2.5 Article-form thesis

An article-form thesis refers to the part of the thesis that is published in a professional or scientific journal or conference in the field. The target group of the article should always be the community of experts in the field. The publication channel of the article (magazine or electronic platform) must have an editorial board that approves the articles intended for publication. The thesis worker must not be a member of the editorial board, or if he is, he must recuse himself from decision-making regarding the publication of the article.

An article-form thesis includes an article manuscript section and a broader literature review section (Bachelor’s thesis 10-20 pages and Master’s thesis 20–30 pages), which also indicates the purpose of the thesis, article manuscript section and in addition to these, a summative reflection.

In the summative reflection, the thesis worker describes the approach of a work-oriented research or development project and reflects on the meaning of his results or output more broadly than is possible in the article. This review also includes source references and it is 5-10 pages in the bachelor’s thesis and 10-20 pages in the master’s thesis.

The article-form thesis must have the evaluation items in accordance with the evaluation criteria in the summary part and more narrowly in the article manuscript section. The article-form thesis is assessed by a literature review, an article manuscript section, and a summative reflection.

In the article manuscript section, the writing instructions of the journal to which the article is planned to be submitted can be followed. In the case of a joint article by several authors, it must be possible to clearly indicate what is the independent contribution of the thesis author.

The writing of an article-form thesis should already be agreed upon between the student and the programme coordinator at an early stage of the writing process. The principal thesis tutor is responsible for the scope of the thesis.

Example structure (to serve as a template for the table of contents)

1. Introduction
2. Literature review (20–30 p.)
3. Purpose and objective of the thesis
4. Article manuscript

References
Appendices