The University of Glasgow does not set one referencing style for everyone: the University of Glasgow Library (n.d.-k) sends students to their course handbook, their Moodle page or their course convenor. Where Harvard is wanted, the Library's own page is titled "Harvard referencing style (Leeds)", and it follows Leeds Harvard rather than the Cite Them Right Harvard that most generators print.
The year has no brackets, et al. starts at three authors in the text but never appears in the list, an article title has no quotation marks, and anything read online carries [Online] and "[Accessed date]. Available from:", in that order.
Every rule below was read on 2 October 2026 in the Library's public referencing pages and subject guides. EdCitation is not affiliated with the University of Glasgow; this follows its public library guide, checked on 2 October 2026. EdCitation publishes this guide, and what its free Cite a source and Verify references returned on Glasgow's own examples is quoted below, faults included.
Which referencing style does the University of Glasgow use?
The one your course names. The Library's referencing page links guides to Harvard (Leeds), APA, MHRA, Chicago, OSCOLA, MLA and Vancouver, the last two on another university's pages (University of Glasgow Library, n.d.-k). Its subject guides name styles for some Schools:
| Subject | Style the Library's page names | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Any course asking for Harvard | Harvard (Leeds), the Library's own guide | Harvard (n.d.-d) |
| Geographical and Earth Sciences | "the Harvard system", linking to Leeds | Subject guide (n.d.-c) |
| Philosophy | Harvard, "for footnotes and bibliographies" | Subject guide (n.d.-i) |
| Psychology | APA; the Library's APA page follows the latest edition | Subject guide (n.d.-j); APA (n.d.-a) |
| History | The School's own style guide, based on MHRA | Subject guide (n.d.-e) |
| Information Studies | Its own reference guide, based on MHRA | Subject guide (n.d.-f) |
| Law | OSCOLA, a "commonly used system" for law | Law guide (n.d.-g) |
| Chemistry, Engineering, Physics and several others | None named; Harvard and Vancouver "most commonly used" | Each subject guide |
| Humanities writing with footnotes | Chicago notes and bibliography, 18th edition | Chicago (n.d.-b) |
| Building the entry | Cite a source in Harvard, then the changes below | EdCitation |
EdCitation's Cite a source builds six styles: Harvard, APA 7, MLA 9, Vancouver, IEEE and Chicago 18 author-date. It does not build OSCOLA, MHRA (the Library follows its 2024 4th edition) or Chicago notes and bibliography: write those footnotes by hand from the guide the Library links. For the wider picture, see referencing at UK universities.
Why the handbook wins over the subject guide
The Harvard page itself says some subjects prefer a "house style" set out in the handbook (University of Glasgow Library, n.d.-d). The subject guides are older: their page code dates most referencing sections to November 2015, and History's link to its own style guide returned "page not found" on 2 October 2026 (University of Glasgow Library, n.d.-e). Where the two disagree, follow the handbook.
What are the University of Glasgow's Harvard (Leeds) rules?
These, each from the Library's Harvard page unless another is named (University of Glasgow Library, n.d.-d):
| Rule | Glasgow Harvard (Leeds) | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Citation | (Misra, 2019, p.2) or Misra (2019, p.2) | Harvard |
| Several sources | In date order, separated by semicolons | Harvard |
| Et al. in the text | From three authors: (Alexander et al., 2015) | Harvard |
| Et al. in the list | Never: every author, in the order printed | Harvard |
| Page numbers | For a quotation or specific information: p. or pp. | Harvard |
| Year | No brackets, then a full stop: Woolf, A. 2017. | Harvard |
| Capitals | Book and website titles: first word and proper nouns only | Harvard |
| Book | "2nd ed."; Place of publication: Publisher | Harvard |
| Chapter | Chapter title. In: Royan, N. ed. Book. Place: Publisher, pp. | Harvard |
| Article | No quotation marks; Journal. then the volume in bold, (issue), pp. | Harvard |
| Read online | [Online], the DOI as a link (or the URL), the access date | Harvard; Leeds |
| Web page | Title. [Online]. [Accessed date]. Available from: URL | Harvard |
| Generative AI | As private correspondence | Harvard |
| Generators and AI tools | "often make mistakes": check them against the guide | Referencing (n.d.-k) |
| Building the entry | Cite a source, then the changes below | EdCitation |
Where Glasgow's examples disagree with its rules
The examples drift in five places, so choose one form and keep to it:
- et al. "(Alexander et al., 2015)" in one example, "Adams, et al., 2019" with a comma in another.
