Template for Academic Theses at TH Köln

Bachelor‘s/Master’s thesis for the award of the academic degree
Master/Bachelor of Arts/Engineering/Laws/Science
in the degree program <name of the degree program>
at the Faculty of <name of faculty>
of the Technische Hochschule Köln – University of Applied Sciences

Submitted by:	First name Last name
Matriculation no.:	011 000 007
Address:	Rheinstegstr. 104
50987 Cologne
name.surname@smail.th-koeln.de

Submitted to:	Prof. Dr. Heinrich Hanse
Second reviewer:	Prof. Dr. Marietta Meister

Place, dd.mm.yyyy

Abstract

A summary (if required) in German and/or English (abstract) comprises the presentation of the problem, the method(s) used and the most important result on about 1/2 to 1 page.

You can find out how to write a successful abstract in the seminars or by consulting the Writing Center of the Center for Soft Skills Development.

Key words/key phrases: if necessary, provide 3 to 10 key words.

Content

Abstract	I

List of Tables	III

List of Figures	IV

1	Introduction	1

2	Formal Structure	2

2.1	Sequence	2

2.2	Cover Page	2

2.3	Table of Contents	2

2.4	List of Figures and Tables	2

2.5	List of Abbreviations	3

2.6	Bibliography	3

2.7	Spelling, Grammar	3

2.8	Scope of the Thesis	3

3	Layout	3

3.1	Page Layout	4

3.2	Page Numbering	4

3.3	Header	4

3.4	Format of References	4

3.5	Font	4

3.6	Figures and Tables	5

3.7	Format Templates	5

3.8	Section Breaks	6

4	Quotations and References	7

4.1	Citing	7

4.1.1	References	7

4.1.2	Ibid	8

4.1.3	Secondary Citations	8

4.1.4	Citing Figures and Tables	8

4.2	Bibliography	9

4.2.1	Content and Order of the Bibliography	9

4.2.2	References in the Bibliography	10

Bibliography	11

Appendix	13

Declaration	14

List of Tables

Table 1: Sample table	6

List of Figures

Figure 1: Development since 2022	5

Figure 2: Quick styles and arrow click to the Styles palette	6

Figure 3: The Styles palette	6

Figure 4: Section breaks are visible when formatting symbols are displayed.	6

Figure 5: Explanation of the figure	9

Introduction

This document template can be used as a model for academic theses. It is based on guidelines created by Prof. Dr Stephan Freichel as Chairperson of the Examination Board for the B.Sc. Logistics and M.Sc. Supply Chain and Operations Management degree programs at the Faculty of Automotive Systems and Production.

The text in this template describes general formal requirements, in particular for the table of contents, the insertion of references and the compilation of a bibliography.

The template can be used interdisciplinary as a sample file for theses at TH Köln. However, when using it, you must make sure that it complies with the conventions of your degree program.

The content of the document was revised and modified by Maria-Anna Worth (retired) and Susanne Neuzerling (Department of Planning and Controlling) to make it suitable for use across all subjects. A further revision and update was carried out by Andreas Bissels (Writing Center). The document was translated by Lynne Lörler (Language Learning Center). The template was created in Microsoft Word 2024.

To prepare for your final thesis, we recommend that you take advantage of the services offered by the Writing Center of the Center for Soft Skills Development; these include both counselling and courses on academic writing. The Writing Center is your point of contact at TH Köln for questions relating to academic writing. Additionally, the Language Learning Center offers counselling on writing in English.

Please save this document template twice on your computer: once so that you can continue to access the content presented here, and a second time so that you can overwrite it with your own thesis.

Please note: This template does not supersede the specific requirements of the respective examination boards. If there are special formal requirements in your subject, these apply.

Cologne, November 2024

Formal Structure

In this chapter you will find basic information on the formal structure of your thesis.

Sequence

A scientific paper usually consists of the following parts:

Cover sheet

Abstract (optional)

Table of contents

List of figures and tables (also common at the end)

List of abbreviations (also common at the end)

Introduction

Main part

Summary/conclusion

Bibliography

Appendices (optional)

Declaration (may also come after the cover sheet)

Cover Page

The design of the cover page follows the visual guidelines for publications of TH Köln.

The cover page includes title of the thesis, type of thesis, author, matriculation number, submission date, supervisor and second reviewer. For theses longer than fifteen pages, the cover page is included in the number of pages but not numbered.

