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o ato syste sinformation systemsU N I V E R S I T Y O F F R I B O U R G / D E PA R T M E N T O F I N F O R M AT I C S

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Guidelines for Seminar, Bachelor and Master Theses

Chair of Prof. Dr. Andreas Meier, Information Systems Research Group, University of Fribourg, Department of Informatics, Bd. de Pérolles 90, 1700 Fribourg

e-mail: [email protected] This document provides guidelines how to write a scientific work at the chair of Prof. Dr. Andreas Meier, head of the information systems (IS) research group. The remarks are related to all kind of Theses, which are supervised by members of the IS group, i.e. to reports of seminars as well as to Seminar, Bachelor and Master Theses. Legal basis of this document is art. 3 para. 4, art. 4 para. 3 and art. 5 para. 4 of the regulations (4.3.0.1.3) from the 18th of February 2009 about the study organisation. Contents 1. Selection of a Research Topic .......................................................................................................2 2. What has to Be Considered in the Proposal?.............................................................................2 3. Evaluation of the Thesis................................................................................................................2

3.1 Presentation of the Thesis .....................................................................................................2 3.2 Evaluation Grid ......................................................................................................................3 3.3 Evaluation of Prototypes.......................................................................................................4 3.4 Plagiarism................................................................................................................................4

4. Scientific Research .........................................................................................................................5 4.1 Structure and Criteria of a Scientific Paper ........................................................................5 4.2 Literature .................................................................................................................................6 4.3 Research Methods of Information Systems......................................................................10 4.4 Collaboration and “Project” Management .......................................................................11

5. Regulations on Seminar, Bachelor and Master Theses...........................................................12 5.1 Preliminary Notes ................................................................................................................12 5.2 Concluding Overview about Regulations ........................................................................12

6. References and Bibliography .....................................................................................................13

Appendixes: Versioning of the Document & Feedback.................................................................15


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1. Selection of a Research Topic Open research topics for Seminar, Bachelor and Master Theses are published on the website of the chair (http://diuf.unifr.ch/is). Anyone, who is interested in one of the topics is friendly invited to contact directly the responsible supervisor (assistant).

Own propositions of students regarding a research topic are very welcome. However, the ac-ceptance of the topic proposed follows upon agreement with the examiner (professor) and supervisor (assistant). The research topic should always meet the interests of the student and the supervisor, i.e. it has to contribute to field of research of the IS group.

For motivational and organisational reasons, it is recommended to chose the right research topic carefully.

2. What has to Be Considered in the Proposal?

Following points have to be considered in every proposal:

a. Title page: Name of the university, department and the chair Provisional title of the Thesis Author: surname, family name, matriculation number, postal and e-mail address Examiner (Prof. Andreas Meier, Dr. Stefan Hüsemann) and supervisor (assistant) Place and date

b. Background and motivation of the Thesis (why writing a work about this topic?) c. Problem statement and research questions (3 to 5). For each research question it has

to be specified, why the research question is relevant, and how a research question will be answered (i.e. using which research methods, e.g.

discussion of the literature, case studies or an empirical study) d. Objectives and output of the Thesis (what has to be achieved within the work?) e. Addressee (who is supposed to use the results of the work?) f. Proceeding and method (which research methods are used?) g. Time schedule (~5 mile stones; sub-goals, activities, steps) h. Contents (provisional table of contents with 2 hierarchical levels) i. Literature (at least 6 sources)

3. Evaluation of the Thesis

3.1 Presentation of the Thesis The written Thesis has to be submitted in hardcopy and electronic form (PDF requested). The PDF of the Thesis will be published on the website of the chair. It has to be clarified in the Thesis, if the results are not supposed to be published for nondisclosure reasons.

Bachelor and Master Theses have to be presented to the members of the IS group in a meet-ing. The presentation (using Powerpoint or BeamerTeX) lasts 20 to 30 minutes, followed by a discussion of circa 10 minutes.


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3.2 Evaluation Grid With regard to contents, every report of a seminar as well as all Seminar, Bachelor and Mas-ter Thesis is evaluated using the evaluation grid of [Deininger et al. 2005] (see Table 1 and 2). Formally, several criteria of scientific research discussed in Chapter 4.1 are evaluated.