- Page spacing. "p.2" in the templates, "p. 43" in the Clemens and Graham quotation.
- Page ranges. "pp.214–17" and "pp.173‒99" are shortened; "pp.652-669" is not. We give full ranges, as the Leeds examples Glasgow links do.
- Capitals. The rule is sentence case, yet the chapter example prints The International Companion to Scottish literature and a web example prints "Facts and Figures".
- The address. "Available from:" in the templates, "Available at:" in the Higley example and "Available" alone in the Alexander and Kay example.
Two facts to correct before you copy an example
Copy Glasgow's patterns, never its entries. The Pajunen example prints volume 34, where the publisher's record, and the Leeds page Glasgow links, give 39 (Pajunen, 2008). The Coira example names John Donald as the publisher; the review in The Scottish Historical Review gives Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2012, ISBN 9781780460031 (Innes, 2013). Take the details from the title page of the copy you read.
How do you reference an article read online, a web page or AI at Glasgow?
An article read on a website or as a PDF takes [Online], its DOI (or its URL if it has none) and the date you accessed it: a rule Glasgow's Harvard page dates to September 2024, pointing to the Leeds examples for the exact order (University of Leeds Library, n.d.):
Family name, INITIAL(S). Year. Title of article. Journal Title. [Online]. Volume(issue number), page numbers. [Date accessed]. Available from: DOI
So at Glasgow a DOI takes an accessed date, unlike Cite Them Right, where the DOI stands alone. An article read on paper keeps the print form, with no [Online] and no address. For Leeds's own pages, see referencing at the University of Leeds.
Web pages and e-books
A web page takes its title in italics, then [Online]. [Accessed date]. Available from: and the URL. With no obvious author, the citation begins with the page or site title, and the URL never goes in the citation. An e-book adds [Online] after its title, as the Library's Garner example shows.
Generative AI
The Library treats an AI tool as private correspondence, because each session's responses are unique to you and cannot be replicated. The citation is the company and tool with the year, (OpenAI ChatGPT, 2023); the list entry follows its template, "OpenAI ChatGPT. 2023. Response to John Doe, 14 September." Keep your prompts and the responses. For other styles, see citing ChatGPT and AI tools.
What does a Glasgow Harvard reference list look like?
Like this: five real sources, set as Glasgow's templates set them. In the text: (Clayden et al., 2012), Martin and Mathis (2018), (The Scottish Government, 2020), the Library's own example with a page, (Woolf, 2017, p.215), and (Wyper et al., 2023).
Reference list
Clayden, J., Greeves, N. and Warren, S. 2012. Organic chemistry. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Martin, J. and Mathis, K.L. 2018. Elegy and commemorative writing. In: Royan, N. ed. The international companion to Scottish literature, 1400-1650. Glasgow: Scottish Literature International, pp.173-199.
The Scottish Government. 2020. Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020: introduction. [Online]. [Accessed 2 October 2026]. Available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-index-multiple-deprivation-2020/
Woolf, A. 2017. On the nature of the Picts. The Scottish Historical Review. 96(2), pp.214-217.
Wyper, G.M.A., Mackay, D.F., Fraser, C., Lewsey, J., Robinson, M., Beeston, C. and Giles, L. 2023. Evaluating the impact of alcohol minimum unit pricing on deaths and hospitalisations in Scotland: a controlled interrupted time series study. The Lancet. [Online]. 401(10385), pp.1361-1370. [Accessed 2 October 2026]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00497-X
What each entry shows
- Clayden: three authors, so et al. in the text and all three names in the list.
