The Coventry University Guide to Referencing in Harvard Style
Centre for Academic Writing, Coventry University
HOW TO REFERENCE SECONDARY SOURCES
WHAT IS A SECONDARY SOURCE?
In this guide, the term 'secondary source' is used to refer to a source which is cited (for example, summarised or reviewed) within another source (see Fig. 1 below).
Fig. 1 Secondary source (Lungu 2008:4)
NB The term 'secondary source' may have different meanings in other contexts. Please note that the guidance below only refers to sources that meet the criteria in the definition above.
WARNING !
Secondary sources may be considered recycled sources. Do not rely on using secondary sources if you can help it because this can suggest that you do not have the research skills to locate the original source. It is possible that the source you are interested in has been misquoted or misunderstood by the writer you are reading, so you should read the original to prevent repeating any errors.
OPTIONS
Option 1
If you are reading a source in which another source is cited, first try to find the original. Check in the footnotes, bibliography, or List of References in the source to find information about the original. If you cannot find the original in the University Library, ask at the Enquiry Desk about ordering the original source via the inter-library loan service.
If you can obtain the original source, follow the guidance appropriate to the type of source. The examples below refer to the secondary source illustrated in Fig. 1.
In-text citation
According to Jameson (1992:365), 'even if everything is spatial, this postmodern reality here is somehow more spatial than everything else'.
Scholars of postmodernism have tried to prove that 'even if everything is spatial, this postmodern reality here is somehow more spatial than everything else' (Jameson 1992: 365).
Reference
Jameson, F. (1992) Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso
Option 2
However, it is not always possible to retrieve the original source, in which case you need to cite it as a secondary source, following the guidance appropriate to each type of source used. The examples below refer to the secondary source illustrated in Fig. 1.
In-text citation
Within brackets give the surname of the author you have not read but which is referred to by the source you have read (the original author/source) and the date of this original source. Write ‘cited in’ and give the surname of the author whose work you have read and the date of the secondary source. Add a colon, then give the page number of the source you have read to help readers locate the passage.
Examples
According to Jameson (1992:365 cited in Lungu 2008:4), 'even if everything is spatial, this postmodern reality here is somehow more spatial than everything else'.
Scholars of postmodernism have tried to prove that 'even if everything is spatial, this postmodern reality here is somehow more spatial than everything else' (Jameson 1992: 365 cited in Lungu 2008:4).
Reference
Give full publication details of the original source as normal ending with a full stop. Then write ‘cited in’ and give full publication details of the source you have actually read. Finally, add a colon then give the page number of the source you have actually read.
Example
Jameson, F. (1992) Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso. cited in Lungu, A.
(2008) 'Marx, Postmodernism, and Spatial Configurations in Jameson and Lefebvre' CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture [online] 10 (1), 1-11: 4. available from <http://dx.doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1327> [7 January 2016]
