Completing your master's thesis
Before starting to write your thesis, read the instructions below, Master's Thesis Guide (in Finnish here) (in Swedish here) for students and familiarize yourself with copyright issues.
- Start your thesis work as instructed in your study programme (thesis seminar, pre-thesis course etc.)
- Thesis supervisor will be selected based on your thesis topic by the process defined in your study programme.
- Supervisor approves your topic and thesis advisor / advisors and makes sure that you get advising and feedback on your thesis.
- Supervisor approves thesis part I (10 cr) and part II (10 cr).
- Thesis examiners are named when thesis part II is completed. Programme director confirms the examiners, supervisor is normally one of the examiners and the other one is for example programme faculty or an external expert from the field of study.
- Take the originality report in Turnitin during your thesis process according to your programme practices. Your thesis advisor checks the report.
- If you plan to graduate please make sure that your personal study plan (PSP) is up to date in SISU
- Oral presentation is a mandatory part of thesis work and needs to be completed before the thesis is handed in for examination (instructed in your study programme)
- When your thesis is ready to be evaluated, present it first to your advisor and then supervisor to get an examination permission from the supervisor. Oral presentation must be completed before examination permission can be given.
- Thesis abstract is your maturity test. Supervisor approves maturity test. (more instructions below)
- Apply for examination by submitting your thesis in eage (incl. written part and production part / documentation of production) (instructions below)
- If your thesis includes production part and the examiners haven’t examined it in an earlier phase please contact your examiners to schedule the examination of the production part.
- Apply for graduation in SISU (instructions in sisu help and in your programme's graduation page)
- Your thesis will be graded in the next programme committee meeting after hand-in deadline
Maturity test in Master of Arts, Architecture and Landscape Architecture Degrees
In a master's degree the abstract of the thesis serves as maturity test. If a student's language of education (language they have been educated in secondary level) is Finnish or Swedish they write the abstract in two languages, in the language of education (Finnish or Swedish) and in English. If language of education is other than Finnish or Swedish, student writes the abstract only in English and the supervisor evaluates only the content of the abstract (and not the language).
Students who have been educated in Finland in Finnish or Swedish:
If the student has completed required language studies and maturity test according to their language of education in their bachelor's degree, they don't need to complete them in their master's degree. In this case only the content of the abstract will be evaluated by the supervisor.
If the student has not completed required language studies and maturity test according to their language of education in their bachelor's degree, their abstract needs to be sent to language check to language center. Student submits their Finnish language version of the abstract in MyCourses: https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/view.php?id=30642 In addition to the language check supervisor evaluates the content of the abstract.
Thesis template (in English, Finnish and Swedish)
Template is not mandatory to use.
NOTE! When your thesis is ready, confirm from your supervisor/advisor that you can hand it for evaluation.
NOTE! Add an abstract to your thesis. It is recommended to use the thesis abstract form (above). If you have had your school education in Finnish or Swedish you need to write your abstract in two languages regardless of the language of your thesis (in the language of school education and in English).
Checklist for submitting the thesis
- Submit a PDF/A version of your thesis to the database (instructions below) The work is archived as one document (including the abstract and possible other attachments).
- Name the file without Scandinavian letters (e.g. ä and ö) and special characters to the following format: school'sabbreviation_publishingyear_lastname_firstname.pdf, (e.g. arts_2013_meikalainen_matti.pdf).
- If you wish, you can save the cover page as a separate file (png image file format).
- The artistic component of the thesis is archived in digital documentation. If you have separate digital documentation of your artistic component (pictures, audio, video material), save it as a separate file(s), remember to add also credentials and meta information for the documentation. Please note that if the documentation is included in the written part there's no need for separate documentation material.
- Login to eAge with Aalto user name.
- NOTE: the information you will be asked after logging in:
- YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION (also student number)
- STUDY INFORMATION (the degree that you are aiming at)
- META INFORMATION OF THE THESIS WORK AND DOCUMENTATION:
- Supervisor's first name and last name
- Advisor's first name and last name, degree, employer and contact information (phone, email)
- Information if the the thesis was done on commission for a company or other external party
- KEY WORDS
- 6-12 most important words or terms that describe the content of your thesis
- Assigning subject headings to your thesis
- Fill in the form in the Thesis information sheet and click Save.
- Add the PDF file of your thesis to the Thesis sheet.
- You can add the image file of the cover page on the sheet Thesis cover. The cover picture will be shown in the Aaltodoc publication archive together with the metadata of your thesis.
- Add documentation of your production / artistic part and meta information on their separate sheets
- Submit your thesis by clicking Submit in the Case details sheet
Technical support:
- IT Servicedesk ([email protected]) is responsible for all PDF/A-conversion related issues
- eAGE-helpdesk ([email protected]) helps if something went wrong with your eAge-submission
- Aaltodoc-help ([email protected]) helps if something needs to be added or corrected in your thesis that is already in Aaltodoc
According to Finnish archiving practices, the file should be saved in PDF/A format. PDF/A is an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format (PDF) specialized for the digital preservation of electronic documents. PDF/A differs from PDF by omitting features ill-suited to long-term archiving. Library recommends ISO-standardized versions PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-1b & PDF/A-2.
