Stepping Up Research Skills: Home Literature Search and Online Access

1. Stepping up your research skills Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice To move around this PowerPoint presentation, click on the tabs at he top and then click on the buttons at the side or look for some surprises!

2. Help and advice You will no doubt spend a lot of time thinking about the subject of your assignment. Once you are clear on your topic the first step is to explore the scope of the project. It is tempting to search only for the words in the title or question. This can work well to find basic overviews but it is a Very basic starting point which can easily be used in Westlaw or Lexis However to create a thorough search and find the most relevant and up-to-date literature, you will need to think carefully about your topic before you search. You might find it helpful to explain your topic to someone else so that you are clear about it. Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic Keywords Sources of information Academic knowledge Next steps…

3. Help and advice • Make sure you have properly defined your topic. It should be manageable, i.e. not too big, and not so new that no academic literature is available. • Ask yourself questions - Who, what, when, where, why, how? This will help you think about different aspects of the topic and to define your search parameters e.g. timescale, and jurisdiction (remember that access to international material may be limited). • Think about what do you already know. From this, work out what you need to know. Identify the gaps in your knowledge. • You could mind map your topic at this stage. Try doing a Cartwheel. Literature search Home Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic Keywords Sources of information Academic knowledge Next step…

4. Help and advice Help and advice Help and advice • Consider broader/narrower terms in case your first search produces few/too many results e.g. ‘human rights’ is broader than ‘freedom of expression’ • Think about word variants and alternative spellings e.g. organisation /organizations /organising or labour law / labor law • Consider synonyms/near synonyms (words with the same or similar meanings) e.g. female / woman • Think about popular/legal/academic terminology adapt search terms to sources you are searching eg. ‘firearms offences’ / ‘gun crime’ which is more appropriate for a newspaper or a practitioner journal? • Westlaw/Lexis use Natural Language searches which can make us lazy. Think about using a Subject terms index in a more general database such as SocIndex to check out Subject Terms and help identify more useful search terms. The Discovery search may just swamp you with too many results try the Advanced Search instead. Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic Keywords Sources of information Academic knowledge Equal pay for equal work: what is the role of trade unions in seeking equal pay for female employees? Look at example

5. Help and advice Types of material to search for might include: cases, legislation, parliamentary papers, official documents, working papers, academic/practitioner/legal journals, reports, newspapers, books, websites, dissertations/theses, conference papers, professional bodies, individuals, discussion groups/professional networking sites, blogs etc. Lecturers tell us that too many students lose marks because they use poor quality websites. Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic Keywords Sources of information Academic knowledge Think about …who owns/runs the website? An organisation/individual? …which jurisdiction does it cover? …is it authoritative? …is it accurate? …is it objective/biased towards a particular viewpoint? …is it up-to-date? (site last updated…) Don’t rely on commentary and news reports look at original Primary sources and investigate them. Legal Information Landscape

6. Help and advice Help and advice Think about where your sources come from: What sparks research? Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic Changes to legislation made in Parliament… Keywords Sources of information Academic knowledge News events and the information cycle which follows… Law under review by the Law Commission… Use Library Guides On Google to get the buried treasure from official websites

7. Help and advice Think about where your sources come from: Who does research? Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic Your lecturers see research as key to their work… Keywords Sources of information Academic knowledge In fact, all of you… … undertake some independent research for each of your assignments. This could be your first step to a career with impact on future legal developments…

8. Help and advice Working paper (a record of a project’s research activities or interim findings, published for comment by the research community) PhD/MPhil Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic Conference paper (presented at a conference and may be subsequently published in its proceedings) Keywords Lecturer or researcher does RESEARCH producing “new academic knowledge” Sources of information Academic knowledge Academic journal article (also known as scholarly or peer-reviewed article). Peer review is the procedure by which academic journal articles are reviewed by other researchers before being accepted for publication. (Practitioner) magazine article or trade journal article (this is aimed at law professionals and is often written by a staff writer rather than a researcher), newspaper article (good for relating what is happening in the real world). Review article or literature review) Collective volume article (chapter in an edited book) or a monograph (book on a single topic) Encyclopaedia article/dictionary entry Textbook

9. Help and advice Equal pay for equal work: what is the role of trade unions in seeking equal pay for female employees? Identify the key words/concepts: equal pay trade unions female employees Generate alternative/broader keywords: equal pay sex/gender discrimination / discrimination conditions of employment / employment law equality trade unions industrial relations/disputes female employees women/woman employee/worker Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic Keywords Sources of information Academic knowledge Look up the legal terminology used for your topic. Databases such as Westlaw and Lexis Library have a structured index of keywords you can use.