For Bachelor and Master Theses, a detailed evaluation is written and communicated to the author.

Results of Seminar Theses are discussed verbally. A detailed evaluation of a Seminar Thesis will be provided on request, for instance, if the author needs better self-evaluation in regard to a Bachelor or Master Thesis.

Table 1: Evaluation Grid1 for Scientific Works2

Criteria of evaluation

Knowledge & skills

Systematic & scientific

research

Initiative & effort,

autonomy Quality

of the results Presentation of the results

Level A ()

Very profound knowledge and very interested

to learn

Very systematic and scientific

research

Very high initiative & effort, many own ideas,

all objectives achieved or

exceeded

Outstanding results, interest-

ing findings, high scientific contri-

bution

Exemplary & excellent

presentation of the results

Points 10…12 10…12 14…17 28…36 18…23

Level B ()

Profound knowledge, interested

Systematic and scientific research

Quite high initiative & effort, some own ideas, most objectives

achieved

Good results, quite interesting findings, some

scientific contri-bution

Competent & careful presenta-

tion of the results

Points 7…9 7…9 10…13 19…27 12…17

Level C ()

Basic knowledge, partially

interested

Not very systematic and

scientific research

Certain initiative & effort,

no own ideas, objectives par-tially achieved

Moderate results, poor interesting

findings, low scientific contribution

It was only done what

is absolutely necessary

Points 4…6 4…6 6…9 10…18 6…11

Level D ()

Poor knowledge, not interested

Systemless and not scientific

research

Low initiative & effort, plagiarism,

objectives not achieved

Bad results, no findings, no scientific contribution

Presentation was bad & sloppy

Points 0…3 0…3 0…5 0…9 0…5

1 Bold: maximal score per evaluation criteria; total maximal score: 100 2 Following [Deininger et al. 2005]: Deininger, M., Lichter, H., Ludewig, J., Schneider, K.: Studien-Arbeiten: Ein

Leitfaden zur Vorbereitung, Durchführung und Betreuung von Studien-, Diplom-, Abschluss- und Doktorarbeiten am Beispiel Informatik, 5. Auflage, vdf, Stuttgart, 2005, S. 77.


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Table 2: Grading

Score 0–5 6–10 11–15 16–20 21–25 26–30 31–35 36–40 41–45 46–50 51–55

Grade BA/MA 1.25 1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5 2.75 3 3.25 3.5 3.75

Seminar Theses failed (Thesis not accepted)

Score 56–60 61–65 66–70 71–75 76–80 81–85 86–90 91–95 96–100

Grade BA/MA 4 4.25 4.5 4.75 5 5.25 5.5 5.75 6

Seminar Thesis passed (Thesis accepted)

3.3 Evaluation of Prototypes If a prototype was developed for the Thesis, following additional criteria are considered in the evaluation grid (compare Table 3).

Table 3: Evaluation Grid for Prototypes

Criteria of evaluation

Knowledge & skills

Systematic & scientific research

Quality of the results

Presentation of the results

Program-language used

Developer tools used

Standards etc.

Methods & development approaches used

Documentation of system analysis and design

Usability Robustness

Program delivery, installation & presentation

Installation manual

User manual

3.4 Plagiarism Every submitted Thesis will be checked with plagiarism software and web-based services. These tools search the Internet and indexed books and compare information from the web with the content of the Thesis. Theses including plagiarism will be evaluated with the grade 1.0 (very bad). In severe cases, a disciplinary procedure is opened, which can end with the exmatriculation of the student from the University of Fribourg. "Non-quoting" and “copy-pasting” does not pay off in any case!


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4. Scientific Research

4.1 Structure and Criteria of a Scientific Paper A Thesis always start with the abstract (management summary) followed by the list of

contents. The abstract includes a half page to one page of text, discussing the main results of the research.

At the end of the abstract, some key words are listed. Key words help to classify and cate-gorize the Thesis.

After the list of contents follows a list of figures, a list of table and a list of abbreviations. All lists are numbered with roman numbers (I, II, III, IV,…).

The acknowledgement can (but does not have to) be written after the list of abbreviations.

