Handout Master Thesis Research Group Media Psychology and Media De sign, TU Ilmenau

Version: April 2018

Table of content

Table of content ......................................................................................................................... 1

General information ................................................................................................................... 2

1. Contacting supervisor and first draft of your exposé ............................................................ 2

2. Preliminary talk ...................................................................................................................... 3

3. Exposé..................................................................................................................................... 4

4. Official registration ................................................................................................................. 6

5. Preparation of the Master Thesis ........................................................................................... 6

6. Undergraduate Colloquium .................................................................................................. 10

7. Submission of the Master Thesis ......................................................................................... 11

8. Defense of the Master Thesis ............................................................................................... 11

9. Evaluation ............................................................................................................................. 12

10. Publication .......................................................................................................................... 12

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General information

The examination performance of the Master Thesis is liable to registration and usually taken

up in the third semester. The students’ goal is to prove that they are able to work with

scientific methods on a scientific problem within a given period of time. According to the

current examination regulations of the Master course “Media and Communication Science”

in Ilmenau, the amount of work (including exposé, undergraduate colloquium, and defense)

will be 30 CP (equates 900h) within a period of no more than 6 months after registering your

master thesis (prolonged work on your thesis only with a medical certificate, earlier filing

possible). Please check under which examination regulations you are enrolled, and which

demands apply to you at:

http://www.tu-ilmenau.de/studierende/studium/studienangebot/master/master-medien-

und-kommunikationswissenschaft-media-and-communication-science/#c14331

The thesis can be written in English or German, depending on your topic and on your

supervisor’s consent.

If you plan on writing your master thesis with us, we strongly advise you to stick to the

following guideline.

1. Contacting supervisor and first draft of your exposé

Visit our homepage and check out the research groups’ open topics on offer and send a

request to services via email to the listed contact person. We can only supervise theses

that are consistent with our research main research interests.

If no resources are available, please contact the examination office, which can help you

find a research group that currently has a lower workload.

If resources are available to be supervised at our research group, start working on your

first draft of an outline of your thesis (2 to 5 pages including topic, research questions,

theory, methods, and the most important international references and literature). The

first draft is a shorter and less detailed preform of the outline. It has to be written in

academic style, has to comply with APA standards, and has to come with an informative

cover page (working title, name, student number, contact data). Start to deal with the

APA style right away (see http://www.apastyle.org/). Strictly follow the current

methodological standards of empirical research. For this purpose, we recommend the

textbook “Forschungsmethoden und Evaluation” (Döring/Bortz, 2016, Springer Press), as

it was developed to address frequently asked questions and problems of students, and to

provide precise handouts about procedures (it is available at the university library). A

viable English alternative is the textbook “Social Research Methods” (Bryman, 2008,

Oxford University Press).

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Never employ Wikipedia for definitions of (technical) terms, instead ALWAYS use the

academic literature (and, when appropriate, academic dictionaries, e.g., the DORSCH for

the field of psychology).

Based on the well thought-out, written first draft, make a first appointment with your

supervisor via email. Please take note that making a first appointment only makes sense

if your first draft complies to the textual and formal requirements mentioned above.

Recommended textbooks on qualitative and quantitative research methods:

Döring, N., & Bortz, J. (2016). Forschungsmethoden und Evaluation (5. Aufl.)

[Research Methods and Evaluation (5th edition)] . Berlin: Springer.

Bryman, A. (2008). Social Research Methods (3rd edition). Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Recommended textbooks on statistics:

Aron, A. & Aron, E. N. (2003). Statistics for Psychology (3rd edition). London, UK:

Pearson Education.

Recommended textbooks on statistics with R:

Field, A., Miles, J., & Field, Z. (2013). Discovering Statistics Using R (Reprint). Los

Angeles, CA, USA: Sage.

Luhmann, M. (2011). R für Einsteiger: Einführung in die Statistiksoftware für die

Sozialwissenschaften. Mit Add-on. on [R for Beginners: Introduction to the

Statistics Software for Social Sciences. Including Add-On]. Weinheim: Beltz.

