harvard citing book review

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How to Cite a Book Review in Harvard Referencing

3-minute read

• 25th March 2023

If you’re a student writing a paper, you’ve probably used a variety of sources to compile your research and get your ideas down. Now it’s time to give proper credit to those sources.

If you’re citing a book review in Harvard referencing , you’ve come to the right place. Harvard doesn’t have an official set of rules, though, so many variations of it exist. Make sure you check your own style guide to confirm the guidelines you need to follow.

Creating an In-text Citation for a Book Review

To create an in-text citation for a book review in Harvard referencing, simply include the reviewer’s name and the year that the review was published (separated by a comma) in parentheses. If you include the name in the main text, you can just add the year. For example:

If you use a direct quote, you’ll need to include the page numbers after the year with “p.” or “pp.” like this:

If there are two reviewers, you can include both names separated by “and.” If there are three or more reviewers, only include the first name followed by “et al.”

Creating a Reference List Entry for a Book Review

Once you finish your paper, you’ll need to include a reference list with all the sources you used. To add a book review to this list, follow this format:

Reviewer, A. (year review was published). “Title of Book Review,” review of Title of Book Being Reviewed , by Author, X. Title of Journal or Newspaper Containing Review , volume number, issue number, page number(s).

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Using our example, the reference list entry would look something like this:

Gaines, T. (2020). “Banks’ Use of Symbolism,” review of The Last Storm , by Banks, J. Obscure Book Reviews , vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 2–4.

Hopefully, you now feel confident citing a book review in Harvard referencing. Like we said earlier, though, make sure you check your institution’s style guide for all its requirements. In this post, we looked at the Open University style of Harvard.

If you’d like an expert to check your references, regardless of which style you’re using, we’ll be happy to help. We’ll also check your work for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and so much more. Submit a free sample today and try out our service!

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you create an in-text citation for a book review in harvard.

To create an in-text citation for a book review in Harvard referencing, include the reviewer’s name and the year their review was published in parentheses: (Reviewer, year).

How do you reference a book review in Harvard?

To create a reference list entry for a book review in Harvard, follow this format: Reviewer, A. (year review was published). “Title of Book Review,” review of Title of Book Being Reviewed , by Author, X. Title of Journal or Newspaper Containing Review , volume number, issue number, page number(s).

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Harvard Style Guide: Book reviews

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Reference : Reviewer Last name, Initials. (Year of review) 'Title of review (if available)', Review of  Title of work   reviewed by Author Initials Last name. Publication details of review.

Example : Zajko, V. (2019) Review of Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth  by A. Konstantinou. American Journal of Philology , 140(2), p. 367, Available at:10.1353/ajp.2019.0021 (Accessed 1 March 2022).

In-Text-Citation :

• Reviewer Last name (Year)
• (Reviewer Last name, Year)
• According to Zajko's (2019) review of the book ....
• It has been noted that the theoretical perspectives of interest, covered in this title, could be explored more thoroughly (Zajko, 2019).

Still unsure what in-text citation and referencing mean? Check here . 

Still unsure why you need to reference all this information? Check here . 

Note: in the example above, the review title is the same of the title of the book being reviewed, so it has not been included a second time.  

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Book review

Leeds harvard: book review, reference examples.

If referencing a book review that has been published in a journal or magazine, use the following format:

Family name, INITIAL(S). Year. Title of book review. Journal Title . Volume (issue number), page numbers.

Smith, G. 2014. A second anthology by Kathy Lette. Yorkshire Review . 51 (1), pp.88-89.

If the book review has been published in a book, use the following format:

Family name, INITIAL(S). Year. Title of book review. In: Family name, INITIAL(S) (of editor). ed(s). Title of book . Place of publication: Publisher, page numbers.

Smith, G. 2014. A second anthology by Kathy Lette. In: Jones, B. ed. The bumper book of reviews . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, pp.3-14.

Citation examples

In the citation use the name of the author of the book review.

When the author name is not mentioned in the text, the citation consists of the author’s name and the year of publication in brackets.

Lette's anthology received praise for including a diverse range of authors (Smith, 2014).

If you have already named the author in the text, only the publication year needs to be mentioned in brackets.

Smith (2014) praised Lette’s anthology for including a diverse range of authors.

When to include page numbers

You should include page numbers in your citation if you quote directly from the text, paraphrase specific ideas or explanations, or use an image, diagram, table, etc. from a source.

"It was emphasised that citations in a text should be consistent" (Jones, 2017, p.24).

When referencing a single page, you should use p. For a range of pages, use pp.

p.7 or pp.20-29.

If the page numbers are in Roman numerals, do not include p. before them.

(Amis, 1958, iv)

Common issues

When you're referencing with Leeds Harvard you may come across issues with missing details, multiple authors, edited books, references to another author's work or online items, to name a few. Here are some tips on how to deal with some common issues when using Leeds Harvard.

Skip straight to the issue that affects you:

• Online items
• URL web addresses
• Multiple authors
• Corporate author(s) or organisation(s)
• Multiple publisher details
• Editions and reprints
• Missing details
• Multiple sources with different authors
• Sources written by the same author in the same year
• Sources with the same author in different years
• Two authors with the same surname in the same year
• The work of one author referred to by another
• Anonymising sources for confidentiality
• Identifying the authors’ family name (surname)

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To be made up of:

• Name of the reviewer.
• Year of publication of the review (in round brackets).
• Title of the review (in single quotation marks).
• Review of ... (title of work reviewed in italics).
• Creator of work being reviewed,
• Publication details (title in italics).

‘Creator of work being reviewed’ may refer to an author (book), director (drama) or composer (music).

In-text citation:

Stevens (2010)

Reference list:

Stevens, H. (2010). ‘Biology of birds’. Review of The birds and the bees , by David Bills. Journal of the History of Biology , 50(2), pp.190-92.

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Write it Right - A guide to Harvard referencing style

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Three or more authors, multiple works - same author, works by different authors - same family name, works by different authors - same family name - same year, second or later edition with an author, several sources are cited at once, organisational corporate or institutional author, book - edited, book review, chapters/sections of edited books, volumes of multi-volume works, no date can be established, the date can be established but only approximately, secondary referencing (source cited or quoted in another source).

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Q. How can I cite a book review?

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Answered By: Elaine Pocklington Last Updated: May 22, 2024     Views: 555

Cite Them Right Harvard referencing style: Information on how to cite and reference a book review can be found in the section "Media and Art", under the subsection "Reviews and performances". The first entry on this subsection is about " Book Reviews ".

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Harvard Citation Style: Books / E-Books

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Basic format for citing a Book or E-Book

Author(s) family name, initial(s) Year of publication, Title, Publisher, Place of publication.  

For books with multiple authors, edited books, E-books and chapters in books see Examples below.

Citing a Book or E-Book: Examples

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Quick guide to Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right)

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There are different versions of the Harvard referencing style. This guide is a quick introduction to the commonly-used Cite Them Right version. You will find further guidance available through the OU Library on the Cite Them Right Database .

For help and support with referencing and the full Cite Them Right guide, have a look at the Library’s page on referencing and plagiarism . If you need guidance referencing OU module material you can check out which sections of Cite Them Right are recommended when referencing physical and online module material .

This guide does not apply to OU Law undergraduate students . If you are studying a module beginning with W1xx, W2xx or W3xx, you should refer to the Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules .

Table of contents

In-text citations and full references.

• Secondary referencing
• Page numbers
• Citing multiple sources published in the same year by the same author

Full reference examples

Referencing consists of two elements:

• in-text citations, which are inserted in the body of your text and are included in the word count. An in-text citation gives the author(s) and publication date of a source you are referring to. If the publication date is not given, the phrase 'no date' is used instead of a date. If using direct quotations or you refer to a specific section in the source you also need the page number/s if available, or paragraph number for web pages.
• full references, which are given in alphabetical order in reference list at the end of your work and are not included in the word count. Full references give full bibliographical information for all the sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

To see a reference list and intext citations check out this example assignment on Cite Them Right .

Difference between reference list and bibliography

a reference list only includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text

a bibliography includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text AND sources that were part of your background reading that you did not use in your assignment

Back to top

Examples of in-text citations

You need to include an in-text citation wherever you quote or paraphrase from a source. An in-text citation consists of the last name of the author(s), the year of publication, and a page number if relevant. There are a number of ways of incorporating in-text citations into your work - some examples are provided below. Alternatively you can see examples of setting out in-text citations in Cite Them Right .

Note: When referencing a chapter of an edited book, your in-text citation should give the author(s) of the chapter.

Online module materials

(Includes written online module activities, audio-visual material such as online tutorials, recordings or videos).

When referencing material from module websites, the date of publication is the year you started studying the module.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

OR, if there is no named author:

The Open University (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Rietdorf, K. and Bootman, M. (2022) 'Topic 3: Rare diseases'. S290: Investigating human health and disease . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1967195 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

The Open University (2022) ‘3.1 The purposes of childhood and youth research’. EK313: Issues in research with children and young people . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1949633&section=1.3 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

You can also use this template to reference videos and audio that are hosted on your module website:

The Open University (2022) ‘Video 2.7 An example of a Frith-Happé animation’. SK298: Brain, mind and mental health . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2013014&section=4.9.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

The Open University (2022) ‘Audio 2 Interview with Richard Sorabji (Part 2)’. A113: Revolutions . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1960941&section=5.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

Note: if a complete journal article has been uploaded to a module website, or if you have seen an article referred to on the website and then accessed the original version, reference the original journal article, and do not mention the module materials. If only an extract from an article is included in your module materials that you want to reference, you should use secondary referencing, with the module materials as the 'cited in' source, as described above.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of message', Title of discussion board , in Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Fitzpatrick, M. (2022) ‘A215 - presentation of TMAs', Tutor group discussion & Workbook activities , in A215: Creative writing . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=4209566 (Accessed: 24 January 2022).

Note: When an ebook looks like a printed book, with publication details and pagination, reference as a printed book.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title . Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.

For ebooks that do not contain print publication details

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title of book . Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).

Example with one author:

Bell, J. (2014) Doing your research project . Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy . Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-ebooks (Accessed: 23 June 2021).

Example with two or three authors:

Goddard, J. and Barrett, S. (2015) The health needs of young people leaving care . Norwich: University of East Anglia, School of Social Work and Psychosocial Studies.

Example with four or more authors:

Young, H.D. et al. (2015) Sears and Zemansky's university physics . San Francisco, CA: Addison-Wesley.

Note: You can choose one or other method to reference four or more authors (unless your School requires you to name all authors in your reference list) and your approach should be consistent.

Note: Books that have an editor, or editors, where each chapter is written by a different author or authors.

Surname of chapter author, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of chapter or section', in Initial. Surname of book editor (ed.) Title of book . Place of publication: publisher, Page reference.

Franklin, A.W. (2012) 'Management of the problem', in S.M. Smith (ed.) The maltreatment of children . Lancaster: MTP, pp. 83–95.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference.

If accessed online:

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference. Available at: DOI or URL (if required) (Accessed: date).

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326.

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326. Available at: https://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/log... (Accessed: 27 January 2023).

Barke, M. and Mowl, G. (2016) 'Málaga – a failed resort of the early twentieth century?', Journal of Tourism History , 2(3), pp. 187–212. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2010.523145

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference if available. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Mansell, W. and Bloom, A. (2012) ‘£10,000 carrot to tempt physics experts’, The Guardian , 20 June, p. 5.

Roberts, D. and Ackerman, S. (2013) 'US draft resolution allows Obama 90 days for military action against Syria', The Guardian , 4 September. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/04/syria-strikes-draft-resolut... (Accessed: 9 September 2015).

Surname, Initial. (Year that the site was published/last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Robinson, J. (2007) Social variation across the UK . Available at: https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/social-variation... (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

The British Psychological Society (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct . Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct (Accessed: 22 March 2019).

Note: Cite Them Right Online offers guidance for referencing webpages that do not include authors' names and dates. However, be extra vigilant about the suitability of such webpages.

Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of photograph . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Kitton, J. (2013) Golden sunset . Available at: https://www.jameskittophotography.co.uk/photo_8692150.html (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

stanitsa_dance (2021) Cossack dance ensemble . Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/COI_slphWJ_/ (Accessed: 13 June 2023).

Note: If no title can be found then replace it with a short description.

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Harvard Referencing Guide

About citing books, basic elements needed to reference a book.

Author (Surname Initial/s)

Year of publication

Edition (other than the first edition)

Place of Publication

Only include the place of publication if it’s relevant to the reader. The place of publication may be relevant if:

• you’re citing works with editions published in multiple locations
• the location the book was published impacts the credibility of your work

Sometimes knowing the place of publication of the sources adds credibility to the work. For example, an Australian publication may be more credible if it cites books published in Australia. Including the publishing location clearly shows the reader where the book is from. If including the place of publication, include the city listed. 

If the place of publication doesn’t add useful information for the reader, you can omit it from your citation.

One author, two authors, three or more authors

Elements of the reference, author a (year)  title of book: subtitle of book , name of publisher, place of publication., in-text citation, eades (2013) or (eades 2013), reference list, eades d (2013)  aboriginal ways of using english , aboriginal studies press, canberra., two authors, author a and author b (year)  title of book: subtitle of book , name of publisher, place of publication., strunk and white (2000) or (strunk and white 2000), strunk w and white eb (2000)  the elements of style , 4th edn, longman, new york., three or more authors, author a, author b and author c (year)  title of book: subtitle of book , name of publisher, place of publication., stoll et al. (2020) or (stoll et al. 2020), stoll y, kurt jl and white eb (2020)  the international economy , 3rd edn, longman, new york., book with organisation as author, organisation name or abbreviation (year)  title of book: subtitle of book , name of publisher, place of publication., oxford university press (2016)  or  (oxford university press 2016), oxford university press (2016)  new oxford style manual , oxford university press..

• If there is a DOI, you don’t need to include a publishing location.
• If there is no DOI ,  reference as you would a print book .
• As books are published in editions, you don’t need to include an accessed date.
• How to find a DOI  - You can search for a DOI by going to  https://search.crossref.org/  and pasting in the article title. 

Author A (Year)  Title of book: subtitle of book , Name of Publisher, doi:number.

Maddison (2013)  or  (maddison 2013), maddison s (2013)  australian public policy: theory and practice , 2nd edn, cambridge university press, doi:10.1017/cbo9781107255920., without a doi, author a (year)  title of book: subtitle of book , name of publisher, place of publication., stein-parbury j (2013) patient and person: interpersonal skills in nursing , 5th edn, elsevier australia, sydney., edition other than the first.

Any edition other than the first is noted after the title of the book:

• Second edition = 2nd edn,
• Third edition = 3rd edn,
• Fourth edition = 4th edn,
• Revised edition = edn, rev,

Author A (Year)  Title of book: subtitle of book , X edn, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.

Whitebread (2009)  or (whitebread 2009), whitebread d (2009)  design manual , 2nd edn, unsw press, sydney., edited book, editor e (ed) (year)  title of book: subtitle of book , name of publisher, place of publication., carruthers (2005)  or (carruthers 2005), carruthers p (ed) (2005)  the innate mind: structure and contents , oxford university press, new york., carruthers p, laurence s, stich s and templeton g (eds) (2005)  the innate mind: structure and contents , oxford university press, new york., chapter in an edited book, author a (year) ‘title of chapter: subtitle of chapter’, in editor e and editor f (eds)  title of book: subtitle of book , name of publisher, place of publication., laurence and margolis (2005) or (laurence and margolis 2005), laurence s and margolis e (2005) ‘number and natural language’, in carruthers p, laurence s and stich s (eds)  the innate mind: structure and contents , oxford university press, new york., book with author and editor listed, author a (year)  title of book: subtitle of book  (editor e ed), name of publisher, place of publication., shakespeare (1600/1967) .., shakespeare w (1600/1967)  the merchant of venice  (moelwyn w ed), penguin books ltd, harmondsworth., translation of a book, author a (year)  english title of book: subtitle of book  (translator t trans), name of publisher, place of publication..

For translated works, use the original author’s name in the in-text citation .

Backman (2015) OR (Backman 2015)

Backman f (2015)  a man called ove: a novel  (koch h trans), washington square press, new york., backman f and hall f (2015)  a man called ove: a novel  (koch h and zimmer k trans), washington square press, new york., dictionary or encyclopedia entries.

• For dictionary or encyclopedia entries when there is no author is identified, cite the title (italicised) and year in the text. No need to include an entry in the reference list.
• Sometimes you might want to include a more detailed entry, and so would cite it according to the source type (book, chapter, web page) and include it in the reference list.

Example - in-text citation only

The  australian concise oxford dictionary  (acod) (2017) defines it as ..., book - part of a series.

• When a book is part of a series, provide the series title after the book title. Editions other than the first is noted after the title of the series.

Author A (Year)  Book title , Series title, Publisher, Place of Publication.

(saad 2007) or saad (2007:16), saad g (2007)  the evolutionary bases of consumption , marketing and consumer psychology series, lawrence erlbaum associates, mahwah, new jersey., pugel ta (2009)  international economics , the mcgraw-hill series in economics, 14th edn, mcgraw-hill irwin, boston., plays or poetry.

• Use the edition of the play you cited. If the play was written well before the edition, place the original date in parentheses with the edition’s publishing date.

Author A (Year of Original Publication/Year of Edition)  Title of play: subtitle of play , Name of Publisher of Edition, Place of Publication.

• Include a page number after a colon if you’re citing a specific page. Use the original and edition dates if citing an old work.

(Murray-Smith 2002:5)

(ross 1979:15), (yeats 1892/2018), murray-smith j (2002)  rapture , currency press, sydney., ross k (1979)  breaker morant: a play in two acts , edward arnold pty ltd, melbourne., yeats wb (1892/2018)  the countess cathleen: a play , createspace independent publishing platform, scotts valley., citing reviews of plays.

• Follow the rules of citation for the source (for example, a newspaper) that published the review. Use italics for the title of the play.

Reviewer R (Day Month Year) ‘Title of review: subtitle of review’ [Review of  Title of work  by Creator],  Name of Blog, Newspaper or Magazine , accessed Day Month Year.

Wilkins p (5 april 2019) ‘ how to rule the world  a timely reminder of issues facing the nation’ [review of  how to rule the world  by nakkiah lui],  the canberra times ., wakelin o (25 january 2019) ‘review:  the big time ,   ensemble theatre’ [review of  the big time  by david williamson],  artshub , accessed 18 december 2019., author a (year of original publication/year of edition) ‘title of poem: subtitle of poem’,  name of collection ,   name of publisher of edition, place of publication., (poe 1845/2012), (harrison 2008:133), (grono 1973), (coleridge the rime of the ancient mariner , part 2, verse 29, lines 121-2)..

• As in text, use the original capitalisation of the poem in the reference list entry.

Poe EA (1845/2012)  The raven , Arcturus Publishing Limited, London.