10. Help and advice The key to accessing electronic resources provided by the Library (especially off-campus) is an access management system called Shibboleth. You will need your institutional login (your University username and password)to access e-books, e-journals and online databases such as Westlaw, Lexis Library and HeinOnline. Logging in Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Web proxy (webcache) To search for a specific journal, use the eJournals link on the Library homepage. Use the publication search page to search by title On results page check the dates available to ensure you choose the correct route linking to the journal supplier. To search for articles on a topic, using a specific database access it using the title search in the Library catalogue homepage or use subject search on the Resources: Database page.

11. Finding information Online access Help and advice Many electronic resources are industry-standard products aimed primarily at commercial users who have individual logins. You will need to look for the link will enable students to login, which is not always in the same place. Logging in Home Literature search Help and advice Web proxy (webcache) Step 1: Look for the link to Shibboleth, Institution, UK Federation Login or Academic Sign In More examples here. Next step

12. Online access Finding information Help and advice Logging in Home Literature search Help and advice Step 2: If required, select UK Access Management Federation and/or University of Portsmouth from the drop-down list Web proxy (webcache) Next step

13. Help and advice Finding information Online access Logging in Step 3: Enter your university username and password in the login box and click on OK or Login Home Literature search Help and advice Web proxy (webcache)

14. Finding information Online access Help and advice Home Literature search Help and advice VPN or web Proxy allow you to browse the Internet and access University of Portsmouth resources from anywhere with internet access as if you are on campus. It enables easy access to resources such as electronic books and journals, and also reduces the need for logging in. Web Proxy works by modifying your browser useful for use on machines you do not own but remember you need to clear the settings before you log off. Using your own machine? Then VPN is much more useful find more details in our Library blog post Logging in VPN/Web proxy

15. Help and advice What you see in the Library is just the tip of the iceberg… Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice • The Library websiteis a good place to begin your research, giving you access to: • the Library catalogue offers an advanced search to help you find exactly what you want from:- • 500,000+ electronic books (full-text searching of e-books is a great way to find information on a very specific topic) • Around 380,000 print books • around 25,000 electronic journals (and over 300 databases which will search across journal collections and other publications, saving you time) Books Articles Cases and legislation Official documents See also: Subject-based help European / international law

16. Online access Help and advice Finding information • Library catalogue – for print and e-books • E-Books search– for links to the main e-book collections (for full-text searching) including Ebrary, MyiLibrary and Oxford Scholarship Online (law books on a single topic) • Lexis Library– Commentary including Blackstone’s Criminal Practice, Butterworths Employment Law Handbook and Halsbury’s Laws of England • Westlaw – Books including Charlesworth & Percy on Negligence, Phipson on Evidence, and Woodfall: Landlord & Tenant • COPAC- catalogues of major University, Specialist, and National Libraries, including the British Library Home Literature search Help and advice Books Articles Cases and legislation Official documents See also: European / international law Subject-based help

17. Finding information Online access Help and advice • Industry-standard law databases such as Westlaw and Lexis Library will give you focused results, containing up-to-the-minute material (with the latest results ranked first). They contain legal journals which Google and Google Scholar won’t find. They provide comprehensive search help and features as well as useful links between articles, cases and legislation. • Lexis Library – full-text & abstracts of journal articles nd newspaper articles from UK national / regional / broadsheets (use Nexis UK for international news) • HeinOnline– full-text articles often international / American in scope • Westlaw – journal articles (some in full-text others abstracts) • ZETOC - for the contents pages of the British Library's journals and conference proceedings. E-mail/RSS feed alerting service to keep up-to-date and for journals that you are interested in following • Discovery/Google Scholar – useful for topics which cross into other disciplines and journals not included in the big databases. Books Home Literature search Help and advice Articles Cases and legislation Official documents See also: European / international law Subject-based help

18. Help and advice Online access Finding information • Westlaw and Lexis Library are expensive online resources, partly because they have to invest a huge amount of effort in keeping the law in their databases accurate and up-to-date. New cases are reported everyday and legislation is amended constantly. Busy lawyers expect these resources to save them time. • The free resources below should only be used with caution. Unlike • the law databases, they do not provide useful links to related • supporting material such as journal articles and commentary. Using them because they are easy to get into may cost you marks. • Legislation.gov.uk- Google will find UK legislation on • Government websites but you need to check whether • you are looking at amended legislation or as it was originally • passed in Parliament. • BAILLI(British and Irish Legal Information Institute) – useful • for unreported case transcriptsas well as links to other national • legal information institutes and to world law resources (with same caveats as used for • Gov.UK free resource) – but there is no way to check if judgement has been overruled or • followed in later cases. • Does it matter? See here R v William Chambers and Tale of Two Citations Home Literature search Help and advice Books Articles Cases and legislation Official documents See also: Subject-based help European / international law

