Quick answer: In Cite Them Right Harvard style, a report is referenced by its author — usually an organisation rather than a person — followed by the year, the title in italics, and the place of publication and publisher where available. For an online report, add “Available at:” with the web address and “Accessed:” with the date you viewed it. In the text, cite the organisation’s name and year, for example (World Health Organization, 2023), and use the full reference only in your reference list.
Reports cause confusion because they look like books, articles and web pages at the same time. They are often written by a company, a charity, a government department or an international body, they may carry a report number, and they are usually found online rather than on a library shelf. This guide works through each common type — company reports, government reports and online reports — with complete examples you can adapt, plus the in-text rules and the errors that cost marks most often.
Start with the author: usually an organisation, not a person
The first decision in referencing a report is identifying the author. For most reports, the author is the organisation that produced it, known as a corporate author. The World Health Organization, the Department for Education, the National Audit Office and a company such as Tesco plc are all corporate authors. Use the organisation’s full name in the reference list, and use the same name in your in-text citation, unless the organisation is so well known by its abbreviation that your university guide explicitly allows the short form after the first full citation.
Occasionally a report names individual authors as well as an organisation. If named authors appear prominently on the title page, cite them as authors and treat the organisation as publisher. If no individual is named, or the organisation is clearly the author, use the organisation alone. Do not invent an author by naming a chief executive or a minister who merely signed a foreword; the author is whoever is responsible for the content, and for most official reports that is the body itself.
Check the title page and the imprint page carefully, because the publisher and the author are sometimes the same body. In that case, you still list both elements where the style requires them, rather than leaving one out because it looks repetitive. A reference that reads “Department for Education (2023)” as author and again as publisher is correct, even if it feels clumsy. Consistency matters more than elegance here.
Reference a company or organisation report correctly
A company or organisation report — an annual report, a sustainability report or a research report published by a charity — follows a straightforward pattern: author, year, title in italics, place of publication and publisher. For example:
British Heart Foundation (2023) Annual report and accounts 2022–23. London: British Heart Foundation.
If the report is available online as well as in print, many university guides ask you to add the web address and access date even for a published report. Follow your own institution’s version of Harvard, because small details vary between universities. When in doubt, include the “Available at” and “Accessed” elements for anything you actually read online; including them is rarely penalised, while omitting them for an online source often is. Our free Harvard referencing generator can format the entry for you once you have the author, year and title.
In the text, cite the report as you would any other source: (British Heart Foundation, 2023). If you mention the organisation in your sentence, put only the year in brackets: “The British Heart Foundation (2023) reports that…” For a report with a long organisational name, use the full name on first mention and, only if your guide allows it, the abbreviation thereafter, for example (BHF, 2023) after an initial (British Heart Foundation, 2023).
Reference a government report, including report numbers and series
Government reports follow the same basic pattern, with two additions that students often miss: the department or agency as author, and any report number or series title where one is given. For example:
Department for Education (2023) The national curriculum in England: framework document. London: Department for Education. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4 (Accessed: 12 March 2024).
If the report carries a number — for example, a House of Commons Library research briefing number or a National Audit Office report number — include it after the title, exactly as printed. The number helps a reader locate the precise document among many similar titles from the same department. Similarly, if the report belongs to a named series, include the series title and number where your guide requires it, rather than dropping information that distinguishes this report from others.
For parliamentary and official publications, take care with the author. A select committee report is authored by the committee, not by Parliament as a whole, and a report from an inspectorate is authored by that inspectorate. Copying the author name exactly as it appears on the title page, including “Department” or “Office” where given, avoids most errors. Do not shorten “Department for Education” to “Education Department” or similar, because a reference list should allow the reader to find the source without guessing.
Reference an online report with Available at and Accessed dates
Most reports students use today are read online, so the online elements matter. After the publisher details, add “Available at:” followed by the full web address, then “(Accessed:” followed by the date you last viewed the report, in day month year format. Use the stable address for the report itself — ideally the PDF or the publication page — rather than a search results page or a homepage.
Consider this full example for an international organisation report:
World Health Organization (2023) World health statistics 2023: monitoring health for the SDGs. Geneva: World Health Organization. Available at: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240074320 (Accessed: 5 June 2024).
Note the pattern: the title is italicised, the place and publisher follow, and the web address is given in full without a trailing full stop that could be mistaken for part of the address. The access date records when you used the source, which matters because online reports are sometimes updated or moved. If a report is later revised, your access date shows which version you consulted. You can check your formatting against our Harvard referencing generator before you submit, which is quicker than reformatting a whole list by hand.
Avoid the common errors that lose marks
The most frequent error is treating a report like a website and listing only its title and web address, with no author or year. A second common error is the reverse: listing a report as a book and omitting the web address and access date for a source read online. A third is inconsistent capitalisation of titles — Harvard style generally uses sentence case for report titles, with only the first word and proper nouns capitalised, unless your university guide specifies otherwise.
Other errors are smaller but still noticeable. Students sometimes put the year of the data in a report, rather than the year of publication, as the citation year. Others cite an organisation by its abbreviation in the reference list, where the full name is required. And many forget that every in-text citation must have a matching entry in the reference list, and vice versa. Before submitting, work through your list and tick off each in-text citation against its reference; a single orphan citation suggests the list was assembled carelessly.
Finally, remember that Harvard is not one universal style. Cite Them Right is the most widely used version in the United Kingdom, but individual universities adapt it, particularly for online sources and corporate authors. Always check your institution’s referencing guide for the final word, and apply its version consistently throughout your work. If you need help bringing a full reference list into shape, see our pricing page for support options.
A related problem arises when you find a report quoted inside another source. Wherever possible, track down the original report and cite that, rather than citing the second-hand version. If the original is genuinely unavailable, cite the source you actually read and make clear that the report was cited within it, following your university guide for secondary referencing. The same principle applies to summaries and press coverage of reports: a news article about a report is not a substitute for the report itself, and citing it as if it were the report misrepresents your evidence. Taking ten minutes to locate the original PDF usually improves both accuracy and marks, because you can then quote figures and conclusions in context rather than relying on someone else’s summary.
Frequently asked questions
How do I cite a report with no date?
Use (no date) in place of the year, both in the text and in the reference list: for example, (National Trust, no date). Do not guess a year from the data inside the report. If a copyright year appears on the imprint page, that is normally the publication year to use.
What if the report has both an organisation and named authors?
Use the named individuals as authors if they are presented as the authors on the title page, and treat the organisation as publisher. If the organisation is presented as the author and individuals are only contributors or editors, use the organisation as author.
Do I need an access date for a printed report?
No, if you genuinely used a printed copy. Access dates are for online sources. If you read the report online, include the access date even if a print version also exists, following your university guide.
How do I cite a report in the text a second time?
Use the same short form each time: (World Health Organization, 2023). There is no shortened “ibid” or “op. cit.” in Harvard style. If you cite two reports by the same organisation in the same year, add a letter to distinguish them, such as (2023a) and (2023b), and match those letters in the reference list.
Should report titles be in italics?
Yes, in Cite Them Right Harvard style, the title of a report is italicised, just like a book title. Article titles within a larger publication are not italicised, which is one reason reports are sometimes confused with journal articles; the italics are a useful check that you have treated the source as a standalone report.