Harrison m (2008)  wild bees , university of western australia press, crawley., taylor a (1982) ‘the cool change’,  selected poems , university of queensland press, st lucia., grono w (1973) ‘a postcard from perth’, in hewett d (ed.),  sandgropers: a western australian anthology , university of western australia press, nedlands., dong-jip shin (1974) ‘ordinary autumn evening’,  best loved poems of korea,  (ko ch’ang-su, trans.), hollym international, republic of korea., white tw (1944)  sky saga: a story of empire airmen , 2nd edn, hutchinson & co., melbourne., harwood g (1963) ‘ critic’s nightwatch ’,  poems , poem hunter website, accessed 18 december 2019., open educational resource (oer), author surname, initial(s) year,  book title , oer publisher/repository., skripak et al. (2020) or (skripak et al. 2020), skripak sj, parsons r and cortes a (2020)  fundamentals of business , open textbook library..

• Disciplines and sources define the term ‘classics’ in different ways. This guidance covers ancient Greek and Roman works (until the 5th century) and works from the medieval period (from the fall of the Roman empire until the middle of the 15th century).

In references and in-text citations, treat the titles of classics as you would other book titles.

• Use sentence case – capitalise only the first letter of the title and the first letter of any proper noun.
• Use italics for the titles of books, series and anthologies.
• Use quotation marks for the titles of chapters, poems or sections.

In-text citations

• Often there will not be much information for classics. For example, you might not know the date of publication.
• Include the information that you know in in-text citations.
• If you don’t know the name of the author, don’t use ‘Anon’ ,  ‘unknown’ or ‘Anonymous’ in the in-text citation, simply place the date at the end of the sentence.

Beowulf is the story of a hero who defeats a dragon.

• If you don’t know the author or the date of a work, use the name of the translator (trans) and the date of publication of the edition you’re working with. Place the date at the end of the reference.

Beowulf ( Heaney S, trans), Faber & Faber Ltd, London, 2002.

Book in foreign language.

•  Provide English translation in parentheses immediately after the original title.
• The names of foreign publishers should not be translated. Use the anglicised spelling of foreign places of publications, e.g. Rome, not Roma.

Author A (Year)  Title of book in original language  (English translation), Publisher, Place of Publication.

(greau 2008) or greau (2008), greau j (2008) la trahison des économistes  (the betrayal of economists), gallimard, paris..

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🤔 What is a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator is a tool that automatically generates formatted academic references in the Harvard style.

It takes in relevant details about a source -- usually critical information like author names, article titles, publish dates, and URLs -- and adds the correct punctuation and formatting required by the Harvard referencing style.

The generated references can be copied into a reference list or bibliography, and then collectively appended to the end of an academic assignment. This is the standard way to give credit to sources used in the main body of an assignment.

👩‍🎓 Who uses a Harvard Referencing Generator?

Harvard is the main referencing style at colleges and universities in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also very popular in other English-speaking countries such as South Africa, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. University-level students in these countries are most likely to use a Harvard generator to aid them with their undergraduate assignments (and often post-graduate too).

🙌 Why should I use a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator solves two problems:

• It provides a way to organise and keep track of the sources referenced in the content of an academic paper.
• It ensures that references are formatted correctly -- inline with the Harvard referencing style -- and it does so considerably faster than writing them out manually.

A well-formatted and broad bibliography can account for up to 20% of the total grade for an undergraduate-level project, and using a generator tool can contribute significantly towards earning them.

⚙️ How do I use MyBib's Harvard Referencing Generator?

Here's how to use our reference generator:

• If citing a book, website, journal, or video: enter the URL or title into the search bar at the top of the page and press the search button.
• Choose the most relevant results from the list of search results.
• Our generator will automatically locate the source details and format them in the correct Harvard format. You can make further changes if required.
• Then either copy the formatted reference directly into your reference list by clicking the 'copy' button, or save it to your MyBib account for later.

MyBib supports the following for Harvard style:

🍏 What other versions of Harvard referencing exist?

There isn't "one true way" to do Harvard referencing, and many universities have their own slightly different guidelines for the style. Our generator can adapt to handle the following list of different Harvard styles:

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Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.

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• Harvard In-Text Citation | A Complete Guide & Examples

Harvard In-Text Citation | A Complete Guide & Examples

Published on 30 April 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 5 May 2022.

An in-text citation should appear wherever you quote or paraphrase a source in your writing, pointing your reader to the full reference .

In Harvard style , citations appear in brackets in the text. An in-text citation consists of the last name of the author,  the year of publication, and a page number if relevant.

Up to three authors are included in Harvard in-text citations. If there are four or more authors, the citation is shortened with et al .

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Table of contents

Including page numbers in citations, where to place harvard in-text citations, citing sources with missing information, frequently asked questions about harvard in-text citations.

When you quote directly from a source or paraphrase a specific passage, your in-text citation must include a page number to specify where the relevant passage is located.

Use ‘p.’ for a single page and ‘pp.’ for a page range:

• Meanwhile, another commentator asserts that the economy is ‘on the downturn’ (Singh, 2015, p. 13 ).
• Wilson (2015, pp. 12–14 ) makes an argument for the efficacy of the technique.

If you are summarising the general argument of a source or paraphrasing ideas that recur throughout the text, no page number is needed.

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When incorporating citations into your text, you can either name the author directly in the text or only include the author’s name in brackets.

Naming the author in the text

When you name the author in the sentence itself, the year and (if relevant) page number are typically given in brackets straight after the name:

Naming the author directly in your sentence is the best approach when you want to critique or comment on the source.

Naming the author in brackets

When you  you haven’t mentioned the author’s name in your sentence, include it inside the brackets. The citation is generally placed after the relevant quote or paraphrase, or at the end of the sentence, before the full stop:

Multiple citations can be included in one place, listed in order of publication year and separated by semicolons:

This type of citation is useful when you want to support a claim or summarise the overall findings of sources.

Common mistakes with in-text citations

In-text citations in brackets should not appear as the subject of your sentences. Anything that’s essential to the meaning of a sentence should be written outside the brackets:

• (Smith, 2019) argues that…
• Smith (2019) argues that…

Similarly, don’t repeat the author’s name in the bracketed citation and in the sentence itself:

• As Caulfield (Caulfield, 2020) writes…
• As Caulfield (2020) writes…

Sometimes you won’t have access to all the source information you need for an in-text citation. Here’s what to do if you’re missing the publication date, author’s name, or page numbers for a source.

If a source doesn’t list a clear publication date, as is sometimes the case with online sources or historical documents, replace the date with the words ‘no date’:

When it’s not clear who the author of a source is, you’ll sometimes be able to substitute a corporate author – the group or organisation responsible for the publication:

When there’s no corporate author to cite, you can use the title of the source in place of the author’s name:

No page numbers

If you quote from a source without page numbers, such as a website, you can just omit this information if it’s a short text – it should be easy enough to find the quote without it.

If you quote from a longer source without page numbers, it’s best to find an alternate location marker, such as a paragraph number or subheading, and include that:

A Harvard in-text citation should appear in brackets every time you quote, paraphrase, or refer to information from a source.

The citation can appear immediately after the quotation or paraphrase, or at the end of the sentence. If you’re quoting, place the citation outside of the quotation marks but before any other punctuation like a comma or full stop.

In Harvard referencing, up to three author names are included in an in-text citation or reference list entry. When there are four or more authors, include only the first, followed by ‘ et al. ’

In Harvard style , when you quote directly from a source that includes page numbers, your in-text citation must include a page number. For example: (Smith, 2014, p. 33).

You can also include page numbers to point the reader towards a passage that you paraphrased . If you refer to the general ideas or findings of the source as a whole, you don’t need to include a page number.

When you want to use a quote but can’t access the original source, you can cite it indirectly. In the in-text citation , first mention the source you want to refer to, and then the source in which you found it. For example:

It’s advisable to avoid indirect citations wherever possible, because they suggest you don’t have full knowledge of the sources you’re citing. Only use an indirect citation if you can’t reasonably gain access to the original source.

In Harvard style referencing , to distinguish between two sources by the same author that were published in the same year, you add a different letter after the year for each source:

• (Smith, 2019a)
• (Smith, 2019b)

Add ‘a’ to the first one you cite, ‘b’ to the second, and so on. Do the same in your bibliography or reference list .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, May 05). Harvard In-Text Citation | A Complete Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 24 June 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-in-text-citation/

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How do I reference a book review… in the Cranfield Author-date style?

If you’ve come across book reviews when searching the journal databases, you may have wondered what they are and whether you should cite them.

In essence, a book review provides a summary and a critical evaluation of a book. As well as analysing the content of the book, book reviews can provide comparisons to other key works in your subject. Reviews should not be substituted for reading the actual book, however instead be used to help understand the basic principles and arguments of the book.

If you have used a book review in your work, you will need to cite and reference it correctly. Here’s how to do this in the Cranfield Author-date style…

References:

We’ll look first at how to create a bibliographic reference for the end of your work. Here is what you need:

• Reviewer(s) of the book (Surname, Initials)
• (Year of publication)
• ‘Title of the review’ (if applicable)
• Review of… (Title of the work reviewed – in italics)
• Author/director/editor of work being reviewed
• Publication details ( title in italics, volume, (issue), page numbers)

So an example reference for a book review would look like this:

Al Ariss, A. (2011) Review of  Global Careers , by Michael Dickmann and Yehuda Baruch. Human Resource Management, 50 (5), pp. 685-688.

