Standard quality of format and guidelines for thesis writing at the Berlin School of Economics and Law for International Marketing Management Refers to document FE-Marketing-Qualitätsstandards-20.4.2013-FV The following details are intended to guide students in the preparation of their thesis. Most of the specifications also apply to the submission of term papers. These standards include recommendations as well as specific requirements that are to be met when preparing a paper/thesis. Should these requirements not be met, an inevitable grade reduction of the thesis is at risk. 1. Requirements for master and bachelor thesis 1.1 General requirements 1.1.1 Overall Objective of a thesis is the review of the capability to work on a topic independently with problem solving orientation, generation of convincing ideas and development of creative solutions. The focus of the thesis is in accordance to the supervisor s agreed topic. Thesis should show a consistency (e. g. consistent use of terms within the paper, similar formal structure, citation and documentation of results). The following guidelines are to be considered: Font: Times New Roman or any other Serif-font Page layout: o Left margin of 5 cm, right margin of 2 cm o Top and bottom margin of 2.5 cm Font size: 12 (size 14 for headers is allowed) For emphasis: Bold Line spacing: 1.5 line spacing. Readability: Use automatic hyphenation Correct spelling!!! Figures: Uniformed figures, numbering and summary in a separate directory Clarify if source was reproduced in original, modified or created by author him/herself No differentiation between figures and tables Text referencing of figures, indicating the number of figure Integrate figures into the body of the paper Further, additional pictures to be included in the annex 1
Abbreviations First time use (clear definition of the abbreviation) Consistent use of abbreviations Listing of the used abbreviations Footnotes are not to be used. The handed in paper/thesis should be available to the examiners in a word file, too, so that it can be imported directly into the HWR software to identify plagiarism. In addition, all cited pages from the Internet are to be attached as a hard copy and on a CD. Short articles are to be fully accompanied; in cases of long articles, page references are sufficient. Additionally, all graphics used are to be collected in a PowerPoint file and saved on a CD. 1.1.2 Basic structure and organization of work Cover page (if necessary with blocking notice) Cover/inner title (see sample of the exams office) Table of contents with page numbers List of abbreviations (if needed) List of figures (if needed) Index of annex (if needed) Text (body of the thesis) Bibliography (not to be differentiated according to type of reference, i. e. not separated for online- and offline-sources; not separated according to magazine/newsletter articles against books) Directory of professional interviews (if required) as a separate list (not included in the bibliography) Annex Affidavit on the independent production of the work Text follows heading, unless it is followed by another heading. Keeping to header levels (there has always to be a 1.2 after 1.1). Length of a point should be at least half to one page; maximum of seven pages per point. Avoid one-sentence paragraphs and long explanations without new paragraphs. General structure of the content (body to the thesis): 1. Introduction (problem definition/definition of the search object, course of investigation) 2. Conceptual foundations of the paper/thesis (definition of the keywords of the thesis, especially those from the title) 3. Main part of the paper/thesis (empirical work is to be divided into a theoretical and a practical part) 4. Results and conclusion 5. Outlook/next steps 2
The content is to be formulated with clear and consistent numberings. All headings have to be formulated meaningfully, so that they describe their respective contents accurately. 1.2 Citation guidelines The reproduction of thoughts and opinions changed into your own words must be made absolutely recognizable. Use short citations (Harvard system); i. e. provide sources in the text (do not use footnotes!) At the end of the quote: Last name of the author(s) (no first name, no evidence of a collective work at this location), year, precise page number (e. g. cf. Kreutzer, 2010, p. 4-9). Citations from compilations: Quote the author(s) of the article and not the editors. The editors should only appear in the bibliography. Avoid secondary citations and sources; only use them if original source is not available. 1.2.1 Verbatim quotations Verbatim quotations are to be quoted with double quotation marks. If you have removed or modified in a quote to change it from its original version, this change must be labeled as such. The modifications should be set in brackets and enclosed with your own name. Where two or three authors are concerned, they are to be separated by slashes (e. g. Kreutzer/Merkle, 2009, p. 4-9). Where more than three authors are concerned, only the first author is needed, following et al. (e. g. Boltz et al., 2010, p. 11-15). Should an author have more publications within the same year, they should be alphabetically distinguished and sorted accordingly in the bibliography (e. g. Baumgarth, 2010a, p. 15-25). If the author is unknown, write no author and indicate the year of publishing (e. g. n. a., 2010, p. 15). 1.2.2 Rough quotes 1.2.1 apply accordingly. Example: cf. Kreutzer, 2010, p. 25 1.2.3 Quotes from professional interviews 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 apply accordingly Example: cf. Mathieu, 2010 Available interview guide or questionnaire to be attached in the annex. 3