Instructions on how to convert files to PDF/A -format using the different tools
- Instructions
- Microsoft Word 2010: File » Save As ---> Save as type = PDF ---> Options ---> Choose: ISO 19005-1-compliant (PDF/A)
- PDF-XChange 4.0: Print ---> PDF-XChange 4.0 ---> Properties ---> General ---> Choose: PDF/A-1b (RGB)
- Open Office 3.2 Writer: File ---> Export as PDF ---> Choose: PDF/A-1a
- If you use layout software (for example Adobe InDesign) you should create an PDF file and open it with Adobe Acrobat Pro and save it again: File > Save as Other > Achivable PFD (PDF/A).
Convert the PDF file so that it is suitable for web publishing. The recommended size for the pdf/a document is under 20 Mb and for Theses including a lot of images under 100 Mb. If your document is over 100 Mb, you should resize it before saving, because readers may experience problems with opening large documents over the web. The maximum limit for documents is 1,5 Gb including the documentation of the artistic component.
It is the student's responsibility to check that the PDF/A file has been correctly converted and that it is identical to the submitted thesis copies.
Naming the PDF file
You should name the file without Scandinavian letters (e.g. ä and ö) and special characters to the following format: school'sabbreviation_publishingyear_lastname_firstname.pdf, (e.g. arts_2013_meikalainen_matti.pdf).
Technical support:
- IT Servicedesk ([email protected]) is responsible for all PDF/A-conversion related issues
- eAGE-helpdesk ([email protected]) helps if something went wrong with your eAge-submission
- Aaltodoc-help ([email protected]) helps if something needs to be added or corrected in your thesis that is already in Aaltodoc
The theses and the metadata of all theses will be archived in the Aaltodoc publication archive. The term metadata refers to the data that describes your thesis for example the title of thesis, the language, keywords and the advisor of thesis. When submitting the thesis in eAge you can give permission to publish the whole-text and/or the abstract through the Aaltodoc publication archive.
The thesis publishing date can be postponed by a maximum of one (1) year. Hence, students don’t have to publish the thesis immediately if they wish to postpone publishing for reasons related to other publications, patent applications or corporate secrets, for example. However, please note that the thesis is still a public document and it will be displayed publically. The public copy can be seen in the Learning Centre customer computers or sent via email by request.
If you do not grant permission for publishing, the archived PDF file will be available for anyone by request but it is not published online. The Learning Centre is obliged to send the digital version to anyone who wants to read the thesis.
If you have any questions related to thesis submission or saving, please contact [email protected]
If you have any comments regarding the data of your thesis, or you wish to make corrections, please send an email to [email protected]
Technical support:
- IT Servicedesk ([email protected]) is responsible for all PDF/A-conversion related issues
- eAGE-helpdesk ([email protected]) helps if something went wrong with your eAge-submission
- Aaltodoc-help ([email protected]) helps if something needs to be added or corrected in your thesis that is already in Aaltodoc
Please note that you have to submit the final version of your thesis to the eAge system.
If the contents of your thesis, such as the text or a table, is found erroneous after the thesis has been approved, the errors can be corrected on a separate errata page (http://tieteentermipankki.fi/wiki/Tekstuaalitieteet:errata). Once your thesis has been approved, it cannot be altered or resubmitted to the eAge system. Instead, any errors found in it are collected on an errata page, which lists the page numbers of the errors and gives a corrected version of the text or item. The errata is attached to the thesis metatext in the Aaltodoc publication archive (aaltodoc.aalto.fi).
Please follow the instructions below.
- Write the errata and save it in PDF/A format (not PDF/A-3).
- You can download a Word-format errata template from Aaltodoc.
- The errata must include the following details: the thesis author and thesis title, page number of the error and a corrected version of the text or item.
- Please send the errata page to your thesis supervisor to obtain their approval for it.
- If you cannot reach your supervisor, send the errata to the learning services of your school (addresses provided below).
- send the supervisor’s approval to [email protected]
- Append your approved errata page to the metadata of your thesis on Aaltodoc in accordance with the instructions given on Aaltodoc.
- If prompted, log into Aaltodoc using your Aalto username and password; you will find the link in the top right corner of the page.
- If you no longer have a valid Aalto username and password, request a one-time login link from [email protected]
- Append the errata page to your thesis in Aaltodoc using the form on Aaltodoc.
- Log out.
- The errata page is now be visible on Aaltodoc together with your thesis.
Contact details for the schools’ learning services
ARTS: email addresses to the programmes
BIZ: [email protected]
CHEM: [email protected]
ELEC: [email protected]
ENG: [email protected]
SCI: email addresses to the programmes