Note to examiners: We recommend you read part 1, 2, 8, and 9, as there will be useful information for you there.
0. All about planning your project
You plan your project project in the first and second semester of the programme. In the third semester you do your fieldwork. All about this process is described on our webpage ICH master project – all about planning.
1. General requirements of the master's thesis
General format requirements
There are no minimum or maximum pages for your thesis as it depend on your project and methodology, but we do not recommend going beyond 120 pages. You should write with a line spacing of 1,5 and use font 12. The cover of your thesis should contain the following information:
- Title of your thesis
- Your name, the name of your supervisor (and co-supervisors)
- University of Oslo, The Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Health and Society, Department of Community Medicine
- “Thesis submitted as a part of the Master of Philosophy Degree in International Community Health”
- Month and year of submission
Before the introduction, the thesis should contain a table of content, acknowledgements (including source of financing), and an abstract.
The abstract should include a restatement of the title, background of your work, main aim and objective or research question, methods, results, and conclusion. The abstract should be minimum a half page, maximum one page.
The appendix at the end of your thesis should include information such as interview guide, ethical clearance certificates, consent form, supplementary tables etc. If you wrote the thesis in the form of an article and a summary, the article could fit in the appendix.
2. The three accepted forms of master's thesis
1 - Monograph
This is the most commonly used form for delivering the master thesis. Students who submit their thesis as a monograph will be encouraged to write a publishable article based on the material in their thesis.
The monograph should include:
- A comprehensive literature review of everything relevant to your topic. It includes the following: a review of the state of the art (current updated knowledge on the issue with references) and an identification of the knowledge gap (what is missing).
- The rationale for your work (the added knowledge from your work) contribution of your work for scientific, clinical, social issues
- A clear and concise statement of the research question and objectives of the study.
- The detailed description of the methodology used in the study
- A presentation of study results and findings
- A thorough discussion of the findings in a format similar to a published paper. You should also include the strengths, weakness, and implications of your work.
- Recommendations for further work or policy changes are not required but are a common practice
- A reference list formatted coherently across the thesis in a standard reference style.
2 - One article submitted or near submission to an international peer reviewed journal + a summary
If an article has been submitted to peer-review journal, but not yet accepted, or about to be submitted, it should be clearly stated which journal the article has been submitted or intended to be submitted. It should be to a journal of high scholarly quality, for instance by relating to UIO's list of open access and discounts or DBH's register for publications channels (level 1 or 2).
The requirement is that the article is accompanied by a 10 000 – 25 000 word summary. This summary should include:
- An Introduction which covers: a) an explanation of why the topic is important, b) what is already known about the topic from scientific literature, c) which important questions remain unanswered, and d) the objectives of the study.
- A Section on Materials and Methods. The examiners must be able to assess the soundness of your methodology. In order to do this, they will need details of the methodology including explanations for any losses or exclusions of primary data if this is not clearly apparent in the paper submitted for publication.
- Additional results, IF ANY. This section would include additional results from the data analysis which are relevant to the thesis, but were not included in the article submitted in the peer review journal for publication.
- Additional discussion, IF ANY. This section would include a discussion of additional results as well as additional discussion of results presented in the article submitted in the peer review journal for publication.
3 - One article accepted or published by an international peer reviewed journal + a Summary
It is highly unlikely that this option will be used given the time required to get an article accepted for publication. It should be to a journal of high scholarly quality, for instance by relating to UIO's list of open access and discounts or DBH's register for publication channels (level 1 or 2).
The accepted article should be accompanied by a 6000-15000 word summary, which should include:
- An Introduction which covers a) an explanation of why the topic is important, b) what is already known about the topic from scientific literature, c) which important questions remain unanswered, and d) the objectives of the study. Since the Introduction in the published paper is certainly much shorter, you are allowed to repeat what you have already written there.
