MALK5000 Master's Thesis Course description

The master’s program final exam is an independently written thesis in the form of a scientific article. 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 included in the specialisation 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

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
• 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)
• choose and apply relevant methods of data collection for research or scientific inquiry
• write a thesis according to criteria determined by the university
• critically assess the results of his own work
• critically assess various sources of information

Competence

The student can

• participate and promote the development of behavioral Sciences
• justify their professional behavior with reference to ethical guidelines, general ethical considerations and their own assessment of the situation
• 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.  Students are advised to find a lab group to participate in.

Thesis supervision is compulsory. 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. 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 30 ECTS Master’s thesis for BSCA consists of one article written in accordance with the author guidelines for a relevant scientific journal. The structure and scope of the article must comply with the guidelines of the journal in question. The format of the article 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 article is written according to the current APA Publishing Manual Standard; double spaced Times New Roman size 12 with standard margins for MS Office Word. Examiner’s guidelines are provided.

Ethics and data protection

Theses are submitted that require approval from the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD) and or Regional Committee for Medicine and Health Sciences Research Ethics (REK). For some theses, the topic in itself will force a discussion of normative ethical evaluations, even when REK are not involved. This is the case when invasive/restrictive interventions are described; data comes from functional analysis assessment of challenging behavior, or when members of vulnerable clinical populations are subjects in the studies (this list is NOT exhaustive, and student and supervisor are jointly responsible for determining whether the ethical evaluations should be part of the main body of the thesis). In cases where advice on ethics aspects of the project is relevant, The National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (NESH) should be contacted.

Web pages:

NSD https://nsd.no/

REK https://rekportalen.no/

NESH https://www.forskningsetikk.no/retningslinjer/hum-sam/forskningsetiske-retningslinjer-for-samfunnsvitenskap-humaniora-juss-og-teologi/  

If the decision is made that a discussion of ethics is not required in the main body of the thesis, the student writes a reflection note - a short description of the deliberations that were made before this decision was reached (maximum 6000 keystrokes). If student and supervisor decide that there is no need for registering the project with NSD, a description of the deliberations preceding this decision is also required. Ethics and data protection can be treated in the same reflection note.

The note should describe the type of data collected, whether personal information is involved, and whether application for approval by external such as REK and NSD bodies are required. If a case number has been assigned by external bodies, it should be included.

In addition, the note should describe whether a risk and vulnerability analysis has been performed, and if it has, it should be included as an appendix.

All

Grade scale A-F

One internal and one external examiner will assess all exams.