Library Assist: Answers

If you are unable to identify a date of publication for your source, use the words - (no date) - instead of the year for both your in-text citation and your reference list.

However, while it is technically possible to reference undated information in this way, it doesn't mean that you should do so!

If a source lacks a clear date of publication, you have no definitive proof of when it was written. This can undermine any points you wish to use it for in your assignment.

Please take extra care to check that the information is still accurate and that the author is credible, because you may lose marks if you use unreliable or out-of-date information. In many cases, it may be better to find an alternative source for the information that is clearly dated.

Example in-text citations: - you decide whether to put the author and date in brackets (giving emphasis to the idea), or just the date (giving emphasis to the author).

Compression may be required (Flixel, no date).

According to Flixel (no date), compression may be required.

Example Reference list entry:

Flixel (no date) Magical tools for visual storytelling. Available at: https://flixel.com/company/ (Accessed: 1 June 2021).

Things to bear in mind...

• Avoid using n.d. or other similar contractions as these do not follow the Cite Them Right Harvard style.

• Some webpages may give an overall copyright date or a date when a page was last revised - it is usually fine to use these unless the document you are using has been uploaded to the page as a downloadable item. Uploaded documents may have their own publication date, or no date at all, but as they exist as separate documents it would be incorrect to use the general website date for them. 

• If an undated document has included references to other sources that ARE dated, you could try finding those documents and if they contain the same information you can reference them instead. It's better to have a dated source than an undated one!

• If you have multiple sources that have the same author, but some are dated and others are not, there is no Harvard rule for how you should arrange them in your reference list. You can put the (no date) sources above or below the dated ones. If in doubt, check with your tutor.

• If you are using multiple undated pages from the same organisational website, you will need to distinguish between the different pages you've accessed. Use (no date - a), (no date - b) and so on for the in-text citations and corresponding reference list entries, for example:

In-text citation:
Microsoft’s guidance (no date - a) ...
Microsoft’s instructions (no date - b) ...

Reference list:
Microsoft (no date - a) Windows XP manual. Available at: www.microsoft.com/upl/XPmnl (Accessed: 24 March 2018).
Microsoft (no date - b) Windows 10 manual. Available at: www.microsoft.com/upl/10mnl (Accessed: 24 March 2018).