Instructions for writing Master and Bachelor Theses

• General information
  
• Registration
  
• Registration on the course code
  
• Execution
  • Project plan
  • Half-time, intermediate report
• Report layout
• Presentation of the thesis
• Announcement of presentation
• Report number
• Publishing the thesis on Electronic Press
• Printing the thesis
• The reflection document
• Registration of credits
• Contact

General information

When you have a topic for your thesis contact an examiner within the field or one of the directors of studies to discuss the topic.

Before starting your thesis work, read this page and make sure you have all necessary information. For example, if you attend the Master's program, you must have taken at least 60 hp of advanced courses, of which at least 30 hp needs to be within the main field of studies. You can contact the administrator at ISY at exjobb@isy.liu.se if you have any questions about this.

Please notice that there are different rules for ERASMUS-students for writing a Thesis/project with the course code TGZ***. Please contact your examiner for further information.

Registration

Before you register your thesis, you have to fill in the form and read the details at

• Diploma work and thesis at LiUnet

When the study counsellor has checked the details, the examiner is notified. Further on, you have to fill in the ISY-specific form "Thesis at ISY". A transcript from Ladok (can be collected from the Student expedition in Zenit), to your examiner. The examiner will check your eligibility and enroll you in the ISY thesis system.

Execution

You should have regular contact with your examiner or supervisor, for example at least once a month, but preferrably more often. Establish a routine early in the project.

Project plan

A project plan should be completed within the first four of weeks and handed in to the examiner, and a half-time check has to be performed. The report should contain:

• preliminary title
• preliminary problem statement relating to suggested literature
• preliminary description of method and scientific approach
• planned literature supporting the thesis
• timeplan for the execution as well as planned dates for intermediate (half-time) control and presentation
• expected preliminary results that can be demonstrated at the half-time check
• a risk analysis for different aspects of the thesis, for example, data sets for evaluation, shortcomings in the method, reasons for delays, missing/delayed hardware/software

The report should be delivered to the examinator to approve.

Halftime check

• About halfway through the degree project, you must meet the examiner for a mid-term check. There you report how the work continues in line with the planning report.

Report layout

Currently, there are templates available in latex and libreoffice:

• LaTeX
• LibreOffice
• Word

Also consider the checklist for the thesis at:

• Checklist for degree project at undergraduate level
• Checklist for degree project at Masters's level

"Double thesis" - Degree projects in collaboration with another student

In cases in which two students carry out a degree project together, the contribution of each student is to be specified. The extent of the work is to correspond to the extent of two individual projects.

Typically, a chapter in the introduction could be used to specify your individual contributions. It could also be part of the appendix where you can in more detail elaborate on this.

The opponent has to register at the examiner at least two weeks before the presentation. To register the opponent has to leave an attested transcript from Ladok to the examiner. The examiner will register the opponent in the Master Thesis system. To qualify as an opponent the student must have attended one presentation of theses before the opposition and must also have completed relevant courses within the field. Please tell the opponent to read the Instructions for the opponent.

The opponent must give the examiner a written account of the opposition at least one week before the presentation.

The opponent also needs to be registered at his/hers Master Thesis course code (TQxx30 for Master's Programme students).

Presentation of the Thesis

Before you present your own thesis you have to attend one other presentation. To get the attendance registered in Ladok you have to be registered on the course TQxx30 if you have started your own thesis work, or on the course code TEXMAS if you have not yet started your own thesis work.

If you have attended a presentation at ISY, but it has not been registered in Ladok within two weeks; send an e-mail with your name, ID-number, name of the presenting student and the presentation date to exjobb@isy.liu.se.

The presentation of a Thesis must take place during a time that you and your examiner have agreed on, during the Semester dates. Book time and place for the presentation in cooperation with the examiner.

A substantially complete thesis report should be available to the examiner and supervisor at least two weeks before the presentation.

Please note that according to ISY's rules, the presentation can not be made sooner than two weeks after the examiner's approval of the report. This time period needs to be long, partly to ensure that the opponents have time to read the final report and have time to give account for his/hers opposition to the examiner, and so that the announcement of the presentation will be done in time so that those who are interested in participating can schedule this.

