Theses in Business Information Systems – Process and Supervision

The individual steps are explained in more detail below.

Student Request

The initial phase is your request for a topic. This request should be submitted via the contact form at https://web.wi2.uni-trier.de/abschlussarbeit/en/ (available only from the university network). The form requests the most important information needed to identify a suitable thesis topic. Please also provide information about any preliminary discussions regarding a possible topic that has already taken place. After submitting the form, you will automatically receive a confirmation email listing the information you submitted. Please check this information for completeness. If you have forgotten any information or would like to add something later, you can send it by email to abschlussarbeitweb.wi2.uni-trierde. Each request is checked by the members of Business Information Systems and processed internally; open questions will be clarified with you directly. Please allow a processing time of up to 14 days for a response and refrain from asking about the processing status during this period. During semester breaks, processing may take longer due to limited availability. Questions about the processing status should also be sent to abschlussarbeitweb.wi2.uni-trierde. If you have already agreed on a specific topic with a supervisor, you do not need to complete the contact form.

Topic Selection and Supervisor Assignment 

Based on the current research topics and projects of the research groups, one or more topic proposals are prepared, and a supervisor is assigned to the respective topic. Your stated preferences regarding a project, supervisor, or subject area will be considered as far as possible.

Further communication then takes place directly between the supervisors and you. In particular, the respective topic proposal will be presented to you by the supervisors and explained in more detail in a personal meeting. All content-related and organizational questions can be clarified there. After a reflection period of no more than two weeks, you should make a binding decision for one of the topics offered. If we do not receive a timely response from you regarding a topic proposal, the corresponding topics will no longer be reserved for you and may be assigned elsewhere. Alternatively, you may of course also contact the computer science chairs of the Department of Computer Science to inquire about possible thesis topics.

Exposé Preparation

Once you have decided on a topic, the preparation of the exposé begins. We ask you to prepare an exposé to ensure 

1. that you have understood what your thesis comprises and know how you should proceed with the elaboration of your topic over the next few weeks, and

2. that the supervisor and the examiners can ensure a shared understanding of your topic and a shared expectation regarding its design.

You have a maximum of six weeks to complete the exposé. If the preparation of the exposé takes longer without an apparent reason and without noticeable progress, we will no longer reserve the topic for you and may assign it elsewhere. At this point, our supervision of the topic will end. During the preparation of the exposé, your supervisor will support you by providing feedback on the drafts you submit. Once your exposé is satisfactory, your supervisor will approve the official registration of the thesis.

Thesis Registration

The registration of the thesis marks the official start of the working period. Before registration, you must complete a consent form. This consent form defines various aspects related to the thesis, such as an additional right to use the results of the thesis within projects and by the members of Business Information Systems. You will receive the relevant form from your supervisor. Official registration of the thesis with the HPA is not possible without a completed consent form.

In the next step, the thesis must be registered with the HPA using an official document. In Business Information Systems, we deviate from the official procedure:

1. You ask the responsible advisor at the HPA for the official document for registering the thesis. To do so, simply send an email to that advisor. A list of the advisors can be found here.

2. You print out the form, complete it by hand, and send a scan to the supervisor. The supervisor checks whether the information is correct or whether any data is incorrect.

3. Once the document has been completed correctly, the official registration process begins. To do this, send an email to your advisor at the HPA. The registration form is attached, and the email text asks for the registration of this thesis. The first and second examiners are included in CC. After the two examiners have received the email, they reply to the advisor and confirm their examination role. As a rule, the advisor then confirms the registration of the thesis with the start date and communicates the submission deadline.

Working on the Thesis

The supervision process during the thesis work is highly individual and depends on the topic, the organizational framework, and the thesis supervisor. Content-related and organizational aspects should be clarified directly with the supervisor. Your supervisor will support you in conducting the thesis and provide recommendations and assistance, for example with implementation. We therefore strongly recommend holding regular meetings with the supervisor at intervals of at least four weeks.

The thesis work ends with the official submission to the HPA. The assessment by the examiners then begins. As a rule, the assessment process should be completed within six weeks.