In-text citations:

Where you make reference to this item in your text, follow the normal ‘name and date’ conventions and simply follow any mention with (Al Ariss, 2011) or a variation thereon.

Any questions?

As always, if you have any questions about referencing or citations, please contact MIRC or the Kings Norton Library .

Feature image from Pixabay. Available at: https://pixabay.com/photos/open-book-library-education-read-1428428/

Written By: Tracey Nunn

A Business Librarian since 2006, Tracey leads support for taught MSc courses in the School of Management Library.

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Cite a Review in Harvard

Don't let plagiarism errors spoil your paper, consider your source's credibility. ask these questions:, contributor/author.

• Has the author written several articles on the topic, and do they have the credentials to be an expert in their field?
• Can you contact them? Do they have social media profiles?
• Have other credible individuals referenced this source or author?
• Book: What have reviews said about it?
• What do you know about the publisher/sponsor? Are they well-respected?
• Do they take responsibility for the content? Are they selective about what they publish?
• Take a look at their other content. Do these other articles generally appear credible?
• Does the author or the organization have a bias? Does bias make sense in relation to your argument?
• Is the purpose of the content to inform, entertain, or to spread an agenda? Is there commercial intent?
• Are there ads?
• When was the source published or updated? Is there a date shown?
• Does the publication date make sense in relation to the information presented to your argument?
• Does the source even have a date?
• Was it reproduced? If so, from where?
• If it was reproduced, was it done so with permission? Copyright/disclaimer included?
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Cite A Book in Harvard style

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Use the following template or our Harvard Referencing Generator to cite a book. For help with other source types, like books, PDFs, or websites, check out our other guides. To have your reference list or bibliography automatically made for you, try our free citation generator .

Reference list

Place this part in your bibliography or reference list at the end of your assignment.

In-text citation

Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.

Popular Harvard Citation Guides

• How to cite a Book in Harvard style
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Other Harvard Citation Guides

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Citation Management: Guides & Tools

Information on citation style guides, citation management tools, and citation best practices to assist you with your academic writing & research.

General Guidance

Aimed at MBA students, this short deck provides an overview and tips/tricks for thinking about using and citing sources in papers, projects and exams.

Developed by the Harvard Writing Center, this guide outlines how to use, integrate, and cite sources responsibly and reviews how to avoid plagiarism.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources

A customized e-learning module that assists you with understanding these essential topics: what the responsible use of information means, how it affects academic integrity, and how citing sources plays a significant role in the scholarly conversation at HBS and beyond.

Learn with Baker Library: Citing Sources & Academic Integrity

Citation style guides.

This guide describes citation conventions for HBS students to use when writing research papers.

Complete handbook to American Psychological Association style, often referred to as APA.  APA is commonly used in the social sciences.

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association

Check harvard availability.

Developed by Purdue's Online Writing Lab. Contains resources on in-text citation and the references page, as well as APA sample papers, slide presentations, and the APA classroom poster.

Purdue Owl: APA Formatting & Style Guide

Fully searchable online version of the 15th and 16th editions of the Chicago Manual of Style.  The Chicago style is a popular citation style within the social sciences.

Chicago Manual of Style

Developed by the Purdue Online Writing Lab.  Detailed information on  The Chicago Manual of Style  method of document formatting and citation. 

Purdue Owl: Chicago Manual Formatting & Style Guidelines

Guidelines and recommendations from the Modern Language Association on citing sources using MLA style.

MLA Handbook

Developed by the Purdue Online Writing Lab.  MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

Purdue Owl: MLA Formatting & Style Guide

Citation management tools.

Tools such as Zotero and Endnote help organize your research and references.

For more information on using these tools, visit Harvard Library's Research Management & Citation Tools .

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Why acknowledge sources?

When is citing necessary, citing textual sources, citing images and non-textual sources, citing generative ai, links to style guides and citation resources.

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Reasons for citing sources are based on academic, professional, and cultural values. At the GSD, we cite to promote

• Integrity and honesty by acknowledging the creative and intellectual work of others.
• The pursuit of knowledge by enabling others to locate the materials you used.
• The development of design excellence through research into scholarly conversations related to your subject.

Cite your source whenever you quote, summarize, paraphrase, or otherwise include someone else's

• Words 
• Opinions, thoughts, interpretations, or arguments
• Original research, designs, images, video, etc.
• Chicago Style

Citations follow different rules for structure and content depending on which style you use. At the GSD, mostly you will use Chicago or APA style. Often you can choose the style you prefer, but it's good to ask your professor or TA/TF. Whichever style you use, be consistent. We recommend using Zotero , a citation-management tool, to structure your citations for you, but you should always check to make sure the tool captures the correct information in the correct place.

 Chicago Style 

Citing print sources.

Footnote - long (first time citing the source)

1. Joseph Rykwert, The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World , (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976), 35.

Footnote - short (citing the source again)

1. Rykwert, The Idea of a Town , 35.

In-text citation (alternative to footnotes)

(Rykwert 1976, 35)

Bibliography (alphabetical order and hanging indentation)

Rykwert, Joseph. The Idea of a Town: the Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World . New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976.

Chapter 

1. Diane Favro, “The Street Triumphant: The Urban Impact of Roman Triumphal Parades,” in Streets: Critical Perspectives on Public Space , ed. Zeynep Çelik , Diana Favro, and Richard Ingersoll (Berkeley: University of California Press,1994), 153.

1. Favro, “The Street Triumphant,” 156.

In-text citation (called "author-date," an alternative to footnotes)

(Favro 1994, 153)

Bibliography  (alphabetical order and hanging indentation)

Favro, Diane. “The Street Triumphant: The Urban Impact of Roman Triumphal Parades.” In Streets: Critical Perspectives on Public Space, edited by Zeynep Çelik, Diane G. Favro, and Richard Ingersoll, 151-164. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Journal Article 

1. Hendrik Dey, “From ‘Street’ to ‘Piazza’: Urban Politics, Public Ceremony, and the Redefinition of platea in Communal Italy and Beyond” Speculum 91, no.4 (October 2016): 919.

1. Dey, “From ‘Street’ to ‘Piazza,’” 932.

Dey, Hendrik. “From ‘Street’ to ‘Piazza’: Urban Politics, Public Ceremony, and the Redefinition of platea in Communal Italy and Beyond.” Speculum 91, no.4 (October 2016): 919-44.

 APA Style 

In-text citation  

(Rykwert 1976 p. 35)

Footnote  (for supplemental information)

1. From  The idea of a town: The anthropology of urban form in Rome, Italy and the ancient world by Joseph  Rykwert, 1976, New Jersey:  Princeton University Press.

Bibliography/Reference  (alphabetical order and hanging indentation)

Rykwert, J. (1976).  The idea of a town: The anthropology of urban form in Rome, Italy and the ancient world .  Princeton University Press.

In-Text Citation

(Favro   1994 p.153)

Footnote (for supplemental information)

1. From the chapter "The street triumphant: The urban impact of Roman triumphal parades" in  Streets: Critical perspectives on public space,  edited by Zeynep Çelik , Diana Favro, and Richard Ingersoll, 1994, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Favro, D. (1994) “The street triumphant: The Urban Impact of Roman Triumphal Parades.” In Zeynep Çelik, Diane G. Favro, and Richard Ingersoll (Eds.),  Streets: Critical Perspectives on Public Space ( pp.151-164). University of California Press.

(Dey 2016 p.919)

Footnote  (for supplemental material)

1. From the article “From ‘street’ to ‘Piazza’: Urban politics, public ceremony, and the Redefinition of platea in Communal Italy and Beyond” by  Hendrik Dey in   Speculum 91(4), 919.  www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/spc/2016/91/4

Dey, H. (2016). From "street" to "piazza": Urban politics, public ceremony, and the redefinition of platea in communal Italy and beyond.  Speculum 91 (4), 919-44. www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/spc/2016/91/4

Citing Visual Sources 

Visual representations created by other people, including photographs, maps, drawings, models, graphs, tables, and blueprints, must be cited.  Citations for visual material may be included at the end of a caption or in a list of figures, similar to but usually separate from the main bibliography.

When they are not merely background design, images are labeled as figures and numbered. In-text references to them refer to the figure number. Sometimes you will have a title after the figure number and a brief descriptive caption below it. 

If you choose to include the citation under the caption, format it like a footnote entry. If you would prefer to have a list of figures for citation information, organize them by figure number and use the format of a bibliographic entry. 

The construction of citations for artwork and illustrations is more flexible and variable than textual sources. Here we have provided an example with full bibliographic information. Use your best judgment and remember that the goals are to be consistent and to provide enough information to credit your source and for someone else to find your source.

Some borrowed material in collages may also need to be cited, but the rules are vague and hard to find. Check with your professor about course standards. 

Visual representations created by other people, including photographs, maps, drawings, models, graphs, tables, and blueprints, must be cited. In APA style, tables are their own category, and all other visual representations are considered figures. Tables and figures both follow the same basic setup. 

When they are not merely background design, images are labeled as figures and numbered and titled above the image. If needed to clarify the meaning or significance of the figure, a note may be placed below it. In-text references to visual sources refer to the figure number (ex. As shown in Figure 1..."). 

Citations for visual material created by other people may either be included under the figure or note or compiled in a list of figures, similar to but usually separate from the main bibliography.

Figures may take up a whole page or be placed at the top or bottom of the page with a blank double-space below or above it.

If you choose to include the citation under the figure, format it like a bibliographic entry. If you would prefer to have a list of figures for citation information, organize them by figure number and use the format of a bibliographic entry. Here is a detailed example. Some figures will require less bibliographic information, but it is a good practice to include as much as you can.

