Library Assist: Answers

When you are citing from more than one source published in the same year by the exact same author, Cite Them Right Harvard guidance says to add a lower case letter (a, b, c....) at the end of the publication year to distinguish between them.

Harvard style asks you to use the author(s)/organisation and the date of publication to create your in-text citation, which links to the full reference at the end of your work. If you have different documents that share the exactly the same author AND same publication date there is no way to know which of those sources you are referring to without something else being added to your citation and reference to tell them apart. 

Adding a lowercase letter to the end of the publication year means that your reader can see which document the information you are citing came from. The first source with the same author and date combination that you mention in your assignment will get an 'a' added after the year, the second will get a 'b' added, the third a 'c' and so on.

For example, this sentence uses two different Miller sources that both date from 2006 so you can see how the lower case letters have been included within the in-text citations: In his study of the work of Rubens, Miller (2006a) emphasised the painter's mastery of drama. However, his final analysis on this subject (Miller, 2006b) argued that ...

The full reference list entries would mirror the same lowercase letter added to the end of the publication year. e.g. 

Miller, S. (2006a) The Flemish masters. London: Phaidon Press.

Miller, S. (2006b) Rubens and his art. London: Killington Press.

The full CTR guidance is available in the 'Setting out citations > Citing sources published in the same year by the same author section' (login required). 

Does this rule apply to websites?

It might - if each page you have used has a unique web address/URL then they need to be treated as separate items in your reference list. If each page has the same author and year, then you need to use the a, b, c approach. 

I'm referring to the same document multiple times in my work, do I use the a, b, c method?

No - it doesn't matter how many times you mention different sections or pages from the same document in your work; its still just the one document you are referring your reader to. You only need to add lower case letters when you have 2 or more publications that would share the same citation details.