This introductory session is designed to help you take the first steps in researching for your assignments. This class focuses specifically on how to find the information you need to support your ideas and arguments.
You’ll learn how to search for and identify relevant books, journal articles, conference papers, and other academic sources—collectively known as "literature"—that will form the foundation of your research. This process, known as literature searching, is a key academic skill that will support your success across many assignments.

This session provides an overview of referencing and covers: What is referencing? Why you should reference. When you should reference. Examples of in-text citations and a reference list.

Here we look at an example of how you can manually format a reference to a source you have relied on in your own work.

(N.B. The link to OSCOLA website has changed since recording. It is now: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/oscola.)
After we’ve looked at OSCOLA, you should:
Understand the key principles of OSCOLA as a footnote style with minimal punctuation, including how to include subsequent citations and incorporate quotations.
Recognise how to cite key sources including case law, legislation, books and journal articles.
Know where to look for information to include in the citation or reference.
And know where to look for more detailed guidance on using OSCOLA – including guidance on how to use OSCOLA with reference management software.
For more information take a look at the University's OSCOLA LibGuides page: https://guides.lib.strath.ac.uk/referencing_guide/referencing/oscola

Here we will look at how to find legislation. We will focus on using the commercial legal databases Westlaw and Lexis+ - as well as the publicly accessible service Legislation.gov.uk - to do this.

Here we will look at how to find case law. We will focus on using the legal databases Westlaw and Lexis Library to do this.