BibTeX to Harvard Citation Converter

Convert BibTeX entries to Harvard style references in seconds. Paste any @article or @book entry and copy a clean Harvard citation. Free, no sign-up.

Paste a BibTeX entry to get a Harvard citation

What is BibTeX?

BibTeX is the reference format used by LaTeX and by reference managers such as Zotero, JabRef, and Mendeley. Each entry starts with an @ sign and a type – @article, @book, @inproceedings – followed by a citation key and a set of field–value pairs for authors, title, journal, year, and pages. BibTeX stores the raw data of a reference rather than a formatted citation, which makes it ideal input for conversion: every field is already labeled, so nothing has to be guessed from punctuation. Paste one or more entries into CiteTools and the parser reads the fields directly. If the entry carries a doi field, CiteTools can also verify the record against CrossRef. The output is a finished citation you can paste into a paper written in Word or Google Docs.

How the BibTeX to Harvard conversion works

Copy a BibTeX entry from your .bib file or reference manager and paste it into the input field.
CiteTools parses the entry’s fields and decodes LaTeX markup such as protective braces and accent commands.
Copy the formatted citation, or export the result as plain text, HTML, or RTF.

Example input:

@article{watson1953,
  author  = {Watson, James D. and Crick, Francis H. C.},
  title   = {Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids},
  journal = {Nature},
  volume  = {171},
  pages   = {737--738},
  year    = {1953},
  doi     = {10.1038/171737a0}
}

About Harvard Referencing

Harvard referencing - widely used in UK universities and business.

Harvard referencing, in the widely taught Cite Them Right form, is the default at most UK and Australian universities. It is an author-date system: the year follows the author in parentheses, article titles sit in quotation marks, and journal titles are italicized. CiteTools renders the reference-list entry with the punctuation and DOI treatment Cite Them Right specifies.

Frequently asked questions

Which BibTeX entry types are supported?

The common types all work: @article, @book, @incollection, @inproceedings, @phdthesis, @techreport, and @misc. CiteTools maps each type onto the matching reference form in your chosen style.

Do I need the full entry?

The parser needs the fields your target style prints. Author, title, and year produce a usable citation; adding journal, volume, and pages makes it complete. If the entry has a doi field, CiteTools can fill gaps from CrossRef.

Will braces and LaTeX escapes be cleaned up in Harvard?

Yes. Protective braces around capital letters and LaTeX accent commands are decoded before formatting, so the Harvard output contains normal readable text instead of markup.