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How to cite a report in OSCOLA

Short answer

How do you cite a report in OSCOLA?

You need issuing organisation, year, report title, report number (if any), publisher, url. The reference list entry looks like this:

Office for Students, Student Outcomes and Teaching Excellence (Office for Students 2025)

The matching in-text citation is n 1 (footnote).

Step by step

Building the reference

Do it automatically

  1. Gather the details

    You need: Issuing organisation, Year, Report title, Report number (if any), Publisher, URL. Take them from the source itself, not from a database record, which is often incomplete.

  2. Order the elements

    OSCOLA is a footnote style, so the full citation appears in a note and again, reordered, in the bibliography. Follow the pattern in the example below exactly, including its punctuation.

  3. Add the in-text citation

    Every reference needs a matching in-text citation. In OSCOLA that is n 1 (footnote). Missing or mismatched in-text citations are penalised more often than formatting slips.

  4. Check against your own guide

    Institutional variants exist, particularly in Harvard. Where your department's published guide differs from any generator, the department's guide wins.

What you need

Details to collect

  • Issuing organisation
  • Year
  • Report title
  • Report number (if any)
  • Publisher
  • URL

Watch out

Mistakes this pairing invites

  • Leaving the report number out when the organisation assigns one.
  • Citing a press release about a report rather than the report itself.
  • Using a personal author when the organisation is the corporate author.
  • No full stops in abbreviations — 'ibid' not 'ibid.'
  • Case names are italicised; the citation that follows is not.

Compare

The same report in all eight styles

  • Harvard

    Students, O. F. (2025) Student outcomes and teaching excellence. Office for Students.

  • APA 7

    Students, O. F. (2025). Student outcomes and teaching excellence. Office for Students. https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/

  • MLA 9

    Students, Office for. Student Outcomes and Teaching Excellence. Office for Students, 2025.

  • Chicago 17

    Students, Office for. Student Outcomes and Teaching Excellence. Office for Students, 2025.

  • Vancouver

    Students OF. Student outcomes and teaching excellence. Office for Students; 2025.

  • OSCOLA

    This page

    Office for Students, Student Outcomes and Teaching Excellence (Office for Students 2025)

  • IEEE

    O. F. Students, Student Outcomes and Teaching Excellence, Office for Students, 2025.

  • AMA 11

    Students OF. Student outcomes and teaching excellence. Office for Students; 2025.

Frequently asked questions

How do you cite a report in OSCOLA?
Office for Students, Student Outcomes and Teaching Excellence (Office for Students 2025) — that is the reference list entry. The matching in-text citation is n 1 (footnote). You need issuing organisation, year, report title, report number (if any), publisher, url.
What details do I need to cite a report?
Issuing organisation, Year, Report title, Report number (if any), Publisher, URL. If a detail is genuinely unavailable, most styles have a defined substitute — for example 'n.d.' or 'no date' where no publication year exists — rather than simply omitting the element.
What is the in-text citation for a report in OSCOLA?
n 1 (footnote). The number refers to a footnote at the bottom of the page carrying the full citation on first use and a short form thereafter.