The University of Manchester has no single referencing style: your School sets it, as the library repeats on almost every page. Where an author-date style is wanted, the library offers its own, Harvard Manchester. In the text it looks like any Harvard, (Boatright, 2006), but its reference list has marks of its own: a full stop after the year in brackets, a place of publication before the publisher, and et al. in the list as well as the text from four authors.
Every rule below was read on 2 October 2026 in the University of Manchester Library's public Referencing guide at the University of Manchester, its 31-page Harvard Manchester PDF and two School documents. EdCitation is not affiliated with The University of Manchester; 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 the library's own examples is quoted below, faults included.
Which referencing style does the University of Manchester use?
The one your course handbook names: the University of Manchester Library (2026i) warns that rules change from School to School. Its style pages name the subjects:
| Subject or School | Style the university's pages name | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Author-date Harvard | Harvard Manchester, the library's own variant | Harvard Manchester (2026c) |
| Social sciences | APA 7th edition, used "predominantly" there | APA (2026b) |
| Medical and clinical sciences | Vancouver, pointing to NLM's Citing Medicine, 2nd edition | Vancouver (2026h) |
| Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC) | MHRA, 4th edition, mostly footnotes | MHRA (2026e) |
| Law | OSCOLA, footnotes; the page follows its 4th edition | OSCOLA (2026f) |
| Business, BMAN31500 dissertation | Harvard suggested, APA acceptable, never mixed | The University of Manchester (2021) |
| Environment, Education and Development (SEED), MEd Psychology of Education | Its own Harvard, in Appendix 3 | SEED handbook (2024) |
| An entry built from a DOI, ISBN or address | Cite a source, free | EdCitation |
Cite a source builds six styles, Harvard, APA 7 and Vancouver among them, but not MHRA or OSCOLA, whose footnotes are written by hand. For the wider UK picture, see referencing at UK universities.
What is Harvard Manchester?
The University of Manchester Library (2026c) built it as an alternative to EndNote's default Harvard, keeping authors' names in normal case where EndNote's prints capitals. Its Harvard page offers the EndNote style file (June 2025) and an A to Z of source types, and says Harvard fixes a reference's order and content, not its formatting.
Schools that print their own Harvard
Two School documents show why the handbook decides. The MEd Psychology of Education handbook for 2024–2025 (University of Manchester School of Environment, Education and Development, 2024) prints its own Harvard: et al. from three authors, pages with no "p.", as in (Braithwaite, 1990, 25-36), and the publisher before the place. The business school's BMAN31500 dissertation guide (University of Manchester, 2021) suggests Harvard, accepts APA, and asks students to check citations against the list both ways.
What are the Harvard Manchester rules?
The library's Harvard pages and its PDF (University of Manchester Library, 2024) set these rules:
| Rule | Harvard Manchester form | Page |
|---|---|---|
| In the text | (Boatright, 2008) or Boatright (2008) | Harvard Manchester |
| Et al. in the text | From four authors: (Grice et al., 2008) | Harvard Manchester |
| Et al. in the list | Also from four: the first author, then et al. | Harvard Manchester |
| Year | (2007). with a full stop; "no date" when there is none | PDF; Harvard Manchester |
| Title capitals | Only the first word and proper nouns | |
| Article or chapter | Title in single quotation marks; journal or book in italics | Harvard Manchester |
| Book | Edition only after the first, as "5th edn"; Place: Publisher | |
| Pages in the list | Chapters and articles only; p. or pp.; never elided | Harvard Manchester |
| Quotation | Page in the citation, single quotation marks: (Chaffey, 2007, pp. 79-80) | Harvard Manchester |
| DOI | After the pages, lower case, no accessed date | Harvard Manchester |
| Web address | Available at: URL (Accessed: date). | Harvard Manchester |
| Secondary source | "cited in" or "quoted in"; list only what you read | Harvard Manchester |
| AI tool | The Software example, with version and date | AI and referencing |
| Word count | Generally includes citations, not the list | What is referencing? |
| Building the entry | Cite a source, then the changes below | EdCitation |
Where the library's examples disagree with its rules
The library's own examples drift from the rules in four places, so pick one form and keep to it:
- Capitals. The rule is sentence case, yet Women and the Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion and the Bagheri article title keep every capital.
- DOIs. The Harvard page prints "doi: 10.1007/s11694-020-00628-5"; the style list prints https://doi.org/ addresses, twice over in its Flora and Anthes examples.
- The comma before et al. "Bruckberger, M.C. et al." in one section of the Harvard page, "Bruckberger, M.C., et al." in another.
- Short quotations. "Usually less than 40 words" on the What is referencing? page; "4 or fewer lines of prose" on the Harvard page.
For other styles, see when to use et al.
How do you reference course materials and your own work at Manchester?