The obligatory chapter “Introduction” contains three sub-chapters: - “Problem Statement”: which scientific research questions have to be answered? - “Objectives”: which objectives or goals (circa 3-5) have to be achieved? - “Outline” or “proceeding”: which research methods are taken into account (Chapter 4.2)?

Titles contain at most three hierarchical levels (1. 1.1 1.1.1).

A Thesis should be structured logically and clearly (red thread).

Important principle: “1 paragraph = 1 thought”.

Good Theses do not have many (any) footnotes.

Important key words and terms have to be defined clearly.

Avoid formulations using “I” or “We”.

A scientific language has to be used (e.g. formal sentences in passive). Spelling, grammar and punctuation has to be correct.

Figures and tables have to be commented and quoted.

Legends are used to explain symbols in figures (for instance, it should be evident if arrows show either relations or data flows).

The final chapter (about two pages) contains a summery of the main findings, a critical assessment and an outlook.

The reference list is formatted consistently according to the specifications of Chapter 6.

Appendixes, e.g. an index and/or a glossary (all optional), follow after the reference list. The last page of the Thesis contains on of the following statement of the University of Fri-

bourg: German statement: www.unifr.ch/ses/pdf/exam_info/declaration_d.pdf French statement: www.unifr.ch/ses/pdf/exam_info/declaration_f.pdf

The evaluation of the Thesis usually lasts one month (30 days). This period has to be con-sidered in regard to official deadlines (see Chapter 5, Table 9, p. 12).

Following Table 4 gives an overview about the time, length and the number of ECTS points of the different types of Theses.


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Table 4: Number of Pages, ECTS and Time for Theses according to the Regulations3

Time Type of Theses Number

of pages ECTS points in weeks

(full time) in hours

Master Thesis (SES) Master Thesis (MSc)

80 – 120 80 – 120

27 30

17 – 20 20

723 – 850 850

Bachelor Thesis 60 – 80 15 9 – 11 383 – 460

Seminar Thesis 20 – 40 6 4 – 5 170 – 213

Report of a seminar4 15 – 20 4.5 3 135

4.2 Literature

Searching, reading and analyzing existing literature on the research topic are important processes and basis of any scientific research. It is expected from every author of a Thesis to research the relevant literature systematically and carefully.

It can be distinguished between following categories of scientific literature or works: - text books - research papers of scientific journals - research paper of scientific conferences and congresses - habilitations and dissertations - Bachelor/Master Theses (Diploma Theses) and Seminar Thesis, and - scientific contributions in the World Wide Web.

Every category of literature has certain advantages and disadvantages (of Table 5).

Table 5: Categories of Scientific Literature5

Category of literature Advantages Disadvantages

Text books easy to find comprehensive comparative

often not up-to-date often not specific not available for new fields

Research papers (journals)

topic oriented up-to-date

narrow (author is focused on the strengths of his own idea)

Research papers (conferences)

topic oriented very up-to-date

narrow not mature

Habilitation & dissertation

methodical founded, specific established in research

too specific not adequate for own research

Bachelor- & Masterarbeit

manifold & high quantity discussion of the literature

quality not guaranteed often low scientific contribution

Text in the World Wide Web

very easy & quick to find easy to copy very up-to-date

quality not guaranteed at all information overload reference not stable

3 The number of ECTS points and time of writing in weeks following art. 1 para. 2, art. 4 para. 12 and art. 5 para. 12 of the regu-

lations (4.3.0.1.3) from the 18th of February 2009, available under: www.unifr.ch/ses/ses2007/index.php?page=reglement, accessed 18th of November 2009

4 Reports and presentation at a seminar of the IS research group. Currently, following seminars are offered: Customer Relation-ship Management, FMsquare, eGovernment and Mediamatics

5 Following [Deininger et al. 2005, p. 30]


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For Theses in the research field of information systems, following scientific journals (available in the library Pérolles 2) are recommended:

1. Wirtschaftsinformatik (www.wirtschaftsinformatik.de) 2. HMD – Theorie und Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik (http://hmd.dpunkt.de ) 3. Gesellschaft für Informatik – GI Informatik-Spektrum (www.gi.de) 4. ACM – Transactions on

- computer systems (http://tocs.acm.org) - computer-human interaction (http://tochi.acm.org) - database systems (http://tods.acm.org) - information systems (http://tois.acm.org)

5. Decision Support Systems (www.elsevier.com) 6. Business Process Management Journal (www.emeraldinsight.com) 7. European journal of information systems (www.palgrave-journals.com/ejis/) 8. Information Systems Management, and many others.

