
- •International School of Economics and Politics
- •Methodological Recommendations
- •In writing and defending the final qualification papers (master thesis)
- •Saint-Petersburg
- •The master thesis requirements
- •Scientific supervision and consulancy
- •Compiling the working plan
- •Literature selection and acquaintance
- •The master thesis fulfillment
- •The final qualification paper formatting rules
- •Abbreviation rules
- •Formulas and symbol writing rules
- •Tables and figures formatting rules
- •The list of references formatting rules
- •The list of references example
- •References for the used literature resources formatting rules
- •Appendixes formatting rules
- •The Final qualification paper defense procedure The final qualification paper defense preparation
- •The final qualification paper defense order
- •Application
- •Calendar plan
- •Master Thesis Assessment
Scientific supervision and consulancy
The direct supervision of the final qualification paper is done by the 1st scientific supervisor.
The obligations of the 1st scientific supervisor:
- practical help to the master student in choosing the topic and making up its plan;
- help in choosing the research methods;
- consultancy on the literature and factual materials choice;
- systematic control over the completion of the master thesis according to the plan;
- assessment of the master thesis quality according to the common requirements (the feedback of the scientific supervisor);
- organizing the preliminary presentation of the thesis to reveal the readiness of the master student for the defense.
The scientific supervisors of the final qualification papers are the professors (associate professors) of SPbSUEF and Hamburg University, full- or part-time employees with the PhD or Doctor degree. One professor (associate professor) may be the 1st supervisor for not more than five final qualification papers.
The supervisor holds systematic planned consultancies, consults the master student regarding the content of the final qualification paper, assesses the content of the work, informs ISEP in case the master student does not meet the deadline, approves the defense possibility.
Consultants may be assigned to control the parts of the final qualification paper, connected to using of mathematical instruments as well as in cases when the topic has interdisciplinary character.
After finishing the final qualification paper the supervisor gives his written feedback, which shows the contribution of the master student and the outcomes of his work.
WRITING AND FORMATTING MASTER THESIS
Compiling the working plan
The working plan of the final qualification paper is compiled by the master student under the control of the 1st supervisor.
The first version of the plan should reflex the main idea of the final qualification paper. It should be finished by 31st of March of the 2nd year.
The working plan of the final qualification paper should be flexible. The changes in the plan may be connected to some corrections of the paper direction, which can be justified by the more detailed problem review or because either of the lack of information or additional theoretical or practical data, which could present new scope to the problem. All the changes in the plan of the final qualification paper must be approved by the 1st supervisor.
Literature selection and acquaintance
The literature selection should start just after the choice of the master thesis topic.
When doing the selection one should turn to thematical catalogues and bibliographic directories of both SPbSUEF and State public libraries, as well as Internet recourses.
When choosing the literature one should follow the rules:
- one should start with the literature on the theoretical aspects of the researched problem – monographs and scientific articles, after that one could turn to instruction materials (which are used in the latest publications only);
- when studying the literature, one should not tend to master the whole range of the material available, but to select only those resources which have the direct connection to the topic of the final qualification paper. The selection criterion is the usage of the literature in the final qualification paper;
- when studying foreign resources, one should mind the thorough extracts designing, so it would be easier to use it in the future;
- one should not fall apart, in case a part of the gained data turns to be useless – it’s a rare case when the data is used completely;
- one should direct one’s efforts to the latest data on the topic and the most reliable resources; when choosing the facts one should be critical.