A Student Development Programme (SDP) on Research Writing was organised on by the Alliance Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ACADR), School of Law, Alliance University, Bengaluru. This development programme was the first of its kind, organised only for law students with the objective of sharpening their research skills.

The SDP was inaugurated with a welcome address given by Dr. Kiran Dennis Gardner, Dean, Alliance School of Law who gave a warm welcome to all the speakers, participants, and faculty members. The first speaker, Dr. V. Shyam Kishore, Professor and Associate Dean, Alliance School of Law gave insights on "Fundamentals of Research and Steps in the Research Process" to the participants. The session enlightened the participants on the journey from information available as raw data to knowledge, which is the processed data, constitutes research. He spoke about how research skills can enable the law to bring about social change. The participants were provided with information about the different types of research methods as well as the purpose of research, as it is only through research that the law can evolve to ultimately achieve the objective of a good social life.

In the second session, Dr. Dunia Prince Zongwe, Associate Professor, Alliance School of Law spoke about the complexities of "Academic Writings: Style of Expression." He detailed the participants about the structure, content, style, and grammar used in academic writing. He provided information regarding the elements of stylish writing in addition to the types of legal writing. At last, along with providing certain guidelines for research writing, he also suggested books like Legal Writing in Plain English by Bryan A. Garner and Law Dissertations by Laura Lammasniemi.

The third session was conducted by Dr. Prakash I.N., Librarian, Alliance University who has many years of experience regarding the workings of libraries. He guided participants on the "Use of Library, Archival Sources of Data, and Online Research Databases." Dr. Prakash I.N. provided the participant with insights about the use of libraries, arrival sources of data, online research databases, etc. The important and informative sources of e-books, access to open e-resources, open textbook library and use of copyright was included by him. And he brought to knowledge of students about digital repositories such as DOAJ, Shodh Ganga, and EBSCO which includes two lakh thesis and lastly suggested students to enrol for government sources like SWAYAM.

The fourth session was conducted by Dr. Upankar Chutia, Assistant Professor, Alliance School of Law on "Publication Ethics, Referencing, and Similarity Tools". He began the session with an introduction to research ethics. The most important thing for the author is to pay attention to plagiarism. He mentioned that plagiarism is the use of another's original

words or expressions as though they were your own. Authors should give attribution if they are using someone else’s work; otherwise, tools like Turnitin, Urkund, etc. will mark that content, and the same will be considered plagiarised by publishers. He also demonstrated how tools like Turnitin and Urkund work. He further discussed some tricks to identify predatory journals by demonstrating them through different online databases. All together the sessions were very insightful, informative, and interactive.

The vote of thanks was delivered by Prof. Chakravarthy Naik, Assistant Professor, Alliance School of Law closing remarks from Dr. V. Shyam Kishore. The SDP was attended by many students from the Alliance School of Law physically and many students from 61 different universities including 22 national law universities virtually. The enthusiastic participation of law students across the country made the event a success.