FAQs (OSCOLA5)

• Use single quotation marks to indicate a short direct quotation from a source.
• For longer quotations (over three lines) indent instead without quotation marks. Leave a line space above and below the quotation.
• If intervening text is omitted from the quotation, or if it ends mid-sentence in the original text, use an ellipsis ('...') to indicate that some of the original text is missing. Never use an ellipsis at the start of a quotation. Leave a space between an ellipsis and any text or punctuation.
• See OSCOLA s 1.5 for detail on complex punctuation and marking of any errors in original texts. 
• Always include the judge’s name for any quotations from judgments.

• If the source can be found in a physical printed format (this includes most books, journals, and government / non-governmental organisation materials), you should cite the item as if you used the physical format. 
• If the source is only available online (this includes webpages, some working papers, blogs and social media content) provide either the DOI (if there is one) or a stable URL. Do not use perma.cc for a URL. Note: This is a UoP deviation from the OSCOLA guidance.
• Academic databases / published journals typically have stable URLs. If you are in doubt about a URL for a source, contact the Library via the 24/7 Librarian-staffed chat service.

Secondary referencing means referring to the work of an author that you have not read in the original but have learned about from another source.

Secondary referencing is not recommended.

• Always try to read the original document whenever possible, to evaluate for yourself whether it is relevant or not, and whether the interpretation of it is correct.
• If this is not possible, you must make it clear in the footnote that you have not read the original source. You do this by giving the source you have read followed by the original source, with the word 'citing' between them.
• In your bibliography list only the source which you have read.

Footnote

ⁿ Footnote for source you have read citing Footnote for source they have mentioned.

¹ Brian Yeats and Jack Duggan, Water Law (Poole Press 2009) 245 citing Atkinson v Moore [2012] IPR 260.

² Mark Elliott, Jack Williams and Alison L Young, ‘The Miller Tale: An Introduction’ in Mark Elliott, Jack Williams and Alison L Young (eds), The UK Constitution After Miller: Brexit and Beyond (Hart Publishing 2018) 24, citing R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5, [2018] AC 61 [274] (Lord Carnwath). 

• Bibliographies are not included in your word count.
• Footnotes are not usually included in the word count of a piece of work at the University of Portsmouth. Footnotes are used primarily to give details of sources you have referenced. If you feel it necessary to add clarification or further information in a footnote, you may do so but your lecturer may ignore additional information included in a footnote if they think the added information belongs in the main body of the text and is being used to reduce your word count.

• Tables of cases and legislation are not required for standard student work.
• PhD theses do require tables of cases and legislation, but these do not have to be manually indexed.
• Note: This is a UoP deviation from OSCOLA guidance.

There are some minor changes but the overall idea of the referencing style remains the same, so do not panic! 

A few pointers are below, with links to the full guide, in case you want to view more information or see examples. Please note that there are some changes we have implemented at UoP to make things easier. These are in italics below. 

• Ibid is no longer used: cross-references are used instead (s 1.2.1). 

If you find cross referencing confusing, then you can always just repeat the footnote citation instead. 

• Legislation: after the first full citation, indicate a short form for subsequent citations. The Official Guide says there is no need to repeat the year (s 1.2.1).

For UoP please include the year every time - this ensure that statutes with similar short forms, e.g. CA for the Companies Act, can be differentiated (e.g. CA 1985 or CA 2006).

• Court abbreviations: use KBD for King’s Bench Division and QBD for Queen’s Bench Division (previously these were KB and QB) (s 2.1.5).

• Ebooks: if the page numbers are the same as the printed version then treat it as a printed book. If there is no printed version, include the ebook type. Where the ebook lacks page or paragraph numbers, include a chapter/section number (or name) (s 3.2.2).

• Webpages: cite permanent links wherever possible (for published works a perma.cc is advised). If there is a persistent link or a DOI, no date of access is needed. DOIs do not need to be in < > (but they are also not needed at all if the journal article is also available in hard copy). Do not cite PDF files or downloaded content (s 3.7.1).

For student assessments at UoP, the perma.cc link is unnecessary - just use a normal URL link. You can also cite online PDFs as long as they have a working direct link (do not download a PDF and then try to link to it).

• Newspaper articles: don't need the city of publication (s 3.7.7).

• Command papers: include CP for those published since 2019 (s 3.7.9).

• Other secondary sources: various small changes to sources including social media posts, book reviews, lectures/speeches, theses, pinpoints for audio/video content (s 3).  

• International law: various changes (s 4).

• Retrospectively created medium neutral citations (those that predate 2001) should not be used (s 2.1.3). 

• If tables of cases or legislation are required these must now be indexed (s 1.6.3). 

This is only for longer pieces of work - standard student assessments at UoP DO NOT require tables of cases or legislation unless specifically requested. 
For PhDs: please check with your supervisor as whilst you may need to provide tables, they do not necessarily need to be indexed. 

• Bibliographies of secondary sources should be A-Z by author surname and not split by source type. The Bibliography does not need to be indexed (s 1.7). 

