Master - Academic paper - during writing your thesis

General formal requirements of the University of Vienna

All formal requirements: Formvorschriften für wissenschaftliche Arbeiten 

Please also note that, due to pseudonymisation of data during plagiarism control, no personal data (matriculation number, name, CV, etc.) may be included in your thesis from page 7 onwards. Please DO NOT include a CURRICULUM VITAE in neither the electronic nor the print version.

Further Information for Publication in your Thesis: Website "Büros Studienpräses".

Collaboration with the supervisor

There should be at least one meeting between the supervisor and the student during the work on the Master's thesis, at least before the first version of the thesis is completed. Supervision does not take place during the master conservatory.

Students may expect to receive written or oral feedback on questions and preliminary written statements within 4 weeks during the lecture period. Supervisors may also expect to receive written feedback on questions and comments within 4 weeks during the lecture period.

The supervisor may, in agreement with the SPL, withdraw the confirmation of supervision if, over a longer period of time and in spite of repeated reminders, there is obviously no progress in the completion of the Master's thesis.

The format of the Master’s thesis

The Master's thesis should - taking into account the respective discipline - be structured along the lines of articles in leading scientific journals. Please discuss the specific contents and structure with your supervisor. The general formal requirements of the University of Vienna are binding. According to scientific models, the thesis should be of a scope appropriate to the topic.

The current formal requirements can be found in the corresponding regulations of the University of Vienna.

Titel page

There are specific requirements for the layout and the data listed for the title page of the academic paper. To ensure that your title page is correct in terms of form and content, the system in  u:space will automatically create it from your data.

Please do not use a title page that you have created yourself in advance, as this will not be accepted during the formal check.

Jointly written theses

If two students would like to co-author their thesis, they should keep the following in mind:

  • Both students must apply individually for approval of the topic with the director of studies (SPL) and submit the required form at the SSC.
  • Both authors must submit three bound version of the completed thesis to the SSC.
  • The students must adhere to the title page template for co-authored theses when creating the title page of their thesis.
  • The table of contents must convey which author wrote which chapter. This is the only way to ensure individual and separate assessment of each student (UG § 81 (3)).
  • The electronic version of the thesis must be uploaded to u:space by each author.

After successfully uploading the thesis, students will each receive an upload confirmation (3-page PDF). The students must sign and submit this confirmation as well as the bound printed versions of the thesis to the SSC.

The Master Conversatorium

The conversatorium is an obligatory course for all Master students in (International) Business Administration, Economics as well as Banking and Finance, in which academic writing is practiced and the current status or progress of the Master thesis is presented. The topics and contents that (should) be included in the own master's thesis are presented during the course and commented and discussed by other students. Special emphasis is to be placed on the introduction and implementation of acquired skills from studies in general and especially from the subject in which the conversation course is attended. If the master's thesis is not written in the subject of the conversatorium attended, those aspects of the thesis that relate to the subject of the course attended may play a special role in the assessment.

The conversatorium is a separate course and the assessment of the work done there must be clearly separated from an assessment of the master's thesis. The assessment criteria for the course will be announced on u:find before the start of the registration phase and should not relate to the actual master's thesis.

Students may only remain registered for the conversatorium if they present a confirmation of supervision in the first unit or if they have already registered the topic and have been approved by SPL. Then they may not be deregistered after the official deregistration deadline. The conversatorium should be assigned to the curriculum, exceptions must be approved by the program director. There are no further specifications as to which of the offered conversatorium courses can or must be attended, but it may only be taken once.