- A Material and Method section. Because the peer-review system of the journal has accepted your methodology, the Materials and Methods section in this thesis form can be shorter. Here you would concentrate on field experiences and methodological considerations or issues not already included in the published paper.
- Additional results, IF ANY. This section would include a short account of additional results from the data analysis which are relevant to the thesis but were not already included in the published paper.
- Additional discussion, IF ANY. This section would include a short discussion of additional results as well as additional discussion of results presented in the already published paper.
Use of already collected data for the thesis
Use of already collected data such as those from projects, regional, hospital or national, routine data for thesis is a common practice and then the student is often not involved in the design and collection of the data. In the event that the student use already collected data, the thesis should follow the relevant structure described above in the format 1-3 above. However, the following details should be added:
Background / Introduction section: provide a 1 page description as to how you did become a part of the research group that collected the data? Or, how did you get access to the already collected data? Give your own motivation for answering the research questions you have developed for your thesis i.e., motivation for conducting the research in the thematic area. Describe in short, the aim and design of the primary study of the already collected data (national registry, routine collected data or others). Provide details of how the thesis aim differ from the aims of the primary study or secondary data.
Material and Method section: In the data management, describe the data extraction procedures the large data set, cleaning, codding, transcription, and translation as relevant depending on data type.
Discussion section: Provide discussion on potential strength and weaknesses (biases) of the already collected data that you have used. Explain how that affect your findings and conclusions.
3. Tips about writing your thesis
If you do not already know, make sure you know how to use sources and cite correctly. You may also read about how to quote and cite correctly at S?k og Skriv.
Choose one reference style and learn it well. Start to use it as soon as you start writing, as it is easy to forget where you found a specific idea when you later go through your thesis. The main reference styles the program uses is APA or Vancouver, but you can use any style of your choice if you stick with one style throughout your thesis.
Make use of templates and styles in word when writing your thesis. Styles in word will help you with the layout and make it easy to make an automatic generated table of content with correct page numbers. Your thesis will look tidy and professional.
4. In need of extension
If you find yourself in the dire situation that you will not be able to submit your thesis on the set deadline, you should ask for extension in due time, at least 3 weeks before your set submission deadline. We only give one semester extension at a time.
Valid reasons for extension:
- Illness - attach a doctor's certificate
- Childbirth - you should consider applying for parental leave
- Death of a close relative
- Other substantial reasons outside of your own control, which may be unusual long waiting time to get ethical clearance, access to data set, riots in the field country and the like.
How to apply:
- In due time, contact your supervisor, and discuss the situation. Ask if he/she can continue supervise you a bit longer, and make a plan for the time ahead.
- Send the student advisor an email with the following information at least 3 weeks before your current submission deadline:
- Put your supervisor in cc of the email. This is so we know you have talked with your supervisor.
- Shortly explain the reason why you are delayed. You should not elaborate on personal sensitive matters. If this is the reason, just put "due to personal matters" in the email, and contact us separately to explain.
- State which of the four deadlines (10 February, 10 May, 10 September or 10 November) you think will be realistic for you to submit.
5. Tips before you submit
We recommend that you contact your supervisor latest one month before the deadline (10 April). It is important so that your supervisor can plan reading through your thesis before you hand it in.
In addition, below are a small checklist before you submit:
- Pay semester fee in the semester you are due to submit.
- Register for the exam in INTHE4012 Master Thesis in the semester you are due to submit.
- Make sure you have completed (or will complete) all other obligatory and elective courses that you are required too before your submit your thesis.
- Check that you have included all ethical clearance documents for your project, from both Norway and the country you did your fieldwork.
- Check that you have included all necessary documents in the appendix, such as interview guide and consent form.
- If you have written your thesis as an article with the summary, make sure you include the article in your thesis, e.g. in the appendix.
- Make sure you are not missing any references in your reference list.
- Check that all your tables looks good.
- Update your table of contents.
- Convert your thesis into a PDF-file, all in one document, for submission.
- Print out your thesis (the PDF-file) and revise that everything looks fine.
6. Submision
The main deadline for delivering your master's thesis is May 10th before 14:00. If a deadline falls on a weekend or a Norwegian public holiday, the deadline will be advanced to the first preceding working day. If you hand in on this date we will usually be able to arrange the oral exam before the summer holiday, and you will be guaranteed an oral exam in the spring semester. The other deadlines (in need of extension application) is September 10th, November 10th and February 10th.
The procedure for submitting the thesis is as follows:
- Latest two weeks prior to the deadline (26 April) you have to inform your student advisor by email if you are planning to submit the thesis within the deadline. If not you have to apply for extension and withdraw from the exam, see point 5 above. This email is important for us to find a suitable and available examiner in time.
- Submit your master's thesis in StudentWeb AND Inspera.
- The oral examination will usually be held 3-6 weeks after the official submission deadline, but latest 8 weeks after the deadline. The student advisor will contact you as soon as the date of the oral exam has been decided, and minimum 3 working days before the oral exam (usually much earlier).
- Be aware that there will be no exams held between July 1st and August 15th due to summer holiday for supervisors, examiners and advisers.
7. After submission
Preparing your presentation
We recommend you start preparing your power point presentation (ppt) quite soon after you have submitted your thesis. This gives you an opportunity to prepare while you have your project fresh in mind, and in addition, if you may end up getting an early date for your oral exam. Some extra tips regarding the presentation:
- Please, number the slides, to make is easier for reference during the question and answer part of your examination.
- A golden rule is to prepare not more than one slide per minute (that is 30 slides), but of cause this depends on your slides.
- Avoid slides that are congested with too much information. The rule of tomb is to have a maximum of 6 bullets per slide.
- The content of the slide should include such as: background, objectives/research question, methods, results, conclusions, and possible recommendations. Do also discuss with your supervisor about better content and structure of your slides.
- We strongly recommend you to organize a trial presentation with your colleagues and/or possibly your supervisor before the exam. Thus, you will be better prepared for the critics.
- Find opportunity to attend oral exams for your colleagues and fellow students to learn about the conduct of the exams.
You discover mistakes in your thesis – what now?
In case you discover mistakes in your thesis after you have submitted it and the deadline has passed, you may make an errata list. An errata list is a list of specific corrections of formal errors (layout, correcting printing errors, language errors, etc.) that you wish to make to the submitted thesis before the final oral exam. The errata list should consist of your name, the title of the thesis and page number, line number or footnote number, original text, corrected text. It can also include what type of correction it is. An example of an errata list. You can either send the list to your student advisor, and the student advisor sends it to the examiners, or you can hand it to the examiners in the beginning of the oral exam. We only send errata list once.
8. The examiners and their work
The candidate shall defend the thesis as part of an oral examination before an evaluation committee. This committee consists of two members:
- An external examiner who is not employed at UIO or in other ways associated with the candidate.
- An internal examiner preferably from the Department of Community Medicine and Global Health or Institute of Health and Society.
The oral exam is open for anyone to attend and the supervisor(s) may be present at the oral examination.
The Department of Community Medicine nominates the committee on the behalf of the Faculty of Medicine. Each of the committee members will evaluate the thesis.
The evaluation committee will review the total scope of the thesis and assess the candidate's own contributions to it. They will give special attention to the following points:
- Are the objectives clearly stated?
- Are the methods used adequately?
- Is the material clearly described?
- Are the results properly analyzed and described?
- Are the conclusions based on sufficient evidence based in background information and research results?
- Is the discussion balanced and based on the research results?
- Are the formal parts of the thesis acceptable?
Censor guideline and grading scales for ICH
9. Oral examination
The Department of Community Medicine and Global Health follows these procedures:
The internal examiner (normally) will welcome and introduce the candidate and the examiners, and briefly explain the procedure.
