APA vs. Harvard: Which One is Suitable for Dissertation

Referencing is important in any academic writing. Referencing saves you from plagiarism and makes your work more professional. It contextualizes your work, shows the scope and complexity of your study, and respects the work of others. If you use someone else's suggestion, you should make a note of it. When you borrow an idea from someone else's writing, such as a research paper, textbook, or website, you can quote the original author so that it is clear where the idea came from.

Different Styles for Referencing and Citation:
According to a dissertation writing service, for referencing, there are various styles which include; Harvard, APA, MLA, Oxford, Chicago and Vancouver. Every style has its own formats and rules. APA is used for psychology, science, and education subjects. MLA is used for arts and humanities. Vancouver style is used in medicines. But sometimes students find it difficult to differentiate between the formats and styling of these referencing styles and mix them up. Most students get confused in Harvard and APA referencing style.

The American Psychological Association Referencing Style (APA):
American Psychological Association (APA) is mostly utilized by social sciences, psychology, and education scholars. It is also called author-date style because it contains the author name and date of publishing for citation. Only the surname of the writer is use in APA referencing style. A comma is placed after the surname of the author and then the publishing year is mentioned. In APA referencing style the name of author, and publishing year are written in brackets and the page, section or chapter number is also included. On the off chance, you need to be more accurate, such as when referencing, paraphrasing, or summarising. Except for electronic materials that do not have page numbers, no distinction is made between journal papers, books, or other formats. In this case, use the abbreviation para with the paragraph number, if appropriate. At the end of the article, in the reference the source's full descriptions are included. In the style of APA, the reference list are organized in alphabetical order based on authors names

The Harvard Style:
The Harvard referencing style is one of the most commonly used referencing types in the world. Harvard referring, which is based on an author-date scheme, is recommended by many institutions around the world because it is simple to use, read scholarly writing, and also facilitates discoveries and enlists all bibliographic references. Harvard referencing is suitable for any form of paper, including literature reviews, term papers, analytical studies, theoretical studies, methodological posts, and other academic writing. The Harvard referencing style is a straightforward way of providing facts and citing references in a document. This eliminates the possibility of plagiarism because it lends legitimacy to the work of the writers concerned.

Which is Better APA or Harvard?
In Harvard referencing style the format for in-text citation is that the surname of the writer name and year of publication is written in brackets either right after the referred text or in the footnotes.

APA referencing is different from Harvard referencing. The majority of the conventions are the same, in document body, within brief author-date citations and complete citations in the reference list, in bracket. In APA format, regularly a reference list is used instead of a bibliography. Website citations are also a little different. Since there is no need to incorporate the date accessed. Consider the below mentioned example for the understanding the difference in both referencing style.

APA: Saldana, Johnny (2009). The Coding For Qualitative Researchers, Sage.
APA in-text citation: (Saldana, 2009, p.43)

Harvard

Harvard in-text citation: (Saldana, 2009)
In the bibliography: Saldana, J 2009, THE CODING FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCHERS, Arizona State University, USA.

Different academic disciplines prefer to use specific referring styles because different referencing styles work better with the sort of writings that are most normally utilized in that discipline. The discipline in which you are writing will largely decide the citation style you use, and for most dissertations, your teacher will assign you a style. However, as you advance in your academic career, you may find more independence in selecting a style that works for you. It is always a good idea to consult with your teacher and coworkers to see what style is fitting. Every university has its requirements for referencing and follows a different style of referencing. But the most important thing that students must follow is using any of the referencing styles accurately.