The construction of citations for artwork and illustrations is more flexible and variable than for textual sources. Here we have provided an example with full bibliographic information. Use your best judgment and remember that the goals are to be consistent and to provide enough information to credit your source and for someone else to find your source.

Citing Generative AI

The rules for citing the use of generative AI, both textual and visual, are still evolving. For guidelines on when to cite the use of AI, please refer to the section on Academic Integrity. Here, we will give you suggestions for  how to cite based on what the style guides say and what Harvard University encourages. We again recommend that you to ask your instructors about their expectations for use and citation and to remain consistent in your formatting.

The Chicago Manual of Style currently states that "for most types of writing, you can simply acknowledge the AI tool in your text" with a parenthetical comment stating the use of a specific tool. For example: (Image generated by Midjourney). 

For academic papers or research articles, you should have a numbered footnote or endnote

Footnote - prompt not included in the text of the paper

1. ChatGPT, response to "Suggest three possible responses from community stakeholders to the proposed multi-use development project," OpenAI, March 28, 2024, https://chat.openai.com/chat.

Footnote - prompt included in the text of the paper

1. Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, March 28, 2024, https://chat.oenai.com/chat

Footnote - edited AI-generated text

1. Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, March 28, 2024, edited for clarity, https://chat.oenai.com/chat

In-text citation  (called "author-date," an alternative to footnotes)

(Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI) or (Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, edited for clarity)

Chicago does not encourage including generative AI in a bibliography unless the tool also generates a direct link to the same generated content.

https://www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0422.html

The APA style team currently says to "describe how you used the tool in your Methods section or in a comparable section of your paper," perhaps the introduction for literature reviews and response papers. In your paper, state the prompt followed by the resulting generated text. Cite generative AI use according to the rules you would use for citing an algorithm. Include the URL if it leads directly to the same generated material; otherwise, the URL is optional.

(OpenAI, 2024) 

Footnote   (for supplemental material)

APA does not yet provide a structure or example for a footnote. If you need to mention generative AI in a footnote, stay as consistent with formatting as possible.

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

These links take you to external resources for further research on citation styles.

• Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition Online access to the full manual through Hollis with a quick guide, Q&A, video tutorials, and more.
• CMOS Shop Talk: How Do I Format a List of Figures? A brief description of how to format a list of figures with an attached sample document.
• Documenting and Citing Images in Chicago A Research guide from USC with nice examples of images with citations.
• Harvard Guide to Citing Sources A guide from Harvard Libraries on citing sources in Chicago style.
• A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers A Chicago manual specifically for students with clear and detailed information about citing for papers rather than publications.
• Chicago Manual of Style Q&A Citing Generative Artificial Intelligence
• APA Style The main page of the official APA website that directs you to various topics on style and formatting
• APA Style Manual 7th Edition Online access to the full APA Style Manual (scanned) through Hollis.
• APA Style Common Reference Examples A list of sample references organized by type.
• APA Style Sample Papers Links to sample papers that model how to create citations in APA.
• Formatting Checklist This page is a quick guide to all kinds of formatting, from the title page to the bibliography, with links to more detailed instructions.
• Harvard Guide to Citing Sources A guide from Harvard Libraries on citing sources in APA style.
• Journal Article References This page contains reference examples for journal articles.
• In-Text Citations in APA Style A place to learn more about rules for citing sources in your text.
• Tables and Figures This page leads to explanations about how to format tables and figures as well as examples of both.
• How to Cite ChatGPT Here are the APA's current rules for citing generative AI and ChatGPT in particular.
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Review of Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution , by Arlin Stoltzfus

Keywords: mutation, randomness, evolutionary biology

Dietrich, M. R., (2024) “Review of Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution , by Arlin Stoltzfus”, Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 16(1): 3. doi: https://doi.org/10.3998/ptpbio.6281

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While written by an evolutionary biologist, Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution ( Stoltzfus 2021 ) is thoroughly grounded in contemporary history and philosophy of biology and has much to say to biologists and humanists alike. Stoltzfus invites us to re-think the nature of genetic variation as it bears on evolutionary processes. In particular, Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution challenges us to reconsider what it means to say that mutations are random. Because this claim to mutational randomness has been an established tenet of neo-Darwinian evolution, its rejection has important consequences, which Stoltzfus lays out in careful detail.

Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution’s ten chapters set up the problems of randomness in evolutionary biology in chapters 1 through 7 before offering a theoretical and empirical resolution to the various challenges that an account of evolutionarily relevant randomness requires. For Stoltzfus, randomness is a problem for evolution in two senses: on the one hand, there are a set of conceptual and empirical questions regarding what is meant when investigating the randomness of mutation, and on the other hand, there are a set of questions regarding why certain views on the randomness of mutation have become entrenched in twentieth-century biology. One of the upshots of this book is that the entrenched view that all mutations are random may not be justified, and we are hanging on to it for all the wrong reasons.

As a biology book, Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution reviews the considerable literature on mutation: the mechanisms that produce them, in what sense are they directed, in what sense are they random, and what role they play in evolutionary processes. As a philosophy of biology book, Stoltzfus’s text raises questions about what constitutes randomness in evolution, the nature of developmental and mutational biases, and the inadequacy of considering evolution as a theory of forces. As a history book, Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution is a revisionist critique of history of evolutionary biology that produced the idea of a selectionist consensus under the umbrella of the evolutionary synthesis.

Stoltzfus’s central preoccupation is how claims about the randomness of mutation were used to sideline it as a cause of evolution. Mutation could randomly produce new variants on this view, but its actions were independent of selection and so is irrelevant to the processes of selection that “really matter” in evolutionary biology. In its place, Stoltlzfus champions a view of evolution as mutation-biased in such a way that mutation becomes a significant causal actor in patterns of evolution including adaptive evolution.

Stoltzfus wants us to stop putting “mutation in a black box” (214). As he shows, there are multiple processes that generate mutations. We cannot afford to erase the differences in these processes of production because the results are not the same, and different processes produce different dispositions that are acted upon in the subsequent evolutionary processes of substitution. This more careful attention to mutation, according to Stoltzfus, moves it from background to center stage in the selective processes of evolution.

Throughout his book, Stoltzfus is arguing against overly externalist theories of evolution that make selection the only causal agent of interest. His answer is not to champion overly internalist theories that make genetics and development the chief causal agents of evolution, but to appreciate a more complex and contingent mix of internal and external factors in evolutionary explanations. In his view, a more complex understanding of the pre-dispositional role of mutation should be a part of that approach to evolutionary theory that does not give way to panselectionism. In doing so, he makes a case for biases in variation that have an impact on evolution. These are not merely changes in patterns of neutral evolution, genomic structure, or codon usage, but changes with “important” implications for adaptive traits.

Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution is a rich mix of science, history, and philosophy that poses an important set of challenges regarding deeply held views on the randomness of mutation and its place in evolutionary thinking. Stoltzfus’s arguments merit careful consideration by philosophers of biology interested in a more complex and nuanced understanding of the variety of causes of evolution.

Literature cited

Stoltzfus, Arlin. 2021. Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Harvard-Style Citation

Dietrich, M. (2024) 'Review of Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution , by Arlin Stoltzfus', Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology . 16(1) doi: 10.3998/ptpbio.6281

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Vancouver-Style Citation

Dietrich, M. Review of Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution , by Arlin Stoltzfus. Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology. 2024 6; 16(1) doi: 10.3998/ptpbio.6281

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APA-Style Citation

Dietrich, M. (2024, 6 26). Review of Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution , by Arlin Stoltzfus. Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 16(1) doi: 10.3998/ptpbio.6281

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Brief Reviews of Books and Products: NASA TOPS Open Science 101

A brief review of NASA TOPS Open Science 101 version 1.0 (2023). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10161527. Free of charge.

Keywords: open science, open software, data repositories, massive online open course, research data management

White, J. (2024). NASA TOPS Open Science 101 [Brief Reviews of Books and Products]. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 12 (1), eP17753. https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.17753

© 2024 The Author(s). License: CC BY 4.0

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Published on 25 jun 2024, creative commons attribution 4.0, harvard-style citation.

White, J. (2024) 'Brief Reviews of Books and Products: NASA TOPS Open Science 101', Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication . 12(1) doi: 10.31274/jlsc.17753

Show: Vancouver Citation Style | APA Citation Style

Vancouver-Style Citation

White, J. Brief Reviews of Books and Products: NASA TOPS Open Science 101. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication. 2024 6; 12(1) doi: 10.31274/jlsc.17753

Show: Harvard Citation Style | APA Citation Style

APA-Style Citation

White, J. (2024, 6 25). Brief Reviews of Books and Products: NASA TOPS Open Science 101. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 12(1) doi: 10.31274/jlsc.17753

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Book review: Intan Suwandi, Value Chains: The New Economic Imperialism

• Ng'oma, Nedson

Intan Suwandi, Value Chains: The New Economic Imperialism New York: Monthly Review Press, 2019, 216 pp., US$23.00, ISBN: 9781583677810 (Paperback).

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How to Assess True Macroeconomic Risk

• Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak
• Paul Swartz

In this article, adapted from the forthcoming book Shocks, Crises, and False Alarms, the authors explain how economic analysis works in the real world. They lay out three principles for navigating the rising number of economic risks: (1) Don’t put too much stock in any one economic model. (2) Ignore the doomsayers in the financial press. (3) Cultivate rational optimism and an eclectic form of judgment that draws on multiple sources. That involves identifying the critical drivers of potential risk, building a narrative, and pressure-testing it from multiple perspectives.