The presentation takes about 20-30 minutes and after that the opponent reviews the solutions of the thesis. Afterwards there is time for questions from the audience.

Announcement of Presentation of Master Thesis

The presentation can not be done until you have announced the presentation and received a report number. The thesis is announced on ISY's web page for Master's Thesis anouncements and Thesis at ISY at LiUnet and is handled by the Master's Thesis administrator at ISY's Student Office. Send an e-mail to exjobb@isy.liu.se with your name, ID-number, study programme, the title of the Master's Thesis work, the name of the division at ISY where the thesis work has been carried out, and details about when and where your thesis will be presented and in which language the presentation will be held in. Do this at least a week in advanced, so that other students who are interested in participating can schedule this.

If the presentation will take place in the first week on the Autumn semester you have to do the announcement in June, to ensure that you will get your report number.

When you announce the presentation of the Master Thesis you will get a report number sent to your student e-mail .

Master Thesis report number

When you announce the presentation of the Master Thesis you will get a report number sent to your student e-mail.

Report-number/ISRN-number looks like this:

• LiTH-ISY-EX--yy/xxxx--SE
  

(yy = the year you present the thesis, xxxx = number).
Make sure that the number is right in the report file and on Electronic Press.

Printing the Thesis

Your examiner decides whether your thesis is going to be printed or not. The following instructions apply if the thesis is going to be printed:
When you have presented your thesis you have to send the file (PDF) to exjobb@isy.liu.se for printing. The report is printed in S5 format (165 x 240 sqmm), which is 81% of an A4. Consider this layout format when writing, but send it as 100% of A4. The resolution should be 600 dpi.

Technical questions about printing can be answered by the printers on phone (013) 28 10 53 or 28 10 55, e-mail liutryck@liu.se.

When one copy of your Thesis is printed you will have to approve it before the rest is printed. The Printing office will contact you by e-mail when it is ready. It usually takes a week to hear from them.

When all the copies are printed you can collect them at ISY:s Student office. Usually ten copies of the report are printed, of which you receive six. One is archived at ISY and the Supervisor and the Examiner receives one copy each. You are responsible for delivering one copy to your Company Supervisor and one to your opponent.

Publishing the Thesis on Electronic Press

After the report has been finalized, it must also be submitted to the Thesis database at Electronic Press. Notice that you are responsible for uploading your own thesis report to the database. You have to mail the Agreement for Electronic Publishing (see the EP web page) on to the ISY:s Students' Office:

ISY's studerandeexpedition
Linköpings universitet
SE-581 83 Linköping
Sweden

You can also hand in the electronic publishing agreement to the ISY Students' Office or put it in the mail box outside the office.

The reflection document

The final part of the thesis work is the writing of a reflection document describing the thesis work and the results. Information about the reflection document can be found in the Study Guide. It should be sent to the examiner as a PDF file within 10 days after the presentation.

If you register for the thesis work AFTER 16 January 2023, the following applies:
Some time after registration, an automatic e-mail from ReflEx (liu.se) is sent with questions about who your examiner is and which degree specialization you are planning for.
You will then receive another email with a link to a form where you write your reflection document. The reflection document is written when the thesis work is almost finished.

Registration of credits

You will get your credits registered for your thesis once you have done all the parts described. The date of the credits will be the date you finish the last part.

Requirements to get the grade on your Thesis:

• you have attended one other presentation.
• you have opposed on another Thesis.
• you have sent the Reflection document to your examiner.
• you are registered at the course code.
• your examiner is available to sign your grade after you have done all the parts described above.

Please consider that you need extra time after your presentation because there are still things to do (mentioned above), if you are planning to leave Sweden soon after.
It takes at least one week to register the credits in Ladok after you have finished all the parts.

Contact

If you have any questions please contact the thesis administrator at ISY's Student Office, for example via email to exjobb@isy.liu.se, or visit ISY´s Student Office.