- Martin and Mathis: a chapter, with the book title in sentence case where Glasgow's example capitalises it.
- The Scottish Government: a corporate author, dated 28 January 2020 on the page.
- Woolf: the print form, for a copy read on paper.
- Wyper: seven authors, all named; read online, so [Online], the accessed date and the DOI.
Which EdCitation style is closest to Glasgow Harvard, and what do you change?
Harvard. EdCitation's Harvard style follows Cite Them Right, whose 12th edition the Glasgow Library holds as an e-book (University of Glasgow Library, n.d.-k), so the facts arrive in nearly the right order. These are the changes we made by hand on 2 October 2026:
| EdCitation printed | Change to, for Glasgow Harvard (Leeds) |
|---|---|
| Woolf, A. (2017) | Woolf, A. 2017. |
| ‘On the Nature of the Picts’, | On the nature of the Picts. |
| The Scottish Historical Review, 96(2), pp. 214–217. | The Scottish Historical Review. 96(2), pp.214-217. |
| Available at: https://doi.org/… | In print: delete it. Online: [Online]. after the journal, then [Accessed date]. Available from: and the DOI |
| (Clayden, Greeves and Warren, 2012) | (Clayden et al., 2012) |
| Organic Chemistry. 2nd edn. Oxford University Press. | Organic chemistry. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
| Wyper, G.M.A. et al. (2023) in the list | All seven names, in the order printed |
| (Accessed: 2 October 2026) at the end | [Accessed 2 October 2026]. before "Available from:" |
What did Cite a source and Verify references return on Glasgow's sources?
EdCitation is the right tool to start a Glasgow list with, because it looks every source up and never writes one. Glasgow's own referencing page warns that generators and AI tools "often make mistakes" (University of Glasgow Library, n.d.-k); Cite a source takes the authors, year, volume and pages from the publisher's record, sets them in six styles and screens the source for retraction, free and with no account. EdCitation writes no part of an essay or dissertation: it finds, cites and checks the sources, and every sentence stays the student's own.
Cite a source on Glasgow sources
For the DOI 10.3366/shr.2017.0336, the Library's own Woolf example, Harvard returned:
Woolf, A. (2017) ‘On the Nature of the Picts’, The Scottish Historical Review, 96(2), pp. 214–217. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2017.0336.
Every fact is right and no retraction was reported; the first four rows of the table finish it. For Pajunen's DOI, 10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400371, Harvard printed 39(4), which corrects the 34 in Glasgow's example.
Clayden's book has a DOI as well as an ISBN, and a book's DOI goes straight to its publisher's record. 10.1093/hesc/9780199270293.001.0001 returned:
Clayden, J., Greeves, N. and Warren, S. (2012) Organic Chemistry. 2nd edn. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/hesc/9780199270293.001.0001.
For a printed copy, delete the address, lower the capitals, write "2nd ed." and add Oxford. For https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-index-multiple-deprivation-2020/, Harvard read the author and the date from the page:
The Scottish Government (2020) Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020: introduction. Available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-index-multiple-deprivation-2020/ (Accessed: 2 October 2026).
Take the year out of its brackets, add [Online], and move the accessed date before "Available from:". Glasgow's National Library of Scotland example returned "That page could not be read. Some sites block automated readers." Its Historical Thesaurus example came back titled "Historical Thesaurus: : About the Thesaurus", from the browser-tab title; type the heading and the authors into the form before the entry is built.
Verify references on Glasgow's own examples
We pasted eight of the Harvard page's examples, exactly as printed, into Verify references:
- Clayden (2012), Woolf (2017), Pajunen (2008) and Garner (2017): verified, "Title, year and first author match a published record." Pajunen's wrong volume passed, so check volumes and pages against the record Cite a source shows.
- Alexander and Kay (2020): verified, "The page is at this address, and its title matches."
