Completed „Fundamentals of Scientific Writing“ course or similar course. Students could write the master thesis in parallel to the course, but a consecutive sequence is recommended. It is not possible to write a master thesis before enrolling in this course! Prior knowledge of/strong interest in psychology, behavioral economics, or data analytics is a prerequisite for writing a master thesis at the Institute for Cognition and Behavior. Within the Institute of Cognition and Behavior, it is possible to work on pre-specified research questions, but students are also very welcome to present their own ideas for their thesis. Below you can find the current list of researchers that are available for thesis supervision. If you are interested in any of the research areas, please feel free to contact the respective researcher via email stating (1) your approximate starting time, (2) general or specific area of interest, and (3) a short description of your background in the research area of the institute.  Typically, a master thesis will be prepared within 6 months with around 55 working days or 500 working hours expected to go into it. There is no set number of expected pages as this usually depends on the topic. Usually, you discuss your work between 2-4 times with your supervisor (more if the complexity of the research question or method calls for it).

Step 1: Check Your Eligibility
Before reaching out, verify that you meet all general prerequisites for writing a master’s thesis at the WU. You can find the details on: University Homepage, Master’s Student Guide – available in DE/ENG.

Step 2: Read Information The Material
Carefully read our master thesis information material on this website (including: Download and Guideline Quicklinks which is located at the bottom of this page), to see whether our institute is a good fit for you.

Please send and email to juliane.sroba@wu.ac.at with the subject line: “Request for Master’s Thesis Supervision”.

Ensure your email contains:

• Your chosen topic name & brief description

• Your proposed timeline for the thesis.

• The research approach you intend to use (such as a literature review, empirical study, or replication study).

• Three potential dates for a first meeting.

A supervisor will contact you. After your first meeting, we will have decided on the topic and procedure of your thesis. Following up on this meeting follow the next steps.

You can choose from one of the following options:

Option A: you can click the link below, where you can find a number of suggested topics for your thesis:https://calm-client-518.notion.site/9c7b52d40d2645c8bcaba72c62790f7c?v=2e25e1da78374b46bedf62eb9f3b64d5

Option B: Create and propose a topic yourself if the existing ones do not suit your interests.

Step 1: Proposal

Work on a proposal that is 1-3 pages long, incorporating the following elements:

1. Working Title: The Tentative Title of Your Thesis

2. Thesis Statement

3. Approach/Methodology

4. Planned Analysis

5. Thesis Outline

6. Literature

 

Please follow the guidelines for the Thesis Proposal: Thesis-Proposal-Guidelines

Step 2: Timeline

Create a preliminary timeline using our proposal to delineate the key milestones of your thesis project. Please use this template: Timeline_Template

Share the proposal & planned timeline with your supervisor in a GoogleDoc format and schedule a meeting to discuss feasibility. The final approval will be through email or during a subsequent meeting. You should refer to this timetable to check your progress during your thesis.

Step 3: Literature review and analysis /empirical study / replication study.

Depending on your thesis your will conduct a literature review, an empirical study, or a replication study. Please read the template for the thesis carefully, since it not only provides guidelines for formatting your thesis, but also information how to conduct a literature review / empirical study / replication study: APA_Bachelor_and Master_ThesisTemplate

This is the most independent stage of your process. However, please seek out guidance from your supervisor when you feel lost.

Map out your line of argumentation in bullet points or short paragraphs to help structure your narrative. After you have written the first few pages of your thesis, choose the strongest two pages to share with your supervisor for feedback. This step is crucial as it enables you to receive guidance on various aspects including style, structure, and techniques for maintaining reader engagement. Utilize the feedback to refine and develop your thesis further, ensuring a well-articulated and compelling argument.

Step 4: First Draft

When you feel like you have completed at least 75% of your thesis, share your draft with your supervisor in a GoogleDoc format.

• You should proofread your text to ensure that there are as few grammatical errors as possible.

• The first draft should have a clear description of your methodology and approach. It should have a clear outline, and the reader should be able to read the whole text without losing sight of your research question.

• Inform your supervisor what type of feedback would be helpful to you -- Are the sections in your draft mostly completed and you are missing a conclusion? Are all the sections ~75% done and you are looking to add more content?

• Continue to advance to work while you are awaiting feedback.

Step 5: Review + Revision

Incorporate feedback on your first draft and seek to schedule a meeting with your supervisor if necessary.

Step 6: Thesis Submission

Please submit your thesis on MyWU.

Please structure your thesis as follows:

1. Introduction 

• Empirical and replication thesis       

• Supplementary notes for the theory section in replication papers

• Literature review thesis       

2. Method         

• Empirical and replication thesis       

• Literature review thesis        

3. Results          

• Empirical and replication thesis       

• Literature review thesis        

4. Discussion     

• Empirical and replication thesis       

• Literature review thesis        

5. References    

• Paper  

• Book  

Appendix A. Short description of the content.    

