Oscola Reference Generator
Are you a Law student in the United Kingdom? Are you having trouble understanding the Oscola Referencing Style?
Give our Oscola Reference Generator a try, and cite all your sources without much trouble. This Reference Generator has been made possible all thanks to the expert writers and editors present at The Dissertation Help.
Do you want to learn how to cite your sources in Oscola Reference by yourself? Read across our Oscola Referencing Guide and learn citation the Oscola style!
What is the Oscola Referencing Style?
Oscola stands for Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities and is widely used by Law universities in the United Kingdom for citation in academic papers. The style has been developed by Oxford University, and is considered as the standard referencing style for legal writing.
Citation and referencing is extremely important to avoid plagiarism in the academic papers, whether it is some assignment or an essay or a dissertation. Teachers and Professors especially in Law Universities are very much focused on ensuring that the accurate citations have been done in the paper, otherwise the paper is either rejected or awarded with a below average grade. Since legal writing is considered as much more persuasive, students need to be extra careful while citing their sources.
Citation in the Oscola Style is usually done in two places in the overall paper:
- As footnotes in the text
- In the Bibliographies Section
Citing Oscola Style in the Text
Unlike APA Referencing style where you use parenthetical referencing, Oscola referencing is done with footnotes at the end of the page. The reference number appears as a superscript on the relevant text, while the reference appears as a footnote.
Footnotes also differ according to the source of information. In the guide however, we will explain you with examples, the ways to create footnotes for the different sources.
Citing Oscola Style in the Bibliography
The Bibliography comes at the end of the paper, where you list down all of your references. Here, your citation will include essentials such as:
- Author name, surname, initials
- Name of source of information
- Page number (if applicable)
- Year
- Publisher (such as for books)
- Volume
- Others
The essentials for the citation depend on the source of citation. There is no single style for all the sources; in fact, each source comes with its own style for Oscola Referencing.
The citations are also divided according to the sources of information. One particular category is written together, and separate from the other category.
Learning Oscola Referencing According to the Source of Information
Want to understand Oscola quick reference for the different sources of information? Read on below for better comprehension.
Citation for Books with a Single Author:
| In the Footnotes | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author, Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Samantha Jones, Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
| In the Bibliography | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author Surname and Initial, Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Jones S, Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
Citation for Books with Two Authors:
| In the Footnotes | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author 1 and Author 2, Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Samantha Jones and Harrison George, Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
| In the Bibliography | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author 1 Surname and Initial and Author 2 Surname and Initial, Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Jones S and George H, Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
Citation for Books with Three Authors:
| In the Footnotes | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author 1, Author 2 and Author 3, Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Samantha Jones, William Rupert and Harrison George, Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
| In the Bibliography | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author 1 Surname and Initial and Author 2 Surname and Initial, Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Jones S, Rupert W and George H, Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
Citation for Books with More Than Three Authors:
| In the Footnotes | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author 1 and others, Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Samantha Jones and others, Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
| In the Bibliography | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author 1 Surname and Initial and others, Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Jones S and others, Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
Citation for Edited Books:
| In the Footnotes | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author (ed), Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Samantha Jones (ed), Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
| In the Bibliography | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author Surname (ed), Title, (Additional Information, Edition, Publisher Year) Page No. |
| EXAMPLE | Jones S (ed), Employee Law, (3rd Edition, OUP 2017) 56. |
Citation for Journals:
| In the Footnotes | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author, ‘Journal Title’ [Year] Page no. |
| EXAMPLE | Samantha Jones ‘Journal of Organisational Laws’ [2017] p.387-400 |
| In the Bibliography | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Author Surname and Initial, ‘Journal Title’ [Year] Page no. |
| EXAMPLE | Jones S. ‘Journal of Organisational Laws’ [2017] p.387-400 |
Citation for Cases with Only a Neutral Citation:
| In the Footnotes | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Case Name [Year] Court Number, [Year] Volume Report Abbreviation |
| EXAMPLE | Barr v Kaybees Consultants [2017] UKHL 14, [2017] 1 AB 943 |
| In the Bibliography | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Case Name [Year] Court Number, [Year] Volume Report Abbreviation |
| EXAMPLE | Barr v Kaybees Consultants [2017] UKHL 14, [2017] 1 AB 943 |
Citation for Legislation:
| In the Footnotes | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Title of Statute Year, Section (Subsection). |
| EXAMPLE | Human Rights Act 2001, s 13(3). |
| In the Bibliography | |
|---|---|
| FORMAT | Title of Statute Year, Section (Subsection). |
| EXAMPLE | Human Rights Act 2001, s 13(3). |
Did You Find Our Oscola Quick Reference Guide Helpful?
We presented you with examples and the formats for the different types of referencing in Oscola style, and we have tried our best to keep it as easy as possible. However, we understand that legal writing can prove to be extremely difficult even for the best students in the class.
Many students are not able to use the Oscola style, or cite according to the Oscola style even after going through various Oscola quick reference guides. For this reason, we have made available the Oscola Referencing Generator which will definitely help you with all of your citations.
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