Use the library's templates for lecturer handouts and presentations, and for an earlier assignment of your own (University of Manchester Library, 2026d):
Lecturer, Initial. (Year). 'Title of handout', [PowerPoint presentation]. Module code: Module title. University of Manchester. Unpublished.
Online slides add "Available at:" with the address or VLE, and the accessed date. Your own earlier work takes your name, the year you submitted it, the title in single quotation marks, the module code and title in italics, University of Manchester and "Unpublished essay".
An AI tool takes the Software example, with the tool's version and the date accessed, and the library's AI page adds a disclosure statement. See citing ChatGPT and AI tools for other styles.
What does a Harvard Manchester reference list look like?
Four real sources, set as the library's templates set them:
Bagheri, Ariaii and Motamedzadegan (2021) tested chitosan with basil seed gum and nettle essential oil on refrigerated beef burgers. A Cochrane review examined hand hygiene for preventing infections in newborns (Kuti et al., 2023), and NICE sets a quality standard for preterm labour and birth (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2016). For business ethics, see Boatright (2006).
Reference list
Bagheri, R., Ariaii, P. and Motamedzadegan, A. (2021). ‘Effects of chitosan incorporated with basil seed gum and nettle (Urtica dioica L.) essential oil on the quality of beef burger during refrigerated storage’, Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization, 15(1), pp. 256-264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-020-00628-5.
Boatright, J.R. (2006). Ethics and the conduct of business. 5th edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Kuti, B.P., et al. (2023). ‘Hand hygiene for the prevention of infections in neonates’, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews [Systematic Review]. (6), CD013326. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD013326.pub4.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2016). Preterm labour and birth (QS135). Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs135 (Accessed: 2 October 2026).
What each entry shows
- Bagheri: three authors in full and a DOI with no accessed date.
- Boatright: "5th edn", then Place: Publisher.
- Kuti: eight authors, so et al. in the list too.
- NICE: the institute's current name; the library's example still says "National Institute for Clinical Excellence". The page was published in 2016 and updated in 2019; the library allows either year.
Which EdCitation style is closest to Harvard Manchester, and what do you change?
Harvard. EdCitation's Harvard style follows Cite Them Right, 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 Harvard Manchester |
|---|---|
| (2021) ‘Effects of… | (2021). with a full stop |
| Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/… | The DOI alone, after the pages |
| ‘The Effect of Low Impact Aerobic Exercise…’ | Sentence case |
| 8(1). with no pages | The page range from the article |
| 2023(6), p. CD013326 | [Systematic Review]. (6), CD013326. |
| Kuti, B.P. et al. | Kuti, B.P., et al., roman, as the style list prints it |
| Overview (2019) for the NICE page | Author, title and year entered in the form first |
| No place for Baskett; "New Ed ed." | New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press; no edition |
What did Cite a source and Verify references return?
EdCitation is the right place to start a Manchester list because it looks every source up and never writes one. The library's AI page warns that generative AI tools invent citations and tells students not to build reference lists with them (University of Manchester Library, 2026a). Cite a source takes the authors, year, volume and pages from the publisher's record, sets them in six styles, screens the source for retraction, and asks for no account or payment. EdCitation writes no part of an essay or dissertation: it finds, cites and checks the sources, and every sentence stays yours.
Cite a source on four kinds of source
For the DOI 10.1007/s11694-020-00628-5, Harvard returned:
Bagheri, R., Ariaii, P. and Motamedzadegan, A. (2021) ‘Effects of chitosan incorporated with basil seed gum and nettle (Urtica dioica L.) essential oil on the quality of beef burger during refrigerated storage’, Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization, 15(1), pp. 256–264. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-020-00628-5.
Add the full stop after the year and delete "Available at:". For ISBN 9780131947214:
Boatright, J.R. (2006) Ethics and the conduct of business. 5th edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Only the full stop is missing. For ISBN 9780300117400, Baskett's The horse in art, Harvard printed "Baskett, J. (2006) The Horse in Art. New Ed ed. Yale University Press." Delete the doubled edition label, lower the capitals and add the place. Kuti's DOI gave "2023(6), p. CD013326"; Tanzila's, 10.29313/gmhc.v8i1.5462, gave "8(1)." with no pages, as the publisher's record holds none, and the journal's site refused our request, so the library's pp. 73-77 stay unconfirmed. No retraction was reported.
For https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs135, Harvard gave:
Overview (2019). Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs135 (Accessed: 2 October 2026).
With the institute, the title and 2016 entered in the form, it became:
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2016) Preterm labour and birth (QS135). Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs135 (Accessed: 2 October 2026).
Add the full stop and take "(QS135)" out of the italics.
Verify references on the library's own examples
We pasted nine of the library's examples, exactly as printed, into Verify references. Eight came back verified, among them:
- Bagheri (2021), in its "doi:" form, and Flora (2024), with its doubled prefix: "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches." Delete the repeated prefix anyway.
