Working on the thesis is your chance to exercise leading a project (your thesis), to conduct research, and to manage the writing process. Your supervisors are here to provide useful consultations to guide that process but it is you who leads it. Here is what you can do to effectively manage your thesis. 

1. Managing the research and writing process

• Review the guidelines for writing a Master Thesis at WU  
   

• Starting up / first kick-off meeting (after the start date): Develop an outline (that may build on your short proposal or initial ideas) for the first kick-off meeting (that you should set up with your supervisor directly, see details below). This outline could include (among others): 

• Working title 

• Motivation of research problem and research question(s) 

• Summary of background literature and state-of-the-art solutions 

• Proposed research method 

• Outline of the thesis 

• Preliminary literature list 

• Work plan including milestones 
   

• During the thesis period: Bookable appointment slots are available for consultation sessions or for feedback on written updates. See details below. If you have a ‘cohort’ or more persons with a similar topic, you are encouraged to meet together with your supervisor. 
   

• Wrapping up (before thesis submission):Prepare a presentation of 20 minutes and agree with the supervisor on an appointment where the presentation is delivered and discussed. The student will receive final feedback and an opportunity to make any last edits before the thesis submission. The student should initiate this at least 6 weeks before the submission for scheduling a date at least 2 weeks before the written submission. 

2. Managing consultation/feedback sessionswith your supervisor

• Be proactive: Set up regular consultation or feedback sessions with your supervisor. 
   

• Set up a kick-off meeting: Please coordinate with your (co-)supervisor for the first kick-off meeting to be set up soon after the starting date of your thesis. 
   

• Set-up consultation/feedback sessions: After the kickoff meeting, proactively set up consultation meetings (based on your needs) during bookable office hours of 30 minutes each. The meetings must be booked at least 5 working days in advance on the link provided and can be online or in person (please specify in the meeting request). NOTE: please also book a slot if you need written feedback but do not wish to meet in person. NOTE: Please coordinate with any other master thesis students you are working with (on related topics – check with your co-/supervisor) and book a meeting together (30 minutes + 30 minutes). 
   

• Manage the consultation/supervision meetings effectively:  
   

• Please provide a short agenda of the topics you want to discuss directly in the ‘Notes’ section of the booking page, which will be added to the calendar invite. In addition, please send your supervisor meeting minutes after each consultation via email, preferably on the same day.  

• If you want feedback on the draft text, mention feedback on the draft text and any additional details in the ’Notes’ section of the meeting booking page and reply to the calendar invite with an attachment of the draft text.  
   

• Cancellation policy: Meetings booked without an agenda will be canceled 5 working days before the appointment. Similarly, sessions booked for feedback on draft text but without attachments will be canceled 5 working days before the appointment. Please contact your (co-)supervisor as soon as possible if you cannot attend a meeting because of a medical reason or other justified emergency. 
   

• Effectively manage your time to finish your thesis: The consultation office hours will be available for 6 months from the start date of your thesis. If you need more time to write your thesis, please discuss the reasons with the supervisor(s) and ask for their availability and possibility for additional consultations.  

1. Submission format 

• The thesis is a stand-alone research document. The main body of the thesis needs to be written in a structured way as a research article, as described below. Additional information not necessary for the main body can be provided in appendices. As a guideline, the main body of text should be 13,000-15,000 words. This word count excludes the cover page, table of contents, front matter, figures or tables, captions, footnotes, references, appendices, or code. The total length of the thesis (including everything except extra files for code) should ideally be about 60-80 pages. Please discuss with your (co-) supervisor if modifications are required. 
   

• You may submit the thesis in Word or Latex (please confirm with your supervisor if there is a preference). The templates for IDEaS are available on our website.  Please include the following in your thesis (or discuss with your supervisor if changes are needed).  

• Front matter 

• Declaration of authorship  

• Title page (refer to the templates provided on our website) 

• List of figures 

• List of tables 

• List of abbreviations and nomenclature 

• Abstract (150-200 words) 

• Main text (general guidelines to help you, please discuss modifications) 

• Introduction. This should be organized to address the following and give a preview of the thesis: an overview of the problem (the big picture, why this topic is important); what we already know (a little preview of the literature) and don’t know (research gap and research question); how you will fill the gap (what you will do); the contributions of this thesis to the field (what you learn) and why that matters (outlook)  

• Background and motivation. Your research question will often be linked to one aspect of a bigger problem (e.g. on a specific country or a specific set of companies or on a particular case). Here you can describe that in more detail. This part may be combined with the introduction. 

