Finalizing the bachelor and master thesis - Kunnskapsbasen
Finalizing the bachelor and master thesis
This page provides information on what you as a student should do with your bachelor’s/master’s thesis before submission.
Norsk versjon: Ferdigstille bachelor- og masteroppgave
Writing and submitting your master's thesis | Writing and submitting your bachelor's thesis
To start with, we should point out that completing your thesis is time-consuming, as there are several formalities that must be taken care of before the thesis can be submitted. This also applies to the actual process of submission. Allot time for this during the finishing stage.
Finalizing is what you do between the time of finishing the writing process and the time of submission; this prepares the thesis for submission, possibly printing, archiving and possibly publication.
Create a PDF #
When you have finished writing your bachelor’s/master’s thesis, you will have to save it in PDF format. The wiki page How to create PDF documents explains how to do this.
Finalize - Validate, create cover and title page, then download
The first step toward finalizing your thesis is validating. Uploading the thesis for validation entails that the document is scanned electronically for technical factors such as whether embedded images have sufficient quality for printing, that the required fonts are included, etc. The actual content is not in any way examined or evaluated at thispoint; it is simply a tool ensuring that the PDF file has the quality required for submission, archiving, publication and printing.
After validating you will need to create the cover and title page for your thesis. This is done because all theses submitted at NTNU are required to follow the NTNU graphic profile, and because it provides information and layout in a professional and homogenous way. Thus, you should not already have created a unique cover or title page.
You can perform these tasks using one of the two alternatives
How to finalize with NTNU Graphic Centre
Validating
- Navigate to NTNU Graphic Centre and select "Bestille trykksaker som NTNU ansatt/student" (translates to "order publication staff/student").
- When logging in, select the correct affiliation and click the associated ‘Login’ button.
- You can now choose the english flag in the top right corner of the screen.
- Choose "file ready for print?"
- From the oprions you are presented with, choose "Student's thesis", and then choose "Student's thesis" again
- Finally you click "Studentoppgave NTNU omslag"
- To be able to upload your thesis choose "upload your thesis"
- If you are not ordering a printed version, un-check the box "I want to order print in addition to the digital file". If yo do not know if you are supposed to order at printed version see the bottom of this page. As a rule NTNU does not print these types of documents anymore. If you want a printed version to keep, you have to pay for this yourself. if so, follow the directions at the bottom of this page
- Upload your thesis under ‘Upload file(s)’
- The web page provides feedback immediately after uploading.
- Low-resolution images are not a critical issue, but in some cases improving resolution might be worth the effort.
- If fonts are missing, it may become critical at a later stage in the process, especially if various symbols or special characters are used in formulas etc. They may not be correctly displayed.
Creating a cover and title page
- Click the green button ‘Next’, or select the tab at the top of the page called ‘Document: Master’s thesis cover’. You should see a preview of your cover.
- To the right, select the language you want for your cover (Bokmål, Nynorsk or English).
- Select the appropriate kind of thesis (in this case, bachelor’s or master’s thesis).
- Insert the number of pages (the number of actual pages, to be found in the PDF reader).
- Author(s), title and, if applicable, subtitle are inserted in the appropriate fields, and you are advised to double-check that everything is spelled correctly. The spine field should match the contents of the title field.
- Under ‘Affiliation’, fill in all necessary information (you will find your programme on the web page for NTNU study programmes).
- Finally there is some freedom of choice, as the NTNU graphic profile allows a choice of colours as well as the inclusion of a picture, provided that you have/want this (it is not mandatory).
- If you have written your thesis in collaboration with another institution/business, you will be given the choice of providing an extra logo in addition to the NTNU logo.
- When approving/proceeding, you will come to a similar page for creating the title page. Fill in this page in a similar way and make sure your choices are in accordance with the ones you made for the cover. You will use the NTNU title page.
Printed copies of the thesis
As a rule, NTNU no longer prints theses (with a few exceptions), neither for censor nor author. But many students will want one or more copies of their own thesis, and these may be ordered from the site you used for finalizing your product. You will have to pay for the costs yourself. Payment is the final stage of the process.
Certain subjects/departments still have agreements to pay the costs for printing a certain number of copies of a student’s thesis; in such cases a clear agreement must exist between the department and the student as to how many printed copies he/she will receive. When ordering, the student selects this option by leaving the box ‘I want to print my thesis’ checked. Students can then enter how many copies they will pay for themselves and how many will be covered by the department. This will actually generate 2 separate orders, one that is billed to the department and one that the student pays for upon completing the order.
How to print with NTNU Grafisk senter
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Go back to the first tab, ‘Upload your thesis’.
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Tick off ‘I want to order printed copies in addition to digital download’.
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Select your format (the thesis will be automatically formatted according to your choice) and the number of copies (unless you have an individual agreement with your department/faculty, check the topmost box).
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Enter the thesis’ number of pages (matching the page number of your final PDF document), and decide whether or not you want colour printing (in which colour pages will be printed in full colour, which is a bit more expensive than greyscale).
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Finally, select the tab ‘Contact information’ and make sure you enter your information and delivery choices correctly.
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Complete your order by clicking ‘Place order’.