How to obtain Harvard Referencing Style with Page Numbers?

Question

I am new to LaTex and using TexShop as my Editor. I have been able to generate my list of references and cite them in text using \cite{}, but the thing is that I want to use the Harvard Referencing Style, so that in text, my citation comes with parentheses, authors' names and the year. There should also be a provision to specify a page number if I would like to in the in-text citation.

I am using BibLatex as outlined below:-

\usepackage[backend=bibtex]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{references.bib}

This is followed by

\printbibliography

at the end of the document (before \end{document})

A sample reference in my references.bib file looks like this:

@article{einstein,
    author =       "Albert Einstein",
    title =        "{Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter K{\"o}rper}. ({German})
        [{On} the electrodynamics of moving bodies]",
    journal =      "Annalen der Physik",
    volume =       "322",
    number =       "10",
    pages =        "891--921",
    year =         "1905",
    DOI =          "http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/andp.19053221004"

I have tried using \cite{}, \parencite{} etc. and also with [] for specifying page number but nothing seems to work. I looked into various similar questions on Stackechange for Tex but am highly confused. My ultimate goal is to be able to generate in-text citations with author names, year, and page number (which can be specified if needed in-text). The final bibliography at the end of my document should look as well in the Harvard Referencing Style. Also, I have the query that if there are multiple authors in a paper, such as Firstname1 Lastname1, Firstname2 Lastname2 etc., so in the .bib file, should I mention authors name as complete names or as Firstname1_Initial.Lastname1, Firstname2_Initial.Lastname2 etc.

Any help in this regard would be highly appreciated. Many thanks and Cheers!

Answer 1

There are several questions here. Let's try and walk through them one by one.

Harvard style

"Harvard style" is not a fixed term like "APA style" or "Chicago style", it usually just means author-year citations. You can get author-year citations with style=authoryear

\usepackage[style=authoryear, backend=biber]{biblatex}

I used Biber here instead of the 'legacy backend' BibTeX. You then have to run Biber instead of BibTeX, see Biblatex with Biber: Configuring my editor to avoid undefined citations.

Name input

Names should be given as

author = {Anne Elk and Emma Sigfridsson and James Hacker},

or

author = {Elk, Anne and Sigfridsson, Emma and Hacker, James},

see How should I type author names in a bib file? and How to properly write multiple authors in bibtex file?.

Whether or not you should give full names or initials is a slightly more complex matter. Sometimes the original source only includes initials even though you know the full name. biblatex can print all names with only initial (if you give the option giveninitials=true), but of course it can't reconstruct the full name from that.

Name output

The name format in the output is the on first glance unusual family-given/given-family order

Elk, Anne, Emma Sigfridsson and James Hacker

You can switch to all family-given with

\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{family-given}

See also Guidelines for customizing biblatex styles

Page numbers

Page numbers in citations are given in the optional postnote argument

\autocite[380]{sigfridsson}
\autocite[cf.][380]{sigfridsson}

Note how you don't need to include 'p.' or 'pp.' with the page number, biblatex adds the appropriate string atomatically.

In total you may want to try

\documentclass[british]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[style=authoryear, backend=biber]{biblatex}

\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{family-given}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
\autocite[380]{sigfridsson} and
\autocite[cf.][380]{sigfridsson}

\printbibliography
\end{document}