Wickham, H., & Grolemund, G. (2017). R for Data Science: Import, Tidy,

Transform, Visualize, and Model Data. Farnham, UK: O'Reilly UK Ltd. Retrieved

from http://r4ds.had.co.nz/

Recommended textbooks on statistics with SPSS:

Field, A. (2013). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (4th edition). Thousand Oaks,

USA: Sage.

2. Preliminary talk

In your individual preliminary talk, important organizational milestones will be discussed

(time-plan, co-supervisor etc.). Please notice that you have exactly one supervisor within

the research group (the co-supervisor is not a contact person during the preparation

phase).

You will receive content-related feedback on your first draft, which in the next step has

to be worked on and elaborated into a full outline accordingly. The elaboration has to be

completed within 4 to 6 weeks.

Be aware: supervision can only be guaranteed when your thesis is officially registered by

the examination office. In a few select cases, supervision has to be withdrawn (due to

the outline and your first briefing with your potential supervisor). If this happens,

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promptly choose supervision by another research group that better fits the content or

organizational aspects of your thesis.

Reliably stick to appointments, milestones, and deadlines. Answer emails as soon as

possible. If you cease to report back or to respond to our emails, we infer that you are no

longer interested in our supervision, and as a result, you might lose your spot as a

candidate at our research group.

3. Exposé

The length of the expose should be 7 to 10 pages. It is clearly structured by sub-headlines

and includes information on your research topic and its relevance, precise research

questions/ hypotheses, theory, state of the research on your chosen topic, methods (design

of the study), and relevant literature. Do not forget to add an extra cover page including

your name and the title of your thesis. Additionally, a weekly-interval timetable of your

estimated work plan for the six months processing period should be included.

Once again, we strongly advise you to comply with the standards of academic literature,

recommending the textbook “Forschungsmethoden und Evaluation” (Döring/Bortz, 2016,

Springer Press), as it was developed to address frequently asked questions and problems of

students, and to provide precise handouts about procedures (it is available at the university

library). Be advised that the supervision of a master thesis is in no way a private tutoring of

methods, as we assume that you already obtained the relevant fundamental knowledge

(e.g., how to draw a sample, how to conduct a quantitative content analysis, how to carry

out an academic literature search, how to precisely formulate research hypotheses).

Therefore, you have to build upon existing knowledge and gain missing knowledge by

autonomously reading informative texts. If it is apparent that basic knowledge is missing, the

supervision of a master thesis is not reasonable. For your master thesis, choose a method

you are already familiar with.

You are obliged to orientate your thesis towards a study that is published in an academic

journal and is comparable to your thesis regarding methods and content. Closely examine

this study in regard to how the research questions were formulated, which theories were

employed, which methods were selected for drawing the sample and choosing

measurements etc. Your study has to be designed similarly, like it is known from academic

literature. As you as a master student have no deeper knowledge of research, NEVER make

up a completely new methodological approach (this is normally an aberration), but be

oriented towards how professional research experts do it (which normally has a deeper

meaning).

Structure of the exposé

1. Introduction (topic and relevance should be outlined)

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2. State of research and theory (outline the state of the research, highlight research gaps,

introduce your theoretical model that consists of a theory from the literature or a

combination of theories – focus on the most important theories within your research

interest, do not use too many theories simultaneously.) We explicitly recommend

replication studies: Choose a good study from the literature pool and reproduce it as

closely as possible! If you do not conduct a replication, you are obliged to refer to at least

one study published in an academic journal that your thesis is roughly orientated

towards in regard to methods (see above).

3. Research problem (precise research questions and hypothesis which should be derived

from your theoretical model and/or the state of research, formulation of hypothesis only

with cogent theoretical reasons, the rest are open research questions; focus your

research problem! Classify your thesis under one field of communication science:

research of communicators, media content, media use/media usage/media effects. Take

note that media effects can normally only be examined experimentally, so don’t employ

media effects hypotheses if you cannot properly test them, as this makes your thesis

speculative and unscientific or pseudo-scientific, respectively.)