19. Finding information Online access Help and advice • Parliament – parliamentary papers and debates (Hansard) and command papers. • House of Commons Parliamentary Papers –18th, 19th and 20th century full-text parliamentary papers. • House of Commons Library Research Papers • Law commission reports – contact library if you have problems with older material. • Government information –can be difficult to search but the Advanced search in Google provides a ‘Search within a site or domain’ tool will search general and local Government sites (gov.uk) as well as individual Government department sites such as the Home Office (homeoffice.gov.uk). • Use Library Guides On Google and Google Scholar to get the buried treasure from official websites Home Literature search Help and advice Books Articles Cases and legislation Official documents See also: Subject-based help European / international law

20. Finding information Online access Help and advice • EUR-lex– European Union law site giving access to the full-text of • recent issues of the Official Journal, legislation, selected treaties, • parliamentary questions and cases from the Court of Justice. • Download a guide to European case law • Download a guide to European legislation • European Court of Human Rights including the HUDOC database • for case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the European • Commission of Human Rights and the Committee of Ministers.  • Lexis Library and Westlaw have EU and some international • material (well-hidden – contact Library for advice). • HeinOnline – for international law yearbooks and a range of • journals, many of them American. • BAILLI(British and Irish Legal Information Institute) – • links to other national legal information institutes and to WorldLII • (World Legal Information Institute) for world law resources. Home Literature search Help and advice Books Articles Cases and legislation Official documents See also: Subject-based help European / international law

21. Help and advice You will find help with specific subjects including Law on the Library website if you click on the Subjectstab and choose Law and Criminology you can find details of people in the library to help you during the working week. Also look at the Law specific link on the right which offers lots of hints and tips to get you started. Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Subject-based help Referencing Interlibrary Loans Final tips… Some 24/7 help is available as well

22. Help and advice Linda Jones is your Law Librarian Tel: 02392 843240 Email: linda.jones@port.ac.uk Sharon Bittner is Linda’s assistant Tel: 023 9284 3243 Email: sharon.bittner@port.ac.uk Find us on the Law Subject page Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Subject-based help Referencing Interlibrary Loans Sharon Linda Final tips… Remember that you can book an appointment to see Linda or Sharon at any point in the process of undertaking your legal research. It is helpful if you send three times when you would like an appointment so that we can check our availability and reply to you. Whether you are struggling with research or stuck on referencing at any point in your course we are here to help! Next steps…

23. Help and advice You will be expected to reference your sources using the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) Pick up the OSCOLA referencing example handout from the Library. View the manual and download a quick reference guide at: http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/publications/oscola.php Get help with using OSCOLA from Referencing@Portsmouth: http://referencing.port.ac.uk Remember too Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations and their tutorial Citing the Law Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Subject-based help Referencing Interlibrary Loans Final tips…

24. Help and advice Interlibrary loans If you find something that is not available from the Library, we may be able to obtain it for you from another Library. To find out more, go to the Library websiteto register You can apply here online for specific items remember to check the details of each item carefully and double check we do not already hold it in the library. Undergraduates can apply for up to 5 items each year and that limit can be waived by the Law team in exceptional circumstances. We do not waive limits for students who have carelessly spent library funds on already available items. Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Subject-based help Referencing Interlibrary Loans Final tips…

25. Help and advice Use the time you have now to invest wisely in preparing for your research. Skills learnt will impact on future research too. The effort you put in now will provide a springboard for success in your degree results. Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic Keywords Sources of information Academic knowledge Time will fly by, and the more you can do in advance the less likely it is that your project will interfere with the rest of your workload. The Library staff are here to help wherever you have problems with identifying, obtaining or referencing your source material. Good Luck!

26. Help and advice Help and advice Are you confident about accessing Portsmouth materials from off-campus? Make sure you know how to Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Choosing your topic before you leave for a vacation so that you can build on your proposal research whilst away from Uni. Check out the Work Anywhere post on the Library Blog. Keywords Sources of information Academic knowledge Travel equipped Find out about SCONULto check out other academic libraries you could visit under their Vacation Access scheme. If you are thinking of visiting the British Libraryor the Institute of Advanced Legal Studiescheck out their advice before you leave - neither may be the best place for you.

27. Home Literature search Finding information Online access Help and advice Stepping up your research skills