Information on Final Theses

Allocation and Supervision of Final Theses at the Chairs of Business Information Systems

The allocation of final theses is carried out through a standardized application procedure, which has been defined as mandatory both for capacity reasons and to ensure equal treatment of all students. Advertised topics from the Professorships of Business Information Systems I & II are available for thesis work. These topics are allocated with priority according to research interests and should be considered by all applicants with at least one topic proposal. In addition, you have the option of submitting up to two topic proposals of your own.

Further formal documents listed below must be attached to the topic proposals and submitted as a complete application.

Please apply only if you are willing to register your final thesis within three months.

Topic Selection and Topic Development

Recommendation

The topic description in the abstract contributes significantly to our ability to assess whether the research question is of interest to our chairs, whether you have sufficiently familiarized yourself with advertised topics before applying, and whether you appear suitable to successfully work on the topic. Especially in the case of advertised topics, you should expect that other students may also apply for the topic you prefer. The more thoroughly you engage with the topic in advance, formulate the objective and motivation, delimit the topic as a research question in Business Information Systems, and list initial literature, the greater your chance that your preferred topic will be assigned to you. Since you must also expect that advertised topics may not be assigned to you, it is advisable to submit your own carefully developed topic proposal as well.

Information on Final Theses in Cooperation with Companies

We support topic proposals developed in cooperation with companies and, if suitable, also treat them with priority. To ensure efficient further processing, we ask you to observe the application deadlines for the general documents even for final theses in cooperation with companies. Since company processes are often difficult to align with our application timetable, you may submit the topic proposals at a later date. However, a rough topic description and/or general direction is helpful in this case as well, so that work on the thesis can begin promptly at a later stage.

Please observe the following points when preparing topic proposals:

• It is not a project assignment: The thesis must meet academic standards and must not merely consist of the implementation of a solution.
• It is not contract research: The thesis must have a degree of generalizability, at least with regard to a specific industry, and must therefore be transferable to other companies.
• The chair does not sign non-disclosure agreements. A confidentiality notice in the thesis is possible. The inclusion of such a confidentiality notice can be confirmed to the company in writing.

Application Documents

Please submit your application by email or in paper form to the secretary’s office with the following documents. Please complete the documents electronically or typed, NOT by hand:

• Application form
• 1 to 3 topic proposals — preferably with prioritization — including at least one proposal from the list of advertised topics
• Curriculum vitae in tabular form
• Current transcript of records and overview of academic achievements

Only applications that are submitted in full, including items 1–4, can be considered for topic allocation.

Your topic proposal must include an abstract. Abstracts are precise short summaries of the content of the thesis. Clearly delimit your problem statement. Explain why the topic is relevant from the perspective of Business Information Systems and support the problem statement with sources that substantiate the relevance of the topic. Broadly speaking, your abstract should include the following points: motivation and problem statement of the topic, description of the objective of the thesis, description of the thesis artifact, and explanation of the methodological means to be applied. In terms of length, one page is appropriate.

Application Deadlines

All applications for the allocation of final theses may be submitted by the first Wednesday of each quarter, i.e. every first Wednesday in January, April, July, and October, by 24:00.

Timeline

1. Application

All applications for the allocation of final theses may be submitted by the first Wednesday of the first month of each quarter. Applications submitted after this date can only be considered in the allocation process of the following quarter. The relevant documents can be found under the section “Application Documents”.

2. Topic Allocation

We strive to process your applications as quickly as possible. We will inform you approximately one week after the application deadline whether your application has been accepted and which supervisor you have been assigned to. Suggestions may also be made in this regard in the application form. For capacity reasons, we cannot guarantee that every application will be accepted. We also reserve the right to reject unsuitable topic proposals.

3. Preparation Period

1–4 weeks: If your application is successful, please contact your supervisor and arrange an appointment for an initial informational meeting. At this meeting, you and your supervisor will discuss the topic and delimit the expected content. Prepare well for this meeting by independently searching for and using literature. Send your supervisor an outline of your ideas, a draft exposé — which may be based on the topic proposal already submitted — and a proposal for the possible structure of the thesis in good time before the meeting.

Please note that during this phase we reserve the right to suspend the supervision of final theses if there is unjustified inactivity for more than three months. In this case, you must apply again if you wish to continue working on the thesis at a later date.

4. Registration

After confirmation of the exposé by the supervisor, the final thesis must be registered with the examination office.

5. Processing Period

During the processing period of 9 or 16 weeks, there is the opportunity to discuss the structure of the thesis as well as formal aspects and, to a limited extent, substantive aspects. For this purpose, you may ask your supervisor specific follow-up questions. Here, too, your commitment is required. Prepare well for these discussions.

6. Submission of the Thesis

The timely submission of 2 copies as well as an electronic version of the thesis to the examination office is expected. Please observe the opening hours. In addition, please also provide your supervisor with the thesis in electronic form, either as a Word or PDF file, together with all electronic sources.

7. Oral Defense

After approximately 2 to 6 weeks, the author defends the final thesis in the form of a presentation of 20 minutes followed by a discussion.

8. Announcement of the Grade

The grades are announced after the oral defense.