Evaluation criteria
The regulations of the University of St. Gallen for Bachelor's and Master's theses must always be taken into account.
In addition, the following criteria should be considered when writing the thesis:
Structure
- Logical sequence of argumentation ("Roter Faden")
- Aspects to be included:
- Summary (English and German)
- Table of contents with page references (incl. separate table of tables and figures; if necessary list of abbreviations)
- Introduction and explanation of the problem
- Goals and research questions
- Theoretical part (discussion of relevant literature; if applicable, condensation of findings into hypotheses)
- Empirical part (research method, implementation description, results)
- Discussion of results, conclusions, limitations, indications for further research needs
- Bibliography (possibly a separate list of Internet sources used)
- Annex (if necessary; e.g. list of meetings and interviews with respondents; sample of survey and observation documents used, if any)
Depth and breadth
- Weighting of the individual chapters: the importance of the chapters should be reflected in the scope
Content
- Inclusion of most important aspects (completeness)
Novelty
- Scientific and/or practical innovation
- Relevance of the research question
- Creativity (e.g. in the empirical part or presentation of the results)
- Interesting insights
Use of literature
- Identification of the most important publications (try to reach a balance between the "classics" and more recent literature)
- References to literature in the text
Language
- Comprehensibility, correctness and clarity of expression
- Good legible writing style
Formal design
- Correct citation (the number of direct quotations should be reduced to a minimum; the usual citation rules are to be used; see also explanations and information sheet on plagiarism and citation of the HSG)
- Typos, spelling and grammar mistakes (if your native language is not English and you write the paper in English, we recommend that you have it proofread by a native speaker)
- Layout (e.g. completeness of the bibliography, numbering of figures and tables)
- Balanced amount of figures and tables
- Compliance with the scope (Bachelor’s theses: 50 pages; Master’s theses: 60 pages; excluding title page and appendix)
- Text formatting and font (e.g. Times New Roman or Arial; font size 12 and a line spacing between 1.2 and 1.5)
Level of difficulty
- Depending on the topic (e.g. degree of difficulty of the theoretical or practical problem; degree of difficulty of the research methods used)
Formal criteria
The official regulations of the University of St. Gallen for Bachelor's and Master's theses apply. All the necessary information, deadlines and forms can be found under the following links:
Bachelor thesis:
Master thesis:
Please also have a look at the fact sheet for Bachelor’s and Master’s theses.