This site has been designed to help you with researching for your law dissertation. The focus is on how to identify and search for legal, academic and other good quality literature. The guide includes links to other resources that will further help you.
Before you begin your research, it is worth doing a bit of planning up front. Consider your research question and any objectives you have and the different search words (keywords) that relate to this. You can map these out in a way that helps you to carry out your searches and come up with different search strategies. Here is an example search table:
| Radicalisation | Higher Education | Free speech |
|---|---|---|
| Terrorism | HE | Freedom of expression |
| Terrorist | Education | Freedoms |
| Prevent Duty | Universities | Rights |
| Prevention of Terrorism | University | Human Rights Act |
From here you can develop meaningful search strategies e.g. Prevent Duty and Higher Education / Terrorism and Universities and Free speech
Use Google to search for useful reports and documents but be selective. You can employ smart searching techniques to help make the most of this search engine, such as:
You can use more than one filter at a time e.g. right to protest filetype pdf site:.gov.uk
Have a look at this video for more help with Google smart searching.
Your dissertation will need to include the relevant legislation for your research topic. We have three main databases, which you should already be familiar with:
There is some overlap with Westlaw and Lexis but they will contain some variations (for example, they will have different journals on them).
Make sure you are clear on how to navigate these properly and if you need any help, have a look at these videos.
Depending on your topic, it may be appropriate to explore the databases more widely. For example, Proquest, Sage Journals, Taylor & Francis Online and Wiley Online, contain journals on a range of topics. Use these if your topic includes a wider social aspect.
This link opens in a new windowA complete collection of digital textbooks relating to a range of Law and Criminology subjects. Browse the titles and chapters from the Subject menu or search by topic/keyword.
This link opens in a new windowLexis Library is an international database of case law and legislation. It also includes some full-text law journals, newspaper articles from major UK newspapers and a range of other legal publications.
This link opens in a new windowWestlaw is an international database of legal material including case law and legislation. Use the database to access legal journals as well as the full text of many other law publications.
You will need to register and create your own personal username and password with OnePass, an authentication system which allows you to log in to multiple Thomson Reuters resources subscribed by the university.
This link opens in a new windowComplete databases across all major subject areas, including Business, Health and Medical, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, and Humanities.
This link opens in a new windowAccess to academic journals for a range of disciplines, including Business, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science, Technology and Medicine.
This link opens in a new windowOnline access to all journals from Taylor & Francis and Routledge. The collection includes full text titles in a wide range of science and social science subject areas.
This link opens in a new windowA broad, multidisciplinary, full-text academic database of journals, books and reference works.
Use NELSON to carry out a broad search across the resources, particularly for books and journals. Sign-in with your University login to access the full-text and pin any items for later. Pinning is a great feature on NELSON because it means you can organise your reading for later. You can even label your pinned favourites, which will help with the writing up stage of your dissertation.
You will need to use good quality information to support your work. The following tutorial will help you to recognise different types of academic sources and their importance for research.
To work through the tutorial, use the arrows at the bottom right of the screen to progress through the tutorial.
If you need anything we do not have in the library collections at the University of Northampton. please make use of Interlibrary Loans and the SCONUL Access scheme.
