MALK5000 Master's Thesis Course description

The master’s program final exam is an independently written thesis in the form of a scientific paper. Ideally, this work should be in preparation from the time when the student starts in the program. The candidates choose their own topics for the thesis. Theses may be written about topics from research projects run by faculty, or about projects from public and private institutions and business organizations.

All courses must be completed with pass grades and all coursework requirements must be approved before the candidate may submit the master’s thesis.

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes classified as knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student

• can analyze and critically assess the scientific work of others
• can choose and apply relevant methods of data collection for research or scientific inquiry

Skills

The student

• can demonstrate working knowledge of the ethical and technical principles that govern scientific research and publication, including international citation and reference standards
• can demonstrate that they can conduct a supervised research project in accordance with research ethics guidelines and regulations, and guidelines from relevant governmental bodies (i.e. The Norwegian Data Protection Authority, relevant Norwegian Research Ethics Committees and so on)
• can write a thesis according to criteria determined by the university
• can critically assess the results of his own work
• can critically assess various sources of information

Competence

The student

• can participate and promote the development of behavioral Sciences
• can justify their professional behavior with reference to ethical guidelines, general ethical considerations and their own assessment of the situation
• can analyze and critically assess various sources of information with relevance for the thesis

The thesis outline and thesis are individual work. Submission of thesis outline is required before a supervisor is appointed. Thesis outline must be submitted the semester before thesis submission at the latest. Thesis outlines can be submitted repeatedly, until approval is granted.

Each candidate gets a maximum of 30 hours of supervision during the thesis work. If a non- faculty supervisor is appointed, resources are divided by 2/3 of the time for the main supervisor and 1/3 for the second supervisor. Supervision hours are calculated for each thesis not per student. As the supervisor is formally responsible for the fulfilment of requirements by data protection authorities and ethics review boards, the thesis cannot be submitted without the written approval of the (main) supervisor.

The following required coursework must be approved before the student can take the exam:

a.   Two research ethics seminars are 100 % attendance required before submitting the thesis outline

b.   Approval of thesis outline

c.   Submit a signed contract with the appointed supervisor

Thesis. Submission of master’s thesis according to program specifications, consisting of 1 scientific article. Technical standards according to the current APA manual. Submitting dates each year: June 15th  and November 15th.

Thesis format

The Master’s thesis consists of one paper. The format of the paper is dictated by the publishing conventions of the science of behavior analysis, and the length should be appropriate for the work that is reported.  The paper is written according to the current APA Publishing Manual Standard; double spaced Times New Roman size 12 with standard margins for MS Office Word.

All

Grade scale A-F

One internal and one external examiner will assess all exams.