Talkinghumanities.blogs.sas.ac.uk



User Needs SurveySummary of resultsConclusionsThe survey results indicate a need for interactive resources for UK postgraduate researchers. IALS Library therefore has an opportunity to be one of the first to offer open training courses on various law topics and thesis writing support.The survey results have reinforced our decision to create training modules on sources of public international law and OSCOLA.Postgraduate research students country-wide highlighted a lack of courses on research methods, legal subscription database searching, writing and communication skills, and keeping up-to-date with changes in the law.Some of the IALS postgraduate research students are unaware of the online resources and face-to-face support we offer in the library – we need to promote these in Law PORT and vice versa.1 IntroductionThe survey was conducted to source opinion of postgraduate research students (PhD and MPhil) studying law on the availability and awareness of online resources to assist them with writing their thesis. Conclusions from the findings will direct our development of content for Law PORT. Initially we were expecting a return of about 50 responses, but we have more than exceeded this target, with in excess of 130 responses. Of these respondents, 128 were registered at UK institutions and 2 at overseas institutions. A full list of respondents, including their institution and level of study, is included in Appendix 1. The use of social media to advertise the survey and the support of enrolled postgraduate research students at IALS has helped achieve that total. We also emailed law schools around the country and asked them promote the survey via channels available to them, e.g. mailing lists, blogs, websites and social media.I have included a section about students’ experience of using electronic and online tools to assist with writing a thesis, exposure to social media, and internet access. The reasons for this were to establish which methods of delivery we could use for our courses, whether or not the researchers have had any exposure to eLearning and the Moodle VLE previously, to highlight any areas that would benefit from some support documents or training in PORT (e.g. referencing tools), and to find out which channels we could use to promote our resources (e.g. social media). Use of referencing tools would be a good way of testing ability to cite using OSCOLA and understanding of the software to assist with this. I wanted to check that the students would have regular and reliable access to the internet, because if students spend significant amount of time overseas or live in remote areas, they may struggle to get online and therefore this material would be of no use to them. Gladly, in the UK this is becoming virtually unheard of, but I felt it prudent to ask seeing as the resources will only be available with internet connection with the option to print out handbooks for reading offline – the interactive elements of the courses will only be available online.The survey was closed on 05/10/15 and we will not be seeking any more responses.1.1 Early stagesInitially, we wrote a survey to be distributed on paper at our IALS Roadshow days. The response was small but it was enough for us to decide how to edit the questions for distribution online. The next stage was to create an online survey on Survey Monkey (kindly supplied by SAS), and send it out to the registered postgraduate research students at IALS. This data was collected and stored before the survey was sent out to the wider audience using social media and to other law schools. We believed the data would reflect a different set of needs because of the support IALS already offers in its online presence (i.e. LibGuides) and face-to-face training in the library. However, the data from IALS and country wide seems to produce similar conclusions.2 Responses from the IALS cohortWe only received 9 responses from the IALS postgraduate cohort, therefore I don’t believe this is enough to draw any concrete conclusions, but I will cover the important points.2.1 OSCOLAQ4. Will you use OSCOLA to cite the references in your thesis?All but 1 postgraduate research student said that they were certain they would use OSCOLA to cite references in their thesis, the respondent who didn’t respond “yes” said they “didn’t know”.Q5. How confident are you in your current ability to cite UK law resources using OSCOLA?The 1 respondent who said they didn’t know if they would be using OSCOLA said they were “not at all confident”. It is possible that they are a new postgraduate research student and perhaps haven’t used OSCOLA significantly.1 respondent said they were “very confident” but the rest were “somewhat confident” for most aspects of OSCOLA, 2 respondents in this group of 7 who were “somewhat confident” with using OSCOLA for UK and EU law were “not at all confident” with citing secondary and international sources. 1 respondent was “very confident” with citing secondary and international resources but “somewhat confident” with using OSCOLA for UK and EU.Q6. Does your Institution provide training or support on the use of OSCOLA?Witten or online – IALS Library has produced a guide to OSCOLA, and 3 people were aware of this resource. 