- Boatright (2006): "Title, author, edition and year match a library catalogue record."
- Snowden and Boone (2007): "Title, year and first author match a PubMed record."
- Bruckberger (2020): "Title, year and first author match a published record." The record gives article number 115314, not the "p. 10" the example prints.
The ninth, Lane's 1996 chapter, came back "check this": "The publisher's record also names Bachmann, who is not in your entry. Check the authors." That record is a different work, Lane and Bachmann's 1996 article on trust, so the fault is ours, not the library's; we found no publisher's record of the chapter itself.
A second run caught a real gap. The Harvard page's title section cuts the same paper to "Bruckberger, M.C. and Walsh, T. (2020)", and Verify references answered: "The publisher's record also names Morgan, Bastow, Prommer, Mukhopadhyay, Kaksonen, Davis and Puzon, who are not in your entry. Check the authors." Copy the library's patterns, never its entries. To make the two-way check the business school asks for, Pro ($8 a month) adds References from a file, matching every in-text citation to the list; see pricing.
How do you build a Harvard Manchester reference list, step by step?
- Find the style in your course handbook or assessment brief; EdCitation's free Check your paper reads the instructions into a checklist, citation style included.
- Build each book, article and web page in Cite a source from its DOI, ISBN or address, in Harvard.
- Make the changes in the table above.
- Write handouts, your own earlier work and AI tools from the library's templates, and give every quotation its page.
- Paste the list into Verify references, settle every "check this" against the source, and open any "could not check" page yourself.
Quick questions
What referencing style does the University of Manchester use?
Whichever your School sets. The library's own is Harvard Manchester; it names Vancouver for medical sciences, APA 7 for social sciences, MHRA for SALC and OSCOLA for law.
Is Harvard Manchester the same as Cite Them Right Harvard?
No. The library built Harvard Manchester itself, as an EndNote style. Its full stop after the year is the plainest difference from EdCitation's Harvard, which follows Cite Them Right.
When does et al. start in Harvard Manchester?
At four authors, in the text and the reference list alike. Three authors are named in full: (Grice, Smith and Anderton, 2018).
Does a DOI need an accessed date in Harvard Manchester?
No. The library says a DOI is permanent, so no accessed date is needed; a web address takes "Available at:" and "(Accessed: date)".
Can EdCitation build UoM citation style references?
For published sources, nearly: EdCitation's Cite a source builds Harvard from the publisher's record, and you add the full stop after the year, lower the capitals and set the DOI alone. It does not build MHRA or OSCOLA.
References
- Bagheri, R., Ariaii, P., & Motamedzadegan, A. (2021). Effects of chitosan incorporated with basil seed gum and nettle (Urtica dioica L.) essential oil on the quality of beef burger during refrigerated storage. Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization, 15(1), 256–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-020-00628-5
- Boatright, J. R. (2006). Ethics and the conduct of business (5th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall. https://openlibrary.org/isbn/9780131947214
- Kuti, B. P., Ogunlesi, T. A., Oduwole, O., Oringanje, C. C. M. O., Udoh, E. E., Bello, S., Horn, D., & Meremikwu, M. M. (2023). Hand hygiene for the prevention of infections in neonates. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2023(6), Article CD013326. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD013326.pub4
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2016). Preterm labour and birth (Quality standard QS135). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs135
- University of Manchester. (2021). BMAN31500 UG dissertation: Presentation of dissertation [PDF]. https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=56357
- University of Manchester Library. (2024). Harvard Manchester referencing style [PDF]. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=35409949
- University of Manchester Library. (2026a). AI and referencing. Referencing guide at the University of Manchester. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/AI
- University of Manchester Library. (2026b). American Psychological Association APA. Referencing guide at the University of Manchester. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/apa
- University of Manchester Library. (2026c). Harvard Manchester. Referencing guide at the University of Manchester. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/harvard
- University of Manchester Library. (2026d). Harvard style list. Referencing guide at the University of Manchester. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/harvardlist
- University of Manchester Library. (2026e). Modern Humanities Research Association MHRA. Referencing guide at the University of Manchester. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/mhra
- University of Manchester Library. (2026f). OSCOLA. Referencing guide at the University of Manchester. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/oscola
- University of Manchester Library. (2026g). Other styles. Referencing guide at the University of Manchester. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/otherstyles
- University of Manchester Library. (2026h). Vancouver. Referencing guide at the University of Manchester. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/vancouver
- University of Manchester Library. (2026i). What is referencing? Referencing guide at the University of Manchester. https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/what-is-referencing
- University of Manchester School of Environment, Education and Development. (2024). MEd Psychology of Education 2024–2025 programme handbook [PDF]. https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=73411