The research of literature starts at different sources (see Figure 1 and links in Table 6): in an internal or external catalogue of libraries, in bookshops offline or online (e.g. Amazon), or in the Internet (e.g. Google Scholar). Due to information and literature overload, it is recommended to create an own list of lit-erature. The literature quoted in the Thesis can be collected and managed in a literature database using specific software discussed on page 9.

Figure 1: Research of Literature at the University of Fribourg

Library Pérolles 2

Catalougue of Fribourg

(RERO, KUB/BCU)

Google Scholar

Own list of literature & key words

JabRef

Own literature database

Bibliography

Master Thesis

X Thesis

External libraries (e.g. Univer-sity of Basel, Bern, St. Gallen or Zürich) and catalogues (IDS)

Websites of journals, organisations, portals, institutes, associations, chairs,

... of information systems

Snowball procedure

Literature


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Table 6: Selected Links for the Research of Literature

URL Description

http://www.unifr.ch/bp2/ Portal of the library Pérolles2 (BP2) of the University of Fribourg (economics, communication, informatics, sports)

http://opac.fr.ch Catalogue of Fribourg: simple/advanced search and further catalogues, resources and online services

http://www.bibliothek.uni- regensburg.de/ezeit/ Access to different journals and publications

http://www.fr.ch/bcu/ Library (KUB/BCU) of the canton Fribourg

http://www.rero.ch RERO: online search engine of the libraries of the Canton Fribourg and other French-speaking swiss universities

www.informationsverbund.ch Portal Informationsverbundes Deutschschweiz (IDS) with access to 450 libraries in whole Switzerland

http://aleph.unibas.ch Online catalogue IDS Basel Bern (University of Basel and Bern)

http://biblio.uzh.ch Online catalogue IDS Zürich (University of Zurich)

http://aleph.unisg.ch Online catalogue IDS St.Gallen (University of St.Gallen/HSG)

http://lamp.infosys.deakin.edu. au/journals/index.php

List of journals in informations systems from the Deakin University in Australia

http://www.springerlink.com Online library for science, technology & medicine from Springer (internal: access to many journals & e-books)

http://www.sciencedirect.com Science direct: online portal from Elsevier with many journals (internal: access to many journals)

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org Journal and conference portal of the high reputed institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE)

http://www.acm.org Website of the association for computing machinery (ACM) with many special interest groups (SIGs)

http://www.ssrn.com http://www.nber.org

Many papers, e.g. at the social science research network (SSRN) & national bureau of economic research (NBER)

http://scholar.google.ch Largest and most important search enginge for scientific and academic information in the Internet


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Literature Management:

To manage references and sources, the use of professional software can be helpful. For in-stance, the program EndNote is a database to store different sources and important them directly in text documents (www.endnote.com). In addition, any libraries offer “connection files” for EndNote. These files allow direct connections to catalogues of libraries and refer-ence search.

Recommendable open source software for managing literature is JabRef. JabRef is free for download under http://jabref.sourceforge.net. JabRef is based on the BitTeX format of LaTeX, but it also can be used for Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.

German literature for scientific research is shown in Table 7.

Table 7: Selected Literature for Scientific Research (in German only)

[Deininger et al. 2005]: Deininger, M., Lichter, H., Ludewig, J., Schneider, K.: Studien-Arbeiten: Ein Leitfaden zur Vorbereitung, Durchführung und Betreuung von Studien-, Diplom-, Ab-schluss- und Doktoratsarbeiten am Beispiel Informatik, 5. Auflage, vdf, Stuttgart, 2005.

Ein kurzer, kompakter, sehr empfehlenswerter Leitfaden zur Anfertigung wissenschaftlicher Ar-beiten. Es wird allen Verfasser einer Arbeit bei der Information Systems Research Group nahege-legt, dieses Buch zu beschaffen oder Vorort am Lehrstuhl zu konsultieren.