The “dismal science” of economics and our clickbait culture of public discourse are a perfect match to fuel simplistic narratives of doom. To avoid false alarms and achieve a true assessment of macroeconomic risks, the authors write, leaders should look past both to reclaim their own judgment.

Models and forecasts can be seductive, but it’s time for executives to reclaim their economic judgment.

Idea in Brief

The situation.

After decades of relative calm, macroeconomic shocks and crises are dominating headlines and complicating corporate strategy. Unfortunately, the field of macroeconomics is of little help. If anything, it has contributed to the problem, by inviting knee-jerk and too-confident reactions to volatile dataflow.

Why It Persists

No economic model succeeded in predicting the shocks of the past five years while avoiding the false alarms. Models and their forecasts are least reliable when they are most needed: in times of crisis. But when the economy is in free fall, executives are understandably desperate for guidance as to what might happen next.

The Solution

In this article the authors outline how leaders can cultivate their judgment—and use it to see past negative headlines, to draw on diverse sources, to identify key causal narratives, and ultimately to make better calls.

Over the past five years corporate leaders and investors have had to digest a rapid succession of macroeconomic shocks, crises—and false alarms. In 2020, when the pandemic delivered an intense recession, leaders were told it would be worse than 2008 and potentially as bad as the Great Depression. Instead a fast and strong recovery unfolded. In 2021, when supply bottlenecks and strong demand sent prices soaring, a common view was that runaway inflation would take us back to the ugly 1970s. Instead inflation fell from 9.1% to just above 3% in a year. In 2022, when U.S. interest rates climbed, a cascade of emerging-market defaults were predicted—but they didn’t materialize. Also in 2022, and again in 2023, public discourse cast an imminent recession as “inevitable.” Instead a resilient U.S. economy not only defied the doomsayers but delivered strong growth.

• Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak is a managing director and partner in BCG’s New York office and the firm’s global chief economist. He is a coauthor of Shocks, Crises, and False Alarms: How to Assess True Macroeconomic Risk (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024).
• Paul Swartz  is an executive director and senior economist in the BCG Henderson Institute, based in BCG’s New York office. He is a coauthor of Shocks, Crises, and False Alarms: How to Assess True Macroeconomic Risk (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024).

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Chemical Society Reviews

Recent advances in zinc-ion dehydration strategies for optimized zn–metal batteries.

* Corresponding authors

a College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China E-mail: [email protected]

b Shenzhen Research Institute of Nanjing University, Shenzhen 518000, China

c Graduate School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0814, Japan

d School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Electronic Packaging and Advanced Functional Materials of Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China E-mail: [email protected]

Aqueous Zn–metal batteries have attracted increasing interest for large-scale energy storage owing to their outstanding merits in terms of safety, cost and production. However, they constantly suffer from inadequate energy density and poor cycling stability due to the presence of zinc ions in the fully hydrated solvation state. Thus, designing the dehydrated solvation structure of zinc ions can effectively address the current drawbacks of aqueous Zn–metal batteries. In this case, considering the lack of studies focused on strategies for the dehydration of zinc ions, herein, we present a systematic and comprehensive review to deepen the understanding of zinc-ion solvation regulation. Two fundamental design principles of component regulation and pre-desolvation are summarized in terms of solvation environment formation and interfacial desolvation behavior. Subsequently, specific strategy based distinct principles are carefully discussed, including preparation methods, working mechanisms, analysis approaches and performance improvements. Finally, we present a general summary of the issues addressed using zinc-ion dehydration strategies, and four critical aspects to promote zinc-ion solvation regulation are presented as an outlook, involving updating (de)solvation theories, revealing interfacial evolution, enhancing analysis techniques and developing functional materials. We believe that this review will not only stimulate more creativity in optimizing aqueous electrolytes but also provide valuable insights into designing other battery systems.

Article information

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H. Li, S. Li, R. Hou, Y. Rao, S. Guo, Z. Chang and H. Zhou, Chem. Soc. Rev. , 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D4CS00343H

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The consequences of misinformation concern on media consumption

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For the last decade, policymakers, journalists, and scientists have continued to alert us of the threat of misinformation for making sound decisions in the political, health, and environmental domains. In this study, we evaluate whether perceiving misinformation as a threat affects media use, particularly considering selection of media sources that are politically aligned. We show which groups are more likely to be concerned about misinformation and find experimental and correlational evidence of an impact of concern on greater use of politically aligned sources among Democrats. We also found no evidence that perceiving higher ability to detect misinformation decreases this association.

Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Research Questions

• Is there a positive correlation between misinformation concern and use of politically aligned media sources?
• If there is a correlation, is it moderated by individuals’ perceived ability to distinguish between true and fake news?
• If there is a correlation between misinformation concern and use of politically aligned media sources, is misinformation concern prospectively linked to use of politically aligned sources?

Essay Summary

• To help answer our research questions we conducted three studies: the first helped us describe the population to be studied, the second was an experiment to answer research question two, and the third was a longitudinal study designed to answer research question three.
• Study 1 showed who is most concerned about misinformation (Democrats, older people, and people with higher levels of education). It also showed that all groups are more likely to consume mainstream media with some differences by age, education, and partisanship.
• Study 2 showed a positive influence of misinformation concern on the use of mainstream and politically aligned sources. We also found no evidence that perceived ability to distinguish between true and fake news moderated the impact of misinformation concern and use of politically aligned sources.
• Study 3 provided a longitudinal test of the association between misinformation concern and use of politically aligned sources, which was present only among Democrats.
• In conclusion, raising citizens’ concern with misinformation may increase polarization in media use among Democrats.

Implications

Misinformation concern , or worry around misinformation prevalence or impact, varies across demographic groups and does not always correspond to the reality of misinformation prevalence. Although concern may encourage people to seek accuracy, which is valuable (e.g., Rathje et al., 2023; Pennycook et al., 2021), a high level of concern may not be on par with the reality of misinformation prevalence. For example, according to Jungherr and Rauchfleisch (2022), exposure to common journalistic coverage of misinformation, labeled as “alarmist discourse,” or reporting that is out of proportion with reality (see Carlson, 2020, for more on misinformation as a moral panic) creates a heightened perception of threat (Jungherr & Rauchfleisch, 2022). However, up to this point, knowledge about the potential negative effects of concern with misinformation is rather limited. One important finding is that exposure to misinformation and a media emphasis on misinformation prevalence decreases trust in the media (Ognyanova et al., 2020). However, actual information-seeking outcomes, such as implications for use of media sources, have not been ascertained.

Most Americans are aware of the existence of fake news, and this awareness better equips them to distinguish between true and fake news online. A survey from 2022 found that, across 19 countries, 70 percent of respondents reported that misinformation was one of the top threats faced by their country (Poushter et al., 2022). Adding to this high level of concern, more and more coverage of misinformation, especially when it is fear-inducing, leads people to feel even more threatened by misinformation (Jungherr & Rauchfleisch, 2022). In this article, we investigated whether this feeling of threat affects individuals’ usage of news sources. Unfortunately, when under threat, humans do not always seek information in an optimal way. In an ideal world, people who are worried about misinformation should use a broad range of sources to cross-reference any information they find. However, protection motivation theory (Floyd et al., 2000; Maddux & Rogers, 1983) suggests that people who perceive a threat strive to reduce it and avoidance is one way to accomplish this. For example, whenever possible, people avoid environments with high levels of contamination and evade encounters with menacing individuals on the street. Accordingly, people who feel that misinformation is a threat are likely motivated to avoid the misinformation. If people believe that the majority of misinformation comes from news sources that are misaligned with their political affiliation (e.g., a person who identifies as a Democrat may be politically aligned with news sources like MSNBC, Bill Maher, or Huffington Post and politically misaligned with sources such as Breitbart News, One America News, or The Drudge Report), greater misinformation concern should produce greater avoidance of politically misaligned sources.

Another common strategy to deal with an informational threat (Albarracín & Mitchell, 2004; Albarracín et al., 2012; Hart et al., 2009) is to seek information that agrees with one’s attitudes and beliefs. For example, people who are confronted with their own mortality seek information relevant to their worldview (Jonas et al., 2003). As another example, people who feel unable to defend their attitudes from external challenges are more likely to seek information that supports those attitudes (Albarracín & Mitchell, 2004; Albarracín et al., 2012). Therefore, we posited that greater concern with misinformation may result in exposure to media sources that are politically aligned with one’s views, also resulting in this selective exposure phenomenon. For example, a Democrat who is more concerned with misinformation would be more likely to use CNN, where they will find more liberal-leaning content, than would a Democrat who is less concerned with misinformation. In both cases, misinformation concern would lead to selective exposure, which has been shown to increase political polarization (Stroud, 2010).

In this research, we were interested in whether participants who feel more concerned with misinformation are more likely to seek news sources that align with their political affiliation. Across three studies, the last of which was longitudinal, participants reported their political party identification and how concerned they were with misinformation. Information about the items and data validating our measure of concern appear in the Methods section.

We also asked to what extent participants used a variety of media sources ranging from liberal- to conservative-leaning (Studies 2 and 3). We used Study 1 to assess who was more concerned about misinformation and found that Democrats, older people, and people with higher levels of education had higher levels of concern. In Studies 2 and 3, we found that Democrats used more liberal media sources when they were more (vs. less) concerned with misinformation. However, Republicans showed this association only in Study 2.

