[Tex/LaTex] Change amount of hanging indentation in reference list

bibliographiesharvard-styleindentationnatbib

I want hanging indentation, by half an inch, in the References section. That is, apart from the first line, subsequent lines for each entry should start at 0.5 inch from the left.

My MWE consists of three files:

  1. Main Document(text file):

    \documentclass{report}
\usepackage{natbib}
\begin{document}
\include{chapterOne}
\bibliography{referenceList}
\bibliographystyle{agsm}
\end{document}

  2. Chapter (tex file)

    Please assist on this\cite{sorensen2012health}.
I can cite this \cite{cipriani2003comparison}

  3. References (bib file)

    @article{sorensen2012health,
     author = {S{\o}rensen, Kristine and den Broucke, Stephan and Fullam, James and Doyle, Gerardine and Pelikan, J{\"{u}}rgen and Slonska, Zofia and Brand, Helmut},
     journal = {BMC public health},
     number = {1},
     pages = {80},
     publisher = {BioMed Central},
     title = {{Health literacy and public health: a systematic review and integration of definitions and models}},
     volume = {12},
     year = {2012}
}
@article{cipriani2003comparison,
     author = {Cipriani, Andrea and Geddes, John},
     journal = {Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences},
     number = {3},
     pages = {146--153},
     publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
     title = {{Comparison of systematic and narrative reviews: the example of the atypical antipsychotics}},
     volume = {12},
     year = {2003}
}

Output:

MWE Output showing a hang smaller than 0.5

The resulting list has a default hang smaller than 0.5inch. I tried to use the following suggestion at the end of the document (right before \end{document}) but it doesn't produce desired results.

\setlength{\parindent}{-0.5in}
\setlength{\leftskip}{0.5in}
\setlength{\parskip}{8pt}
\noindent

Best Answer

The natbib package provides the length parameter \bibhang. If you want it to be half an inch, issue the instruction

\setlength\bibhang{0.5in}

in the preamble, after loading the natbib package.

A full MWE (note that I suggest loading the har2nat package as well, for bibliography styles such as agsm and dcu, as they are part of the harvard package):

enter image description here

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{referenceList.bib}
@article{sorensen2012health,
     author   = {S{\o}rensen, Kristine and den Broucke, 
                 Stephan and Fullam, James and Doyle, 
                 Gerardine and Pelikan, J{\"u}rgen 
                 and Slonska, Zofia and Brand, Helmut},
     journal  = {BMC Public Health},
     number   = {1},
     pages    = {80},
     publisher= {BioMed Central},
     title    = {Health literacy and public health: a 
                 systematic review and integration of 
                 definitions and models},
     volume   = {12},
     year     = {2012}
}
@article{cipriani2003comparison,
     author   = {Cipriani, Andrea and Geddes, John},
     journal  = {Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences},
     number   = {3}, 
     pages    = {146--153},
     publisher= {Cambridge University Press},
     title    = {Comparison of systematic and narrative 
                 reviews: the example of the atypical 
                 antipsychotics},
     volume   = {12},
     year     = {2003}
}
\end{filecontents}

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage[authoryear,round]{natbib}
\usepackage{har2nat} % <-- new
\setlength\bibhang{0.5in} % <-- new
\bibliographystyle{agsm}

\begin{document}
\citet{sorensen2012health}, \citep{cipriani2003comparison}
\bibliography{referenceList}
\end{document}
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