• Literature review. The points mentioned in the introduction related to what we already know and what the research gap is should directly emerge out of this literature review. You should also ground your work in the relevant academic theory. 

• Methods. Explain your methods or tools in a way that your study can be replicated by a non-specialist reading your thesis. For details on aspects that you personally did not develop but still need explanation (e.g. a model, or software) or aspects that need too much additional information (e.g. code, interview questionnaires, etc.), please add them to the appendix. The methods are not about the day-to-day planning of your thesis, but about steps conducted during the thesis to address the research question and find results. 

• Results. Describe what you found by applying your methods. Try using graphs and tables where applicable. Keep the results to the key findings and for less important results use the appendix. 

• Discussion. Critically assess what you found by applying your methods. How do your results link to the research question identified? What are the implications for research? What are the implications for practice? How do they compare to the findings of other similar or relevant studies? 

• Conclusions and outlook. Summarize your results, mention all of the limitations of your work, and talk about the generalizability of your research. Possibly, connect your findings to ongoing debate in society, policy, or business domains. 

• Back matter 

• References (APA style) 

• Appendices (e.g., additional details on methods including interviews or models or software, additional details on any equations used, explanation of code and availability) 

• Important notes:  

• Code availability: all code and accompanying data for reproducing the results and figures needs to be included and submitted. The preferred method is to use a central repository like GitHub to host the code and data under a relevant WU or IDEaS account. Please consult with your supervisor on the best method to store code and data depending on your case. Please document your code with a small README file explaining how to run the code, e.g., by providing a pseudo code, as well as system requirements. 

• Use of AI: AI/LLM use is permitted for language editing (e.g. with Grammarly) and if relevant as a methodological approach (when fully documented). But AI use is not permitted for generating text to write your thesis. Please see guidelines from WU and on plagiarism in general and check with your supervisor if you have questions. Please also cite the use of AI where relevant. 

• The quality of references in your literature review: 

• For academic peer-reviewed journals as references (or for their associated data), please use literature that has been published in a Q1 journal listed in the Scimago Journal & Country Rank in your relevant topic areas (check with your supervisor for the topics and for any exceptions or alternative resources). At least 70% of your references in the literature review section should be from academic peer-reviewed journals, please check with your supervisor for exceptions and whether they are necessary. 

• For non-academic references (or for their associated data), please consult with your supervisor for the quality of the resource.  

2. Submission steps

• After the wrap-up meeting and presentation (corresponding to the last feedback session), you may submit the thesis:  

• via Plagiarism Check on the Learn@WU system 

• via mail to the (co-) supervisors in a single zip file, including Word or LaTeX source files, including a note in the email on your estimated word count 

• if code was developed during the thesis, please make it available along with a small README file explaining how to run the code as well as system requirements. 

• The supervisor will usually grade the thesis within 15 working days of receiving the email and enter the grade in the LPIS system.  

The evaluation and grading of the thesis take various criteria into account, relating both to the thesis as a product and the process of establishing its content.  
 

1. Reminders on the workload and expected outcomes

• The thesis counts for 20 ECTS. You are expected to work on your thesis for around 500 hours. 

• In addition, per the info-session, you should be able to: 

• formulate the scientific question and justify the relevance in the context of scientific discourse 

• critically evaluate relevant data, theories and methods, and to select, justify, and apply the appropriate analytical framework, methods and/or tools for a specific topic. 

• explain the relevance of your project, interpret the results obtained and provide a critical discussion of your analyses. 

• write a master’s thesis that fulfils the general academic standards. 

• complete a master’s thesis independently within a pre-defined time frame. 

2. Grading criteria 

Your grade will depend on various criteria, including, but not limited to: 

• Correctness of spelling and grammar and clarity of writing 

• Aesthetic appeal of document and figures 

• Academic integrity and standards of scientific writing 

• Appropriateness of thesis structure 

• Coverage of relevant literature 

• Appropriateness of research question and method 

• Appropriate level of detail for replication of work 

• Diligence of own research work 

• Significance of research results and contributions 

• Critical assessment of results and implications to research and practice 

• Punctuality of work progress relative to the planned progress 

• Proactiveness of handling research progress 

Beyond these, the standard rules apply for writing a Master Thesis at WU  

3. Awards:

 Each semester, we may nominate an outstanding master thesis for the TALENTA award. 

We hope these guidelines to be useful for your thesis writing process. Please do not hesitate to reach out if something is unclear or if you have any additional questions.