The student is given maximum 30 minutes to present the main findings of the thesis (sitting or standing). Use PowerPoint to present your points clearly.
The examiners has up to 1 ? hour to examine the candidate, including discussion of the result. The external examiner starts the examination. The internal examiner comes last and supplements the examination. The two can agree beforehand on which parts of the thesis, or what professional perspective they want to concentrate on. They may address technical and methodological questions about the scientific work in the thesis. The internal examiner chairs the examination session and is responsible for following the time and the protocol.
We recommend that the examiners save at least the last 15 minutes for discussing the result. At this time the candidate and all others will be asked to leave the room. After the completion of this session the examiners will decide whether the thesis and oral examination satisfy the requirements for a Master of Philosophy Degree in International Community Health. If there is a disagreement on the grading of the thesis, it is the external examiner who should have the last word.
The grade for the oral exam is to adjust the grade for the written exam if the grade of the written exam is considered to be in- between two grades.
The examiners will convey the results to the student after the completion of the examination.
Censor guideline and grading scales for ICH
The oral exam is open for anyone to attend, and the supervisor(s) are often present at the oral examination.
10. Information about relevant regulations
Explanations and appeals
The candidate has the right to ask for an explanation of the grade. About the oral part, the deadline is immediately after the candidate has received the grade. If it is on the written part of the examination, the deadline is one week after the candidate has received the grade.
The candidate has the right to submit an appeal about his grades. However, the candidate cannot submit an appeal about oral or practical examinations, since the performance is not documented for future purposes. In short, the deadline is three weeks after the grade was published. Only the written thesis will be subjected for a new examination committee again. The result from the appeal process is final and may be the same as, better as or worse than the original grade.
The final grade is set on the basis of both a written and an oral examination and if an appeal against a grade for the written part of the examination gives a change in the grade, a new oral examination shall be held to determine the final grade.
If appeal against a grade for the written part of the examination does not give a change in grade, no new oral examination will be held and grade from written part will stand.
Illness at exams/Postponed exams
If you are ill or have another valid reason for not taking an exam, your absence may be approved. With an approved reason for absence, you do not use one of your examinations attempts, and you can apply for a postponed examination. Read more about this here.
Cheating and plagiarism
You must familiarize yourself with the rules that apply to exam support materials and the use of sources and citation. If you violate the rules, you may be suspected of cheating or attempted cheating. Read more about cheating here.
11. After the exam
Save your files from UIO systems before your IT account closes
After your oral exam we recommend you save all the files from the UIO system, such as email, Canvas and other, that you want to keep. Your IT account closes 30 days after you are no longer a student and you will have limited time to retrieve the files. For more information please see our webpage on What happens to my files and emails?
Prints of your thesis
After your grade is final you can order prints of your thesis from the University Print Centre. You will get 3 copies for free. If you want more copies, you have to pay for it yourself. Before ordering contact the student adviser to get the necessary codes for printing. Print time: normally 3 full working days.
Notification of results
Results of exams are posted on StudentWeb within three weeks after the exam is held, normally on the day of the oral exam or the day after.
Transcript of records
You may order a Transcript of Records in StudentWeb. The transcript will contain all the courses you have passed at the University of Oslo. You can also contact the International Student Reception for transcript of records. You may also share your transcript digitally through the Diploma Registry.
Diploma
The Diploma will be ready in mid-September for those that handed in their thesis in the spring semester or in mid-February for those that handed in their thesis in the autumn semester. When the diploma is printed the student advisor will send you an email with information. The diploma will normally be sent to your postal address, unless you opt to fetch it yourself from the student adviser’s office (subject to an agreed date and time). If you need documentations or confirmation you can see heading Transcript of records above of how to get it.
Graduation ceremony/farewell ceremony
The graduation ceremony/farewell ceremony for the master programme in International Community Health is held between mid-May and mid-June every year. Invitations will be sent by email in the spring semester.