[Bänsch 2008] Bänsch, Axel: Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten – Seminar- und Diplomarbeiten. 9. Auflage, Oldenbourg, München, 2008.

Das Buch von Bänsch gliedert sich in drei Teile “Grundansprüche an wissenschaftliche Arbeiten”, “Der Ent-stehungsprozess einer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit” und “Kriterien zur Beurteilung wissenschaftlicher Ar-beiten” und deckt auf 88 Seiten die wichtigen Aspekte ab, ohne dass sich der Autor im Detail verliert.

[Theisen 2008] Theisen, Manuel René: Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten – Technik, Methodik, Form, 14. Auflage, Vahlen, München 2008.

Ein Klassiker im deutschsprachigen Raum, der u.a. verschiedene Möglichkeiten der Quellenangabe diskutiert.

[Metzger 2007] Metzger, Christoph: Lern- und Arbeitsstrategien; 9. Auflage, Sauerländer, Aarau, 2007.

Grundsätze des Wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens in den Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften. Gutes Schweizer Methodenlehrwerk, das unter anderem auch Pflichtlektüre an der Universität St.Gallen (HSG) ist.

[Frank & Stary 2009] Frank, N., Stary, J.: Die Technik wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens. Eine praktische Anleitung, 15. Auflage, UTB, Stuttgart, 2009.

Der Klassiker beantwortet Fragen wie z.B.: Was heisst wissenschaftlich arbeiten? Wie finde ich Literatur? Wie lese ich Texte? Wie halte ich Gelesenes fest? Wie schreibe ich eine Hausarbeit? Wie präsentiere ich ein Referat?

[Eco 2007] Eco, U.: Wie man eine wissenschaftliche Abschlussarbeit schreibt. Doktor-, Diplom- und Magi-sterarbeit in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. 12. Auflage, UTB, Stuttgart, 2007.

Ein von Umberto Eco etwas auf die Besonderheiten Italiens zugeschnittenes Werk, aber trotzdem hilfreich durch seine lebendig geschriebenen Hilfestellungen.

Tipp!


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4.3 Research Method of Information Systems

Table 8: Methods of Information Systems6

Research method Description (in German) %a

Formal or conceptionel & argumentative deductive analysis

Logisch-deduktives Schliessen kann als Forschungsmethode auf verschiedenen Formalisierungsstufen stattfinden: entweder im Rahmen mathematisch-formaler Modelle, in semi-formalen Modellen (konzeptionell, z.B. Petri- Netze) oder rein sprachlich (argumentativ, z.B. Prinzipal-Agenten-Theorie).

52%

Case studies

Sie untersucht komplexe, schwer abgrenzbare Phänomene in ihrem natürlichen Kontext. Sie stellt eine spezielle Form der qualitativ-empirische Methodik dar, die wenige Merkmalsträger intensiv untersucht. Es steht die möglichst objektive Untersuchung von Thesen (verhaltenswissenschaftlicher Zugang) oder die Interpretation von Verhaltenmustern als Phänotypen der von den Probanden konstruier-ten Realitäten (konstruktionsorientierter Zugang) im Mittelpunkt.

16%

Prototyping Es wird eine Vorabversion eines Anwendungssystems entwickelt und evaluiert. Beide Schritte können neue Erkenntnisse generieren. 13%

Qualitative / quantitative analysis

Qualitativ- und quantitativ-empirische Methoden fassen Erhebungs-techniken wie Fragebögen, Interviews, Delphi-Methode, Inhaltsanalysen zu zwei Aggregaten zusammen. Sie umfassen eine einmalige Erhebung über mehrere Individuen hinweg, die anschliessend quantitativ oder qualitativ kodiert und ausgewertet wird. Ergebnis ein Querschnittsbild über die Stichprobenteilnehmer hinweg, welches üblicherweise Rückschlüsse auf die Grundgesamtheit zulässt.