4. Method (description of the study design – qualitative/quantitative etc., how do you

intend to draw a sample and to collect the data, how will the data be analyzed.) Be

advised that the recruitment of study participants for, e.g., expert interviews, group

discussions, individual interviews, surveys, laboratory experiments etc., is normally very

time consuming and laborious nowadays. Take this into account in your time schedule.

Only start making plans for your studies if you can ensure that you will find a sufficient

number of informative and cooperative participants (e.g., via your own social networks

and contacts) for the topic of your thesis. If you advertise your study, only start doing so

after consulting your supervisor IN ANY CASE. Advertises for your study may not circulate

on the internet as SPAM, and you may not use the Logo of the TU Ilmenau for ads; you

have to act on your own behalf as a student, and never in the name of the university or

the research group. Always strictly adhere to the ethics of research and science (e.g.,

you may not secretly research within closed online communities), and explain in the

methods section, in which way your procedure is ethically legitimate.

5. Reference List (selection of the primary literature in your research field, include papers

from international journals, citation: consult the APA-manual; no references or links in

foot notes, as this does not comply with APA standards.) The APA style is obligatory in

science, it does not only exactly define how to reference literature and how to design the

references section, but also provides details on how to design figures and tables in

academic texts, how to report statistical results, and how to write in an academic style

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(e.g., gender-inclusive). Deviations from APA style will always result in a lower

evaluation: http://www.apastyle.org/

6. Timetable (include a weekly depiction of your work-packages within the time-span of six

months)

The outline should be carefully prepared and well thought through. Please send it to your

supervisor in advance. Typically, according to the feedback of your supervisor, you will have

to undergo one to three rounds of corrections and optimizations in order to finish to your

outline. The final outline should be finished four to six weeks after the preliminary talk.

4. Official registration

As soon as your supervisor approves your proposal to be in order regarding content and

formal regulations, your next step is to officially register your thesis at the examination

office.

The registration document can be retrieved from: (http://www.tu-

ilmenau.de/ifmk/studium-am-ifmk/master-of-arts/masterarbeit-und-abschluss-des-

studiums/)

The document should be filled out in a proper manner and handed over to the research

group’s secretary Ms. Birnschein. It will be signed by us and handed back to the

examination office.

Normally, our research group does not need the form for rights of use. If you write a

thesis about a topic that was announced and supervised by our research group,

respectively, it is already legally permitted to make use of the raw data in connection

with research in the research group as long as the thesis is referenced. In practice, this is

a rare instance, as the further use of raw data in professional research requires a very

high data quality, which master theses normally do not arrive at.

After officially registering your thesis, you have a processing time of no more than six

months to finish your project and hand in the thesis (prolongation is not possible,

prolongation only for duration of sicknesses and only if medical certificate is provided,

earlier filing possible).

5. Preparation of the Master Thesis

Working on your thesis is considered an independent piece of work completed by the

individual student. Professional supervision will only be provided upon your request

(email, phone, consulting hours). Nevertheless, we strongly advise you to let your

supervisor make a final check on your study design and the assessment tools (e.g., final

interview guidelines; questionnaires) before employing them in the main survey.

Proofreading the text or parts of your thesis in advance is out of question. Once again

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be advised that the supervision of a master thesis is IN NO WAY a private tutoring of

methods. If there are deficiencies in the relevant fundamental knowledge (e.g., how to

calculate a t-test with SPSS, how to design a codebook for content analysis, how to

calculate inter-coder agreement for a codebook etc.), these have to be closed

autonomously using methods textbooks. A master thesis supervision only delivers

advanced suggestions on the specific empirical study.

Also not that requests should be directed to the supervisor with sufficient lead time. You

cannot expect to get feedback on an assessment instrument on the same day. You can

roughly expect a processing time of one week for requests regarding content. Even

consultation appointments have to be requested on time and, because of the frequently

high workload in the research group, usually cannot be offered overnight.

A compulsory undergraduate colloquium is part of the supervision program at our

research group and normally held twice on during the semester (appointment will be

circulated via email one to two weeks in advance). During the preparation phase of the

master theses, candidates have to participate in all colloquia, providing fellow candidates

with constructive feedback and presenting the current progress of one’s own thesis

(within 15 minutes using slides). Consider the undergraduate colloquium as a

preparation for the actual defense of your thesis.