2 people were sure that IALS didn’t provide any guidance and 4 didn’t know. This tells us that the written resources already available need to be linked to and advertised in Law PORT.Workshops or group training – 4 said “yes”, 2 said “no” and 3 “didn’t know”. It would be definitely worthwhile to have a page that promotes any workshops or group training for IALS postgraduate research students.One-to-one training – same results as the previous question, but some who were aware of the workshops were not aware of the availability of one-to-one training.Interactive online training (i.e. what will be available in PORT) – 3 said “no” and the rest “didn’t know”. This isn’t available currently so this is what we expected from IALS postgraduate research students; the question was included to see if other institutions were offering this kind of training.Conclusions on OSCOLAThis data certainly highlights the need for a Law PORT course on OSCOLA for all aspects. We definitely need to make use of social media and any established methods of advertising for PORT resources and use the VLE to promote other IALS training and resources.2.2 Public international lawQ8. Does your research topic touch on public international law?4 “yes”, 4 “no”, 1 “don’t know” – the “don’t know” response possibly came from a new postgraduate research student who hadn’t get picked their research topic. The results are evenly split between those who will touch on public international law and those that won’t.Q9. How confident are you in your current ability to carry out common research tasks for international law?All but 1 respondent said they were “very confident” or “somewhat confident” on all of the tasks, mostly “very confident”. The 1 person who wasn’t confident didn’t know if their research topic would involve public international law was the same postgraduate research student we suspect has just started their research.“Find decisions of an individual state concerning their international obligations” was the only area where confidence was mixed and included a response of “very confident” and 2 of “not at all confident”.Q10. Does your Institution provide training or support on international legal research skills?Most respondents were unsure or said there definitely wasn’t training provided, which again reinforces the need to promote all IALS resources in various ways – PORT being one of them.Conclusions on public international lawThe data seems to suggest the majority of IALS postgraduate research students are confident with these tasks. It is not apparent that the postgraduate research students have any immediate concerns about resources on public international law, but the development of resources on this topic course will ensure that in the early stages of a postgraduate degree there is a resource for public international law and we can promote the other types of support available in the Institute.2.3 Database searchingQ11. Searching legal subscription databasesOverall the postgraduate research students are confident in this area, only one person said they lacked confidence when using connectors, fields and to “Learn more about the content and coverage of each database”. Most respondents were aware of all types of training at IALS, except for “online interactive” (these are not available yet, so this response was expected). Conclusions on legal subscription databasesIt would be nice to create some resources on this topic, as it would be a good opportunity for creating some interesting practical exercises and interactive quizzes. However, the IALS postgraduate research students have not highlighted it as a priority.2.4 Keeping up-to-date with changes in the lawQ15. How confident are you in your ability to keep track of developments in law - relevant to your research topicMost postgraduate research students said they were at least “somewhat confident”, but the anomaly of what I suspect is a new postgraduate research student said they were “not at all confident” appeared again. A couple said they were unsure of how to find events.Q16. Does your Institution provide training or support on keeping up-to-date with changes to the law?With the odd exception, most people said they “didn’t know” of any training or support in this area. A couple said “yes”. I think this points out that more promotion of events, training and support is required.Conclusions on keeping track of developmentsLink to LibGuide for this topic.Update the News Forum in PORT to reflect events at IALS and related events.Encourage the postgraduate research students to use the discussion forums (might have to be outside of PORT due to lack of user registration).3 Responses from the full data set3.1 OSCOLAQ4. Will you use OSCOLA to cite the references in your thesis?Yes83No17Don’t know16The data is fairly clear here, the vast majority of postgraduate research students are familiar with OSCOLA and are aware that they need to use it in their thesis. Q5. How confident are you in your current ability to cite UK law resources using OSCOLA?With the exception of EU and international sources, the majority postgraduate research students seem at least “somewhat confident” with citing using OSCOLA. However, figures of around 20% of postgraduate research students are “not at all confident” is still enough to justify creating the OSCOLA resources in PORT. Q6. Does your Institution provide training or support on the use of OSCOLA?It appears that a significant number of institutions offer written guidance for OSCOLA and additionally workshops/group training. That said, there are still a lot of postgraduate research students who are unaware of the presence of any support in their institution, which highlights the need for promotion of PORT and other services available at