Master theses –

the supervisor‘s view

Prof. Dr. Sabine Gruber

Institute of Crop Science (340a: Agronomy)

30th November 2017

WE: want you to perform a proper scientific work.

YOU: learn how to think, work and write scientifically.

YOU: learn to work on yourselves.

WE: supervise you.

Our objectives

Get information from:

- Homepage of the institutes; for example Institute 340a on Ilias

- Bulletin board in the institutes

- Ask lecturers following to a lecture

- Write an email to possible supervisors

Not all topics are announced in English, though they are also available for international students

How to get a topic

How to get a topic

1. Literature work, or a practical work (field, laboratory, interviews etc.)? – there are advantages and disadvantages for both

2. Chose one or two topics from the list

3. Topics of your own are also often welcome

4. Contact the supervisor by Email or directly, and make an appointment

5. Do not come around to your supervisor without having any idea and background for the topic you have chosen

6. Not welcome at all: “I do not mind, I will take any topic you give me”

7. Fairness! Do not fix several topics with different supervisors at the same time

First steps

- Come with an idea

- Prepare a time schedule together with your supervisor:

• When do you want to finish the thesis?

• Are there external deadlines? (exmatriculation, visa, internship, scholarship, job offer…)

• Are there restrictions of growing season, laboratory capacities, healthy reasons, work load, examinations….)

• Make your own ideas first, and then ask the supervisor (mostly unwanted: “Please ma’am, I need your advice”)

- Get in contact with the technical staff

• Very important: they are not your servants, they are your technical supervisors

• Clean up the laboratory and other rooms after work by yourselves, we do not have servants!

Once you have fixed your topic

- Start with literature research as soon as possible – background!

- Statistics – don’t be afraid, it is necessary for proper evaluation

- Do not hesitate to ask – there is nothing worse and more stupid than making mistakes because you are afraid of asking!

- Do not fake results! Do not cover up errors!

- Repeat experiments if they failed

- It is a question of ethics to save your scientific integrity and to stay honest!

The supervisor will be disappointed and annoyed if you DO NOT disclose errors soon – rather than for making errors

Once you have fixed your topic

- Language!

• Germans speak "German English", you speak Chinese, Nigerian, Indian, French, Brazilian ...... "English"

• Technical staff members often do not speak English frequently – risk of misunderstanding!

• Try to train your German and English language skills

- Cultural background (in learning, in writing, in discussions etc.)

• Is a "YES" a "YES", or does it mean "MAYBE" or even "I DON’T KNOW"?

• In Germany, a YES means a YES. We consider it impolite or dishonest to say “maybe” and to mean: “no”.

• Please give direct and clear answers without hiding the actual meaning.

Typical problems emerging

1. We want you to collect information

2. We want you to demonstrate that you digest the information

3. We want you to use the information combined with further knowledge for new situations

Comparisons, advantages/disadvantages, useful under which conditions?, to be adapted according…….

Typical problems emerging

Writing your thesis

- There are rules for thesis writing (available e.g. on the homepage of institutes (e.g. 340a: hompage, and in ILIAS)

- REALLY consider these guidelines

- Attend a course in the library for literature research

- Attend courses for presentations, scientific writing etc.

- Organize yourself! YOU are responsible for your work and progress

- Beware of procrastination

and so on and so on….

Writing your thesis

Specific guidelines for literature theses (340a/Gruber)

Supervisors usually discuss your results with you

Some supervisors make a detailed check of one chapter and give comments and recommendations for the other chapters

But:

Proofreading of your manuscript is not a task of your supervisor!

Your supervisor does not give you an extra-lecture

Writing your thesis

What supervisors dislike

Actual lack of interest in the topic

Wasting time in detailed explanations why the work is delayed

Still obvious ignorance of the topic in the final phase of thesis writing

To consider comments/suggestions of the supervisor as personal offence, or to ignore suggestions

Emotional pleas for favors

To grow a “jungle” of problems

To look at the supervisor as a proofreader

To ask the supervisor for comments to the manuscript not earlier than one week before the submission deadline

Correct citation

You have to indicate citations by correct references!

Which sources are permitted for citation?

- Careful use of internet sources (wikipedia etc.). Only reliable, official sources (e.g. FAO statistics, governmental information etc.) permitted

- Focus on peer-reviewed journals for citation

- "Copy — paste" is not allowed! Your work will be checked for plagiarism

- We have software to detect plagiarism; if so: grade = F

Common mistakes in theses

Common mistakes in theses

Plagiarism

There isn‘t any threshold for percentage of similarity which is „permitted“ and not considered to be plagiarism.

The supervisors carefully check the similarity report and the manuscript, and verify whether or not facts of plagiarism are given, as defined for example in “How to avoid plagiarism” of Academic Writing Aid/University of Hohenheim.This is done case by case for each thesis.

Similarity cannot be completely avoided because each thesis includes the same declaration as other theses do, or because names of authors and the names of their publications in the list of references do never change. Therefore we check any indicated similarities and decide case by case for being plagiarism, or for being unavoidable.

Plagiarism

Re-writing of a text by changing some words until the software does not find similarity

= wrong and incorrect scientific approach

Correct: avoid plagiarism by correct and proper scientific work

Common mistakes in theses

Thesis text example:

“Our study indicated that seed depends on harvest time (Gulden et al., 2004a; Gruber and Claupein, 2007a; Haile and Shirtliffe, 2014)”

What is wrong with the quoting?The sentence shows the student’s result; the references in parentheses, however, imply that the authors of these other studies have written this sentence.

Here it would be necessary to write for example: “Our study indicated…, similar as shown by Gulden et al., 2004a; Gruber and Claupein, 2007a; Haile and Shirtliffe, 2014.

In general, only results or methods of other studies can be cited.

Common mistakes in theses

- "Tillage has a positive effect on weeds." (What is positive/negative here?)

- "Germination was better at 20°C." (Higher? Faster? More uniform? Be precise!)

- "Mycotoxins are poisonous." (Yes, that’s why they are called toxins)

- "Yiled" (instead of „yield“), or "filed" (Instead of “field”; there is a spellchecker in word, just use it)

- "Fig. 1 shows that…“;"It was found that… “ (Always avoid direct citation)

- "Germination is the most dangerous stage of a plant."

Some "nice" examples from theses:

Common mistakes in theses

- Is the information provided in a chapter in accordance with the aim of the study?

- What is important, what is minor/not important?(some people get lost in botanical or geographical details, though that’s not the topic of the thesis)

- Keep your hypotheses in mind!

- Give your manuscript a golden threat

- Mind the standards (style, grammar, technical terms, colour, fond size, formats; careful animation of the oral presentation)

Ignorance of the law is no excuse

Common mistakes in theses

Grading

Taken into consideration for the grading of a thesis, e.g.

- Grade of self-organisation, timing?

- Clear hypotheses?

- Methods: performance correct? Description reasonable, replicable?

- Form, style, grammar?

- Is the discussion reasonable? Are results scrutinized? Logic? New ideas?

- Summary: Quantification of the most relevant results necessary!

- Conclusions and outlook?

- References: correct? State of the art?

The end

We are looking forward to working with you!

..so far the dos and don’ts…

anyway: