In this post, we will be looking at how to reference interviews in your work. These may have been carried out by you personally or by someone else whose work you are now referring to. These two scenarios will need to be cited in slightly different ways in OSCOLA, but they are still very similar, so we will cover both in this blog.
Another thing to be covered by this blog is how to use interviews as a reference in your work. We will consider what sort of source they are and how reliable an interview is as a citation. In addition, we will also look at when interviews can be very valuable to strengthen your writing. If you are already confident in your background knowledge of this area, do skip ahead to the section on referencing.
What Type of Source are Interviews?
One of the reasons why interviews can be such a valuable reference is that, if the interviewee is recounting their experiences, they are a type of primary source. This means that they are original evidence of the event or experience they are discussing. This brings you “closer to the action”, so to speak, allowing you to learn crucial details such as names and times (although remember it is possible that the interviewee may have misremembered some parts).
However, an interview can still be a secondary source, for example, you may be interviewing a legal academic author about certain cases or legal topics. While they can offer an expert’s opinion, they were not actually present at all of the events, so they are giving a second-hand version of what happened. Nevertheless, this interview can still be a valuable source, especially if you are carrying out the interview and can ask exactly the questions you need answering.
How Reliable is an Interview as a Source?
How reliable a particular interview is will need to be decided by you using the normal ways of evaluating a source for suitability. However, we will consider the general reliability of interviews in this section, as well as what other factors can influence this. It is important to consider each source individually before using it in your writing.
One factor affecting how reliable an interview is as a source is whether it is a primary or secondary source, as discussed above. If it is simply a recount of events as a primary source, it should be fairly reliable for this purpose, assuming the interviewee correctly remembers the event and is reliable themselves. One thing to consider is how recent the subject matter of the interview was when it took place. If several years have passed, it might be less reliable as a source.
If the interview is instead a secondary source, bear in mind that the interview may be interpreting existing primary sources, such as interviewing a barrister about historical cases. They can add a useful perspective, but if you want to reference the case it is better to cite it directly. You should most likely be able to find a record of it on a legal database for a recording of the facts of the case, to which you could then add the interview as a source if you are discussing it further.
Another point to bear in mind with interviews as sources is that they will be the opinions of the person being interviewed, so they may not be entirely reliable in all areas. Their reasoning can be fine to cite in a discussion area of your work but is not suitable for a more fact-based piece of writing. It is also good to find some opposing views to create a balanced look at a topic in your work.
How Valuable Are Interviews?
Interviews can be an excellent source to cite, as mentioned above. One reason is simply that they add a first-person perspective to an event or topic, which can be good for supplying evidence from the time and place you are discussing. They give you a closer, more direct, look at events as they unfolded.
Even interviews acting as secondary sources allow you to see and reference a topic from another’s perspective, which is important for keeping your writing balanced. In addition, discussion of a topic can open new areas of debate that you had not considered before, making your writing more interesting and helping to build your argument.
How Do You Reference Interviews?
The basic format for an interview reference is:
Interviewer’s name | Interview with interviewee’s name | Interviewee’s position (if relevant) | Interviewee’s institution (if relevant) | (Location of interview | Date of interview in the format DD Month YYYY)
For example:
Timothy Endicott and John Gardner, Interview with Tony Honoré, Emeritus Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Oxford (Oxford, 17 July 2007).
Authors in a footnote are cited as above, with the full first name or initial first, then the surname, whereas in a bibliography the surname comes first, then the initial. So, the example above would be:
Endicott T and Gardner J, Interview with Honoré T, Emeritus Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Oxford (Oxford, 17 July 2007)
Remember that footnotes end with a full stop, whereas bibliography entries don’t. Also, note that the interviewee’s name also changes format.
If you carried out the interview yourself, you do not need to put your own name at the start of the reference. For example:
Interview with Irene Kull, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Law, Tartu University (Tartu, Estonia, 4 August 2003).
Wrapping Up
I hope that this blog has helped you and that you now feel more confident about both citing interviews and when to do this. Next time we will be discussing how to reference personal communications in OSCOLA, so come back in two weeks for that!
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