- Clemens and Graham (2008): "could not check", "The library catalogue did not answer in time. Check this one again in a minute." A second run said the same.
- Coira (2012): "check this", "A work with this title is recorded in zcph (2013), not in the source your entry names." That record is a 2013 review of the book, not the book, and correcting the publisher did not change the verdict. Settle it from the book itself.
- Martin and Mathis (2018): not found, "No publisher's or registry's record matches this reference." The chapter is real: the University's repository lists it, pp. 173-199, with no DOI (Martin and Mathis, 2018). A chapter from a small press can be missing from the registries, so check the book before deleting anything.
To check a whole essay, Pro ($8 a month) adds References from a file, which checks every reference and matches every in-text citation to the list; see pricing.
How do you build a Glasgow Harvard reference list, step by step?
- Find the style in your course handbook, Moodle page or assessment brief. EdCitation's free Check your paper reads the instructions into a checklist, citation style included.
- Look up each article, book and web page in Cite a source by DOI, ISBN or address, in Harvard.
- Make the changes in the table: the year, the quotation marks, the full stops, the bold volume, the place, and [Online] with the accessed date.
- Name every author in the list, and use et al. in the text from three.
- Reference AI as private correspondence, and keep the prompts.
- Paste the list into Verify references, settle every "check this" against the source, open any "could not check" yourself, and check volumes and pages by eye.
Quick questions
What referencing style does the University of Glasgow use?
Whichever your course sets. The Library's Harvard guide follows Leeds Harvard; its subject guides name APA for Psychology, MHRA-based guides for History and Information Studies, and OSCOLA for Law.
When does et al. start in Glasgow Harvard?
At three authors, in the text only: (Alexander et al., 2015). The reference list names every author, in the order the source prints them.
Does a DOI need an accessed date in Glasgow Harvard?
Yes, when you read the article online. Add [Online] after the journal title, then the accessed date in square brackets, "Available from:" and the DOI as a link.
Can EdCitation build UofG citation style references?
For published sources, nearly: EdCitation's Cite a source builds Cite Them Right Harvard from the publisher's record, and you change the year, the punctuation and the accessed date by hand. It does not build OSCOLA, MHRA or Chicago notes.
How do I reference ChatGPT at Glasgow?
As private correspondence: (OpenAI ChatGPT, 2023) in the text, and in the list the company and tool, the year, "Response to" your name, and the day and month of the session.
References
- Innes, S. (2013). [Review of the book By poetic authority: The rhetoric of panegyric in Gaelic poetry of Scotland to c. 1700, by M. P. Coira]. The Scottish Historical Review, 92(2), 290–292. https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2013.0180
- Martin, J., & Mathis, K. L. (2018). Elegy and commemorative writing. In N. Royan (Ed.), The international companion to Scottish literature 1400–1650 (pp. 173–199). Scottish Literature International. https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/180485
- Pajunen, K. (2008). Institutions and inflows of foreign direct investment: A fuzzy-set analysis. Journal of International Business Studies, 39(4), 652–669. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400371
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-a). APA referencing style. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/referencing/apa/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-b). Chicago notes and bibliography referencing style. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/referencing/chicago/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-c). Geographical and Earth Sciences [Subject guide]. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/subjects/geographicalandearthsciences/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-d). Harvard referencing style (Leeds). https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/referencing/harvard/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-e). History [Subject guide]. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/subjects/history/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-f). Information Studies [Subject guide]. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/subjects/informationstudies/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-g). Referencing and keeping up to date [Law subject guide]. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/subjects/law/referencing/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-h). Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) referencing style. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/referencing/mhra/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-i). Philosophy [Subject guide]. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/subjects/philosophy/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-j). Psychology [Subject guide]. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/subjects/psychology/
- University of Glasgow Library. (n.d.-k). Referencing: What it is and why it matters. https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/referencing/
- University of Leeds Library. (n.d.). Leeds Harvard: Journal article. https://library.leeds.ac.uk/referencing-examples/9/leeds-harvard/11/journal-article