10%

Reference modelling

Die Referenzmodellierung erstellt induktiv (ausgehend von Beobachtungen) oder deduktiv (z.B. aus Theorien/Modellen) meist vereinfachte und optimierte Abbildungen (Idealkonzepte) von Systemen, um so bestehende Erkenntnisse zu vertiefen und daraus Gestaltungsvorlagen zu generieren.

4%

Laboratory / field experiment

Das Experiment untersucht Kausalzusammenhang in kontrollierter Umgebung, indem eine Experimentalvariable auf wiederholbare Weise manipuliert und die Wirkung der Manipulation gemessen wird. Der Untersuchungsgegenstand wird entweder im Feld oder im Labor untersucht, wodurch wesentlich die Möglichkeiten der Umgebungskontrolle beeinflusst werden.

2%

Simulation

Die Simulation bildet das Verhalten des zu untersuchenden Systems formal in einem Modell ab und stellt Umweltzustände durch bestimmte Belegungen der Modellparameter nach. Sowohl durch die Modellkonstruktion als auch durch die Beobachtung der endogenen Modellgrössen.

2%

Action research Es wird ein Praxisproblem durch einen gemischten Kreis aus Wissenschaft und Praxis gelöst. Hierbei werden mehrere Zyklen aus Analyse-, Aktions- und Evaluationsschritten durchlaufen, die jeweils gering strukturierte Instrumente wie Gruppendiskussionen vorsehen.

1%

Grounded Theory Die gegenstandsverankerte Theoriebildung zielt auf die induktive Gewinnung neuer Theorien durch intensive Beobachtung des Untersu-chungsgegenstandes im Feld. Die Vorgehensweisen zu Kodierung und Auswertung v.a. qualitativer Daten sind exakt spezifiziert.

1%

a Percentage of usage of the methods, following [Wilde & Hess 2007]

6 Source: following [Wilde & Hess 2007, S. 282ff] Wilde, Th., Hess, Th.: Forschungsmethoden der Wirtschaftsinformatik – eine

empirische Untersuchung, In: Wirtschaftsinformatik, Vol. 49, August 2007, S. 280-287.


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Table 8 shows the most important research methods in the domain of information systems. The first four methods, theoretical/deductive analysis, case studies, empirical methods and proto-typing are used in 91% of the papers.

The dominance of these methods are also reflected in the Theses and papers of the informa-tion systems research group. Therefore, all reports, Seminar, Bachelor and Master Thesis should have a theoretical-deductive part ("concept") and a practical part ("case" or "applica-tion”; i.e. a case study, quantitative/qualitative empirical study or a prototype).

Advice for empirical research: for each question of the questionnaire you should ask yourself: is this question really necessary? Why and for what is this question relevant? Regarding the design and hypotheses: Do you want to generate or to test hypotheses?

Further information (German book) is recommended for empirical studies:

[Bortz & Döring 2006] Bortz, J., Döring, N.: Forschungsmethoden und Evaluation für Human- und Sozialwissenschaftler, 4. Auflage, Springer, Berlin, 2006.

4.4 Collaboration and “Project” Management

Following points should help to improve the collaboration between the student and the supervisor (assistant).

If you have questions, please write an e-mail spontaneously to the supervisor. Please formulate your questions shortly and clearly.

The supervisor should be informed regularly about the status of the Thesis. Please contact the supervisor if you reach a mile stone, or at least every second month.

Before submitting the final Thesis at the Decanat, please give a (draft) version to the super-visor. He (and also the examiner/professor) will give you feedback how to improve certain aspects, chapters or paragraphs.

Hints regarding project management can be found in: [Zehnder 2002] Zehnder, C.: Informatik-Projektentwicklung – Projekt, Anwendung, Nutzung,

4. Auflage, vdf, Zürich, 2002.


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5. Regulations on Seminar, Bachelor and Master Theses

5.1 Preliminary Remarks

All actual regulations and rules concerning the Seminar, Bachelor and Master Thesis you find on the website of the faculty (www.unifr.ch/ses) or in the Decanat. Following summary is based on the regulations from the 18th of February 2009.7 5.2 Concluding Overview about Regulations

Table 9: Regulations & Hints about Regulations

Seminar Theses Bachelor Theses Master Theses Regulatory question

SES Informatics SES Informatics SES Informatics

Which study programs are accredited?

