Writing guidelines

General information

You are approaching the end of your studies. Therefore, you should be able to tell what topics and thematic areas are interesting to you and motivate you. Starting from there, you should inform yourself concerning the Chairs research areas and publications on the website.

Afterwards, you should visit the information meeting which takes place at the end and in the beginning of each semester. Within one week (the exact deadline is announced in the information meeting) after that you have to apply with the help of a scientific research exposé.

This exposé is the only and decisive criterion for the decision of who will be able to write his/her thesis with us. The exposé is composed of a maximum of two pages, written in English and should contain the following key points:

  • Working title
  • Research area
  • Research question
  • Short overview of state of literature
  • Methodology
  • Preliminary list of contents (in appendix)
  • List of the literature used in the exposé (in appendix)
  • Your contact details (especially your name, matriculation number, e-mail addresse, and study program)

After having received a notification of acceptance from the Chair, please register in the announced StudOn group and take a look at the seminar dates. Theses are officially registered at the “Prüfungsamt” collectively on a fixed date (normally 1 to 1.5 months after the acceptance notification). Concerning processing time the “Prüfungsordnung” of the respective study programs apply. You have to register your thesis independently on MeinCampus.

Mendeley is the recommended literature management tool of the chair. In general, we recommend to have a look at the courses offered by the university library, in particular those on the topic of database research. All enquiries must comply with data protection standards. The E-Learning module “Introduction to Scientific Work” includes more detailed information and assistance.

As English is the primary academic language, especially in the area of Technology Management, all theses must be written in English. Exceptions are only applicable if the thesis is written in collaboration with a German company. You will see, this is not as difficult as you may think, as almost all literature which is relevant for you will be in English anyways.

The thesis may not exceed 10.000 words. We generally recommend about 5.000 – 7.000 words for bachelor thesis and 9.000 – 10.000 words for master thesis. However, the thesis may contain an appendix with additional material beyond these word limitations.

The chair uses APA as a citation standard for theses. It is important to note that all quotations should always contain the page number from which the quote was lifted.

Please note that a short abstract (max. 1/3 page) has to be added at the beginning of your thesis.

There are no further formal requirements for which font should be used, spacing, etc. You only need to cover the necessary information (type of work, your name and address, Matrikelnummer) and the plagiarism statement (see “Eidesstattliche Erklärung”, Plagiarism rules below) at the end of your thesis.

We generally recommend that theses are submitted as printed copies in soft binding because it is cheaper and less heavy to carry. If not differently stated in your “Prüfungsordnung”, you have to submit one printed and one digital version of your thesis to the Chair.

Plagiarism rules

Plagiarism is inexcusable. This is true, even in the cases of willful misconduct, negligence or ignorance.

This includes, in particular:

  • Verbatim quote without giving sources or page numbers.
  • Plagiarism of ideas.
  • Plagiarism of words or passages.

Books or article citations that you have not personally read, but which are used just to “inflate” your bibliography.

At the end of each and every work the following paragraph must be included and signed:

 Eidesstattliche Erklärung

Hiermit erkläre ich, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit ‚TITEL DER ARBEIT‘ selbständig und ohne fremde Hilfe verfasst und keine anderen als die in der Arbeit angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel verwendet habe. Die Arbeit hat in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form noch keinem anderen Prüfungsamt vorgelegen.

 _____________________                                          _________________

          Datum                                                                  Unterschrift