Most styles of referencing require page numbers to be included as part of the full reference in your reference list. You may also need to include a page number in any in-text citations.
Cite Them Right (CTR) Harvard style lists the following elements for a journal article reference:
- Author (surname followed by initials)
- Year of publication (in round brackets)
- Title of article (in single quotation marks)
- Title of journal (in italics – capitalise first letter of each word in title, except for linking words such as and, of, the, for)
- Issue information: volume (unbracketed) and, where applicable, part number, month or season (all in round brackets)
- Page reference (if available) or article number
- If accessed online: Available at: DOI or URL (if required) (Accessed: date)
By stating Page reference (if available) OR article number, CTR acknowledges that there may be occasions when page numbers can't be found.
- If there is only an article number given it should be used in place of the page numbers.
- Example: Iacobellis, G. (2020) ‘COVID-19 and diabetes: can DPP4 inhibition play a role?’, Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 162, article number 108125. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2020.108125.
- If there is no article number and no page numbers, it is acceptable to leave the page details out of your reference but we recommend you follow the advice below first to double check if there are any page numbers you can use:
Articles formatted for a plain web page may contain the page numbers in the article information. This example from the PubMed Central platform shows the pages listed after the year, volume and issue = 807- 817:
But page numbers may not always be visible, especially if the article is in an online-only Journal Title.
- Check for a PDF option - these will ether be the original version as published, if the journal has a print counterpart to the online version (as the example above), or they will be numbered from page 1, e.g. pp. 1-10.
- If there is no PDF, look for text saying 'cite this' or similar. Most academic article sites will want to show you how they suggest referencing their items, even if it is not the same referencing style you use. However it can give valuable information.
- Check the LibrarySearch catalogue for the article and see if the catalogue record tells you the page numbers.
This example on the PubMed Central platform does not display any page numbers as it is an online-only Journal title. Opening the PDF version reveals you can use pages 1-10:
If you need any help finding page numbers, please contact the Library.