BA in IS1

BA in M2

BA in ESc3 BSc4

BA in IS1

BA in M2

BA in ESc3 BSc4

MA in IM5 MA in M6

MA in ESc7 MSc8

What are the restrictions regarding the research topic of the Thesis?

Related to a course of the 1st / 2nd year

No Related to a

followed course

No Related to a

followed course

No

What are the restriction regarding examiners?

All lecturers of the 1st &

2nd year No Lecturers of a

visited course No Lecturers of a visited course No

Is a second examiner (reader) required? No No

No (on demand of the

candidate) No

No (on demand of the

candidate) No

Is a second examiner of another department possible?

– – Yes (request to the exam delegatee)

No Yes (request to the exam delegatee)

No

Are Theses in collabor-ation permitted? No No No No No No

When has the Thesis to be submitted?

Before the exams of the 3rd year and

the end of the 8th semester

–

Before the end of the

12th semesters after begin of

the studies

–

Before the end of the

8th semester after begin of

Master studies

–

How long might the correction of a Thesis last?

30 days (after submission) – 3 months (after

submission) – 3 months (after submission) –

Which deadlines have to be considered?

4 weeks before registering to exams of the

3rd year –

e.g. promo-tions: contact

decanat –

e.g. promo-tions: contact

decanat –

How many copies of the Thesis have to be submitted where/how?

1 copy to the supervisor

1 copy to the supervisor

2 copies bounded to the decanat

2 copies bounded to professor

3 copies bounded to the decanat

3 copies bounded to professor

1 BA in IS = Bachelor of Arts in Information Systems 2 BA in M = Bachelor of Arts in Management 3 BA in ESc = Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Social Sciences 4 BSc = Bachelor of Sciences in Informatics 5 MA in IM = Master of Arts in Information Management 6 MA in M = Master of Arts in Management 7 MA in ESc = Master of Arts in Economics and Social Sciences 8 MSc = Master of Sciences in Computer Sciences (Master of Sciences in Informatik) 7 All regulations (4.3.0.1.3, 4.3.0.1.1 and 4.3.0.1.2) from the 18th of February 2009 are available under:

www.unifr.ch/ses/ses2007/index.php?page=reglement, accessed 18th of November 2009


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6. References and Bibliography

The used sources (literature) in a Thesis have to be quoted in the following way:

Author, year of publication and pages in brackets.

THREE EXAMPLES:

“Eine Aktivität ist eine betriebliche Tätigkeit mit einem definierten Ergebnis. Sie wird von Menschen und/oder Maschinen durchgeführt” [Österle 1993, p. 13].

In Anlehnung an [Herbst & Knolmayer 1994] machen Geschäftregeln Aussagen über die Art und Weise der Geschäftsabwicklung.

Ähnliche Definitionen finden sich in [Bauer et al. 1994, p. 101].

Following, you find examples how to quote different sources in reference lists.

THE QUOTED SOURCE IS A BOOK:

[Booch 1994] Booch, Grady: Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications, 2nd edition, Benja-min/Cummings, Redwood City CA, 1994.

[Scheer 1994] Scheer, August: Wirtschaftsinformatik – Referenzmodelle für industrielle Geschäftsprozesse, 5. Auflage, Springer, Berlin, 1994.

ARTICLES IN A BOOK:

[Huckvale/Ould 1993] Huckvale, Tim; Ould, Martyn: Process Modelling – Why, What and How. In: Spurr, Kathy et al. (Eds.): Software Assistance for Business Process Re-Engineering. John Wi-ley & Sons, New York, 1993, pp. 81-97.

[Keller 1995] Keller, Gerhard: Eine einheitliche betriebswirtschaftliche Grundlage für das Business Reengineering. In: Brenner, Walter; Keller, Gerhard (Hrsg.): Business Reengineering mit Standardsoftware. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 1995, S. 45-66.

ARTICLES IN A JOURNAL:

[Bunger/Heß 1995] Bungert, Winfried; Heß, Helge: Objektorientierte Geschäftsprozeßmodellierung. IM – Information Management, Jg. 10, Heft 1 (Februar 1995), S. 52-63.