IALS. One-to-one training seems to be an area where postgraduate research students are unaware of this type of support or are sure their institution doesn’t offer it. A very small proportion of the respondents were aware of interactive online training, which supports the conclusion that there is a need for this type of resource.Q7. Do you use any other methods or materials to support your use of OSCOLA?There isn’t a suitable way to graphically represent these findings, but the majority of postgraduate research students said they used the OSCOLA guide and other resources provided at . Additionally, some use referencing tools to provide guidance on OSCOLA, i.e. Zotero and Endnote. It is unknown whether they offer any support or written resources for using OSCOLA, other than the style add-on that can be downloaded for Zotero and Endnote. A full list of results is provided in Appendix 2.Conclusions on OSCOLAThe data has reinforced the need for OSCOLA resources in Law PORT. A general introduction to OSCOLA and sections for UK and EU citations and secondary sources are being written, and a section on international law will follow. It has been highlighted in these results that comprehensive support is required on the EU and international sections as these came out as being the sections postgraduate research students are least comfortable with.3.2 Public international lawQ8. Does your research topic touch on public international law?Yes51No54Don’t know8There is a fairly similar percentage of people who will be covering international law in their thesis to those who won’t. Whether the target audience for the survey was skewed by the specialisms of the Institute is unclear, but the conclusion I would draw is that there is a significant number of people writing theses touching on international law to warrant the creation of resources to support them with their work.Q9. How confident are you in your current ability to carry out common research tasks for international law?With the exception of “Find evidence of state practice” and “Find decisions of an individual state concerning their international obligations”, the postgraduate research students seem to have a degree of confidence with international law research tasks. I believe the data shows these topics are a priority and we should create more extensive resources for these topics.Q10. Does your Institution provide training or support on international legal research skills?The data here is very conclusive, there is a startling lack of support, of all kinds, for training in sources of public international law.Q11. Do you use any other methods or materials to support your public international law research?The data suggests that a significant number of postgraduate research students who responded to this question have been trained in the library or by IALS LibGuides. Court websites, UN websites, and updates from Westlaw also seem to be common sources of information. A full list of responses is provided in Appendix 3.Conclusions on public international lawEither the support is unavailable currently or there is a severe lack of awareness. This further highlights the need for the training courses in sources of public international law courses are creating for PORT and for advertising the other support available at IALS.3.3 Database SearchingQ12. Searching legal subscription databasesThe data indicates that there is a degree of confidence amongst the respondents with regard to legal subscription databases. The two areas where the responses suggest that support may be needed are “Using the correct connectors” and “Learn more about the content and coverage of each database”.Q13. Does your Institution provide training or support on the use of legal databases?The data suggests there is a lack of online interactive training – something we hope to provide in PORT. Additionally, it seems written/online guidance and workshop/group training is well covered, but there is a lack of awareness of one-to-one training available.Q14. Do you use any other methods or materials to support your legal database search skills?There weren’t many responses to this question, but the overwhelming majority of people simply answered “no” or “none”. BAILII and Mental Health Law Online got a few mentions, and Google Boolean searches, and the odd mention of the IALS Library online resources. A full list of responses in provided in Appendix 4.Conclusions on legal subscription databasesAs confidence is higher than found in training in sources of public international law and OSCOLA, this could be considered a lower priority than the topics we are developing currently. Perhaps we could create short courses that assume a basic understanding and focus on a specific aspects of the topic so that postgraduate research students can go directly to the areas they feel they need guidance on. 3.4 Keeping up-to-date with changes in the lawQ15. How confident are you in your ability to keep track of developments in law - relevant to your research topicThis is a rather mixed set of results. I wouldn’t count this as an area that would be a priority for development on PORT, but we could certainly create some interesting practical exercises on this topic.Q16. Does your Institution provide training or support on keeping up-to-date with changes to the law?It appears that many postgraduate research students are unaware of any resources on this topic, which would suggest that if we provide one and promote it properly, it will be well received.Q17. Do you use any other methods