Almost all Harvard referencing resources seem to teach that the reference in the list or bibliography should be:

Name, I. (2020). Title in italics. Place: Publisher.

However, Microsoft Word formats it without the brackets on the year, and uses a comma:

Name, I., 2020. Title in italics. Place: Publisher.

This discrepancy is seen on other citation builders, too. Citethisforme's 'Ultimate Guide' uses the brackets, but actually building a reference using the builder tool on that same website omits the brackets.

 A completed citation using Citethisforme's citation builder.

My institution requires the brackets, but changing this behaviour in Microsoft Word means editing the Harvard style.xsl file's formatting for each and every type of reference, which would be very laborious.

Might it still be correct to format it without the brackets? Is without the brackets more common, and this is why Microsoft Word has chosen this format?

Almost all Harvard referencing resources seem to teach that the reference in the list or bibliography should be:

Name, I. (2020). Title in italics. Place: Publisher.

However, Microsoft Word formats it without the parentheseson the year, and uses a comma:

Name, I., 2020. Title in italics. Place: Publisher.

This discrepancy is seen on other citation builders, too. Citethisforme's 'Ultimate Guide' uses the parentheses, but actually building a reference using the builder tool on that same website omits the parentheses. E.g. a completed citation using Citethisforme's citation builder.

My institution requires the parentheses, but changing this behaviour in Microsoft Word means editing the Harvard style.xsl file's formatting for each and every type of reference, which would be very laborious.

Might it still be correct to format it without the parentheses? Is without the brackets more common, and this is why Microsoft Word has chosen this format?