[Tex/LaTex] natbib: use the harvard referencing system

bibtexharvard-stylenatbib

I've been scouting various websites, including stackexchange looking for an easy solution to make natbib work within my tex file so to use the harvard referencing system. I've only managed to get one reference working, the rest have made a bit of a mess of my document.

I am looking to have the format (Author last name, year) and my bib file (bibfile.bib) is as shown below (given a few examples at least):

 @comment{ Aardvark, T. (2012) China Bans It's Airlines From Taking Part In EU 
       Emissions Trading Scheme. [online] Available at: 
       http://toryaardvark.com/2012/02/06/china-bans-its-airlines-from-taking-part-in-eu-emissions-trading-scheme/ 
       [Accessed: 10 Mar 2013].  }
@book{aardvark2013china,
 author = "Aardvark, T.",
 title = "China Bans It's Airlines From Taking Part In {EU} Emissions Trading Scheme",
 publisher = "[online] {Available} at: http://toryaardvark.com/2012/02/06/china-        bans-its-airlines-from-taking-part-in-eu-emissions-trading-scheme/         [{Accessed}: 10",
 month = mar,
 year = 2013"
]}
 @comment{ Aef.org.uk (1990) Aviation Environment Federation » Short haul 
           flights should be “progressively replaced” by rail, says 
           transport minister. [online] Available at: 
           http://www.aef.org.uk/?p=803 [Accessed: 10 Mar 2013].  }
@article{aef2013org,
 author = "Aef",
 title = "org",
 journal = "uk",
 volume = "10",
 month = mar,
 year = 2013, 
 url = "http://www.aef.org.uk/?p=803"
}

My document itself has :

\usepackage[numbers]{natbib}
\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
\begin{document}
AEF have been doing so and so \citep{aef2013org} etc.
\bibliography{bibfile}

Please help! The constant searching through endless websites is driving me crazy and I have a two reports due in this week!

Best Answer

I'm not sure if you consider this an appropriate answer, as your question is »how do I make natbib work«, and my answer involves abandoning it for something more contemporary (there haven't been any updates to natbib whatsoever for a few years). But then again, your ultimate aim is »using the harvard referencing system« -- and this is something quite easily done with biblatex, out of the box. So what I'm suggesting is a slightly different tool for that purpose...

Consider the following example and its output. Note I've used the more suitable @online field rather than @book.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{filecontents,hyperref}
\usepackage[style=authoryear,backend=biber]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{bibtest.bib}
@online{aardvark2013china,
 author = {Aardvark, T.},
 title = {China Bans It's Airlines From Taking Part In {EU} Emissions Trading Scheme},
 year = {2013}, 
 url = {http://toryaardvark.com/2012/02/06/china-bans-etc/},
 urldate = {2013-03-10}
}
@article{aef2013org,
 author = {AEF},
 title = {Some Title},
 journal = {Some Journal},
 volume = {10},
 number = {3},
 year = {2013}, 
 url = {http://www.aef.org.uk/?p=803}
}
\end{filecontents}

\bibliography{bibtest}

\begin{document}
AEF have been doing so and so \parencite{aef2013org}. But \textcite{aardvark2013china} have been etc.
\printbibliography
\end{document}

enter image description here

So, my suggestion is: let's work from there; let us know if that looks like something you're roughly comfortable with, and what details you want changed. If, for example, you prefer »available at« to »URL«, or »accessed« to »visited«, if you want every online article to be marked with an »[online]« in addition to the URL, if you want purple journal titles instead of italic ones -- all of this is really simple in biblatex, plus, as mentioned earlier, it's going to be a lot easier to get help if you need it.

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