Guidelines for MS Thesis

Indicative word limit for thesis: 12000-16000 Title: 14pt, Times New Roman, bold. Main body: 12pt, Times New Roman, 1.5 line spacing, justified on both sides. Heading 1: 12 pt, bold, ALL CAPS. Heading 2: 12pt, bold. Heading 3: 12 pt, italic. 1. Front Matter Words Limit

Approved title Table of contents

6-22

2. Introduction 800-1000 Background of the study Gaps

Research question (s) Research objective (s) Significant of the Study (both empirical and theoretical contributions) Proposed thesis structure 3. Literature review 3500-4500 Concepts & definitions Theoretical reflections

Critical analysis of the literature Indentify literature gap(s) pertaining to the topic under study Substantiating evidences from the literature 4. Proposed theoretical/conceptual framework

Research Framework (with full justification and theoretical foundation) Proposed research model (with diagram) Hypotheses (if a deductive approach is adopted)

1000-1500

5. Proposed Research Methodology 1700-2000 Research design (e.g. survey, case study, experiment etc.)

Sample design Population frame

Sample selection (with full justifications) Instrument development/selection Variables and their measures Treatment of scales Proposed data collection procedures (self-completion questionnaire etc.) Level of analysis Proposed data analysis techniques (with full justifications) Data Screening (missing values, outliers, and normality) Reliability and validity Hypothesis testing (e.g. regression and correlation) 6. Empirical Results

Relate results to previous research 1500-2000

7. Discussion, Conclusion, Implications, Limitations and future research directions

3500-4000

8. Reference list** (Harvard for in-test citations, tables, figures, and references)

9. Appendices 9.1 Questionnaire(s)

* Please be careful, while selecting research articles. Articles must be recent (i.e. from the last 5-10 year publication) selected from the highly respected journals. Avoid WebPages, and Wikipedia, etc. ** Citations should be cross referenced.