A master thesis should be approximately 80 to 120 pages long, though there are no strict

guidelines concerning the length of your written project as long as all necessary parts are

included to make up a scientifically sound thesis. Please stick to the standardized

structure of empirical papers. Only cite in APA style. Tables and graphs should be clearly

and comprehensibly structured, also in APA style. Regarding APA style, check out

guidelines, websites and web resources on your own. Background information and

additional material should be included in the appendix (e.g. questionnaire, interview

guidelines, SPSS data file etc.).

Assessment criteria: content (relevance, methodological soundness), formalities

(orthography, grammar, citation, formatting, display of results with tables or graphs,

etc.).

Regarding all details of formal design of scientific studies (e.g., creating tables or using

gender-inclusive language), comply to the international standards of the APA

Publication Manual.

Before handing in your thesis, we strongly advise you to let a plagiarism check run over

your thesis. At the TU Ilmenau, we use the software service Urkund. Let your supervisor

provide you with his/her Urkund email address, so that you can let the check run in

advance by uploading your thesis in anonymized form (i.e., without cover page that

includes your name). The software service checks for plagiarism, automatically conducts

an analysis and sends it to your supervisor. This way, possible inconsistencies can

eventually be cleared before the thesis is officially turned in. After you have turned in

your thesis, it will be meticulously checked for plagiarism during its evaluation, anyway.

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Structure of the Master Thesis:

Abstract

Your thesis should include a German and an English abstract. The main idea is to highlight

topic, theory, research question, method, main results and conclusion of your thesis in the

abstract. It is an elemental and one of the most important parts of your thesis besides the

discussion of your findings. The abstract is always written as the final part upon the

completion of your thesis. The wording has to be honed and formulated very accurately. An

abstract is expected to range between 100 and 150 words. Sometimes, abstracts can be

longer (extended abstract, e.g., 300, 500 or 1,000 words). In students’ theses, we expect the

usual short form.

Example of an abstract with hints regarding structure [in square brackets; these

brackets appear for didactical reasons, but of course not in the final abstract!]

The current study addresses the self-presentation of private individuals on personal

homepages [topic]. The social psychological Impression Management Theory, to date

applied to face-to-face communication, was employed for a specific form of online

communication [theory]. It was examined if and to what amount the four self-

presentation strategies that are postulated by the theory can be found on personal

homepages, in pure and combined form [research question]. To this end, a quota

sample of n = 500 students’ homepages (50% female and 50% male homepage

operators) was analyzed in 2004 using quantitative content analysis [method]. It was

revealed that students’ owners of homepages oriented their online self-

presentations towards appearing sympathetic and competent, while strategies of

intimidation or moral superiority were rare. Significant gender differences could not

be found. In terms of content, the students’ homepages under examination were

centered around hobbies and students’ activities [main results]. Personal homepages

turned out to be very rich and extensive media offerings, which should be examined

more closely in the future in regard to self-presentation techniques [conclusion].

Note: Abstract and introduction of your thesis have very different structure and purpose!

The introduction is mainly focused on outlining the goal of your thesis, while an abstract

without methods and main results is worthless.

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1 Introduction

Goal of the study and structure of chapters

2 Research Topic

2.1 Relevance of the topic

2.2 Description of the research subject

3 State of research and theory

3.1 State of research

3.2 Theoretical background

4 Research problem

research questions and/or hypothesis

5 Method

5.1 Study design

5.2 Operationalization

(type of data collection, questionnaire, interview guideline etc.)

5.3 Sample

(planned sampling type, planned sample size, recruitment)

5.4 Data collection

(place, time, test procedure; assure research ethics)

5.5 Data analysis

(methods and software, SPSS; MaxQDA …)

6 Results

6.1 Sample description

(cases in the adjusted data set, summarized socio-demographic and other

variables)

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6.2 Results concerning research question/hypothesis 1

6.3 Results concerning research question/hypothesis 2

…

6.X Further results

7 Discussion

7.1 Summary and interpretation of the main results

7.2 Limitations of the thesis

7.3 Discussion of future research and applications

8 Reference List

9 Appendix

9.1 e.g., data gathering tool

9.2 e.g., participants’ declaration of consent

9.3 e.g., interview transcripts etc.

