Institute for Policing Studies subject guide
Welcome video
Welcome to your subject guide for The Institute for Policing Studies. My name is Davina Omar and I am your subject librarian. I am here to support you throughout your course and teach you the skills you need to effectively find relevant information for your studies. You can contact me via any of the below methods:
- Email: Davina.Omar@uwl.ac.uk
- Phone: 0208 231 2252
- MS Teams: Search for Davina Omar
Specialist sources
In addition to using LibSearch, there are specialist sources you can use to find additional information specific to your subject. Below are the ones I would recommend to you for your studies (please note, you will need to log in with your student username and password for some of the links below):
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Police Professional
Police Professional is the UK’s online resource and weekly printed publication for police and law enforcement professionals.
New users need to register to create an individual account with a UWL email address. On the home page, click on LOGIN. Register yourself on the REGISTER section. Then you will receive an email containing a validation link (registration has to be done once only). Then return to LOGIN and enter the email address and password. Passwords must contain a minimum of eight characters (including at least one upper and lower case, digit and a special character). After signing in, you will now have full access to all areas of the website.
- Visit the Police Professional website
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SAGE Journals
SAGE Journals provides access to over 2,000 peer-reviewed journals covering a wide range of subjects in the health, biomedical and social sciences including business, criminology, education, politics and social work.
- Find out more about SAGE via the UWL Library Services login
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Academic Search Elite
Academic Search Elite offers information in a broad range of areas including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts and literature, medical sciences, ethnic studies and many more.
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Lexis+
Full text legal information, in the form of separate ‘sources’ you can search or browse. The sources are grouped as cases, legislation, commentary (such as Halsbury's Laws of England), forms and precedents and journals. There is a cases citator (index of citations) service called CaseSearch, indicating the status of a case and its judicial history and a Legal Journals Index ‘PLUS’, covering 500 UK and international journals. You can search across all or individual sources, as well as browse (select from a list of contents).
- Find out more via the Lexis+ login page
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Westlaw UK
Westlaw UK provides full text legal information, grouped as cases, legislation, commentary, the EU and journals. In addition to full text sources, there is the Legal Journals Index, which indexes and abstracts over 800 UK and international journals.
As well as searching, you can browse (select from a list of contents) and search individual publications. Key contents include: full text of 97 law report series, including the Law Reports & Weekly Law Reports; amended legislation, with statutes and statutory instruments in full text; full text of 15 commentaries including Archbold and the White Book, and 116 full text journals.
- Find out more via the Westlaw Edge UK website
Referencing
When writing assignments, you need to acknowledge your use of another author's ideas so that you:
- Give the original author credit
- Support your arguments
- Enable the reader to find your sources
- Prove to your lecturer that you have read around the subject
- Avoid accusations of plagiarism
Accurate referencing will help you avoid accusations of plagiarism and possible loss of marks.
Your referencing style for your assignments is Harvard Cite Them Right.
- For more information, visit our completing your assignments page
Books and key shelfmarks
We have a wide range of material to support you both within the Paul Hamlyn Library and via the Digital Library.
Search LibSearch to discover books and ebooks on your topics. For some titles we will have them in both print and ebook formats.
Paul Hamlyn Library
The majority of the material for Policing can be found on the 3rd floor of the Paul Hamlyn Library under the shelfmarks of 344, 363 and 364. The books can be borrowed for one week but will automatically renew each week for the length of your course unless someone else requests them.
Ebooks
There is a wide range of ebooks available for you to read via LibSearch and your reading lists. Follow the link within LibSearch or your reading list to access the ebook via the online ebook reader.
Searching for information
Basic search strategies (part 1)
Basic search strategies (part 2)
Evaluating your search results
- For more information, please visit the completing your assignments page
Practice exercises
Below are some exercises to help you to get familiar in searching for information using the Library sources:
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LibSearch
LibSearch is available from the Library homepage and allows you to search for information on your keywords that has been published in journals, books, reports, etc. It is important to be confident in using the "All filters" section to enable you to narrow down the results to the most useful ones to read.
Use the below steps to search LibSearch and answer the questions below:
- Search for: "stop and search England"
- Use the filters menu to narrow down to:
- date range last 12 months
- academic journals
Questions:
- Who wrote the article 'Can police training reduce ethnic/racial disparities in stop and search'?
- What year was it published?
- What journal was it published in?
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Ebooks
Ebooks are accessible via LibSearch.
The best way to find them is to:
- Search for keywords that describe your topic, for example: "stop and search"
- Within the "All Filters" option, narrow down to:
- Ebook
- Full Text Online
- Limit your search by date (last 12 months, last three years) to find only the most recently published books
When you have found a book to read, you have the option to read it online. Be sure to sign out of the book once you have finished looking at it.
Questions:
- Find the e-book "Stop and search and police legitimacy"
- How many pages can you copy of the book? (Hint: this information is on the page before you "read online")
- Does this book mention the Stephen Lawrence case? (Hint: use the "search within book" search box)
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Journals
Journals are incredibly rich in content and you will find them useful for your course throughout your studies. The Library subscribes to thousands, so it is important to be able to find the relevant ones for you. If you don't have a particular title you want to find, you can search via keyword in LibSearch. If you are looking for a specific one, then you can use the e-journals search on the library home page.
Use the below steps for journals and answer the questions below:
- Enter into LibSearch the title of the journal you are looking for, for example, "British Journal of Criminology"
- Look at the date range that is available for the journal
Questions:
- What is the oldest year that is available for "British Journal of Criminology"?
- Open the journal and browse to 2021. How many issues were published that year?
News and events
- Keep up to date with legal current awareness via Lexis+.
- Police Professional is the UK’s online resource and weekly printed publication for police and law enforcement professionals.
- Guardian Criminal Justice - updated content, links from lawyers' blogs, active comments section. Sign up for email updates (scroll down to bottom of page).
- Inner Temple Library Current Awareness - Current Awareness is a blog from the Inner Temple Library providing up-to-date information on new case law, changes in legislation and legal news from England and Wales. RSS is available.
- Law in Action (BBC Radio 4) - Long-running radio programme presented by Joshua Rozenberg, broadcast 12 times per year, available as a podcast.
- Unreliable evidence (BBC) - a series exploring and analysing the legal issues of the day.