or materials to support your skills in this area?Postgraduate research students are already using technology in this area, e.g. RSS feeds, social media, and email lists. A resource centred on these skills would be in contrast to other things we are writing currently and would offer another dimension to Law PORT. A full list of responses is included in Appendix 5.Conclusions on keeping track of developmentsThis would be an interesting area to develop resources for because I believe that we could write a series of tasks and interactive content for keeping up to date. It would be far less “text heavy” than some of the other areas we hope to develop. The data shows that confidence is mixed in this area, and not many of the postgraduate researchers are aware of courses available on keeping up to date. In the following section where the students have an opportunity to suggest topics on which they feel support is required, this is only mentioned a handful of times. I would be inclined to suggest a short course and some practical exercises for this topic. However, it should not be considered a priority.3.5 Your suggestionsQ18. In an ideal world, what training would you like IALS to develop, to support you through your PhD in law?Here are the six most frequently suggested topics (with the number of times they are mentioned):Legal subscription database searching - 16Research methods - 15Public International Law - 9Writing and communication skills (for thesis writing) - 9OSCOLA - 8Keeping up-to-date with changes in the law - 5A full list of responses is provided in Appendix 6.3.6 Technical questionsQ19. How confident would you feel with a course that was solely taught online?Very confident35Somewhat confident52Not at all confident12The results show that postgraduate research students are comfortable with online courses, perhaps because they have had exposure to them at undergraduate and other postgraduate levels. I believe that free online resources, if promoted effectively, will be very well received.Q20. How would you rate your access to the internet outside the University, i.e. how easily can you connect to online resources off campus?Most postgraduate research students are demonstrating they have significant access to the internet outside of university campuses, and therefore would be able to access PORT resources from almost anywhere. Whilst it seems rather obvious, there are occasions where this is not widely available (although this is occurring less and less) and was worthwhile to ask.I can access almost all of the time80Average20I struggle to get online1Q21. Identifying technologies you have used previously, for academic or other useThe data highlights that most postgraduate research students are confident with basic skills like email, social media, video conferencing (e.g. Skype), and VLEs. It also points out that many postgraduate research students are very familiar with Academia.edu. It might be useful to create resources on referencing tools because the data suggests that not many postgraduate researchers have experience using Menderley and Zotero. We could create a short course on citing sources (i.e. OSCOLA) and the postgraduate research students could try Menderley or Zotero as part of an exercise. Email 98Facebook 80Dropbox/Google Drive/Other file sharing 78Skype 73Linkedin 65Academia.edu64Twitter 59Turnitin 48Blackboard 43Endnote38Moodle 36Instagram/Flickr/Other photo sharing 28RSS Feeds23Zotero22Adobe Connect16Menderley15Feedly/digg/Other RSS feed reader7Other online referencing tool6Q22. When using online content and resources, what kind of support do you feel you would benefit from?The most predominant area was website and online resources. The IALS Library already offers online guides, so our PORT resources need to expand on these and advertise them. Discussion forums, email, one-to-one and workshops were also suggested as being desirable.Website material (e.g. FAQs, manuals, support documents)71Email64Workshops52Online discussion forums47One-to-one41Telephone174 Further surveysFollowing the deployment of our OSCOLA and sources of Public International Law training modules we should ask the postgraduate research students for feedback on them and then improve them accordingly.If we wish to create content on some of the postgraduate research student’s suggestions, i.e. research methods and “writing your thesis”, we might need more information on which elements of these topics they struggle over.We should ask the students if they follow our page on Twitter, whether they regularly check the IALS website and if they’ve read the SAS blog pages – this will be where a significant amount of promotion for courses, events and support will be found.Appendix 1 – Institute and course dataThe table below shows the full number of respondents to the survey, broken down by institution and level of study.InstitutionPhDMPhilTotalOxford11112IALS7310KCL819Hull88Kent66Cambridge55Essex415SOAS55Birmingham44Unknown institution44Middlesex224Southampton314Manchester33Newcastle33Northumbria33Queen's Belfast33Reading33Surrey33Warwick33Aberystwyth22BSIS (Kent)22Leeds22Nottingham Trent22Plymouth22Queen Mary22Sussex22Swansea22UWE22Wolverhampton22Aberdeen11Australian National University 11Bedfordshire11City University11Dundee11East Anglia11Greenwich11Huddersfield11Leicester11Oxford Brookes11Portsmouth11Stirling11Strathclyde11Tilburg 11UEA1?111715132Appendix 2 – Do you use any other methods or materials to support your use of OSCOLA?Do you use any other methods or