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Institute of Political Science and Sociology

Standards of Academic Conduct

Guidelines for Writing Term Papers and Theses

Here you will find guidelines for writing term papers and theses:

Responsible Use of AI-Supported Tools

Templates for Thesis Title Pages

Here you will find Word templates with suggested layouts for the title pages of bachelor’s and master’s theses. These templates can be used across all subject areas of the Institute of Political Science and Sociology.

Plagiarism and Declaration of Independent Authorship

Plagiarism occurs in written work when text or parts of it are copied verbatim, paraphrased or translated from other works (books, journals, the internet, etc.) without acknowledging the source, and are thus falsely presented as the author’s own intellectual work. Please observe the Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice issued by the German Research Foundation (DFG). For written assignments, you must therefore confirm that you have written the work independently. To do so, include a signed declaration of independent authorship at the end of your work.

All literature and other sources used must be fully acknowledged. At the end of the thesis, the candidate must declare in writing that they have written the thesis independently and have used no sources or aids other than those indicated. This declaration of independent authorship must be included in the electronically submitted thesis and must also be submitted as a printed document bearing an original signature. If the thesis is additionally submitted in printed and bound form, the declaration must be bound into that version. If the written declaration is missing or is included but is untrue, the thesis will be graded as a fail. (ASPO 2015, Section 26(11))

The Institute’s procedures for dealing with plagiarism:

  1. Written work submitted without a declaration of independent authorship will be graded as a fail (5.0).
  2. If plagiarism is detected, the assessed work will be graded as a fail (5.0).
  3. The Institute may use plagiarism detection software.
  4. If plagiarism has occurred and the assessed work has been graded as a fail (5.0), the student must resubmit the term paper in the following semester or, if the Institute’s course offerings permit, retake the entire course in a subsequent semester.
  5. Cases of plagiarism must be reported to the chair of the examination board./li>
  6. Repeated violations may result in serious consequences.