[Wastel et al. 1994] Wastel, David; White, Phil; Kawalek, Peter: A methodology for business process re-design – experiences and issues. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1994), pp. 23-40.


14

ARTICLES IN A CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS PUBLSIHED BY A PUBLISHER:

[Herbst 1995] Herbst, Holger: A Meta-Model for Specifying Business Rules in Systems Analysis. In: Iivari, J.; Lyytinen, K.; Rossi, M. (Eds.): Advanced Information Systems Engineering; Proceedings, 7th International Conference, CAiSE ‘95, Jyväskylä, 12-16 June 1995. Sprin-ger-Verlag, LNCS 932, Berlin 1995, pp.186-199.

[Kueng 1995] Kueng, Peter: Ein Vorgehensmodell zur Einführung von Workflow-Systemen. In: Schweiggert, Franz; Stickel, Eberhard (Hrsg.): Informationstechnik und Organisation – Planung, Wirtschaftlichkeit und Qualität; Proceedings, Ulm, 28./29. September 1995. Berichte des German Chapter of the ACM, Band 47, Teubner-Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, p. 185-203.

ARTICLES IN A CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS NOT PUBLSIHED BY A PUBLISHER:

[Kohl 1994] Kohl, Claudia: Die Anwendbarkeit von OO-Konzepten in der Unternehmensmodellier-ung. In: Proceedings des EMISA/MobIS-Fachgruppentreffen, Universität Münster, 13./14. Okt. 1994, S. 51-53.

[Yu/Mylopoulos 1994] Yu, Eric; Mylopoulos, John: Using Goals, Rules, and Methods To Support Rea-soning in Business Process Reengineering. In: Proceedings of the 27th Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences, HICSS’94, Vol. IV, pp. 234-243.

ARTICLES FROM THE WORLD WIDE WEB

[Snowdon 1997] Snowdon, R.A.: Overview of Process Modelling. available: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/ipg/Docs/pmover.html, accessed 13th March 1997.

[WfMC 1996] WfMC: Workflow Management Coalition – Terminology & Glossary, version 2, June 1996. available: http://www.aiim.org/wfmc/standards/index.htm, zugegriffen am 26. Ok-tober 1998.


15

Appendix 1: Versioning of the Document

Version Date Comments Author

1 12.01.1999 Hinweise für Lizentiats- und Diplomarbeiten Dr. Peter Küng

2 2.1

15.10.2002 23.07.2003

Anpassung an Bachelor und Masterarbeiten Anpassungen an gemeinsames Bewertungsschema

des Departements für Informatik für folgende Ab-schlüsse und Fachrichtungen:

- Informatik - Wirtschaftsinformatik - Diplomarbeiten des Postgraduate Lehrgangs

Ergänzung der Bewertungskriterien für Prototypen und zur Präsentation der Arbeiten

Ergänzung der Hinweise für Seminararbeiten Ergänzung von Literaturhinweisen zum wissen-

schaftlichen Arbeiten und zur Toolunterstützung

Dr. Dona Mommsen Daniel Wismer

2.2 27.09.2006 Anpassung Notenskala auf 0.25 Schritte Dr. Dona Mommsen

3 3.1

09.04.2008 Vollständig aktualisierte und überarbeitete Version Berücksichtigung der neuen, aktuellen Reglemente Aktualisierung der ECTS/Bearbeitungszeiten Diverse Ergänzungen in den Abschnitten wissen-

schaftliches Arbeiten, Linkverzeichnis und Literatur

Darius Zumstein

3.2 18.11.2009 Zahlreiche Aktualisierungen und Korrekturen Berücksichtigung der neuen, aktuellen Reglemente

vom 18. Februar 2009 (4.3.0.1.3, 4.3.0.1.1, 4.3.0.1.2) Translation (part) of the document in English

Darius Zumstein

Appendix 2: Feedback Please help us to improve these guidelines and write

your opinion mistakes useful links important, additional information your questions

to Darius Zumstein ([email protected]). Thank you very much!

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Guidelines for Seminar, Bachelor and Master Theses - · PDF fileGuidelines for Seminar, Bachelor and Master Theses ... Evaluation of the Thesis 3.1 Presentation of the Thesis ... Documentation