materials to support your use of OSCOLA? (please give details)A copy of OSCoLA on my desk!Bluebook and other OUP legal books.EndnoteendnoteEndnote, with a built in OSCOLA style downloadedEndnote.friends and the following: i google the forms of referencing each time to make sure i get them right.I have downloaded guides from other universities.I use online resources relating to Endnote and OSCOLA, which although proving helpful, don't address all of my queries.I use OSCOLA manual I found online Law Teacher reference generator but this is vry limited to cases and certain journalsnoNONoNoNoNoNonoNo. I just ask some friends of mine.NoneNoneNoneNone at the momentOnline resources where availableOnline version of the guidelines.Only the OSCOLA guides.Oscala HandbookOSCOLA guildlineOscola handbook from Oscola websiteOSCOLA handbook onlineOSCOLA publications on Oxford University WebsiteOSCOLA's own guidance.Reference book of citations provided by Oxford Taught its use at undergrad level. I'm now happy just referring to the handbook and international handbook.The handbook is the main resource.The OSCOLA 4th edition PDF available online, and (with some difficulty) Zotero Standalone's OSCOLA plugin. The OSCOLA and International OSCOLA guides are fairly straightforward on their own.the OSCOLA handbook The OSCOLA reference guide.Writngup using Latex and using OSCOLA referencing style. Using OSCOLA Latex style manualYes, the OSCOLA reference guides via the website: . Handbook for OSCOLAZoteroZotero OSCOLA formatZotero.Appendix 3 – Do you use any other methods or materials to support your public international law research?Do you use any other methods or materials to support your public international law research? (please give details)Concerning international courts and organizations, it is usually easier to find information online, on their own website.I have been trained by the library, so I know a bit about this. I have visited IALS to receive some help with foreign jurisprudence, but it has been a little difficult.IALS research guidelibrary staffN/ANONoNoNonononeNonePrimarily knowledge I picked up during my PIL module a few years ago e.g. the UNTS website is good for pretty much everythingProfessional experience prior to the PhD, the ICRC treaty and customary IHL database, OHCHR website, ECtHR HUDOC, domestic case law update alerts from Westlaw, and via RSS feeds and Twitter contacts, footnotes in secondary sources.This is mostly peripheral to my research.UN websites are good sources of finding the conventions, ratification status, reports and decisions on a particular topic.Appendix 4 – Do you use any other methods or materials to support your legal database search skills?Do you use any other methods or materials to support your legal database search skills? (please give details)google boolean searches, through the use of research other materials, the Universities library search engine. I developed my skills as a practitioner, so I learned through trial and error.I tend to avoid Westlaw and LexisNexis for international humanitarian law research, preferring to access the full text of judgments without a catalogue as intermediary. The searches from these databases tend to be scattered and sometimes underinclusive.I use Ecuadorian and Latin American legal databases.If I don't know, I search on the University's website or ask my friends.In my paticular area of of law, the paid sites usually run about 3 months behind BAILII and Mental Health Law Online; and provide less complete coverage. They are an utter waste of money as regards recent decisions, although their historical records are far more complete than the free sources.It would be really fantastic to have an excellent interactive online training course for each at different levels to do in my own time. I often do research in the evenings when children are asleep. It would be great to have an online/return email helpline to give feedback on tricky research issues relating to the Databases too.Mainly university library web-pages and information on internet by searching.N/ANoNoNONoNoNonoNoNo.noneNoneNone. I should probably attend a workshop on this topic, as it would be helpful to know which database is best for certain topics/material. e.g. which database has the best international journal coverage Online resources where availableSolo and the websites of international organizations (Westlaw International would be really useful - as it has more content than Westlaw UK)Appendix 5 – Do you use any other methods or materials to support your skills in this area?Do you use any other methods or materials to support your skills in this area? (please give details)Although not an 'official' source, I use Twitter a lot because the 'feed' of people I follow and institutions post developments in law and new publications, which often leads me to relevant sources.Google alerts and literature alerts in SU PrimoI follow many news sources relating to my research topic on social media to stay up to date on developments relating to my field.I keep up to date via my own research & buy using alerts in various databases. It would be great to have something more comprehensive in one place.Library alerts, Twitter useful for CFP, training opportunities & conferences.My supervisor supports me. N/ANetwork of people researching on similar areas.Never considered the inadequacy of my skills in this area...NONoNoNoNo. I always confuse about this area.NoneNoneOnline databasesRSS feeds, journal email alerts, Twitter.Signing up to website alerts, word of mouth, TwitterSome NGOs and Blogs can be very useful while discussing new judgements.Sometimes get help from my supervisor here.Subscribe to Gov.co.uk, the Law Commission and Ministry of Justice. I also get information for being a member of various legal societies. Subscriptions and membership of associations of scholars in my area of law which hold seminars, conferences etc.Wide ranging RSS feeds and email alerts.Appendix 6 – In an ideal world, what training would you like IALS to develop, to support you through your PhD in law?In an ideal world, what training would you like IALS to develop, to support you through your PhD in law?