation (Year) Title of web page. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Example: Example Health Charity (2024) Coping with stress at work. Available at: URL (Accessed: 5 February 2026).

How do I cite a source I found inside another source?

This is secondary referencing. Use it when you read about one author’s work in a book or module text but did not read the original yourself. The OU guide uses “quoted in” when the original is directly quoted and “cited in” when it is summarised.

• West et al. (2007, quoted in Birch, 2017, p. 17) state that…
• Positive identity can be supported by family environment (Leach, 2015, cited in The Open University, 2022).

Only the source you actually read goes in your reference list. In these examples, that is Birch and The Open University. Use secondary referencing sparingly; where you can, read and cite the original.

Does the reference list count towards my OU TMA word limit?

The OU Library guide states that full references are not included in the word count. In-text citations are part of your writing, so in most cases they do count. Some modules set their own rules, so check your assessment guidance. For more on this, see our guide on what counts towards a TMA word count.

Most OU modules ask for a reference list, which contains only the sources you cited, rather than a bibliography, which also lists background reading. Unless your module asks for a bibliography, stick to a reference list.

Which OU Harvard referencing errors should I check before submitting?

1. Module materials are dated with the year you started the module.
2. Items with no named author use The Open University as author.
3. Three authors are listed in full; four or more use et al.
4. “And” is used between authors, not “&”.
5. Direct quotations have page, paragraph or timestamp details.
6. Article titles are in single quotation marks; book, journal and webpage titles are in italics.
7. Online sources include “Available at:” and “(Accessed: date)”.
8. Every citation matches an entry in the alphabetical reference list.
9. Same-author, same-year sources use a, b, c consistently.

Studying at SUSS as well, or switching institutions? Our guide to APA 7 referencing for SUSS TMAs shows how that style differs.

Where can I get feedback on the referencing in my OU TMA?

The OU Library’s referencing pages and your tutor are the best first stops. If you would like a tutor to go through a draft with you, we can check your Cite Them Right Harvard citations and reference list, flag inconsistencies and explain the corrections so you understand them for next time. See how our Open University TMA tutors work, or read our complete guide to writing an OU TMA. The final work stays your own, and the OU’s academic conduct rules always apply.