Master - Academic paper - after completing your thesis

Submission and assessment

With the agreement of the supervisor, the student must upload the completed thesis in PDF format.

Note: From 05.03.2024, the digital version of the scientific paper will be submitted via u:space.

First, you have to check the data in u:space that will be printed on the title page. They are taken directly from the database of the University of Vienna and include your name, the academic degrees you have already obtained as well as information on the supervision and any co-supervision of your academic thesis.

Each thesis must contain an abstract in German of at least 500 characters. The abstract is a short summary of the central points of your academic work. You can also optionally include an English abstract. Please note that, depending on the curriculum, an additional mandatory foreign-language abstract may be required.

Submission procedure

1. you must first submit the thesis electronically for plagiarism checking via u:space. After a successful upload, you will receive an upload confirmation.

2. if the text of the thesis is found to be identical to other texts, the Director of Studies will check whether it is actually plagiarized. Please only submit your thesis for printing after you have received confirmation (email to your u:account) that the plagiarism check has been successful. The printed version must match the electronically submitted version exactly.

3. after a successful plagiarism check, you must submit the work hard bound to the SSC. You will need the upload confirmation for this.

4. Please submit the following documents after uploding the thesis via application in our ticket-system in the Servicedesk (click the button 'Master's thesis' HERE):

The HOPLA upload confirmation automatically includes the affidavit. This counts as a submission. The upload confirmation and the assessment form do not have to be included in the thesis. After plagiarism clearance, the PDF version of the thesis will be forwarded to your supervisor for assessment.

You can submit the printed copies of your work by having them placed in our post box by the porter at any time, by sending them to us by post or by bringing them to our offices during opening hours. Within 10 days you have to hand in the printed versions for the StudienServiceCenter.

Furthermore, students can individually indicate whether their work should be accessible as full text online (via the library catalogue) or not. This is not the same as requesting a publication ban for the master's thesis (see Publication ban for academic work).

Students automatically receive the results of the plagiarism check via email. Within 10 days, students must submit the bound print versions (3 copies of the master’s thesis or 5 copies of the dissertation) the StudiesServiceCenter (SSC). Please make sure that your work meets the formal requirements of the University of Vienna (see downloadcenter for guidlines).

Please consider following criteria for the submission of the printed copies:

  • 3 copies of the thesis
  • hard cover in colour black
  • printed double-sided

After submitting the print version, the supervisor has 2 months to evaluate the work and prepare a report. Students have the right to see the assessment documents of their scientific work. A copy of the report will be issued with the final documents.

Plagiarism and the plagiarism check

There is a zero tolerance policy on plagiarism at the University of Vienna. If plagiarism is proven in a preliminary version of the paper, the supervisor can immediately terminate the supervisor relationship in consultation with the program director. Every quotation or wording that has been copied verbatim must be linked to a reference to the source. Literal quotations should generally be avoided; instead, own formulations should be used.

If, after submission, it is discovered in the course of the assessment that the master's thesis violates the rules of good academic practice, the thesis must be marked as plagiarism and the Büro Studienpräses as well as the supervisor are informed.

During the plagiarism check it is checked whether the submitted academic work or parts of it are plagiarisms.

According to the Universities Act 2002, the definition of plagiarism is as follows:

“An act of plagiarism is unquestionably committed, when text, content, or ideas are used and presented as one's own. This encompasses in particular the appropriation and use of text, theories, hypotheses, findings or data by directly quoting, paraphrasing or translating them without appropriate acknowledgement and reference to the source and the original author.”  (§ 51 Abs. 2 Ziffer 31 UG)

 

Before starting the plagiarism check, students should be aware of the following:

Not a test run

The plagiarism check is not a test run! Once the document and the sworn declaration have been uploaded, any plagiarism discovered can have legal consequences.

PDF conversion

The thesis must be uploaded as a PDF to the university server. Students should use the latest version of a PDF converter when converting the document to PDF .

File size

Files larger than 40 MB often cause problems and should be avoided. Therefore, please pay attention while formatting pictures, tables etc.

Annotated title page

When the thesis is uploaded to the university server, an annotated title page appears. This serves to explain how a proper title page should look. Click through the annotated title page and confirm at the bottom that the title page of your submitted thesis complies with the title page requirements of the University of Vienna.

Find more information on the plagiarism check here.

Blocking theses

Ideally, the application to block an academic paper has already been submitted together with the application to register the topic and supervisor. If not, please submit it as soon as possible.

Registration for the thesis defense (final oral exam)

All Master's students in (International) Business Administration, Economics and Banking and Finance must take an oral final examination to obtain their degree. As soon as the Master's thesis has been assessed and the grade has been entered, students can register for the final examination. The supervisor of the Master thesis is also the examiner for the defense part in (International) Business Administration or for the first examination subject in Economics and Banking & Finance. In this part, the student is examined on the Master's thesis and its thematic field (the subject area in which the thesis was written).

If the supervisor is not able to examine the specialisation subject of the Master thesis, they have to make sure together with the students that a suitable examiner is available for the specialisation subject when registering the Master thesis.

Detailed information on the final oral exam can be found here.