Arden University has a Harvard of its own. Most Arden students are asked for AU Harvard, an author-date style compiled by the university's Academic Skills Team, which differs from the Cite Them Right Harvard used at many UK universities. In the text it looks familiar, (Hughes, 2020), but the reference list has habits of its own: a comma before the bracketed year and a full stop after it, the word [online] after anything read online, and no DOI or address on a journal article.
Every rule below comes from Arden's own published guides, read on 2 October 2026: the 42-page Arden University Guide to Harvard Referencing (August 2025), its two-page quick guide, a one-page style sheet, the APA 7 guide for psychology and the Learning Success Hub's answer pages. EdCitation is not affiliated with Arden University; this follows its public library guide, checked on 2 October 2026.
EdCitation publishes this guide; what its free Cite a source and Verify references returned on real sources, some of Arden's own examples among them, is quoted below.
Which referencing style does Arden University use?
AU Harvard, unless your programme is psychology-only or law. Arden University Learning Success Hub (n.d.-a) names AU Harvard for most students, APA for psychology-only programmes such as the MSc Psychology Conversion, and OSCOLA for law-only programmes such as the LLB (Hons) Law. Arden University Learning Success Hub (n.d.-b) adds that LLB and LLM students use OSCOLA in every assignment.
| Programme | Style | Arden's page |
|---|---|---|
| Most programmes | AU Harvard, Arden's own variant | Academic integrity answer page; Harvard guide 1.2 |
| Psychology-only | APA 7th edition | Academic integrity answer page; APA guide |
| Joint degrees with psychology | AU Harvard, or as your module tutor says | APA guide; Harvard guide 1.2 |
| LLB and LLM Law | OSCOLA, in footnotes | OSCOLA answer page; OSCOLA quick guide |
| BA (Hons) Graphic Design | AU Harvard, plus a List of Figures | Design and Creativity visual guide |
| Building any entry from a DOI or address | Cite a source, free | EdCitation |
Where Arden's guides disagree on joint degrees
The Harvard guide (Arden University, 2025a) says some joint honours students may use APA and should ask their module tutor. The APA guide (Arden University, 2025b) says a joint degree such as BA (Hons) Psychology and Criminology uses AU Harvard.
Law and graphic design
Law's footnotes follow OSCOLA. Arden's June 2026 quick guide follows OSCOLA's 5th edition (Arden University, 2026), while an August 2025 quick guide for the 4th edition is still online (Arden University, 2025f), so check the edition on the cover. EdCitation does not build OSCOLA: write those footnotes by hand from Arden's guide.
The School of Design and Creativity (Arden University, 2025e) asks BA (Hons) Graphic Design students to cite academic sources in AU Harvard and to number every image, their own included, in a List of Figures placed before the Reference List. For the wider UK picture, see referencing at UK universities.
What are the AU Harvard rules?
Arden University (2025a) sets them; the section of its full guide is given for each.
| Rule | AU Harvard form | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Name and year | Surname, initials, a comma, then the year in brackets with a full stop: Blackburn, N., (2020). | 2, 5 |
| Et al. in the text | From three authors, in italics: (Cosic et al., 2024) | 2.1.1 |
| Authors in the list | Every author, in the order printed; no et al. | 2.1.1 |
| Italics | Titles of books, journals, reports, theses and web pages; never an article or chapter title | 5.1 to 5.6 |
| Capitals | Every major word of a journal's name | 5.2 |
| Online | [online] after an e-book or web page title, or after the journal's name | 5.1.1, 5.2 |
| Edition | Only after the first, written "11th edition" | 5.1.2 |
| Place: Publisher | For books and web pages; no place when a university press has it in its name | 5, 2.2.3 |
| Journal numbers | Volume, a space, issue in brackets, pp.; "article" and the number when there are no pages | 5.2.1 |
| Online journal article | No address or accessed date; no DOI in the template or examples | 5.2, 5.2.1 |
| Web page | Available from: URL [Accessed 2 October 2026]. | 5.6.1 |
| No date | N.D., in capitals; for a web page, the year you read it | 2.2.2 |
| No author | The organisation; Anon. only when there is none | 2.1.3, 2.1.4 |
| Pages in a citation | p. or pp. after the year for a quotation; chapter and paragraph for an e-book without pages; none for web pages | 3.3, 4, 4.1 |
| Long quotations | 40 words or more, indented 1 cm, in double quotation marks | 3.3.2 |
| Secondary source | "cited by" between the two; list only the one you read | 3.6 |
| The list | Headed Reference List; no bibliography; legislation and cases listed separately after it | 2, 5 |
| Building the entry | Cite a source, then the changes below | EdCitation |
Lecture slides, legislation and AI
Lecture slides and lessons are not cited at all. Arden University (2025a, section 2.1.9) treats them as starting points for your own research, not as sources, and keeps them out of the reference list, so Arden gives no template for module materials.
An Act is cited by its short title, such as the Equality Act 2010, with no bracketed year; a case takes the party names and the year of its law report. Both go in their own list after the reference list. An AI tool is referenced like a computer program: company, year, tool, [large language model], version, place and publisher. The guide applies Arden's statement on AI in assessment, which does not allow AI to write any part of an assignment. For other styles, see citing ChatGPT and AI tools.