At UoP please use bullet points for your bibliography. This makes reading easier for the marker. 

This list was compiled using Naomi Hart's guidance.

• All sources should have a footnote, except for legislation in specific instances where the full title of the act and the year are already mentioned in your text.  
• See the guidance for each source type for details about how the footnote should be formatted.

Word Online sometimes causes problems for documents with footnotes - the full Desktop version works far better. 

• Check our FAQ for guidance on how to access and use the Desktop version. It covers:

1. Using the full version of Word on University devices
2. Download the full version of Word on a personal device
3. My document is automatically opening in Word Online
4. I need to use Word Online – what can I do?

• Generic guidance on inserting footnotes in Word is available from Microsoft.

• Footnotes should be consecutively numbered. 
• Most Word processing software will automatically re-number the footnotes if text containing the footnote (always include the number!) is moved to a different place in a piece of work. Remember that if you delete a footnote number in your sentence it will also delete the footnote from your work.

• Author names are as given on the source (given name first and then followed with the family name, for example Lucy Jones) and in the order shown if there are multiple authors. Do not include titles or postnominals, such as QBC.
• For social media, the author’s name is the username if a formal name is not provided. 
• If there are two or three authors use the word ‘and’ before the final author.  
• If there are more than three authors, use the first author and then put ‘and others’.
• Treat editor names the same as author names.
• If a source uses an organisation as the author, all main words should start with a capital letter. For example: United Nations, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. 
• If a source has no author, start the footnote with the title of the source.

• The following is a list of abbreviations of common words and phrases with their abbreviations for use in footnotes. 
• For a list of abbreviations in case names see OSCOLA s 5.2.4.
• For a list of abbreviations of international institutions and bodies see OSCOLA s 5.2.6.

• Pinpoints are used to direct the reader to a specific spot in a source. They can be a page number or paragraph number (for those sources that have numbered paragraphs).
• Pinpoints generally go at the end of the footnote before the full stop.
• Do not use p. or pp. for page numbers.
• Do not use para. for paragraph when referring to judgements. It can be used when referring to secondary sources such as books.
• Pinpoints to digital audio/video media should include a timestamp where available. Use a colon to separate minutes from seconds, for example (11:08).

• Yes, you can include more than one source in the same footnote.

Ordering of multiple sources

If you have multiple sources in your footnotes you should order them as follows:

• If they are the same type of source (e.g. all cases or all textbooks), list them in chronological order (oldest first), separated by semi colons. For example: 

Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1893] 1 QB 256 (QBD) 258; Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL) 563.

• If they are different types of source (e.g. a textbook, legislation and a case), primary always goes first (legislation followed by cases) then secondary sources (so legislation; case; textbook).

Are they all equally relevant?

• Usually, one of your sources will be the most relevant to evidence your point. Put this first followed by a full stop. Then start a new sentence in your footnote with 'See also' and list any other sources you want to mention, separated with semi-colons, in the order described above. For example:

[2019] UKSC 27, [2020] AC 612 [24]. See also Matthew Linden, 'On the Point of Law' (2022) 64 MLR 27.

• Ibid (Latin for ‘in the same place’) is no longer used. You may still see it used in some legal sources.

In subsequent citations to a source you have already cited (cross references) you should briefly identify the source (author name, first party to a case) and then give the footnote number in round brackets that has the full details of the source.

Cross references can also point a reader to a different place in a work. Use ‘See n #’ for this, where n is the relevant footnote number. ‘See n 23’ means ‘look at footnote number 23’.

For example:

​​​​​​​¹ [2009] UKHL 5, [2009] AC 564.

² Austin (n 1) [34], [39], [43]–[47]. 

Footnote 1’s case name was given in the text, so only the citation is needed in the footnote. 

Footnote 2 provides the first party name of the case and (n 1) – look to the first footnote to find the citation details.

• A sample essay with annotations can be viewed here. Hover over the purple highlighting to see the annotations.

• Only include secondary sources, such as books, journal articles, webpages, government / non-governmental organisation materials/reports, etc. 
• If you have doubts about what to include, contact the Library via the 24/7 online chat.

• Entries should be in bulleted format.
• Use 1.5 line spacing. 

• The bibliography should be arranged in alphabetical order by the first author’s family name.
• Unattributed sources are placed at the beginning of the bibliography and should be in alphabetical order based on the first word of the title (exclude A, An, and The from if these words start the title).
• Multiple sources by the same author (or group of authors in the same order) should be ordered by date (oldest first). For following sources by the same author(s) replace the author name(s) with a double em-dash for each source (you can also use two hyphens - - as em-dashes are not always available).

• For each reference, list the authors in the order given on the source. 
• Give the family name first, immediately followed by the initial(s) only of any given names for the author(s). Do not use the full given name(s). For example, Doe J not Doe, John.
• Do not use a comma to separate the family name and the initial(s). 
• When organisations are used as authors, all main words should start with a capital letter. For example, United Nations, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, etc.
• If there is no author, use a double em-dash instead (you can also use two hyphens - - as em-dashes are not always available).

• A sample bibliography with annotations can be viewed here.