1.2.4 Citations from the Internet No emails and forum news should be cited. Treatment of Internet sources is otherwise analogous to print media. Do not indicate URL in the body of the text. This should be done in the bibliography. 1.2.5 Citations from studies Take the timeliness validity of a study into consideration. The higher the dynamics in an industry or a market, the more up-to-date it has to be. Be sure to give a reason when quoting from an earlier study. Details of the author/editor, the nature and purpose of the study are required (who is the sender of the findings?). 1.2.6 Number and type of sources to be considered No general guideline but general idea: exploit as many sources as number of pages of the thesis. Through the author s thesis, he/she should be able to show his/her ability to portray sound scientific fundamentals. Verify if your supervisor provided publications according your topic. You should return to the approved standard literature in relevant terms. Wikipedia is not a reliable source. So are all Web 2.0 based information platforms that are not fully reviewed. 1.3 Organization of bibliography 1.3.1 Documentation of used books, newspapers and magazines All cited sources are to be included in the list. There should be no subdivision of the sources books, articles in magazines etc. Authors to be cited in alphabetical order (sorted by year). Details of books: name, abbreviation of the first name, year in brackets, title, edition (for books from 2nd edition with the expanded/revised/unaltered edition), place of publication, year. o Becker, J. (2009), Marketing-Konzeption, 9th Edition, München, 2009 o Haller, S. (2010), Grundlagen des Dienstleistungsmanagements, Grundlagen, Konzepte, Instrumente, 4th Edition, Wiesbaden, 2010 o Hartmann, W./Kreutzer, R./Kuhfuß, H. (2004), Kundenbindung & More, Innovative Konzepte der Kundenbindung, Wiesbaden, 2004 o Kreutzer, R. (2010), Praxisorientiertes Marketing, 3rd Edition, Wiesbaden, 2010 o Kreutzer, R./Merkle, W. (2008, Eds.), Die neue Macht des Marketing, Wie Sie Ihr Unternehmen durch Emotion, Innovation und Präzision profilieren, Wiesbaden, 2008 o Meffert, H./Burmann, C./Kirchgeorg, M. (2008), Marketing, 10th Edition, Wiesbaden, 2008 4
Details of articles in books: name, abbreviation of the first name, year in brackets, title of the article, in: editor, title of the book, place of publication, year, page numbers. Merkle, W. (2008), Der Mythos vom Tod der Mitte Handlungsfelder für eine weiterhin erfolgreiche Marktbearbeitung, in: Kreutzer, R./Merkle, W. (2008, Eds.), Die neue Macht des Marketings, Wiesbaden, 2008, p. 267-289 Details of articles in magazines, newspapers: name, abbreviation of the first name, year in brackets, title, issue/issue number, page numbers. Schulze, T. (2007), Preisstrategie im Internationalen Marketing, in: manager magazin, 34th volume, 3/2007, p. 2-4 Internal studies are also to be shown in the bibliography. 1.3.2 Documents from Internet sources Classification of sources in bibliography to be classified by alphabetical order. Details: name, initial of first name - [of the author and publisher (Eds.), (Comp.) compiler, Web Masters (Maint.), if not specified: title of the hypertext page, name of institution or organization], title of work, text or document (creation date, file number or version date of the last edition or amendment), online at URL: <Protokollart://Servername/Pfadname/Dateiname> (Date of access by the user) 1.3.3 Documentation of professional interviews Documentation to be sourced in an additional list headed as professional interviews. Details: name, initial of first name, academic title, position, company, date of the interview. 1.3.4 Documentation of a quantitative study The implementation of a quantitative study should be based on the 5 Ds, namely: o Definition phase (What is the objective of the study?) o Design phase (How should the necessary data be collected? Which target group should be consulted?) o Data collection phase o Data analysis phase o Documentation phase The key findings are to be included in the body of the thesis. The complete analysis is to be included in the appendix of the thesis. 5
2. Further guidelines for the preparation of the thesis The examinations office defines the provisions regarding processing time and registration dates. You are responsible for complying to these provisions. The length of the master thesis is 35-50 pages. This does not include table of contents, annex and bibliography. Each page over this limit is an indicator of inappropriate focus of topic. Exceedance of over 10% can lead to grade reductions. The work is evaluated by two examiners. If both reports are rated with a passed grade the date for the oral examination will be set. The oral examination is a discussion about the core of the thesis. Apart from outlining the main objectives, methods and results of the thesis clarify any other questions raised by the two examiners (supervisors). It also gives the opportunity to clarify any further questions that may relate to the overall content of the master program. The examination lasts 30 minutes. The grade of the examination and the written thesis will then be announced. R. Kreutzer, 20.4.2013 6