Have you ever been confused about how to reference something in your work or the difference between a citation in a footnote and a bibliography? This post will serve as a quick introduction to the OSCOLA referencing system principles, with more in-depth blogs on specific areas to follow.
The OSCOLA referencing system is used for legal referencing in the UK and stands for Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities. It is very light on punctuation, making it easier for the reader and simpler to keep consistent. It is also based on using a footnote system, so it is very important that you pay close attention to these – it will make it much easier to assemble a bibliography later.
Core Principles
What are the basic principles of the OSCOLA referencing system? The footnote system it is based on means footnote markers as superscript (above the line) numbers are inserted into your work at the point of relevance, for example, after a legal case is mentioned or an article referred to. The same number will then appear at the bottom of the page with the full reference. Footnotes should be placed at the end of the corresponding reference, after the closing punctuation, unless it needs to be with a specific word to avoid ambiguity.
Punctuation should be used sparingly, with no full points in abbreviations or between author’s initials. For example, the Director of Public Prosecutions is abbreviated to DPP.
Foreign words should be written in italics, unless in a quotation, with a translation following immediately after in brackets or a footnote. Commonly used words in legal English, such as ultra vires and obiter dicta do not need to be in italics.
Ranges of numbers should be given in full for numbers between 10 and 20, but after this as few numbers as possible should be used, but with at least two numbers at the end of the range. For example:
- 2-5
- 13-17
- 22-28
- 35-46
- 164-68
- 492-505
- 1533-36
- 1297-302
Years should be given in a similar way, but the whole number should be used if the range crosses over separate centuries. For example:
- 1975-79
- 1897-1903
What is the Difference between a Footnote and a Bibliography Entry?
Should a source go in a footnote or the bibliography? Most likely it should go in both, but written in slightly different ways. The bibliography should be identical to the citation in the footnote, with just four differences. In a citation, the author’s first name(s) will come first, followed by their last name; in the bibliography the author’s last name will come first, followed by their first initial(s) without a comma between them (punctuation light!). There should be a comma after the last initial, however. It can be seen that another difference is that only initials are used, not the first names of the authors.
Another difference is that an unattributed source will appear differently. An unattributed source is one which has no author and has also not been claimed by an organisation or institution. This will appear in a footnote with the title first and no mention of author, as there is not one. In the bibliography, the title should be preceded by a double em-dash (——).
The final difference is that if a pinpoint page number is given for a quotation, this should not be included in the bibliography.
Footnotes should be placed in the order that they appear in the text, with the footnote citation appearing on the same page as the text to which it refers. Works in a bibliography should be in alphabetical order, with unattributed works appearing at the start with the double em-dash, ordered alphabetically by title if there is more than one.
Subsequent citations
If a source is used more than once, there is no need to cite the full information in later footnotes (although this is acceptable). Instead, the minimal information of just the author’s last name is used, followed by a referral back to the first footnote the source was mentioned in, (n x), with x being the first footnote number. For example, if the first citation of Carter is in footnote 3, a subsequent citation would be: Carter (n 3). If the second citation is referring to a particular page number or is a quote, page numbers and the name of the person being quoted can be added as normal.
If the second mention of a source is immediately after the first, the term ‘ibid’ should be used. This refers to the citation before and again, page numbers and names can be added if necessary.
An exception to this is legislation. If this is cited again within a reasonable space from the full citation, a short version may be used without any cross-reference. However, if the subsequent citation is on a different page, for example, the full citation should be used again, so a cross-reference should never be necessary for legislation.
Sources should only be referenced once in a bibliography, but it is possible to have sources in the bibliography that never actually appear in a footnote. This can be the case where you have carried out research work by reading a particular book, but it is never specifically relevant to your writing. However, this should not be used excessively.
Wrapping up
OSCOLA is designed to be a simple system that is both clear to use and interpret. This makes it relatively easy to learn, but consistency is very important so close attention is needed. Later blogs will go into more detail on specific areas of the OSCOLA referencing system.
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