Table of Contents

We recommend a decimal structure as laid out in this document. If subheadings are used within a chapter, there must be at least two: where there is a 2.1, there must be a 2.2.

The table of contents always contains the page references for the listed items; however, it is not listed in the table of contents itself. The pages that the table of contents itself takes up can be counted in Roman numerals. More on this in chapter 3.2.

For a thesis, a structure of at least three levels is usually used. As a rule, only up to four levels are shown in the table of contents. However, you should definitely find out about and consider the conventions in your subject.

In this Word template, the table of contents for heading levels 1 to 3 is generated automatically (right-click on the table of contents > Update field > Update entire table).

List of Figures and Tables

Figures and tables are listed in corresponding directories. In this template, they appear directly after the table of contents. The corresponding pages can then be numbered in Roman numerals. However, the lists can also be placed at the end of the thesis before or after the bibliography. In this case, they are given regular page numbers. Index headings (e.g., list of figures) are never numbered (use Design Heading 1 unnumbered)

List of Abbreviations

The number of abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. The list of abbreviations only contains important subject-specific abbreviations in alphabetical order, in particular abbreviations of organizations, associations, or laws. Common abbreviations such as i.a., i.e., e.g., etc. are not included.

Bibliography

The bibliography is organized alphabetically by author name. It contains all sources cited in the text – and only these. Several writings by the same person are organized by year of publication. You must distinguish between writings by the same person from the same year of publication. In engineering, a number or author abbreviation is often placed before the name in square brackets. You can learn more about this and other important rules of citation in the Writing Center's e-learning courses.

Software tools such as Citavi or Zotero, which are compatible with various word processing programs, are suitable for managing the literature used.

Spelling, Grammar

When submitting your thesis, make sure that your German or English is flawless. If errors impair readability, this can have a negative impact on your grade. It is therefore essential that you use the spell checker in your word processing program, even if it does not detect all errors. In Word, you can edit and switch this on and off under File > Options > Proofing.

For anyone who feels unsure about this topic, we recommend the Writing Center's e-learning courses. If necessary, please also contact the representative for students with disabilities.

Scope of the Thesis

All subjects specify binding upper and lower limits that must generally be adhered to. Indexes and appendices are generally not counted. In individual cases – especially in the case of empirical work – deviating agreements can be made with the supervisor.

Layout

This chapter describes the design of this template in more detail.

Page Layout

Paper format: DIN A4, portrait format, single column

Layout: The document template is designed so that each sheet is only printed on the front side (Layout > Page setup > (small arrow) > Layout > Headers and footers > ["different odd and even": not checked]).

Page margins: top 2.5 cm; bottom 2.0 cm; left 3.5 cm (due to binding); right (correction margin) usually 2.5 cm. Please observe the requirements of your subject.

Page Numbering

This document template uses the variant with Roman and Arabic numerals: Here, all parts after the cover page and before the text part (i.e. declaration, foreword (if applicable), abstract (if applicable), table of contents, list of figures/tables and list of abbreviations (if applicable)) are paginated page by page with Roman numerals and the pages from the text part onwards with Arabic numerals.

The rules for page numbering are not uniform: page numbering often begins directly after the cover page with page 2.

The page numbers can be placed either bottom center, top center, or top right, but never on the cover page.

Header

This template has been set up so that the current heading of a chapter (level 1) is always displayed correctly in the headers of the corresponding pages. For this purpose, the field type "StyleRef" was inserted in Word (Insert > Text > Quick Parts > Field) to refer to the corresponding style of the chapter heading.

Format of References

Depending on the citation style, references can appear as footnotes, endnotes, or short references in the continuous text. The choice of the correct citation style always depends on your subject group and often even on the respective examiners. Word always offers more than ten updated citation styles as convenient format templates (References > Citations & Bibliography > Style). You can find many more citation styles in the reference management software Citavi.

Nevertheless, you should inform yourself thoroughly about correct citation in your subject. We recommend the Writing Center's e-learning courses as an introduction.

Font

The font in this document is Arial with a font size of 11 points. You can also choose another legible font, such as Times New Roman, but the font size should always be between 10.5 and 12 points.

The line spacing should be set to multiple: 1.3 to 1.5 times; in this document it is 1.32. The text alignment is justified in the text section and left-aligned in the directories.