- written guide explaining the differences between secondary sources databases - written guide with lots of examples on how to implement Oscola - written guide on how to stay on top of your topic (know about new events / articles etc..)All of the above.Any of the many gaps revealed even in this short survey...! I find OSCALA and in fact most standard 'house styles' for citing publications extremely unintuitive and even contradictory/perverse. I can see myself wasting weeks on trying to put my final thesis into some kind of house style. It is like someone trying to explain why one cannot wear black and brown together - it is rather unfathomable.As a non-lawyer, I would particularly like a database organized thematically in which I could search for case law on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights both in the UK and internationally. I'd also like to be able to locate key articles and texts relating to Welfare Reform and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights within the past 10 years, which indicate their provenance (i.e. re: UK or other country) at the top. As much as possible to make sure I feel like I am on the right track! As someone with an LLB, I feel relatively comfortable with doctrinal research; but far less so with research methods from related disciplines, in particular the social sciences. Many of these methods can be applied to legal research; but, beyond that, some of this research can be relevant to my own and I must, obviously, be able to evaluate it. Quantative methods of analysing large depositories of text are developing very quickly at the moment ('data mining') and the possible implications of this for law are massive. Why not get ahead of the curve?Certainly something on Westlaw/ Lexis etc. i find it overly and unnecessarily complicated. Is there anything that would do the same but for European legislation also? Some support on OSCOLA would be useful, but I can continue to use Oxford guidance.Citation training and database search trainingCreating a bibliography, Finding resources and Training for legal database searches in a practical manner.Develop an forum less complicated than the British Library for accessing international PhD thesis work of others relevant to my field. Find a way to access more easily international case law and legislation for instance from Canada and the USA. Finding preparatory documents in relation to international conventions, bi and multi lateral treaties not on the UN treaty database and how to determine customary international law/ state practice.Help in locating extra-legal sources that overlap with law - my PhD straddles the boundary of law and political science, and it took me a long while to discover some of what turned out to be important political science materials. Advice on tracking down PhD theses would also be very helpful.Help with writing an effective literature review.How to be kept up to date in the latest developments (cases, journals etc). How to find the latest comparative developmentshow to collect research materials, how to do a vivaHow to use heinonline, search for EU case law and legislation how to write a paper-based thesisI have moved to France since starting my PhD so ANY online resources that can help to enhance my research skills are a very welcome thing. I am a Westlaw girl really, and only rarely use the other databases if I can't find what I am looking for. If the virtues of the other databases were made clear, or how to best use them to get what I need, that would be a really advantage. I use google alert to let me know when new things are happening, either academically or in the real world, but if there are more academically minded ways of achieving the same result, that would be fantastic. I also would appreciate, although I don't know if it is possible, some up-to-date training on data basing research. I received some pretty mediocre endnote training a million years ago when I started, and there are so many more tools available now. Knowing where to start would be good! I am not great with these things but have been told that one note is fantastic, I just have a clue where what to do with the thing. I think the University of Oxford already provides enough training. I wish to be trained how to find cases (old and new) and new articles relating to my topic. I would appreciate if training is offered on how to be current with recent updates in terms of journal articles, judicial cases and seminars in my area of research.I would like one to one support detailing what I'm currently researching and how to get the full potential from the university support resources to enhance the quality of my workIALS may provide some courses related to plagiarism softwares.