Due to the potential negative impact of concern with misinformation on politically aligned exposure to media, we were interested in examining if we could mitigate the negative impact of misinformation concern. Thus, Study 2 included a manipulation of the potential moderator of perceived ability to distinguish between true and fake news. Our hypothesis was that greater confidence in one’s ability to discern true from fake news may decrease the impact of misinformation concern on politically aligned source information seeking. However, we found no evidence that our manipulation of ability moderated the relation between concern and media use.

In sum, we hypothesized that people may avoid misaligned information and/or seek more aligned information when faced with the threat of misinformation. In our studies, we found that Democrats consistently used more aligned sources when they were more concerned about misinformation, providing support for the seeking hypothesis among Democrats. However, concern with misinformation only led to lesser use of misaligned sources in one study, again among Democrats. Largely, the results provide robust support for the seeking hypothesis among Democrats. 

Given our findings, future work should explore how to reduce the impact of misinformation concern on information source seeking. For example, an accuracy nudge has been shown to reduce partisan biases in distinguishing between true and false news statements (Rathje et al., 2023). Therefore, this intervention may reduce the partisan political alignment in source choice as well. An implementation of this intervention may be to introduce threatening descriptions of misinformation prevalence or impact by reminding the audience of the importance of seeking accurate information.

Finding 1: Democrats, older, and more educated people tend to be more concerned about misinformation compared to their Republican, younger, and less educated counterparts. Democrats and Republicans are equally likely to consume mainstream (or center) media.

In Study 1, we examined the basic descriptive differences in misinformation concern and media use among Democrats and Republicans. We also attempted to manipulate concern, but the manipulation had no effects (see Appendix Table A3), which led us to analyze only self-reported concern. Participants reported (a) how concerned they were with misinformation, (b) their basic demographic information (i.e., age, education, and gender), (c) their political partisanship, and (d) how frequently they planned on obtaining information from various media sources in the following week (e.g., “Sources such as MSNBC, Bill Maher, or Huffington Post” and “Sources such as Breitbart News, One America News, or The Drudge Report,” etc.). To assess the relation between misinformation concern and media use, we classified media sources according to their political lean. We classified “Sources such as Breitbart News, One America News, or The Drudge Report,” “Wall Street Journal (online or print),” and “Fox News” as politically aligned media for Republicans (i.e., conservative or conservative-leaning media). We classified “Sources such as MSNBC, Bill Maher, or Huffington Post,” “New York Times or Washington Post (online or print),” and “National Public Radio (NPR)” as politically aligned media sources for Democrats (i.e., liberal or liberal-leaning media). Finally, we classified “Sources such as ABC, CBS, or NBC News,” “Public TV station from your state or a nearby state,” and “Your local city or county newspaper (online or print)” as mainstream sources across both Democrats and Republicans. All of these classifications are based on study classifications by Albarracín et al. (2021) and AllSides Media Bias chart (see Appendix Table A1 for more information across studies). We then conducted an OLS linear regression of self-reported misinformation concern as a function of each demographic factor and the participants’ political party affiliation (Democrat or Republican). The results, which appear in Figure 1 and Appendix Table A3 column 1, showed the relation between misinformation concern and age ( B = 0.02, 95% CI [0.01, 0.02], p < .001), and education ( B = 0.10, 95% CI [0.00, 0.20], p < .05), sex ( B = -0.13, 95% CI [-0.32, 0.06], p = .17), and partisanship ( B = -0.37, 95% CI [-0.56, -0.18], p < .001). The results depicted in Figure 1 indicate that older people, more highly educated people, and Democrats are more concerned with misinformation than their younger, less educated, and Republican counterparts.

Next, we investigated the types of media respondents consume by age, education, gender, and partisanship. Specifically, we used a mixed-effects (hierarchical) regression to analyze media use as a function of the type of media interacted with respondents’ age, education, gender, and political affiliation. This model also included the individual and specific media sources as random effects. Figure 2 displays these results graphically, and the table of results is shown in Appendix Table A3 column 2. Most groups are quite similar in their consumption of different media types. Overall, respondents tend to consume more mainstream (i.e., center) media than either conservative or liberal media; both Democrats and Republicans use more mainstream media than media misaligned with their political affiliation; and men and women have very similar patterns of media use. However, two differences emerged. First, older participants consume more liberal media than younger participants. Second, whereas Democrats consume more mainstream media than politically aligned media, Republicans consume equal amounts of mainstream and politically aligned media.

Finding 2: There is a positive correlation between misinformation concern and use of mainstream and politically aligned sources. There is no impact of perceived ability.

In Study 2, we again measured misinformation concern and political party as well as actual media use. We attempted to manipulate misinformation concern but our treatment did not result in any discernable effect. Therefore, we focused on the correlation between self-reported concern and media use as cross-sectional data rather than using the treatment as experimental. In addition, we manipulated participants’ perceived ability to distinguish between true and fake news (see Appendix Table A4). Using a mixed-effects regression model, we analyzed media use as a function of self-reported misinformation concern, the participants’ political affiliation (Democrat or Republican), the political lean of the media source (mainstream, liberal, or conservative), and the condition of manipulated perceived ability. We again included covariates for gender, age, and level of education, as well as random intercepts for participants and news sources. These analyses appear in Table 1. We found a significant 3-way interaction between self-reported misinformation concern, the participant’s political affiliation, and lean of the media source (liberal lean: B = 0.18, 95% CI[0.06, 0.29], p < .01; conservative lean: B = 0.31, 95% CI[0.18, 0.44], p < .001; see Appendix for more on model specification). These results hold in direction ( p < .05) when we included a media quality variable calculated with measures by Lin et al. (2023; see Appendix Table A1 for more information on the quality scores). Additionally, the main effect and interactions, including manipulated perceived ability, were not significant (all p > .05).

Figure 3A presents the decomposition of the interaction for Democrats and Republicans in Study 2. Both Democrats and Republicans consume more mainstream media (Democrats: B = 0.41, 95% CI [0.32, 0.51], p < .001; Republicans: B = 0.11, 95% CI [0.02, 0.19], p < .05). Among Democrats, higher concern with misinformation was associated with more use of liberal-leaning sources ( B = 0.22, 95% CI [0.14, 0.30], p < .001) but not conservative-leaning sources ( B = 0.08, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.17], p = .10). Thus, this finding supported the idea that the Democrats were consuming politically aligned media and not consuming more politically misaligned media. However, there is not a negative relation between concern and politically misaligned media, meaning that concern does cause Democrats to actively avoid politically misaligned media.

Among Republicans, greater misinformation concern was correlated with more politically aligned media use ( B = 0.08, 95% CI[-0.01, 0.17], p = .07), although the relation is marginally statistically significant. However, greater concern was also related to slightly more politically misaligned media use ( B = 0.09, 95% CI [0.01, 0.16], p < .05). In summary, we again found support that higher concern is associated with Democrats and Republicans using more politically aligned media. However, in this study, greater concern with misinformation was associated with Republicans using more misaligned sources.

Finding 3: There is support for a temporal effect of misinformation concern on media use.

In Study 3, we again asked participants to report how concerned they were about misinformation, their actual use of media sources, and their political party. But unlike Study 2, which was a single-time-point study, we obtained data at four time points over the course of nine months. This allowed us to have some confidence that our results were not being driven by certain kinds of people (e.g., high media consumers), and instead, analyze the relation between within-person change in concern and media consumption. To test the temporal nature of this relation, we conducted two multilevel models. The first was the same used in Study 1, but we included misinformation concern at times 1 and 2 and media use at times 3 and 4. We also included a fixed effect for time point. These analyses appear in Table 2. The second model included misinformation concern at times 3 and 4 as the outcome as a function of media use, media lean, and political party at times 1 and 2. This second model was conducted after reversing predictors and outcomes to rule out the possibility that media use might affect concern with misinformation. Table 2 and Figure 3B present the findings from the first model, which included media use as the outcome. As shown, this model revealed a significant 3-way interaction between misinformation concern, political party, and media lean (liberal media: B = -0.12, 95% CI[-0.18, -0.05], p < .001; conservative media: B = 0.21, 95% CI[0.12, 0.29], p < .001), supporting the conclusions from the previous two studies. In contrast, the second model had no significant effects, including a nonsignificant three-way interaction (liberal media: B = 0.002, 95% CI[-0.02, 0.01], p = .77; conservative media: B = -0.002, 95% CI[-0.02, 0.02], p = .85; see Appendix Table A5 column 2). The contrast between these two models thus supported our assumptions of a causal role of misinformation concern on actual media use.

The decomposition of the interaction from the model in Table 2 is shown in Figure 3B. As depicted, Democrats who were more concerned with misinformation used more politically aligned sources ( B = 0.07, 95% CI[0.02, 0.11], p < .01). However, unlike Study 2, Democrats who were more concerned with misinformation used politically misaligned sources less ( B = -0.24, 95% CI [-0.31, -0.16], p < .001), and concern was unrelated to mainstream media source use ( B = -0.03, 95% CI[-0.06, 0.01], p = .18). In summary, we found temporal evidence that Democrats who were more concerned with misinformation at time 1 both sought more politically aligned media and avoided politically misaligned media at time 2. However, misinformation concern was not associated with media use among Republicans (mainstream: B = 0.02, 95% CI[-0.02, 0.05], p = .36; misaligned: B = -0.01 , 95% CI[-0.06, 0.04], p = .70; aligned: B = 0.01, 95% CI[-0.03, 0.05], p = .65).

