Theses

A diploma or Bachelor’s/Master’s degree thesis encourages students to apply the knowledge gained in classes by thoroughly studying a particular research topic in Information Systems. When writing a thesis it is important not only to take into account the formal requirements but to pay particular attention to the appropriate use of language. The text should be grammatically correct, precise and the writing style should appeal to the reader, since a good scientific text should create a dialogue with the reader. A thesis is important evidence of a candidate's qualification – so students should be prepared invest the effort in writing the thesis that it deserves. The formal requirements for structuring and setting the text of a thesis are described in the "guidelines for writing a thesis" (in German).

Further information on final theses

On the subpages you will find further information on theses, such as details on the formal procedure or topic proposals.

Literature search

We suggest using the following web-links to search for literature. Please use the library services to acquire books and articles. If the library cannot provide access to a publication you may contact your advisor.

Web siteDescription
ACM Digital LibraryDigital library of ACM publications, digital copies available, access via computers on campus
IEEE Digital LibraryDigital library of IEEE publications
WirtschaftsinformatikScientific journal for Information Systems (in German)
Scientific Literature Digital Library (CiteSeer) Database for publications in Computer Science and Information Sciences, most articles available in digital format
Computer Science BibliographyBibliography of publications in Computer Science, provided by Universität Trier

Advice regarding plagiarism

The wealth of literature sources available on the Internet means that large sections of a thesis can be produced by copying and pasting others’ work. We are aware of the temptation but we warn all our students most strongly to avoid it. Using sources without proper references in the text is a serious breach of the rules of scientific work. Those who fail to comply with these rules, not only betray the authors of the misused sources, they also try to achieve an unfair advantage over their fellow students.

If the staff suspects any part of a thesis is a misuse of other sources, they reserve the right to have the digital version of the thesis analyzed with professional anti-plagiarism tools.

If the suspicion can be confirmed, the whole thesis will be rejected and marked as inadequate (mangelhaft). In extreme cases the department might take legal action against the candidate.