Where Arden's own examples drift
Arden's documents disagree in places, so choose one form and keep to it:
- Capitals in book titles. The full guide's book examples capitalise every major word; the one-page style sheet (Arden University, 2025d) prints Gender and leadership.
- Accessed dates. "[Accessed 4 August 2016]" in the full guide, "[Accessed 27th September 2022]" on the style sheet, and a leading zero, "05 August 2024", in one video example.
- The quick guide's chapter. Arden University (2025c) dates Cudney's chapter 2015 in the list and 2016 in one citation, spells an editor "Saraviva" and calls the book a 2nd edition. Crossref's record gives 2016, Pedro Saraiva, no edition number, and a title ending "for Organizations Using Hoshin Kanri".
- Pages. The style sheet gives Blackburn's article as pp. 19-22; Crossref's record gives 19-23.
What does an AU Harvard reference list look like?
Four real sources, each checked against its publisher's record or the page on 2 October 2026, set as Arden's templates set them. In the text:
Blackburn (2020) writes on conflict styles, gender and leadership, and Cosic et al. (2024) on war, mental health and artificial intelligence. Cudney (2016) applies Hoshin Kanri to strategic quality metrics. From April 2026 the hourly rate for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 (GOV.UK, 2026).
Reference List
Blackburn, N., (2020). Conflict styles, gender and leadership. Assessment and Development Matters [online], 12 (4), pp. 19-23.
Cosic, K., Kopilas, V. and Jovanovic, T., (2024). War, emotions, mental health, and artificial intelligence. Frontiers in Psychology [online], 15, article 1394045.
Cudney, E.A., (2016). Development of Strategic Quality Metrics for Organizations Using Hoshin Kanri. In: Sampaio, P. and Saraiva, P., eds. Quality in the 21st Century [online]. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 57-68.
GOV.UK, (2026). National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates [online]. London: GOV.UK. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates [Accessed 2 October 2026].
What each entry shows
- Blackburn: a space before the issue, and the record's page range.
- Cosic: three authors, so et al. in the text but every name in the list; an article number, no DOI.
- Cudney: a plain chapter title, then In: in italics, as Arden's examples print it, and "eds."
- GOV.UK: no author or date on the page, so the site as author, the year it was read, and Place: Publisher.
Which EdCitation style is closest to AU Harvard, and what do you change?
Harvard. EdCitation's Harvard style follows Cite Them Right, which has nearly the same elements in nearly the same order, so the changes we made by hand on 2 October 2026 are mostly punctuation:
| EdCitation printed | Change to, for AU Harvard |
|---|---|
| Jovanovic, T. (2024) | Jovanovic, T., (2024). |
| ‘War, emotions, mental health, and artificial intelligence’, | No quotation marks; a full stop after the title |
| Frontiers in Psychology, 15, article number 1394045. | Frontiers in Psychology [online], 15, article 1394045. |
| Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1394045. | Deleted: no DOI on an article or chapter |
| 12(4), pp. 19–23 | 12 (4), pp. 19-23 |
| in P. Sampaio and P. Saraiva (eds) | In: Sampaio, P. and Saraiva, P., eds. |
| Quality in the 21st Century. Springer International Publishing | Quality in the 21st Century [online]. Cham: Springer International Publishing |
| Available at: URL (Accessed: 2 October 2026). | [online]. London: GOV.UK. Available from: URL [Accessed 2 October 2026]. |
| (Cosic, Kopilas and Jovanovic, 2024) | (Cosic et al., 2024) |
What did Cite a source and Verify references return?
EdCitation is the right place to start an Arden reference list, because it looks every source up in the publisher's record and never writes one. That matters here: Arden University (2025b) warns that generative AI tools often produce false references, and the Harvard guide makes the student responsible for finding and reading any source an AI tool suggests. Cite a source takes the authors, year, volume and pages from Crossref or the page itself, sets them in six styles, screens the source for retraction, and needs no account or payment. EdCitation writes no part of an assignment, which fits Arden's rule on AI exactly: it finds, cites and checks the sources, and every sentence stays the student's own.
Cite a source on an article, a chapter and a GOV.UK page
For the DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1394045, Harvard returned:
Cosic, K., Kopilas, V. and Jovanovic, T. (2024) ‘War, emotions, mental health, and artificial intelligence’, Frontiers in Psychology, 15, article number 1394045. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1394045.
The facts match Crossref and no retraction was reported; the table's first four rows finish it. For the chapter DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-21332-3_5:
Cudney, E.A. (2016) ‘Development of Strategic Quality Metrics for Organizations Using Hoshin Kanri’, in P. Sampaio and P. Saraiva (eds) Quality in the 21st Century. Springer International Publishing, pp. 57–68. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21332-3_5.
Besides the year and quotation marks, add In:, turn the editors round, add [online] and Cham, and delete the DOI. For https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates, Harvard gave:
Government Digital Service (2024) National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates (Accessed: 2 October 2026).
