## Introduction The ability to review and synthesize information from a variety of sources is a key skill for academic researchers. The module *Literature Thesis Brain and Cognitive Sciences* is an opportunity for students to practice and develop the skills that are necessary to give a state-of-the-art overview of existing research, on a topic of their choosing. The Literature Thesis should not reflect original research by the student (unless it's research that the student already published it in a peer-reviewed journal), but instead collect, integrate and critically discuss existing work. This discussion should be directed towards resolving a problem or outstanding question that is identified in collaboration with the supervisor of the project. In addition, the thesis should address how the work under discussion relates to other fields of study. Importantly, the Literature Thesis should be _argumentative_: the student should take a clear position in a discussion related to the thesis topic and persuasively argue in favor of this position, while giving proper due to counterarguments. This means that the Literature Thesis revolves around an issue (related to the chosen topic) that can only be solved by careful, critical examination of existing literature. It is important that the supervisor of the project helps with this problem definition, to ensure it is properly arguable. ## Learning objectives Through the process of writing this thesis the student demonstrates the ability to: 1. Find, select and organise relevant literature from scientific journals in a non-biased manner 2. Critically evaluate selected literature 3. Write a well-structured literature review in academic English 4. Define a clear position with regards to an important outstanding problem and substantiate that position 5. Explain the relevance of the literature review in the broader field of brain and cognitive sciences 6. Uphold a professional, scientific attitude (independence, time management & planning, scientific discussion, creativity, initiative, communication) The Literature Thesis is one the capstones of the programme that prepares students for a research career. If you are not familiar with the structure of MBCS, please read the [[Introduction to the Capstones]] first. For students who are unsure how to reach these objectives, make sure to read [[Tips for success]]. ## About the thesis ### Size of thesis All of this should be done in eight weeks full-time, or 336 hours (12 EC). The way these hours are spent will differ per discipline and per project. Sometimes the collection of sources will be especially time-consuming, other times the interpretation or comparison of sources will be the lion's share of the work. The supervisor and the student should make sure there is a planning that reflects the time limit. Given the diverse array of subjects and disciplines that fit within the programme, there is no specific word count that should be reached. The important thing is that the workload of the thesis equals eight weeks full-time, whether this time is spent on collecting resources, interpreting contradictory results or critically discussing the meaning and implications of the body of research. If it proves difficult to choose a good length of the thesis, a useful heuristic is to follow the size of a review article in the respective field of expertise. ### Content To promote interdisciplinary training, the content of the Literature Thesis should either: - Cover a problem in a discipline that is clearly distinct from that of the student's *Research Project 1* or - Combine insights from at least two clearly distinct disciplines In either case, the thesis should contain a reflection on how its main findings can be integrated with other disciplines. >[!help] >One common issue when recombining disciplines is demarcating where one discipline ends and another begins. In the end, disciplines are fluid, somewhat arbitrary constructs. See [[Demarcating disciplines|here]] for some help on this demarcation problem and [[Interdisciplinary integration|here]] for more details on interdisciplinary integration The specific topic and problem statement of the Literature Thesis will influence what is the exact content that the thesis should address, but as a whole, the Literature Thesis should contain: 1. A theoretical framework through which the subject of the thesis can be understood 2. A problem statement (or alternatively, research question) that specifies an outstanding issue in the literature. 3. A critical discussion of the existing literature, which leads to a distinct, substantiated position with regards to the problem statement or research question 4. A section detailing how this position relates to other disciplines (i.e. how the position could contribute to the understanding in other fields or, reversely how other fields could contribute to the problem/question that has been discussed in the literature thesis). It is allowed to add this section as an appendix or epilogue to the main thesis if that improves the structure of the text. ### Structure of thesis The structure of the thesis should be determined via collaboration of student with supervisor. If unsure, the following structure can be used. But before you just copy that, do consider what you think the best structure for your literature thesis is. 1. Abstract 2. Introduction and definition of problem 3. Overview and critical discussion of studied literature 4. Substantiated position with regards to problem 5. Interdisciplinary reflection 6. Conclusions 7. References If it proves difficult to choose a fitting structure, a useful heuristic is to follow the structure of a review article in the respective field of expertise. Whichever structure and format you use, please make sure to follow the [[Formatting and Publication Guidelines]] for the cover page of the thesis. ### Finding a topic There are various ways to find a proper problem statement or research question. For example, the following scenarios might apply: * The supervisor has a specific question that ties into her own research, and that she expects could be answered by critically evaluating existing research, which she has currently not explored yet. The student is put to the task of collecting, evaluating and synthesizing information to answer the specific question of the supervisor. * The student has been reading several reviews on a topic of interest and has remaining questions that warrant a larger exploration of the literature. In collaboration with the supervisor, the student formulates these questions in such a way that they can be satisfyingly answered through a thesis in eight weeks full-time. * The student is contemplating a particular Research Project in the future, but setting up the associated experiments requires answering some theoretical questions that can be answered by reading up on the work of others. In collaboration with the supervisor, the student prepares for this future empirical work by writing a theoretical literature thesis. Note: the research question or problem statement of the *Literature Thesis* should be broad enough to justify spending 336 hours writing a paper on it (12 EC), but not so broad that the existing knowledge on the subject cannot be summarized in the time that is available. The supervisor is best positioned to estimate what a reasonable workload is. The purpose of the Literature Thesis is NOT additional analysis of existing data - it is the collection, evaluation and synthesis of published work that is being appraised via this assignment. Students may choose a topic in which they have a special interest within the field of brain and cognitive sciences. This means the subject of the thesis can overlap with that of *Research Project 1* or *Research Project 2*. Work itself, however, should not overlap: writing the thesis means spending eight *additional* weeks working on a particular subject. ## Process The following steps determine the workflow of the Literature Thesis: - The student meets with a potential supervisor who has expertise on the topic of the student's interest. This supervisor can be identified and contacted by the student. The student is not expected to do a lot of preparatory reading for this meeting, or have an exact research question ready, but should have ideas about what to pursue and bring some potential (tentative) research questions. If it is established that supervisor and student are willing and able to collaborate on the thesis, there is a match in principle. - Once there is an agreement on the subject between student and supervisor and it is clear who will be the assessor and examiner of project, the student can [[Registering projects|register the project]]. If the desired examiner is not listed on Datanose, the student can request for approval via the form listed in the section [[Examiner]]. For the formal constraints on supervisor, assessor and examiner, see the [[Literature Thesis Manual#Supervision and assessment|section below]]. - The registration includes a time planning: it is possible to work on the thesis half-time, in which case writing the thesis takes 4 months in total, but the work on the thesis should not be stretched too thin: no student may work longer than 6 months on a specific Literature Thesis. - After submission of the registration, The programme will review whether the proposed set-up fits within the scope and regulations of *Brain and Cognitive Sciences*. The examiner is also asked to confirm participation in the project. - Once approved, the thesis can be included into the MBCS curriculum as a *Literature Thesis Brain and Cognitive Sciences* (12 EC). - During writing, the student meets with the supervisor at least three additional times to discuss progress. If an outside view is useful, the student can also contact the assessor or examiner with specific questions. - Before submitting a final version, the student submits at least one draft version to the supervisor for feedback purposes. The supervisor may decide that multiple drafts are warranted, but should take care that the final product remains a valid reflection of the student's competences. - Upon completion, the student submits the thesis to [www.datanose.nl](http://www.datanose.nl). - Once the thesis has been submitted, the examiner will receive a link via e-mail through which the final grade for the work can be registered. See [the section on grading](#grading) for more information on the grading process. ## Supervision and assessment Two separate persons are involved in the assessment of the Literature Thesis: an assessor and an [[Examiner]]. One of these two will in addition be the supervisor of the thesis. A description of the roles and requirements is given in Table 1. Note that the requirement for the examiner is that this person is a senior researcher at UvA, as the examiner ultimately holds responsibility for the validity of the grade. The examiner should also be in the possession of a basic certification for teaching (BKO). **Table 1 - Roles, requirements and responsibilities for Literature Thesis** |Role|Requirements|Responsibilities|Expected hours on project| |---|---|----|:---:| |Student||<ul><li>Defines problem or question<li>Collects and analyzes literature<li>Writes thesis</ul>|336| |Supervisor|<ul><li>Is either the assessor or the examiner</ul>|<ul><li>Guides the student through the writing of thesis, offering content expertise<li>Helps determine thesis problem statement/research question<li>Meets with student <b>at least</b> four times during the writing process.<li>Provides feedback on draft version</ul>|16| |Assessor|<ul><li>Must hold a doctoral degree<li>Must be from discipline/research group different from examiner's</ul>|<ul><li>Grades final work<li>Is available for specific questions about the subject of the thesis that the supervisor cannot answer</ul>|4| |Examiner|<ul><li>Must hold a doctoral degree<li>Must have BKO<li>Must work at UvA<li>Must be from research group different from assessor's</ul>|<ul><li>Grades final work<li>Registers the grade for the project<li>Is available for specific questions about the subject of the thesis that supervisor and/or assessor cannot answer.</ul>|4| Please note that the UvA staff member who is designated examiner is responsible for determining and submitting the final grade. Both the assessor and the examiner can log into [www.datanose.nl](http://www.datanose.nl) using a link that will be sent via e-mail once the student submits the final version of the thesis to the project portal on Datanose.nl. The examiner and assessor can then fill in the online grading form and submit the final grade. It is up to the examiner to review the grading and sign for the validity of the grade. In some cases, students will come to an agreement with an examiner who has not been approved by the Examinations Board of the research master *Brain and Cognitive Sciences* yet. If this happens, the particular examiner will not be selectable on Datanose. See the page [[Examiner]] for details on how a student can request approval of a new examiner. The student and supervisor should meet at least four times during the course of the writing: (1) to discuss the problem statement, (2) to discuss the outline of the thesis, (3) to discuss the first draft, and (4) to get feedback on the final version. The student is responsible for making these appointments with the supervisor and to prepare for the meetings. If so desired (and as long as it's reasonable), additional meetings or a different process are possible, but it should be kept in mind that the supervisor is expected to spend about 20 hours on the thesis and that reading a draft version, providing feedback on the draft version and grading the final version are included in these 20 hours. The supervisor is a content expert -- MBCS students are expected to be able to collect, analyse and synthesise literature relatively independently. Still, there are many situations where getting help from your peers or the programme can be helpful. To this end, the programme organizes check-ins for students writing their Literature Thesis and has a channel on the MBCS Slack dedicated to the thesis. See the [Literature Thesis page on Canvas for more details](https://canvas.uva.nl/courses/6067/pages/literature-thesis). ## Delays In case the deadline for final submission as registered on Datanose is not going to be met by the student, the student is expected to contact the master's programme via [email protected] with an indication of the size of the delay. If the delay is more than one month, the student should also inform the study advisor of the programme and the examiner of the Literature Thesis. In this latter case, a motivation for the delay needs to be given. Based on this motivation, the examiner of the project may decide to set a new deadline together with the student or to mark the project as 'insufficient'. In the latter case, the project ends. If acceptable delays occur, it is important that the student sets a new submission date in mutual agreement with the assessor and examiner. This new date should be a realistic completion date and it should allow the assessor and examiner to grade within a period of twenty working days. If a student spends over the span of six months working on a Literature Thesis (i.e. the time between the starting date of the Literature Thesis and submission of the thesis is more than six months), it can no longer be graded in a valid manner. This means the work can still be assessed with the regular grading rubric, but registration of the grade will not be numerical. Instead, a 'pass' ('AVV') will be registered. This is the case regardless of whether the Literature Thesis was written full-time or half-time. ## Materials and support The literature that is used to write the Literature Thesis is collected by the students themselves. In principle, we expect students who have completed their bachelor's degree to be capable of writing an academic text independently. However, we recognize prior educations differ and experience with writing theses might be limited. One way to improve writing is via the course _Professional Skills - Scientific Writing_, which can also be used as an Elective in the research master _Brain and Cognitive Sciences._ For those looking for more help with selecting or synthesising sources, the following books and articles may prove useful: - Burger, A. A. (2008). *The Academic Writer’s Toolkit* (1st ed.). New York: Routledge. - Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., Williams, J. M., Bizup, J., & FitzGerald, W. T. (2016). *The Craft of Research* (4th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. - Pautasso, M. (2013). *Ten simple rules for writing a literature review*. PLoS Comput Biol, **9**(7), e1003149. - Siljee, K. (2019). *Je scriptie de baas*. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. - Van der Zeeuw & van de Pavert. _Writing a Scientific Paper_ via [wetenschappelijkschrijven.nl](https://www.wetenschappelijkschrijven.nl/wasp) We strongly recommend using a citation manager (e.g. [Zotero](https://www.zotero.org)) when writing the *Literature Thesis*. This is helpful to stay organized and to collect notes on the papers you read. Being proficient with a citation manager is a useful academic skill in itself! Note that citation managers can often be coupled to an array of tools that are useful for literature search. Some examples are: - [Litmaps.com](https://www.litmaps.com), a tool to map citations and explore the published research space - [Obsidian](https://www.obsidian.md), a Markdown notekeeping tool Students looking for additional help with writing can also attend a workshop hosted by the [UvA Writing Centre](https://www.uva.nl/en/shared-content/studentensites/fgw/fgw-gedeelde-content/en/az/writing-centre/writing-centre.html). Another useful suggestion is to look for PhD students or other master students that work on a project related to yours (e.g. together with the supervisor). Often, these people can help you play with ideas in conversation or, whenever necessary, you can keep each other motivated and accountable. The programme also organizes a regular Literature Thesis Check-in, which serves as an intervision group for thesis writing. In addition, there is a dedicated Slack channel for the Literature Thesis. [Check the programme Canvas for more information](https://canvas.uva.nl/courses/6067/pages/literature-thesis). ## Grading The *Literature Thesis* is assessed by the examiner and the assessor, both of whom are chosen by the student at the start of the project. Once the student has uploaded a final version of their literature thesis, the examiner and assessor will receive an e-mail message with a link to the Datanose project page, where they can submit partial grades for registration on the basis of a grading rubric. This rubric is only visible on Datanose after students submit their work, but it can also be found [[Grading Rubrics Literature Thesis|here]]. Note that the thesis is written at a second-year master's level and that students are held to high standards. ### Workflow for grading The workflow for submitting and grading is as follows: 1. Student uploads the final version to [Datanose Projects](http://www.datanose.nl/#yourprojects) 2. The examiner and asssessor will receive an e-mail notification to assess the thesis using an online grading rubric. The period for this assessment is twenty working days after submission. 3. The supervisor of the project assesses the _Process_ dimension using the grading rubric and informs the other assessor about the scoring for solely this grading dimension. This is because the non-supervising assessor will not be able to grade this aspect independently, but will have to fill it in online. 4. Once assessment is done, the examiner receives a message to confirm assessment. Before doing so, the examiner should check whether the two grades given for the product as a whole do not differ 1 grade point or more. If it does, the examiner should contact the assessor to discuss the discrepancy and seek consensus, so that the two grades differ less that one grade point. If such consensus cannot be reached, the examiner should contact the programme via [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 5. If a definitive grade has been decided on, the assessor and/or examiner meet with the student to provide summative feedback. 6. After feedback has been given, the examiner can register the grade online via Datanose. The examiner and assessor grade independently and the average grade for each component is used to calculate the final grade for the thesis. To normalize grading, the [[Grading Rubrics Literature Thesis]] should be used. These grading rubrics are also shown on Datanose when assessing the work. ### Grade registration Upon confirmation of the final grade, the examiner will be prompted with a grade registration form, which can be signed digitally using two-factor authentication. Note that upon confirmation of the grade, the student is **immediately** informed about the end result. It is a best practice to ensure that the student has spoken with the supervisor about the assessment results before confirming grades on Datanose. >[!note] >Please note: If a discrepancy of 1 point or more exists between the final marks provided by by assessor and examiner, the two should discuss their considerations with each other and seek consensus to decrease the grade point difference. If such consensus cannot be reached, programme management should be contacted via [email protected] to reach a decision. See [[Grading Discrepancy]] for more information. It is the responsibility of the examiner to assure that assessment is done in accordance with UvA standards. Submitted final grades are rounded to whole or half grades (exception: grade 5.5. is not allowed and should become 6.0 instead). ### Date listed on student transcript At the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam, the grades for individual projects such as the *Literature Thesis* are registered with the date on which the examiner submitted the final grade. The student needs to be enrolled for such registration to be possible. ### Insufficient performance If the student does not receive a passing grade for the Literature Thesis after assessment of the submitted work, it is not possible to repair the work on the basis of more feedback or instructions, as that would jeopardise the validity of the grade. Instead, the student must then redo the project as a whole, on the basis of a new problem statement or research question. This new thesis might also require the student to find a new thesis supervisor, as there is no requirement for any of the parties involved (assessor and examiner) to take on the second "resit" project. ## Study load The workload of the *Literature Thesis* should amount to 336 hours in total. The distribution of these hours will vary per project. The student prepares a detailed planning and time schedule from the outset of the thesis project. Student and supervisor should agree on this planning before an extensive literature search or the actual writing is started. This planning involves: - the time needed for a literature search and preliminary reading of key references - the time needed for the actual writing of the thesis - the timing of intermediate steps—first draft, integrating feedback, final version Please use your own judgment to determine word count or required amount of resources: different fields of study have different expectations. The following table can serve as a guideline for typical theses: |Activity|Estimated hours| |---|:---:| |Finding appropriate supervision|1| |Collecting review articles and identifying research question/problem statement|20| |Collecting research papers|100| |Organizing information|75| |(Preparing) meetings/communication with supervisor|10| |Writing draft|110| |Writing final version|20| |Total|336| However, for any given project the hour division may differ from the indication given above. For any comments or questions about the supervision or assessment of the Literature Thesis, please [contact our offices via e-mail](mailto:[email protected]).