(turnitin, write check etc )Ideally, it would be perhaps initiating a specific process at the beginning of the year (with study plans in mind) on how to go about the research for that year, and have a plan of attack in terms of training/sign ups required for further support in doing so. A review on methodology every year would be brilliant, twice a year would be fantastic.Identifying the most useful database for a given task and what journals they cover, also how to keep up to date with the right journals and court decisions.IN ADDITION TO THE THREE AREAS LISTED IN THE SURVEY, EMPHASIS SHOULD BE ON TRAINING TO ENHANCE RESEARCH, WRITING AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR PHD SCHOLARSInformation management - managing volume of dataInteractive training on referencing, databases and keeping up to date with the law would all be very useful. Specialist seminars would also be useful on certain key topics.International sources citation and use of connectors in databases Legal specific research training. How to keep track of developments in law and make best use of authorities and law specific databases. Legal Writing and Legal Speaking CourseMethodology!Models of good / successful practiceMore detailed written guidance to pick up as and when I use the library and to assist in accessing the library remotely.More training on how to find the relevant resources for my research and how to use them correctly. More training on how to keep up with new interesting materials Not to forget those studying legal history or choosing interdisciplinary routes.One on one sessions on how to research in specific areas of international lawOne on One training to search/identify latest legal updates be it in the form of latest statutory legislation or caselawone to one session if requestedOne-to-one tutorship on those areas that the student is not sure about.Online interactive training on legal writing and research.Online trainingon-line training for use of databases would be v usefulOnline training using ChatOSCOLA training for citing public international law as well as non-UK legislation and policies.Other on line citation and resource organisation tools. referencing, methodology, everything a phd student would need. it seems most training is focused on funding and job finding, when in fact we need so much more to be able to get to that stage of job hunting.Session on keeping up to date with the lawShort introduction to legal databases; quantitative and qualitative methods onlineSocio-legal methodologysociolegal training (e.g. qualitative and quantitative methods relevant to the study of law). Currently this training is offered through my university, but with a strong focus on health sciences/science. It would be invaluable to have a more legally-oriented training program in these methods.Some basic online resource gathering training.The current training is reasonableThe legal databases only scratch the surface of what goes on in the courts - I'd like some advice on how to access further resources, i.e. decisions of Masters in the High Court, case documents, etc.training in keeping up to date with changes in the law and in using the legal databases in the most efficient way.Training on bibliographic/citation software, including automated approaches to OSCOLA and other Law referencing systems, eg Bluebook; a quick reference toolkit for OSCOLA, and one-to-one advice on using LexisNexis or Westlaw for specific international law subfields.Training on EndNoteTraining on how to search for relevant research materials; presentation skills; new resourcestraining on legal research methods.Training on researching legal history (for those of us working on historical subjects rather than contemporary law/legislation). It's nice to know the contemporary stuff, but it would also be good to have a better sense of determining the most appropriate historical materials for various areas of the law (e.g., determining law applicable at a certain point in time and associated cases).Useful links to sources which I can use in the most appropriate way for my research - eg links to services which send email updates so I can choose those I think will be most useful.Using the right database to quickly and efficiently find the most relevant articles. Keeping up to date with key journals and authors perhaps?While OSCOLA is great for referencing, further articulation or guidance of citing international law sources e.g. jurisprudence from non-UN bodies, such as ICSID would be great! Furthermore, it would be also really good to have greater access to some materials e.g. Oxford Scholarship or Transnational Dispute Management journals, which I cannot access under current subscriptions from my current institution but have been able to at different institutions previously. It would also be great for the organisation of conferences, so I can develop publications in law to help build my CV. If there was potential funding (as I am self-funded) for conferences, that would also be a bonus. The notification for conferences or training events should be more in advance - I am subscribed to the IALS newsletters and would love to attend some of the events in London, as they are relevant to my area of study, but often I receive the newsletter 3-4 days ahead of the event, and I am unable to attend due to prior commitments. Workshop on OSCOLA, On-line assistance with referencing, searching for sourcesWriting skills - to be a better writer.Writing techniques (narrative), use of international databases and digital libraries, keeping up to date with relevant research. ................
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