Figures and Tables

Graphs and tables must be easy to understand and easy to read. It is therefore important that they adhere to the usual reading direction from top to bottom and from left to right. 3D diagrams that are available in Word should be avoided, if possible, as their relation to the axes is often unclear.

Figure 1: Development since 2022

Word can be used to automatically create lists of figures and tables. To do this, the tables and figures must be labeled using a Word command: Right-click on table/figure > Insert caption.

In this template, tables and figures are numbered continuously. Each figure and each table must be referenced in the text (see Figure 1).

The table format Table TH Köln with result line is available for tables (see Table 1). Proceed as follows: Select table > Table Design > Table Styles > Select table template "Table TH Köln with result line". To format the table text, there are the format templates Table text 9.5 pt (left-aligned, centered and right-aligned) and Table header TH.

Heading 1	Heading 2	Heading 3
ABC	123	457
DEF	414	63

Table 1: Sample table

Format Templates

Use the created style sheets! The appearance of the document is then uniform, coherent, structured and you work much more efficiently than with various local formatting. You can display the palette with all style sheets using the shortcut Shift + Ctrl + Alt + S ("S" for style). Alternatively, you can click on the small arrow at the bottom right of the Styles workspace (see Figures 2 and 3).

Figure 2: Quick styles and arrow click to the Styles palette

The template provides four heading levels, body text (= normal), bulleted and numbered lists, header/footer text, footnotes, captions, and table text as paragraph styles. Bold, italics, and the TH Köln colors have been defined as character styles.

Figure 3: The Styles palette

Section Breaks

If the page layout or the header for a specific section is to be changed – this would be the case, for example, with Roman page numbers before the text section – a section break is required: Layout > Breaks > Section Breaks. You can see the position of the section breaks by showing the special characters (formatting symbols): Home > Paragraph > click on "¶" (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Section breaks are visible when formatting symbols are displayed.

If further section breaks are inserted, always check that the headers and footers are correct.

Quotations and References

Third-party ideas must always be identified. Above all, they must be verifiable and findable. The technique of citing and referencing serves this purpose.

Different disciplines and degree programs follow specific citation conventions. Important information on common citation systems and styles can be found in the Writing Center's e-learning courses.

Citing

Please always decide on the citation style at the beginning and do not change it.

Quotation marks ("...") are used to indicate text passages taken verbatim.

If your citation already contains a quotation, you must replace the "double quotation marks" in the text with ‘single quotation marks’. Please do not confuse these with the apostrophe or the inch sign on your keyboard. The keyboard shortcuts for correct quotation marks and other special characters are listed in Typefacts.

References

A reference source must be created for all citations. The reference source is a short notation in the citation style which refers to the complete reference in the bibliography. References can be made either in the continuous text (Anglo-American citation style or Harvard style) or via a footnote at the bottom of the page or in an endnote at the end of the entire text. The different conventions that apply here must be adhered to.

If you opt for short references in the text flow or for endnotes, the footnote area can be used for comments and for references to passages in your own text.

Note the positions of superscripts and punctuation marks:

If the literal quotation itself ends with a period, this is placed before the closing quotation mark. The superscript then follows directly afterwards without a space. A period for the sentence itself is then omitted.

If the literal quotation does not end with a period, there are two cases. If the quotation is in the middle of your own sentence, the superscript follows directly after the quotation marks. If the quotation is at the end of your own sentence, the quotation marks come first, then your own period and only then the superscript.

To ensure that the source references remain unambiguous even if several short titles or years of an author have the same name, the years are given an additional small letter. This often only occurs towards the end of the work. It can therefore help to add a provisional short title to the year when preparing the manuscript. In the final phase, this can be exchanged or removed by searching/replacing via the text processing program.

Ibid

Word processing programs make referencing via ibid superfluous, as you are no longer forced to type out the same information repeatedly. If you nevertheless decide to use this method (e.g., on the advice of your examiner), we strongly recommend that you only insert ibid in the final editorial phase, as the references are only clear then.

Secondary Citations

Secondary quotations are quotations from an author without having obtained information about the context from the original source. Secondary citations are only permitted if the original source cannot be obtained. In the case of generally accessible scientific literature, secondary quotations should be avoided at all costs. If it is not possible to compare a quotation with the original text, then you should use cited after (followed by the source from which the quotation was taken) or cited in. This occurs, for example, when quoting facts from textbooks on the history of science.

Citing Figures and Tables

The same guidelines apply here as for text citations, i.e., here too there are verbatim and modified reproductions. In the case of verbatim reproductions, you can reproduce an illustration exactly, e.g., in PowerPoint or a drawing/vector program. Copyright must be considered when scanning; this is only permitted if the author or publisher has granted permission – usually for a fee. In this case, the source reference must be structured in the same way as for a literal quotation. In the case of own changes, an addition must be added to the source reference (e.g., with minor changes, with own calculations, etc.).

Because graphs are often copied, it is advisable to mark your own graphs or illustrations as such.

In table and figure captions, the source is always given directly under the figure and not in a footnote or endnote. However, the source information does not belong in the list of figures and tables. To ensure that the source information is not automatically transferred to a directory, you must therefore insert a formatting change by pressing the Enter key before the source information and then, before the newly inserted paragraph marker, the key combination Ctrl + Alt + Enter (see the figure caption in Figure 5).

Figure 5: Explanation of the figure

(source: Mustermann 2014, p. 59)

Bibliography

The layout of the mandatory bibliography is explained below.

Content and Order of the Bibliography

In the bibliography, all publications used are listed in alphabetical order by author name. The bibliography must include all sources cited in the text, but no additional sources. If works are published not only in printed form but also electronically, the bibliography should follow the printed version unless the digital document has a fixed document number (DOI). If a book abbreviation is used in the references in the text section instead of the title, this should also be indicated in the bibliography.

Several works published by one author within one year must be differentiated. For the short titles in the text, the years must therefore be distinguished by appending lower case letters. However, the year in the source citation remains unchanged without appended letters. The order of a, b, c etc. depends on the order of the source references. Whether first names are abbreviated or written out in full depends on the conventions of your subject. However, please remain consistent.

The complete bibliography always ends with a period. Two periods or a comma and period are never used directly after each other.

References in the Bibliography

The order in which bibliographical references are listed depends on the type of document and on subject-specific conventions. The order for monographs is different from the order for journal articles, and the order is again different in chemistry from in the humanities or mathematics. There are also no uniform guidelines for punctuation.

The data of a bibliography can be found on the title page of a book. This is not the book cover, but a printed page at the beginning of the book with the most essential information identifying the work and book. First, the author or editor is named together with the title, followed by publication and printing information such as the publisher, place and year of publication. Although there is a DIN rule for title labeling, it is interpreted very differently.

In the Writing Center's e-learning courses you will find further information on the bibliographic information for different types of publications. The following list of literature is just one example of a possible format.

Bibliography

Start the bibliography on a new page and in a new section. The heading is not numbered. Note any distinctive features such as author abbreviations, leading or trailing years or similar.

Ahrens, Volker (2019): Abschlussarbeiten richtig gliedern in Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Wirtschaft. 2nd edition. Zürich: vdf.

Berger, Doris (2010): Wissenschaftliche Arbeiten in den Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften. Hilfreiche Tipps und praktische Beispiele. Wiesbaden: Gabler.

Brun, Georg/Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude (2021): Textanalyse in den Wissenschaften. Inhalte und Argumente analysieren und verstehen. 4th, revised and updated edition. Zürich: vdf Hochschulverlag.

Dahinden, Urs/Sturzenegger, Sabrina/Neuroni, Alessia (2014): Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten in der Kommunikationswissenschaft. 2nd corrected and updated edition. Bern: Haupt.

Ebel, Hans/Bliefert, Claus (2009): Bachelor-, Master- und Doktorarbeit. Anleitungen für den naturwissenschaftlich-technischen Nachwuchs. 4th edition. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.

Eco, Umberto (2010): Wie man eine wissenschaftliche Abschlußarbeit schreibt. 13th edition. Wien: facultas.

Esselborn-Krumbiegel, Helga (2017): Von der Idee zum Text. Eine Anleitung zum wissenschaftlichen Schreiben. 5th, updated edition. Paderborn: Schöningh.

Franck, Norbert (2019): Handbuch Wissenschaftliches Schreiben. Eine Anleitung von A bis Z. Paderborn: Schöningh.

Frank, Andrea/Haacke, Stefanie/Lahm, Swantje (2007): Schlüsselkompetenzen: Schreiben in Studium und Beruf. Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler.

