Master's Thesis

The master's thesis consists of independent work on a current research topic and the writing of a scientific paper. Master theses may be supervised by habilitated faculty members. Further possibilities are explained in §15 of the Statute of the University of Vienna.

Since the use of images in scientific works repeatedly raises questions from a copyright point of view, the Studienpräses provides a checklist on the use of images and the guide for "Considering Copyright in Scientific Works" (both in German).

 

Registration of the Topic

Topic and supervisor of a master's thesis have to be registered at the SSC before starting the thesis. Please bring the registration form, the confirmation of compliance with good scientific practice and a short description of the planned project signed by the student and the supervisor (research proposal) to the SSC for registration.

Submission of the academic thesis

A prerequisite for the submission of the academic thesis is the approval of the topic and supervision (see form), as well as the submission of the form "Regulations relating to good scientific practice" (see form) and also a short description of the planned project (research proposal), signed by you and your supervisor.

The formal requirements for academic theses must be observed. For data protection reasons, no curriculum vitae or affidavit must be included.

Further information on the use of publications in academic theses can be found on the website of the office of the Studienpräses.

Submission procedure

  1. Start by uploading your thesis on u:space so that it can be checked for plagiarism. Once you have uploaded the document, you will receive an upload confirmation (“Hochladebestätigung”).
  2. If any textual similarities are detected between your work and other texts, the study program management will examine whether it constitutes plagiarism. Please do not proceed with printing your thesis until you have received feedback (via email to your u:account) confirming a successful plagiarism check. The printed version must exactly match the electronically submitted version.
  3. After a successful plagiarism check, you must submit the hard-bound copy of your thesis. You will need to present the upload confirmation (“Hochladebestätigung”) for this submission.
  4. Two copies of the thesis are required (these must be printed on both sides, hard bound and match the uploaded version)

 

Please note: From 05.03.2024, the digital version of the academic thesis has to be submitted via u:space.


Firstly, you need to review and verify the data in u:space that will be printed on the title page. This information is automatically loaded from university’s database and includes your name and academic degrees, as well as details regarding the supervision of your thesis.

Every thesis must contain a German abstract of at least 500 characters. The abstract is a brief summary of the central points of your thesis. Optionally, you can also include an English abstract.
Please note that depending on the curriculum, an additional obligatory foreign-language abstract may be required.

For the title page of the thesis, there are concrete specifications regarding the layout and the data listed. To ensure that your title page is correct in terms of form and content, the system in u:space will create it automatically from your data.

Please do not use a title page you have created yourself in advance, as this will not be accepted during the formal check.

What is the difference between access restriction and non-publication on the internet / university publication server?

  • The access restriction means that your thesis is neither available online nor in the library during a certain period of time. To do this, you must request an access restriction when uploading and also complete the access restriction request form. For an access restriction request to be approved, you need an important reason, e.g. patents, agreements with companies or already published articles by publishing houses. A planned publication is no reason for access restriction.
  • If you do not agree to the publication being made available on the university publication server when uploading, your thesis is not available on the Internet. It is, however, available in the library. You can decide at any time whether to make your thesis available online or not.