The page shows no author or date; both came from its hidden details (the Government Digital Service, updated 30 October 2024), though its table gives April 2026 rates. Arden's rule for an undated page is the year you read it, so we entered GOV.UK and 2026 in the form, and Harvard returned:
GOV.UK (2026) National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates (Accessed: 2 October 2026).
The table's web page row completes it.
Verify references on Arden's own examples
We pasted entries from Arden's guides, exactly as printed, into Verify references:
- Blackburn (2020) and Cosic, Kopilas and Jovanovic (2024), in AU form with [online] and no DOI: both verified, "Title, year and first author match a published record." That verdict names title, year and author, so check the pages yourself.
- Cudney (2015), from the quick guide: "check this", "The work was published in 2016, not 2015; the record has no date in 2015."
- World Health Organization (2022), the full guide's web page: verified, "The page is at this address, and its title matches."
- Griffiths (2021), the full guide's thesis: "could not check", "The page at this address did not answer. Check it in a browser." We could not reach that address either; EdCitation reports it as unchecked, never "not found".
For a finished assignment, Pro ($8 a month) adds References from a file, which checks every reference and matches each in-text citation to the list; see pricing.
How do you build an AU Harvard reference list, step by step?
- Confirm your programme's style: AU Harvard, APA 7 or OSCOLA. EdCitation's free Check your paper reads an assignment brief into a checklist, citation style included, each rule shown with its sentence.
- Build each article, chapter and web page in Cite a source from its DOI or address, in Harvard; correct a web page's author and date in the form first.
- Make the changes in the table, and use et al. from three authors in the text only.
- Leave lecture slides and lessons out, and list legislation and cases separately.
- Paste the list into Verify references, settle every "check this", and open any "could not check" address yourself.
Quick questions
What referencing style does Arden University use?
AU Harvard, Arden's own Harvard, for most programmes. Psychology-only programmes use APA 7, and LLB and LLM Law use OSCOLA.
When does et al. start in AU Harvard?
At three authors, in the text: (Cosic et al., 2024). The AU Harvard reference list still names every author.
Does a journal article need a DOI in Arden Harvard?
No. AU Harvard's journal template ends at the pages, with [online] after the journal's name and no DOI, address or accessed date; web pages take "Available from:" and an accessed date.
Can you reference lecture slides at Arden?
No. Arden's Harvard guide treats lecture slides and lessons as starting points for research, not sources, and leaves them out of the reference list.
Can EdCitation build AU Harvard or Arden University APA references?
APA 7 directly, and AU Harvard nearly: EdCitation's Cite a source builds Cite Them Right Harvard from the publisher's record, and the punctuation is changed by hand. It does not build OSCOLA.
References
- Arden University. (2025a). Arden University guide to Harvard referencing [PDF]. Learning Success Hub. https://answers.arden.ac.uk/loader?fid=11794&type=1&key=1781c747f33157bad3e0698401877566
- Arden University. (2025b). APA style guidance: 7th edition [PDF]. Learning Success Hub. https://answers.arden.ac.uk/loader?fid=11792&type=1&key=a9efb3f5d9dce5b868ae6db4e525376f
- Arden University. (2025c). Arden University Harvard referencing quick guide [PDF]. Learning Success Hub. https://answers.arden.ac.uk/loader?fid=11795&type=1&key=f0868ed32173cced7b00a5b81b5bf6ac
- Arden University. (2025d). AU Harvard referencing style [PDF]. Learning Success Hub. https://answers.arden.ac.uk/loader?fid=11842&type=1&key=7ed83a2793370a01695e95bb89d47dc0
- Arden University. (2025e). Visual referencing guide for the School of Design and Creativity [PDF]. Learning Success Hub. https://answers.arden.ac.uk/loader?fid=11840&type=1&key=3f91410db8bab0dee72dec9174175000
- Arden University. (2025f). OSCOLA (4th edition) quick guide [PDF]. Learning Success Hub. https://answers.arden.ac.uk/loader?fid=11797&type=1&key=ea56cb016a5b625a5f824ece562d9516
- Arden University. (2026). Arden University guide to OSCOLA (5th edition) referencing: Quick guide [PDF]. Learning Success Hub. https://answers.arden.ac.uk/loader?fid=12108&type=1&key=d66de5f471697522ca3479687c2c81c6
- Arden University Learning Success Hub. (n.d.-a). What academic skills resources can help me understand academic integrity? Answers. https://answers.arden.ac.uk/faq/284102
- Arden University Learning Success Hub. (n.d.-b). What is the OSCOLA referencing style? Answers. https://answers.arden.ac.uk/faq/282740
- Blackburn, N. (2020). Conflict styles, gender and leadership. Assessment and Development Matters, 12(4), 19–23. https://doi.org/10.53841/bpsadm.2020.12.4.19
- Cosic, K., Kopilas, V., & Jovanovic, T. (2024). War, emotions, mental health, and artificial intelligence. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, Article 1394045. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1394045
- Cudney, E. A. (2016). Development of strategic quality metrics for organizations using Hoshin Kanri. In P. Sampaio & P. Saraiva (Eds.), Quality in the 21st century (pp. 57–68). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21332-3_5
- GOV.UK. (n.d.). National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates