Writing and Submitting a Thesis
- Theses must be submitted in PDF format, in either Hebrew or English. If submitted in Hebrew, care should be taken to use terms in the Hebrew language as much as possible. If no equivalent exists in Hebrew for a particular term, it should be written in English (students should refrain from using non-accepted terms in Hebrew). Theses may be submitted in English if the student wishes, with the agreement of the supervisor(s). In any case, the thesis must include title pages and abstracts in both Hebrew and English.
To ensure the requisite linguistic standard is met, the quality of the writing will be carefully examined. Theses with a low standard of writing will be returned, and will not be eligible for evaluation until amended. In cases where the student is not fully fluent in the language in which the thesis is written, it is recommended to engage the services of a language editor before submission.
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The structure of the thesis should be as follows:
Page 1: English cover page, as per the example in the following section, “Sample of cover page”.
Page 2: Hebrew cover page, as per the example in the following section, “Sample of cover page”.
If the thesis is submitted in hard copy in English, the front cover page should be printed in English, and the back cover page should be the Hebrew cover page.
Page 3: “This thesis was prepared under the supervision of…”, as per the example in the following section, “Sample of coverpage”.
Page 4: Acknowledgements.
From page 5 onward, the following sections should be presented:
Abstract, of 1–2 pages in English.
Abstract, of 1–2 pages in Hebrew.
The Hebrew abstract should be as faithful as possible a translation of the English abstract. If the thesis is submitted in hard copy, the Hebrew abstract should be printed at the back of the thesis, following on from the Hebrew cover page (these Hebrew pages should be arranged so that they face toward the back of the document).
List of abbreviations (if relevant).
List of contents (the pages of the thesis should be numbered from the introduction through to the end of the bibliography).
Introduction: Scientific background, motivation behind the research, research goals, and the hypotheses examined.
Materials and methods: A description of the methods used, including detailed explanations written in full text and not in “recipe” style. Names of the materials used in the research study should be provided, as well as details of where they were sourced (company name, city, country). Similarly, details should be provided of the instrumentation used in the study (company name, city, country). Where relevant, detailed explanations should be provided of the statistical tests conducted.
Results: A description of the trends identified in the research findings, referring also to figures (graphs, pictures, illustrations, etc.) and tables with detailed headings (underneath figures and above tables). Please take care to precisely label graph axes, to number the figures and tables according to the order in which they are referred to in the body of the text (1, 2, 3 …), and to conduct appropriate statistical tests for each result presented (where relevant). Short discussion sections may be included in the results section, according to accepted practice in the scientific literature in the relevant field of research.
Discussion: The discussion should present a synthesis of the findings and their context vis-à-vis existing knowledge in the relevant field. The discussion can begin with a paragraph summarizing the main findings. If not included in theresults section, the results should be explained and their significance discussed in comparison with previous findings in the literature. It is also recommended to describe the limitations of the study, and how these might be addressed. The discussion should conclude with a paragraph of conclusions, including possible implications of the findings for the field of research.
Bibliography: A referencing system should be used that includes the names of all authors, year of publication, article title, full name of journal, volume number, and article or page numbers. Books and chapters in books should be referenced in a similar manner. A consistent format should be used for all citations. The bibliography should be presented in alphabetical order of the surname of the first author. Sources in Hebrew should be listed separately from sources in English.
- Length: The thesis should be written concisely and to the point, and should not exceed 60 pages in length, including the bibliography (but not including appendices containing additional figures, expanded tables, and raw data). Theses should be prepared in 12-point font size with 1.5 line spacing, with margins of 2.2 cm on the right and left of the page and at the top and bottom of the page.
- Students should submit their thesis to their supervisor(s) for review. The supervisor(s) must either approve submission of the thesis or return it to the student for corrections within one month of receiving it.
Thesis Evaluation
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Students must submit their thesis in PDF format to the teaching program secretariat, along with the approval of their supervisor(s). Within two weeks of submission of the thesis, the head of the teaching program will appoint 2–3 referees, in consultation with the supervisor(s). In cases where there is disagreement between the head of the teaching program and the supervisor(s) regarding the identity of the referees, the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs will be approached to find an agreed solution.
If the thesis supervisor(s) belong(s) to a different institution, at least one referee must be a member of the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment. If no such referee can be found, the head of the teaching program will explain the case in a letter submitted to the Teaching Committee.
- Immediately after the referees are appointed by the head of the teaching program, the teaching program secretariat will send the student’s thesis to all examiners (supervisors and referees), along with an evaluation questionnaire.
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The examiners will review the thesis, complete the evaluation questionnaire, and send it confidentially to the examination chair (see procedures regarding “Final Examination”). The thesis grade will be submitted to the examination chair before the examination is held (final examinations may not be held without the thesis grades having been received). Thesis grades will be awarded based on the following criteria:
Criterion Grade Thesis not of a master’s degree standard 69 or less Thesis of a master’s degree standard, but not demonstrating ability to conduct doctoral research 70–84 Thesis of a master’s degree standard, demonstrating ability to conduct doctoral research 85–89 Very good thesis of a master’s degree standard, incorporating an original contribution by the student that could be expressed in an article in a peer-reviewed scientific journal 90–94 Excellent thesis in terms of quality of research and writing, of a master’s degree standard, incorporating an original and outstanding contribution by the student. The results of the thesis could be the basis for a scientific article in a leading journal in this field. To receive excellency, the thesis must be submitted within five semesters from the beginning of MSc studies. 95–100
The thesis grade will be set jointly by the supervisor(s) (50%) and the referees (50%). A grade of “excellent” (95 and above) will only be awarded with the agreement of all examiners, and with appropriate reasoning given. The grades given by each of the examiners must all be at least 95, otherwise a grade no higher than 94 may be awarded.
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Confidentiality: A thesis can be defined as “confidential” and archived temporarily according to the following rules:
- The initiative to define it as “confidential” comes from the supervisor(s), following contact from a commercial organization funding the study, or because the study findings are of security or commercial value.
- The supervisor(s) will submit a request to the Vice Dean of Academic Affairs, via the Faculty’s Teaching Secretariat.
- If the request is approved, the student, head of the teaching program, and referees will sign a confidentiality statement.
- The student will provide the head of the teaching program with hard copies of the thesis, one for each referee, and these copies will be returned to the student after the examination.
- After the examination, the student will give one copy of the final thesis to the head of the teaching program.
- The head of the teaching program will give the secretariat the copy received, together with the examination grade, for safekeeping.
- Confidentiality will be lifted when the supervisor(s) inform(s) the secretariat that it has been removed. At this time, the student or the supervisor(s) will submit a PDF file to the secretariat, so that the thesis can be distributed as usual.
Note: Students whose only remaining requirement is to complete their thesis must register for the “Thesis” course, 71100. Students who have submitted to the secretariat authorization from the head of the teaching program that they have handed in their thesis, ready for review, by December 31 will be exempt from this requirement. Failure to meet this schedule will require the student to register for studies and pay tuition for the “Thesis” course.