Fröhlich, Melanie/Henkel, Christiane/Surmann, Anna (2017): Zusammen schreibt man weniger allein. (Gruppen-)Schreibprojekte gemeinsam meistern. Opladen, Toronto: Budrich.

Göttert, Karl-Heinz (2002): Kleine Schreibschule für Studierende. 2nd edition. München: Fink.

Hirsch-Weber, Andreas, Scherer, Stefan (2016): Wissenschaftliches Schreiben und Abschlussarbeit in Natur- und Ingenieurwissenschaften. Stuttgart: Eugen Ulmer.

Karmasin, Matthias/Ribing, Rainer (2019): Die Gestaltung wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten. Ein Leitfaden für Facharbeit/VWA, Seminararbeiten, Bachelor-, Master-, Magister- und Diplomarbeiten sowie Dissertationen. 10th, revised and updated edition. Wien: facultas.

Kipman, Ulrike/Leopold-Wildburger, Ulrike/Reiter, Thomas (2018): Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten 4.0. Vortragen und Verfassen leicht gemacht. 3rd edition. Berlin: Springer.

Kremer, Bruno P. (2018): Vom Referat bis zur Abschlussarbeit. Naturwissenschaftliche Texte perfekt produzieren, präsentieren und publizieren. 5th, updated and expanded edition. Berlin: Springer Spektrum.

Kruse, Otto (2018): Lesen und Schreiben. Der richtige Umgang mit Texten im Studium. 3rd revised and expanded edition. Konstanz, München: UVK/Lucius.

Kühtz, Stefan (2021): Wissenschaftlich formulieren. Tipps und Textbausteine für Studium und Schule. 6th, updated and expanded edition. Paderborn: Schöningh.

Lange, Ulrike (2018): Fachtexte lesen, verstehen, wiedergeben. 2nd revised edition. Paderborn: Schöningh.

Niederhauser, Jürg/Dudenredaktion (2019): Die schriftliche Arbeit. Für Schule, Hochschule und Universität. 3rd edition. Berlin: Dudenverlag.

Oertner, Monika/St. John, Ilona/Thelen, Gabriele (2014): Wissenschaftlich Schreiben. Ein Praxisbuch für Schreibtrainer und Studierende. Paderborn: Schöningh.

Prexl, Lydia (2019): Mit digitalen Quellen arbeiten. Richtig zitieren aus Datenbanken, E-Books, YouTube und Co. 3rd updated and revised edition. Paderborn: Schöningh.

Prexl, Lydia (2022): Alles, was Ingenieur:innen über Deutsch wissen müssen. München: UVK.

Schaller, Jan (2020): Papierlos studieren. Wissenschaftlich arbeiten in digitalen Zeiten. Opladen, Toronto: Budrich.

Scheuermann, Ulrike (2016): Schreibdenken. Schreiben als Denk- und Lernwerkzeug nutzen und vermitteln. 3rd, revised edition. Opladen, Toronto: Budrich.

Schindler, Kirsten (2011): Klausur, Protokoll, Essay. Kleine Texte optimal verfassen. Paderborn u.a.: Schöningh.

Stier, Mona (2015): Jenseits der Hausarbeit: Die vielen kleinen Textsorten des Hochschulalltags. In: JoSch. Journal der Schreibberatung 9, pp. 82-87.

Voss, Rödiger (2022): Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten … leicht verständlich. 8., überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. München: UVK.

Wolfsberger, Judith (2016): Frei geschrieben. Mut, Freiheit & Strategie für wissenschaftliche Abschlussarbeiten. 4th, edited edition. Wien, Köln, Weimar: Böhlau Verlag.

Wymann, Christian (2021): Der Schreibzeitplan: Zeitmanagement für Schreibende. 2nd, revised edition. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Budrich.

Appendix

Start the appendix on a new page and in a new section. The heading itself is not numbered.

Declaration

I declare that I have written this thesis independently. I have acknowledged all passages taken verbatim or in spirit from published or unpublished works of others or from the author himself/herself. All sources and aids that I have used for the thesis are indicated. The thesis has not been submitted to any other examination authority with the same content or in essential parts.

Note: In some degree programs, the declaration can be found directly after the cover sheet of the thesis.

Place, date

Signature