Colloquium Conduction

The colloquium is the final part of the thesis. In it, you present the results of your work in a presentation of no more than 20 minutes, followed by an oral examination. The colloquium is intended to show whether you have critically engaged with the topic and research question of the thesis and whether you have understood them. The formal requirements for the colloquium are set out in the examination regulations that apply to you. Depending on the examination regulations, the colloquium is either graded or ungraded. The colloquium takes place after submission of your thesis and is scheduled as part of the monthly colloquium dates regularly announced by email. Please contact your supervisor to arrange the exact date.

Exposé Structure

The exposé that you prepare for your thesis should not exceed six pages including the list of references. Please follow the following structure:

1. Title:
Think of a working title for the thesis. This must be stated on the registration form. The final wording of the title may differ (slightly) from the working title. Please note that the title of the thesis is listed on the final degree certificate, so it is worth thinking carefully about the wording of the title.

2. Introduction:
In the introduction, describe the initial situation/problem statement and briefly address the relevant foundations. This section introduces your topic.

3. Research Question – Content Requirements:
After the introduction, describe the research question that your thesis aims to answer. If possible, try to formulate the hypotheses that you intend to investigate as part of the thesis. Please also motivate why this research question is of interest at all.
The objective defines the focus of the thesis. It determines which foundations are relevant and provides the content-related justification for the procedure explained below.

4. Methodology and Procedure:
In this section, explain the basic methodology you will use to answer the research question and how you intend to proceed. Describe the individual steps you will carry out and how one step influences the next. For example, you might first conduct a literature study on certain topics from a particular perspective. Building on this, you could then develop a concept, for example for a study or a software-based solution. You may implement your concept in whole or in part and/or evaluate it theoretically or empirically.
We know that you cannot already plan all steps in detail in the exposé, but we want you to assess the complexity of your topic correctly before beginning the thesis. Therefore, please also identify possible decisions that you can only make during the later work. Please note that presenting the structure of the written thesis is not part of the procedure. This is described separately below.

5. Draft Structure:
Draft a first rough structure for the thesis and describe in bullet points under each section what you intend to cover there. We do not specify a fixed page count for the thesis; this may vary from thesis to thesis. 

6. Schedule:
Add a schedule to the exposé that shows when you plan to carry out each step of the described procedure and what period each step covers. Individual steps may of course overlap. Do not forget the time required for the actual writing of the text. Take foreseeable additional study-related burdens into account, such as upcoming exam preparation. Experience shows that a Gantt chart is suitable for presenting the schedule.

7. References:
Use the literature you have found and worked through as sources already when preparing the exposé. Include corresponding references in the text. We do not prescribe a specific format for the list of references or citation style, but we expect you to apply one citation style consistently.

General Information

Working Environment and Location

The research question of a thesis is often directly connected to research projects conducted at the chair and requires the use of the infrastructure and working environment of the respective chair. The computer equipment required for the thesis will be provided by the chair. Unless there are reasons to the contrary, you may of course also use your private computer in part to work on the thesis.

Please note, however, that short-term coordination with the supervisor is often required. We therefore strongly recommend keeping your place of residence in Trier until the thesis has been completed. Remote supervision of a thesis is possible only in exceptional cases.

Use of AI-Based Tools

AI tools such as ChatGPT may be used as support tools while working on the thesis, unless the supervisors explicitly exclude this use. This includes the written elaboration as well as modeling and programming activities.

In principle, the requirements of the Declaration of Academic Integrity must be observed (see below under "Formatting of the Written Thesis"). It must be included with the submission. By signing it, you confirm that all genAI-generated text passages are clearly marked and that a list of support tools used, in particular all AI tools used, is included. Violations of these requirements are considered attempted deception under examination regulations.

The generation and adoption of text from genAI on a larger scale (entire chapters or paragraphs) contradicts the requirement to provide an independent academic contribution and is not permitted. Write all texts independently.

