How to Cite a Conference Paper in Harvard Referencing

This guide explains how to format a conference paper citation in Harvard Referencing. Follow the format template below, refer to the real example, and use the step-by-step instructions to build your citation correctly.

Format Template

The general pattern for citing a conference paper in Harvard Referencing:

Template

Author, A.A. (Year) 'Title of paper', in Editor, A.A. (ed.) Title of conference proceedings. Place: Publisher, pp. page range.

In-Text Citation Example

How the citation appears within the body of your paper:

In-text citation

(Lee and Park, 2022)

Reference List Entry Example

The full citation as it appears in your reference list:

Reference list entry

Lee, J. and Park, H. (2022) 'Transformer architectures for low-resource languages', in Muresan, S. et al. (eds.) Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics. Dublin: Association for Computational Linguistics, pp. 310--325.

Step-by-Step Guide

1
Identify the author(s)
List the paper author(s) by surname and initial(s).
2
Add the year
Place the year of publication in parentheses.
3
Write the paper title
Enclose the paper title in single quotation marks using sentence case.
4
Add the proceedings title and editor
Write 'in' followed by the editor name(s) with '(ed.)' or '(eds.)', then the italicised proceedings title.
5
Include place, publisher, and pages
Add the place of publication, publisher name, and page range with 'pp.' prefix.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Not enclosing the paper title in single quotation marks.
Forgetting to italicise the proceedings title.
Omitting the editor(s) of the proceedings volume.
Not including the place of publication.
Confusing the format for a published proceedings paper with a conference presentation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cite a conference presentation that was not published in proceedings?

For an unpublished presentation, cite it as: Author (Year) 'Title of paper'. Paper presented at Conference Name, Location, Date. Include a URL or 'Unpublished' as appropriate.

Do I need the conference location or the publisher location?

For published proceedings, include the publisher's place of publication (not the conference location). For unpublished presentations, include the conference location.

What if the proceedings have no editor?

If no editor is listed, omit the editor element and place the proceedings title directly after 'in'. Example: in Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting...

Information You Will Need

Before creating your citation, gather the following information from your conference paper:

Author(s)
Year of presentation
Title of paper
Conference name
Location
Date(s) of conference
Publisher of proceedings (if published)
Page range (if in proceedings)
DOI or URL

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Reference List Entry Example

The full citation as it appears in your reference list:

Reference list entry

Step-by-Step Guide

Identify the author(s)

List the paper author(s) by surname and initial(s).

Add the year

Place the year of publication in parentheses.

Write the paper title

Enclose the paper title in single quotation marks using sentence case.

Add the proceedings title and editor

Write 'in' followed by the editor name(s) with '(ed.)' or '(eds.)', then the italicised proceedings title.

Include place, publisher, and pages

Add the place of publication, publisher name, and page range with 'pp.' prefix.