Current topics for thesis

(partly including internships)
 

• Various topics for Bachelor's and Master's thesis on organizational and legal aspects of the arrangement in electronic invoice workflows (partly with paid internship opportunity)
• Investigation of IT budgets in municipalities of Saxony-Anhalt (with internship opportunity)
• Requirements of an electronic portal to support the work with refugees (with internship offer)
• Analysis of the satisfaction of council members concerning structured budgeting
• Verification of acceptance and control-relevance of key indicators in local budgets
• Quantitative examination on the dissemination of strategic management in municipalities
• Experiences concerning benchmarking between municipalities
• Local governments sustainability strategies
• Electronic participation and discussions in online forums
• Empirical studies on "participatory budgeting"

General requirements for seminars, assignments and final projects

In test papers you should be able to independently solve a certain matter in a set time on a scientific basis.

Main elements of your work are:

1. An enunciated research question which is introduced at the beginning and which is answered at the end of your work.

2. A logical structure in which general and abstract or theoretical and conceptual basics are used for empirical considerations to develop an answer to yor reseacrh question.

3. The reference to conceptual or theoretical fundamentals, which are available and you want to use to approach your question.

4. A clear methodological approach to answer the central question. You should be able to explain others the matter in a comprehensible way. Ideally, based on your description the methodological steps are understandable and lead to the same conclusion.

The basic principle of your work must always be an extensive research and review of relevant scientific and/or specific technical oriented publications.

In preparation of the registration for your thesis, please provide a synopsis with the following content (5-10 pages):
1. (Working) title
2. Research question
3. Summary of your methodological approach
4. Outline
5. Temporary structure of content
6. Overview of available literature
7. Schedule

Formal requirements for seminars, assignments and final projects

For an overview, you can use the script "Crash Course Scientific Work" (in German language only).

Basic information for writing scientific papers is provided on studium.utb.de.

Please, always use the “Leitfaden des Fachbereichs zur Erstellung von Abschlussarbeiten”

Direct quotations from other texts (including those you may have written or even published yourself) must be labeled. Usually this is done by using quotation marks and indicating the source in one of the recognized manners (German citation: footnote, US citation: brackets within the text).
In all illustrations, the source (at own illustrations relevant underlying data) is to be provided.
Passages at which you qoute, summarize or criticize other authors or sources, also must be identified by appropriate references. This serves not only for the comprehensibility and protects against suspicion of plagiarism, but is primarily a service for readers who then know where they can find the additional information. With a concise and explicit citation you also show your ability to work scientifically.

Your self-developed insights, arguments, ideas and reviews are the culmination of your work and should be recognizable, eg by corresponding chapter or section headings.

In the bibliography an alphabetically sorted overview of used sources, monographs, articles etc. is required. Also be aware of all relevant standards regarding the design of bibliographies.

A fundamental on scientific working in general and on citing in particular is provided by “Norbert Franck / Joachim Stary: Die Technik wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens (15. Auflage)” and other relevant miscellanies with similar titles.

As an online source http://www.wissenschaftliches-arbeiten.org/ (accessed last on 11/04/2017) gives a general overview.

The copying and pasting of texts passages from different websites and the creation of a remix from these texts is not an independent scientific achievement. If you don’t exactly label those used text passages (see also point 3 above) the impression of plagiarism quickly arises.

On this I recommend:

Roland Schimmel: Von der hohen Kunst ein Plagiat zu fertigen: Eine Anleitung in 10 Schritten, Münster 2011.

You will learn that creating a good rip-off, which narrows probability of getting caught, usually just requires as much effort as the independent scientific elaboration of a problem.

Bachelor / Master colloquium

In the colloquium, you should present the main results of your thesis. Please prepare an adequate visualization and a handout for your presentation. You can structure your presentation as follows:
1. Question / Hypothesis
2. Procedure and Methods
3. Results
4. Open Issues
5. To the extent possible: discussion of the criticisms in the report to your thesis
6. Personal conclusion

Your presentation should take about 15-20 minutes.