9.4 e.g., results of plagiarism check

6. Undergraduate Colloquium

The research group’s undergraduate colloquium is organized as a periodic block seminar.

The colloquium is mandatory for all candidates in our research group. All master

candidates have to participate in all sessions and in engage constructively in ongoing

discussions. Exceptions can only be granted in justified cases, and need approval by the

supervisor beforehands.

All master candidates are expected to present to the colloquium the current progress of

their own thesis before handing it in (15 minutes talk supported by slides, maximally 15

minutes discussion). The slides have to be in PDF format, provided on a USB stick (the

laptop of the research group will be used for presentations, NOT one’s own laptop).

The appointment of the colloquium will be circulated via email one to two weeks in

advance. All invitees have to confirm the appointment immediately. If they do not

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respond to the invitation or fail to appear without approval, we infer that you are no

longer interested in our supervision, and as a result, will no longer respond to any

requests. The undergraduate colloquium provides an opportunity to address outstanding

issues, and to prepare for the actual defense of your thesis.

7. Submission of the Master Thesis

Before submitting your thesis to the examination office, please input the bibliographical

information (including abstract and summary) in the adequate online form on the page

“Hochschulbibliografie” of the university library. Ensure that your abstract complies with

academic standards (for an example, see above in section 5):

https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/ub/a-z/info-seiten/abschlussarbeiten/

Afterwards, you will receive an auto-responder email.

You have to hand in your thesis together with this auto-responder email.

The master thesis has to be submitted to the examination office (not to the research

group!). You have to submit 3 printed hardback versions (including the digital appendix

on CD/DVD or on a stick; which consist of a complete digital version of the thesis itself

including all material that the appendix consists of).

Do not forget to include your statement of authorship at the end of your bound thesis:

i.e., you have to assure that you prepared the thesis independently, did not use other

sources or auxiliaries except those mentioned in the thesis, and did not publish the thesis

in this or a comparable form or parts of it at another institution of higher education. The

statement has to be signed manually.

You have to provide the form “Protokoll des Masterverfahrens” together with the thesis,

which can be retrieved from:

https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/wm/studium/master/media-and-communication-science/

8. Defense of the Master Thesis

The oral defense takes place approx. 4 – 6 weeks after submission of the master thesis. It

consists of two parts:

Part 1: Presentation of the Master Thesis (using slides) including choice of subject,

theories, methods, and main result (precisely 15 minutes!). Take note that the slides

have to conform to APA style as well (e.g., tables, statistical results, citations).

Part 2: Open discussion with the examination committee (15 min.)

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9. Evaluation

The final grade is the result of the arithmetic mean of three grades: 1. Grade of the first

supervisor, 2. Grade of the second supervisor, 3. Grade of the oral defense.

10. Publication

The students agree that after the registration of the thesis at the examination office, they

are personally listed along with their thesis title as candidates on the website of the

research group under “Ongoing Theses”, and that after submission of the master thesis,

they are listed in the same way under “Completed Thesis”. Furthermore, the successfully

completed master thesis including the abstract will be incorporated in the university

library’s catalogue.

There are certain publishers whose business model consists of publishing students‘ theses

for money, and who actively address students for this purpose. We normally cannot

recommend this, as it provides no benefit – neither for academic purposes, nor for one’s

curriculum vitae. Paying a publisher to publish one’s master thesis is a completely monetary

matter, and rather demonstrates vanity or the need for self-presentation, but has nothing to

do with the quality or relevance of the thesis, as everything gets published if someone pays

for it.

The master thesis is the second academic qualification work, and, in regard to academic

standards, it is still naturally rather a modest finger exercise than a high-level contribution to

academia. This should be evaluated realistically. Those with serious research ambitions are

advised to do more work in form of a decent master thesis and, after that, a decent

dissertation thesis. The latter is the first contribution that, after collecting several years(!) of

intense research experience, should be published in form of a book.