You may use genAI to have your own text evaluated or to generate suggestions for improvement. Critically question the feedback and decide consciously in each individual case which changes you want to adopt. Do not carry out blanket improvements to entire paragraphs.

Text improvements made with genAI do not need to be documented by citations or footnotes if they are limited to purely linguistic and formal editing of your own content (e.g., spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, stylistic smoothing) without introducing new subject-specific content.

A source reference in the form of a footnote or citation is always required when genAI adds new content or expands existing content, changes or supplements an academic statement or conclusion, or significantly changes the basic structure of the presentation of content and thus the academic argumentation.

Generative AI can be used in particular for programming. However, the basic structure of the software must be your own contribution and must not be the result of genAI. AI support integrated into programming environments, such as code completion, may be used without marking every individual usage. genAI may be used only for individual, clearly delimited code fragments, modules, or functions, not to create the entire program. Generated program code must be critically questioned and fully understood in detail. Test the program code thoroughly and ensure that code and description are consistent in your academic thesis.

We additionally refer to the handout “Rules for Tools” by Prof. Dr. Spannagel (Heidelberg University of Education) and to the “CEUR-WS Policy on AI-Assisting Tools”. Recommendations for the appropriate use of genAI in academic work can be found in the document "Guide of Business Information Systems to the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Writing".

Your truthful disclosure of genAI use will be checked and documented by the supervisors during supervision meetings or review meetings as well as in the colloquium. Furthermore, the supervisor is entitled to invite you to a review meeting after submission of the thesis to clarify uncertainties regarding your own contribution and the truthful disclosure of genAI use. Please note that program code submitted as part of the thesis is part of the examination work and is therefore treated under examination law in the same way as submitted text. The above provisions apply accordingly to all materials and documents submitted in connection with the thesis, such as concept presentations, questionnaires, or further appendices.

Preparing for and Following up on Meetings

Your thesis supervisor will hold several meetings with you during the preparation and execution of the thesis. Please prepare carefully for these meetings so that you can use the supervision time as effectively as possible. For example, you can prepare an agenda for the meeting and send it to your supervisor in advance by email. It could include the current status, i.e., what you have achieved since the last meeting, what problems have occurred (possibly with proposed solutions), and how you assess the progress of the thesis in relation to the schedule. Please take notes during each meeting on our comments and especially on the decisions that have been made (audio recordings are not permitted). Writing a short bullet-point record of the main meeting contents shortly after a meeting can help with follow-up work. We recommend sending this record by email to your supervisor to ensure a shared understanding of the points discussed. This allows the supervisor to point out any ambiguities if necessary.

Supervisors are free to conduct review meetings during supervision appointments in order to verify the student's own work. This is done in particular if there is an impression that generative AI was used without marking or if there are uncertainties regarding the understanding of the content. Such review meetings are documented in writing.

Document Exchange

When you email documents to your supervisor, please observe the following:

• Please send the document in PDF format.

• Documents should generally include page numbers.

• Please name the file so that the date, your surname, and the document content are clear from the file name, e.g., BA_Meier_Expose_20251030.pdf.

• Please include the file name in the header or footer of the document.

Formatting of the Written Thesis

In principle, there is no fixed formatting requirement. You should follow academic standards and use consistent formatting. You are free to choose which word processing program (Word or LaTeX) you use. You are welcome to use the LaTeX template provided by Business Information Systems. Please note that the chapter structure is only intended as guidance and must be adapted to your own needs.

Please ensure that your submission includes a Declaration of Academic Integrity, signed, including consent to plagiarism checking. The corresponding template can be found here in German or English. An example of the required list of AI tools can be found on our website. If no AI was used at all, you must also confirm this in a usage declaration.

Please also refer to the Guide to Academic Writing.

Further Information

Further information on writing bachelor's or master’s theses at Trier University can also be found here:

INFORMATION ON BACHELOR'S / MASTER'S THESES – Trier University: https://www.uni-trier.de/en/universitaet/verwaltung/abteilung-ii-studentische-angelegenheiten-1/hochschulpruefungsamt-hpa/registration-of-bachelor-and-master-thesis