Writing a Geology Master's Dissertation: Procedures & Essential Elements, Exercises of Russian Culture

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Master’s dissertation:

Guidelines & procedure

Prof. dr. David Van Rooij

Prof. dr. Stijn Dewaele

2 nd^ Master of Science in Geology

1. General guidelines

Writing a dissertation (and its oral presentation) are essential components of the master program in Geology. In this document, you will find a series of general guidelines that will be useful for successfully completing this important aspect of your Master’s studies. As a consequence of the specialization or topic chosen by the student, certain aspects of the dissertation may have to comply with additional specific guidelines. The student should therefore contact his/her supervisor or tutor while writing the dissertation to accommodate these specific guidelines. Depending on the active corona-measures, modifications may be required with respect to the execution and reporting of the research activities. This will be communicated in due time through UFORA. A dissertation is the scientific report on a research project that you have performed independently. The activities that were essential to your research (literature review, data collection in the field or in the lab, processing and analysis of data, discussion and conclusions) should be clearly presented and logically organized in your manuscript. Therefore, the general structure of a dissertation contains the following essential elements:

• Cover page
• Preface – acknowledgements
• Table of contents
• Introduction ( including problem definition and research objectives )
• Research description
• Conclusions
• Reference list
• Appendix The Preface (or acknowledgements ) is used to thank individuals or organisations, and can be supplemented with some personal statements (motivation, experiences, etc.). It should not include scientific content such as problem definition of objectives and it can be written in a non-scientific style. A Table of Contents (TOC) should contain a balanced amount of entries: not too many and not too few. Titles and numbering of the TOC should of course match the text. If required, this may be followed by a Table of Figures and/or an abbreviation list. “The Story of my Research” is an optional initiative to describe, briefly but creative, to a broad audience (as if you would explain it to your colleagues), what you “loved” about your dissertation. This may deal with the reason behind your topic choice, the beauty of a specific method or the genius of your results. It is written in English, but can be in an informal, non-scientific writing style. For example, you may also add one figure which can serve as “graphical abstract”. This can either be one of the figures from your dissertation, or a new comprehensive figure. In any case, it is recommended this is a visually attractive figure (you may choose to make a cartoon... be creative!). You may even consider making a short movie on YouTube. All this could be used by us (with due reference) to illustrate the dissertation work of the students. This is a nice (non- mandatory!) extra to highlight your work for the larger audience, and may give you better odds to compete in awards such as Geologica Belgica , Belgian Committee for Hydrogeology or the Flemish dissertation Award (please contact your supervisor for more information). The Introduction contains the rationale and state-of-the-art of your research, leading to a clear definition of the research objectives. Here, you clearly explain the research questions that you will address, the hypothesis/hypotheses you will test, the strategy or approach that you will use, and why.

this is plagiarism. Do not use too many direct quotes. After all, the thesis should be your own work! More information about this is given in the “ Ethical Code Scientific Research in Belgium ”, which can be found on UFORA folder (Infosite Master of Science in Geology), under “Content” and “Info dissertations”. Additional information regarding writing a scientific text is offered through the UGent student portal (only in Dutch): http://www.ugent.be/student/nl/studeren/taaladvies/schrijven

2. Mandatory layout & content guidelines

• The body text of the manuscript (excluding reference list and appendices, but including figures) contains minimal 30 and maximum 60 pages of text in a normal font size (e.g. Arial 10) and clear line spacing (e.g. not less than 1,15).
• The layout of the front page should be strictly made according to the standard template, provided as a .docx template on “Info dissertations” on UFORA (infosite Master of Science in Geology). Any lay- out change will not be tolerated. In the start of May 202 2, you will be invited by the Faculty Student Administration to consult your supervisor and enter your dissertation title in OASIS by the end of May. This title will be confirmed during the meeting of the examination board meeting in April 2022, in consultation with your supervisor. Also make sure that in OASIS the name of your supervisor (and possibly supervisor) are correctly linked to your dissertation.
• The names of the jury members, will be announced after the April 202 2* meeting of the examination board. Please carefully copy the names and titles of the jury members.
• You are allowed to include a Dutch or English abstract (but this is not mandatory). This summary is provided prior to the introduction. Any failure in following these (simple) guidelines will lead to a rejection of the manuscript. This check will be performed after the submission deadline. When rejected, this means an automatic transfer to next examination session.

• In case the dissertation is planned for the 1st^ session (January), this information will be requested in advance.

3. Submission

The submission of your dissertation is only allowed when your supervisor agrees you can submit. Please make timely arrangements with your supervisor. In case of dispute, the student should contact the chairman or secretary of the examination board. The dissertation must be submitted, before the set deadline, uniquely as a pdf document (MSc_Name_20 22 .pdf) through the infosite of the dissertation on UFORA. You are automatically registered on this infosite (CMASTERPROEF – CX00023) if you have taken up your dissertation in your academic curriculum (this is not the infosite of the Master of Science in Geology). Prior to submission, please read the short manual through the link below;

https://www.ugent.be/student/en/ict/ufora/ufora-masterproef-eng.pdf

Please make sure your file is not too heavy (try to limit this to 100 Mb). You can possibly discuss with your supervisor if certain parts of your dissertation can be submitted as attachment (max. 800 Mb). Check with your supervisor whether confidentiality agreements apply to your study, and which options you should or should not tick when uploading your file(s). This is also valid for the choice if the dissertation (with or without embargo period) can be publicly accessible, through the Open Access option. The pdf version of the manuscript will be distributed to the jury members by the examination board. Failure to submit by the deadline will lead to a rejection of the manuscript; no late submissions will be tolerated. Because of the current Corona-reglementation, only a digital version of the dissertation is required; no hardcopies can be requested from the student. Students do not need to submit a printed version for the library. Submission deadlines : _1) First term exam period (first session)_*

• 10 January 2022 at 1 2 h00 latest: submission pdf version on UFORA 2) Second term exam period (second session)
• 30 May 2022 at 1 2 h00 latest: submission pdf version on UFORA 3) Resit exam period, (third session)
• 15 August 2022 at 1 2 h00 latest: submission pdf version on UFORA

• Submission & defence during the first term exam period is only allowed if all other credits for completing the Master of Science in Geology have been (or will be) obtained during this session, allowing to graduate after the deliberation session in February. This, however, needs to be requested in advance by the supervisor to the examination board. Failure to submit or to pass the dissertation will automatically lead to a next possibility to submit during the resit exam period in August – September.

5. Contact

Chairman Prof. dr. David Van Rooij UGent – Faculty of Sciences Department of Geology Campus Sterre, building S Krijgslaan 281, 9000 Gent 1 st^ floor, room 052 Tel.: 09 264 4583 E-mail: [email protected] Office of the Examination Board Secretary Prof. dr. Stijn Dewaele UGent – Faculty of Sciences Department of Geology Campus Sterre, building S Krijgslaan 281, 9000 Gent 1 st^ floor, room 0 31 Tel.: 09 264 46 18 E-mail: [email protected] Mr. Wim Lievens UGent – Faculty of Sciences Department of Geology Campus Sterre, building S Krijgslaan 281, 9000 Gent 1 st^ floor, room 0 24 Tel.: 09 264 45 98 E-mail: [email protected]