In the research seminar course, the major issues are the critical evaluation and discussion of the Master's thesis in order to enhance its quality. Principals of scientific work and quality standards of the scientific community will be presented. Lectures will provide input concerning topics of high relevance.

- In the 1st session you should provide an overview of your thesis project. You can but need not prepare slides for this purpose. Make clear what the idea of your thesis consists of and how you are going to tackle the problem.

- The 2nd session should be a presentation of your research proposal (including problem statement, research questions, method, preliminary structure of the thesis - table of contents) but also of the first results (whenever you have already some at hand). It is necessary to have contact to your advisors BEFORE in order to discuss your research proposal.

- The 3rd session is dedicated to your (preliminary) results and to a preview of the next steps to take to finalize your thesis project.

- Those who develop further their seminar paper from last semester as a thesis project are invited to deliver progress report presentations in all three sessions.  

Total of 100 points:

• Thesis Overview / Progress Report Presentation at 1st session: max 30 points
• Research Proposal / Progress Report Presentation at 2nd session: max 30 points
• Progress Report Presentation at 3rd session: max 40 points

Grading scale:

• Excellent (1): 90% - 100.0%
• Good (2): 80% - 90%
• Satisfactory (3): 70% - <80%
• Sufficient (4): 60% - <70%
• Fail (5): <60%

Information regarding Speaker Series summary: 
Any work handed in for grading can be submitted and graded as course work only once. Otherwise, it would be plagiarism. Therefore, if you want to earn extra points in a course you must submit original summaries.