The central assessment criterion for the master’s thesis is that of independence: you should work independently on a problem – in consultation with relevant literature. Finally, this work should be presented in a written form. By writing the thesis you would prove that they are able to structure a topic and deal with it systematically. The following assessment criteria are relevant:

1. Scope: The thesis should clearly identify the problem/topic of the thesis at the beginning in a way that allows for a feasible answer to be found. You should be able to view your research in the context of current academic and public discourse and demonstrate its relevance.

2. Analysis: You should be able to link your research design and findings to the existing theoretical framework. You should be able to synthesize findings from different studies in a coherent and engaging narrative, showing how the findings complement each other and extend the understanding of the phenomenon of interest. Moreover, you should be critical, and describe the merits and limitations of the research you review and conduct. An essential element is the visible separation of externally acquired knowledge and your own considerations, i.e., the original contribution to answering a specific research question.

3. Academic Writing: The thesis should not only provide an outline of different literature sources but should also clearly outline a topic/problem (research question), present the arguments and the line of reasoning in a clear structure (main part), and emphasize and contextualize the most important conclusions and implications (final part). The line of argumentation should be visible through the structure.

   • Formal correctness: This includes correct handling of all the sources used for the thesis, a consistent style for the reference list, a complete bibliography, and the absence of linguistic and orthographic errors. Aspects like mathematical notations or pseudocode should be properly represented if used.

4. Computational Skills: It should be possible to replicate the work that you performed using the documentation that you provided. This presumes clear documentation of the literature search process and/or a well-structured and annotated code/spreadsheet.

 

A comprehensive literature search is - for any scientific work - indispensable. WU hosts a world-class scientific library, and almost all relevant business and psychology journals are available online (see https://www.wu.ac.at/bibliothek). In addition, the most important English and German databases such as ABI Inform/ProQuest, EconLit, EBSCO Business Source Premier or wiso are available for literature searches (see https://www.wu.ac.at/bibliothek/service/). COBE supervisors expect that you will make use of comprehensive, high-quality, up-to-date literature appropriate to the topic.

Please note the following WU link and the literature on scientific writing suggested there: https://learn.wu.ac.at/student-support/wissenschaft_schreiben

1. General Guidelines

Master’s theses at COBE can be written in English or German (for BBE students, theses must be written in English). You have to make sure that their work is linguistically (i.e., grammatically, and orthographically) correct. Gross deficiencies in this respect can lead to the work not being accepted for assessment.

It is important that the design of the work is consistent throughout. This applies to the following aspects: font type and size, paragraph or inlay design, layout and labeling of figures and tables, headings, footnotes, and formulae, spelling of numbers, citation in footnotes and text, references in the bibliography, etc.: Please carefully read the information in our template, for precise instructions: APA_Bachelor_and_Master_ThesisTemplate.

The following aspects should be considered when formatting and writing the thesis:

1. The thesis should consist of approx. 15 000 words (approx. 40 pages). The thesis should not exceed 50 pages.

2. The font must be a common proportional font such as Arial or Times New Roman, font size 12, justified, line spacing double-space (footnote text same font as in text, font size 10, single line spacing). Align the text to the left and leave the right margin uneven („ragged“). Do not manually divide words at the end of a line, and do not use the hyphenation function to spread words at the end of the lines. Indent the first line of every paragraph by 1.27 cm. The remaining lines of the paragraph should be left-aligned.

3. Use 2.5 cm margins on all sides (top, bottom, left, and right) of the page.

4. Use headings and sub-headings to organize the sections in your document.

5. Please format your thesis according to APA style and also use APA citation style: https://apastyle.apa.org/

6.  We suggest using our template. It is already formatted correctly and contains advice on the required content in each chapter: APA_Bachelor_and Master_ThesisTemplate

 

2. Citation and Avoiding Plagiarism

It is imperative to maintain a clean and ethical citation practice throughout your thesis to distinctly delineate between your original ideas and the concepts borrowed from other scholars. This ensures a transparent recognition of the diversity of thoughts presented in your work. You can refer to the formal guidelines mentioned below to understand this better.

Understanding Plagiarism

Plagiarism, an act of academic dishonesty, involves presenting someone else’s work, ideas, or intellectual property as your own without proper attribution. It is treated seriously by COBE and the university, and engaging in plagiarism will result in a negative evaluation of the thesis. Submissions must be in Word or PDF format to facilitate scrutiny for originality. Helpful link: https://learn.wu.ac.at/student-support/plagiate

To avoid plagiarism, be wary of the following:

1. Direct Quotations: Always provide clear indications and acknowledge the source when quoting someone else’s language, data, or illustrations verbatim.

