Theme identification: Own ideas for theses

Usually it is beneficial for students if they have their own ideas for theses, because this way they can decide on their own if the theme is appropriated and interesting for them. Moreover, they have the possibility to get used to the subject of their thesis.

Relevant aspects that do not depend on a specific theme:

It might be helpful to read the chapter 4 for the decision of a selection and the demarcation of a theme: "Positionierung von Studienarbeiten". Especially the subchapters 4.2 "Zugang zum Thema einer Studienarbeit" and 4.3 "Formulierung der zentralen Frage" in (Disterer 2014, S. 41-48) might be interesting for you.

Disterer G (2014) Studienarbeiten schreiben. Seminar-, Bachelor-, Master- und Diplomarbeiten in den Wirtschaftswissenschaften. 7. Aufl. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-55367-7 

Buch bei Springerlink - Free access if you use the network of the university (e. g. you can use a VPN connection)

In detail, these chapters are about the selection of a theme for a thesis in context to the degree course. Furthermore, it is about concrete questionings for scientific work.

Selection of a subject area

There are different sources for the identification of an appropriated theme for a thesis. Journals and specialist magazines are very common sources for this purpose. It might be useful to read the table of contents of recent magazines and journals to find some interesting titles as a starting point for the identification of a theme for your thesis. This approach is also applicable to conference papers of relevant conferences of the subject. If you spot some interesting papers, you should pay attention to the last page of a chapter where you often can find a description of concrete tasks for further research. You can also consider the “Call for Papers” which represents a call for research themes for magazines and conferences of the future. This kind of research gives you an overview of the current research needs of the subject. 

You can find an overview of magazines and conferences for the subject of business informatics at the website of business informatics in Germany .

Concrete approach:

This kind of approach is pragmatic, but also effective, because it enables you to achieve relevant results in a short period

1. Title analysis:
   1. Open the last three editions of the magazines BISE, HMD and MISQ
      • Only read the table of contents and open all papers that are relevant for you in a new browser tab
   2. Open the last editions of the conferences WI and MKWI and get an overview of submitted papers for tracks that are relevant for you
      • Only read the titles of the papers and open all papers that are relevant for you in a new browser tab
2. Abstract analysis:
   • Read the abstract of each paper and close all tabs that are not interesting for you
3. Paper analysis:
   • There should be about 2 or 4 papers that remain. Read these papers completely

The performance of step 1 and 2 probably will not keep you busy for more than 2 or 3 hours and you will get a comprehensive overview of recent research themes.

If you do not have enough papers in step 3, you can repeat the process with additional papers or the “Call for Papers”.

If you have too many papers, you can eliminate these papers by overviewing them again (especially have a look at the introduction, the results and further research).

Selection of an appropriated supervisor for your theme

For the selection of an appropriated supervisor, you should get an overview of current research areas, former and current supervised theses of our staff members. 

Exposé

An exposé illustrates the scheme for bachelor and master theses. The following literature might be useful for the creation of your exposé and the selection of relevant content.

Kersken, M (2009) Anleitung zur Erstellung eines Exposees - Zur systematischen Planung einer Haus- oder Abschlussarbeit. (https://www.uni-due.de/imperia/md/content/politik/anleitung_exposee.pdf

Obviously, an exposé cannot be devoted to all the questionings of a bachelor or master thesis, but it should always have a focus on it. 

If you need a template for the creation of your exposé, you are welcome to use this MS Word template or the LaTeX class udesoftec with the class option “proposal”.