Finally, we include a series of robustness checks. First, we included a mean-centered measure of media quality (see Appendix Table A1 for descriptives) as both a main effect and in interaction with media source, but this addition had no impact on the direction and significance of our results. This new model dropped mainstream media sources because of its lack of variance in media quality. As in the main model, after media quality controls were introduced, Democrats who were more concerned with misinformation used politically aligned sources more ( B = 0.07, 95% CI[0.01, 0.13], p < .05), and politically misaligned sources less ( B = -0.20, 95% CI[-0.30, -0.11], p < .0001). Similarly, after media quality controls were introduced, we found temporal evidence that Democrats who were more concerned with misinformation at time 1 both sought more politically aligned media and avoided politically misaligned media at time 2. We further investigated the marginal effects of this interaction but did not find consistent results for quality of media sources across studies (see Appendix Tables A6, A7, and A8).

Second, we re-ran the analysis removing outliers (defined as responses on concern about misinformation and media consumption three standard deviations above or below the mean). Removing observations three standard deviations above or below the mean on both key variables resulted in a model that mirrored the results reported above. Democrats who were more concerned with misinformation used more politically aligned sources ( B = 0.05, 95% CI[0.00, 0.10], p < .05). However, Democrats who were more concerned with misinformation used politically misaligned sources less ( B = -0.27, 95% CI[-0.35, -0.19], p < .001), and concern was unrelated to mainstream media source use ( B = -0.03, 95% CI[-0.07, 0.01], p = .17). As before, misinformation concern was not associated with mainstream media ( B = -0.003, 95% CI[-0.05, 0.04], p = .87), aligned media use ( B = 0.004, 95% CI[-0.05, 0.06], p = .87), or misaligned ( B = -0.03, 95% CI[-0.09, 0.04], p = .46) media use among Republicans.

We collected a large sample of participants using the platform Prolific, with the requirement that they be American and 18 years old or older. To obtain a balanced sample, we asked specifically for participants who identified as either Democrats or Republicans. In total, we collected 1,047 participants and removed 27 who identified as either independent or “other” at the time of our study. The remaining sample was composed of 512 Democrats and 508 Republicans, and a similar balance in gender (male = 507, female = 509, other = 4). The “other” responses were coded as NA due to the small number. Participants had a range of educational levels, including less than high school degree ( n = 10), completed high school ( n = 142), some college ( n = 222), associate college degree ( n = 88), bachelor’s degree ( n = 393), master’s degree ( n = 134), doctoral degree ( n = 14), and professional degree (e.g., JD and MD; n = 17). The average age of our sample was 42.76 ( SD = 14.36).

The design was correlational and included measures of our variables of interest: (a) self-reported misinformation concern, (b) use of mainstream, conservative, and liberal media sources, and (c) political affiliation (Democrat or Republican). First, we attempted to manipulate concern by having participants read either an article about the threat that misinformation poses or an unrelated threat. This experiment failed to produce statistically significant results. Therefore, participants were then asked to report their level of misinformation concern, followed by answering a series of items about media source use. They were then asked demographic questions including party affiliation. Misinformation concern was measured with reports of how concerned about fake news participants were, using a scale from 1 (not at all) to 7 (entirely). Use of media was measured with the item “How frequently do you think you will get information from each of these sources in the next week?” For all analyses in the main text, this variable was standardized (mean-centered). This was followed by a series of mainstream, liberal-leaning, and conservative-leaning media sources (e.g., “Sources such as MSNBC, Bill Maher, or Huffington Post” and “Sources such as Breitbart News, One America News, or The Drudge Report”; see Appendix Table A1 for the full list of sources and for more information about how we assigned “liberal-leaning,” “conservative-leaning,” and “mainstream” labels). For each group of media sources, participants rated their intended use of them from 0 days to 7 days. Political party was asked with the question, “With which political party do you most closely identify?” with the answer options being “Democrat,” “Republican,” “No party. I am independent,” or “Other Party.”

In Study 2, which was experimental, we collected a sample on the platform Prolific, requesting American participants 18 years old or older, half Democrat and half Republican. We collected 1,102 participants and removed 22 participants who, at the time of our study, identified as either independent or did not respond to the political affiliation question. The remaining sample was composed of 542 Democrats and 538 Republicans; 578 participants who identified as male, 496 who identified as female, and 6 “other” (again coded as NA). Participants’ educational levels included less than a high school degree ( n = 10), completed high school ( n = 133), associate or some college ( n = 331), bachelor’s degree ( n = 432), and more than college ( n = 183). The average age of our sample was 40.31 ( SD = 13.55).

The materials and procedures were very similar to those of Study 1 with a few small differences and the addition of the perceived misinformation ability manipulation. Misinformation concern was again measured by asking participants how concerned about fake news they were from 1 ( not at all ) to 7 ( entirely ). While we, again, attempted to manipulate concern, the treatments did not have an effect on concern across Democrats and Republicans; therefore, we used the self-reported measure of concern for these analyses. For all analyses in the main text, this variable was standardized (mean-centered). Political party was again measured with the question “With which political party do you most closely identify?” and using the same response options as in Study 1. The use of media measures used some different sources for generalizability (see Appendix Table A1) but was again measured by “In general, how frequently do you think you will get information from each of these sources in the next week?” Again, for each group of sources, participants rated their prospective use of them from 0 days to 7 days.

The main change in this study was the addition of the misinformation ability manipulation. For this, participants rated 10 headlines, half of which were actually true, as either true or false. Regardless of the real accuracy, a randomly assigned half of the participants were told “Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct! You did an excellent job distinguishing between true and fake news,” whereas the other half of participants were told “This should not be much of a concern, but you only got 2/10 correct. It is hard to distinguish between true and fake news.” At the end of the experiment, we introduced the manipulation check, “On a 7-point scale from Very Poor to Excellent, please tell us how good you are at distinguishing between true and fake news.” The manipulation was successful for both Democrats ( B = 1.78, SE = 0.11, t = 16.85, p < .001) and Republicans ( B = 1.85, SE = 0.11, t = 17.61, p < .001).

Other than the perceived ability manipulation, the procedure in Study 2 was very similar to Study 1. First, participants completed the misinformation ability manipulation, receiving either high or low ability feedback. They then answered the items about media source use, followed by a measure of their misinformation concern. We counterbalanced whether participants saw the media use or concern question first. Finally, we introduced the manipulation check and demographic questions, including party affiliation as a key predictor, as well as gender, age, and education as covariates in our models.

For Study 3, we collected a sample of participants ( N = 2020; Americans 18 years old or older) through SSRS, a firm that runs a probability panel that reaches respondents via both phone and internet surveys. The data consisted of four time points (1: from July 7–23, 2022; 2: from September 7–21, 2022; 3: from December 7– 21, 2022; and 4: from March 8–23, 2023). We removed the 773 participants who identified as independent or “other” as well as those providing no response. The remaining sample ( N = 1,247) was composed of 651 Democrats and 596 Republicans; 566 male, 670 female participants, and 8 “other” (coded as NA). Education was measured on a 4-point scale 1 (less than high school; n = 66), 2 (high school graduate; n = 395), 3 (some college; n = 340), and 4 (college degree +; n = 446). Age was similarly measured with brackets 1 (18-29; n = 223), 2 (30-49; n = 351), 3 (50-64; n = 326) and 4 (65+; n = 336). These are the demographics for the participants at time 1.

This study was very similar to Study 1, with the exception that it was longitudinal. However, our variables of interest were the same, namely misinformation concern, media use, and political party. Misinformation concern was measured by asking participants to report how concerned with fake news they were from 1 (not at all) to 5 (a lot). For all analyses in the main text, this variable was standardized (mean-centered). Use of media was measured with the item “How frequently, if at all, do you get information from [listed sources] each week?” with the listed sources being mainstream, liberal-leaning, and conservative-leaning media sources (e.g., “Sources such as MSNBC, Bill Maher, or Huffington Post” and “Sources such as Fox News, Breitbart News, One America News, or The Drudge Report”; see the Appendix Table A1 for the full list of sources). This is different from Studies 1 and 2, as they asked about media use intentions as opposed to Study 3 asking about current media use. These were rated on a scale from 0 days to 7 days. Political party was measured with the prior item with response categories: “Democrat,” “Republican,” “Independent,” and “Something else (not specified).” In terms of the order of the measures, participants first reported their misinformation concern, followed by media source use, followed by questions about gender, age, and education, which were introduced as covariates.

Follow up study

All the analyses use a single measure of misinformation concern. However, in a follow-up study, we also asked five questions in addition to the measure included in each study. Specifically, in this validation study, we asked participants to “Please tell us to what degree you agree or disagree with the statement below” and listed the following statements: “I am concerned about fake news,” “I am concerned about the negative impacts of fake news,” “I am concerned about fake news harming our country,” “I am concerned about how quickly fake news spreads,” and “I feel concerned about the prevalence of fake news.” These measures showed a satisfactory level of internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.74), which supported our interpretation that our single-item measure tapped a general sense of concern with misinformation.

• Mainstream Media

Cite this Essay

Harris, E. A., DeMora, S. L., & Albarracín, D. (2024). The consequences of misinformation concern on media consumption. Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review . https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-149

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This research was funded by the Communication Science Division Endowment in the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

The research protocol employed was approved by an institutional review board or ethics committee for human or animal experiments at the University of Pennsylvania. Human subjects provided informed consent. Sex was reported as “male,” “female,” or “other.” Given the small number of “other” responses, only those who selected “male” or “female” were included in the analyses.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original author and source are properly credited.

Data Availability

All materials needed to replicate this study are available via the Harvard Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/37A3QE .