How to Format Titles in Harvard

• Tomas Elliott (Ph.D.)
• Published on 07/24/2025

Consistent and clear title capitalization is central to academic credibility and simplicity in Harvard referencing format. Harvard utilizes a sentence case for most titles, but title case for in-text references and the names of journals.

Understanding how to apply these guidelines for different sources of information ensures precision in citations and avoids common formatting mistakes.

What Is Sentence Case in Harvard Format?

Sentence case means that only the first word of the title, the first word after a colon (:) or em dash (—), and proper nouns are in upper case. The rest is in lower case. This contrasts with title case where the first letter of most words is upper case.

General Rules for Sentence Case

• Capitalize the first word of the title.
• Capitalize the first word after a colon, em dash or full stop.
• Capitalize proper nouns (e.g. names of people, organizations, places).
• Do not capitalize conjunctions, articles, or prepositions unless they start the title or subtitle.

Where Sentence Case Is Used in Harvard Style

Book Titles

Book titles are written in sentence case and italicized.

Citation	Adichie, N. (2009) The thing around your neck. London: Fourth Estate.
Structure	Author Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of the book in sentence case. Place of publication: Publisher.

Webpage Titles and Website Names

The webpage title is written in sentence case, while the website name uses title case (capitalizing major words).

Citation	NHS (2023) How to improve your mental wellbeing. NHS.uk. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-wellbeing (Accessed: 24 July 2025).
Structure	Corporate Author (Year) Title of the webpage in sentence case. Website Title in Title Case. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Journal Article Titles and Journal Names

Journal article titles follow sentence case and in single quotes, but the journal title itself is in title case and italicized.

Citation	Patel, M. and Khan, Z. (2024) ‘Understanding climate anxiety among young adults‘, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 83(2), pp. 104-113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.10194.
Structure	Author Surname, Initial. and Author Surname, Initial. (Year) ‘Title of the article in sentence case‘, Journal Title in Title Case, Volume(Issue), pp. page numbers. DOI.

When Title Case Is Used in Harvard Style

Title case is a formatting style where the first letter of most major words is capitalized. This includes nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions. Minor words like articles (a, an, the), prepositions (in, on, at, of), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or) are written in lowercase unless they appear at the beginning of the title.

In Harvard style, title case is only used in the following three areas:

Website Titles (in Reference List)

Citation	Support for new parents (2022). GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/support-for-new-parents (Accessed: Day Month Year).
Structure	Title of webpage in sentence case (Year). Website Title in Title Case. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Journal Titles (in Reference List)

Journal names are always written in title case and italicized, regardless of how the article title is formatted.

Citation	Singh, V. (2022) ‘Social media use in young adults‘, Journal of Youth and Media Studies, 11(3), pp. 215–230.
Structure	Author Surname, Initial. (Year) ‘Title of article in sentence case‘, Title of Journal in Title Case, Volume(Issue), pp. page numbers.

In-text Citations (When Title Is Used Instead of Author)

If no author is available, or when using the title in place of the author in a narrative or parenthetical citation, the title of the source should be written in title case, even if the reference list uses sentence case.

Narrative citation

Example	Digital Transformation in Government (2021) highlights the role of AI in public services.
Structure	Title of Source (Year)

Parenthetical citation

Example	(Digital Transformation in Government, 2021)
Structure	(Title of Source, Year)

Preserve Original Spelling and Punctuation in Titles: Always preserve the original spelling, punctuation, and formatting of titles in the source. This also covers hyphenation, question marks, exclamation marks, and unique stylisation (e.g. use by a brand of lower case). Altered original format can lead to misrepresentation of the source. Do Not Translate Foreign Titles: If the source appears in a non-English language and there is no official English translation, retain the original title.  Avoid Quotation Marks for Titles in Reference Entries: Do not include quotation marks around non-italicized titles in the reference list that are not already part of the title. This applies to books, articles, movies, and websites. Quotation marks are typically used for emphasis within text or dialogue, not citation formatting.