2. Paraphrasing: When restating someone else’s critical work in your own words, proper acknowledgment of the original source is necessary. Changing a few words or their order without citation still constitutes plagiarism.

3. Ideas and Concepts: Using ideas derived from someone else's work without referencing the originator is prohibited.

4. Online Materials: Avoid creating a ‘pastiche’ of various online sources through cutting and pasting from the internet.

5. Collusion: Collaboration with another individual, including another candidate, beyond the allowed extent for joint project work, is considered plagiarism.

6. Submission of Someone Else’s Work: Presenting someone else’s work as your own, without clearly identifying the actual author, is a serious offense.

 

The Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools for Your Thesis

When incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, Bard, or others into your thesis, it is essential to strike a balance. While we acknowledge that AI tools may find application in your research, please exercise caution. Utilize specialized AI tools for specific tasks rather than relying on a single tool for everything. Here are some notable suggestions:

• ChatGPT (www.chat.openai.com) - grammar checks and writing revisions

• Grammarly (www.grammarly.com) - grammar checks and writing revisions

• ASReviewTV (www.asreview.nl) - identifying relevant publications

• Semantic Scholar (www.semanticscholar.org) -identifying relevant publications

• Connected Papers (www.connectedpapers.com) - identifying relevant publications

Remember that AI-generated information should not be treated as fact; always verify it from credible sources and assume responsibility for any errors. Lastly, while AI can be a valuable resource for grammar checks and writing revisions, using AI to generate text instead of your original work constitutes academic misconduct. When using AI tools for your thesis, ensure comprehensive documentation in the appendix, including prompts and AI-generated responses, using the provided reporting text template provided in the thesis template (APA_Bachelor_and Master_ThesisTemplate) to maintain academic integrity throughout your thesis process.

Useful Links:

Citation Rules German

Citation Rules English

Plagiarism

This section is a short non-technical summary of your research for non-expert readers. If written well, it could be an effective way to communicate your research while initiating or adding to an existing public debate. Think of this as an opinion column or a guest essay, where you get to deliver the main argument of your research in your own voice. The summary should be limited to 500-800 words. The best non-technical summaries are:

• cogent: the text should clearly state the main idea and seek to delight the reader with great writing and originality. The best way to test this is by having your parents or grandparents read the text. If they understand it without needing clarification and can follow your argument, then you are on the right track.

• timely: while your thesis may not be a direct response to something that is happening in the news at this very moment, it is important to demonstrate that the topic is relevant and current. We encourage you to think broader, to look for the issues in the public conversations, and to demonstrate that your work has implications for public policy or private industry.

• engaging: the text should resonate with the reader and offer some novel perspective that has not been heard many times before. Use the research that you conducted to have a conversation with the reader, predicting their counterarguments and addressing them with empirical evidence, while also remaining humble about the aspects we do not know yet.

• factual: you need to be able to verify the evidence that you provide. Focus on primary sources like the original research paper rather than a paper in which it was cited. Seek proof behind the broad assertions (like “Vienna is the most livable city in the world”) and provide as much nuance and precision as possible.

Inspiring examples can be found here:

Do Happy Faces or Sad Faces Raise More Money? (2017, June 20). Observer.

Foroohar, R. (2021, September 19). Forget the ‘she-cession’—Women will redefine the labour market. Financial Times.

Jena, A. B., & Worsham, C. M. (2023, June 19). Opinion | The Science of What We Eat Is Failing Us. The New York Times.

Nolan, T. C., Beatrice. (2023, September 3). You are more productive in the office, say elite CEOs. Data seems to back them up. Business Insider.

Kristof, N. (2021, June 9), Opinion | Are Vets and Pharmacists Showing How to Make Careers Work for Moms? The New York Times.

Miller, C. (2023, August 6) Opinion | Is Your Crush on OkCupid Telling You the Truth? - The New York Times.

Sales, N. J. (2023, September 11). What if ‘ghosting’ people isn’t just rude, but psychologically harmful? The Guardian.

Vázquez, K. (2023, July 28). Chatting with strangers: Why the practice is dying out and why that matters. EL PAÍS English.

Brik, T. & Krymeniuk O. (2019, June 10).What do the majority of Ukrainians think about state control over economics and personal freedoms? Vox Ukraine

The thesis is to be submitted electronically to the assessor. The official WU Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration cover sheet for theses should be used. The cover sheet, as well as the assessment protocol, can be downloaded from the WU website:

https://www.wu.ac.at/en/students/my-program/masters-student-guide/

The document must also include any appendix materials (tables, questionnaires, survey aids, etc.). In the case of empirical work (empirical study and replication), the appendix should also include the analysis script (not the output!) for the employed software (e.g., STATA, R).

The final submission of the thesis is done electronically on myWU. All information can be found at https://learn.wu.ac.at/guide/. All papers submitted for evaluation are subject to a plagiarism check.