| Category |
Dissertation |
Subject |
Science |
| University |
University of the West of Scotland |
Module Title |
COMP11117 MSc Masters Project |
Table of Contents
- Section 1: Welcome
- Section 2: Overview of the MSc Project
- Section 3: Formal Processes of the MSc Project Module
- Section 4: The Project Specification
- Section 5: The Interim Report
- Section 6: The Final Report
- Section 7: Appendices
- Appendix I: MSc Project Specification Form
- Appendix II: Interim Report Front Page
- Appendix III: Declaration of Originality Form
- Appendix IV: Final Report Front Page
- Appendix V: Library Release Form
Section 1: Welcome
Welcome to the MSc Master's Project module. The purpose of this Handbook is to explain the processes and outputs of the MSc Master's Project. All materials are available on the MSc Master's Project page on Aula, but they are collected together and presented here in the handbook for easy access.
The MSc Project module co-ordinator is Dr Bikrant Koirala, who is located in E150 on the Paisley Campus. Usually, he can be contacted by email: bikrant.koirala@uws.ac.uk, or via Microsoft Teams (please send a meeting request rather than just calling).
The School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences (CEPS) has a MSc Masters Project room for use by all MSc students in the School: the room is E233 and the pin code is C1367Y. Please protect this entry code, look after the room and be considerate in its use. The room operates a ‘hot desk’ system.
I would like to wish you the best of luck with your MSc Master's Project. Hopefully, you will find this an enjoyable, if challenging, experience. If you need help, assistance or advice at any time, then please contact me.
Section 2: Overview of The MSc Project
All documents and templates you will need during the MSc Master's Project are available on Aula. However, below is a summary of the important points and requirements for completing the MSc Master's Project.
Step 1 – Enrolling on the MSc Master's Project Module
- The MSc Master's Project is a 60 credit module (COMP11117) which is undertaken after the two taught terms of each MSc Programme have been completed. This means that you will undertake your MSc Master's Project in your 3rd term.
- All students should be enrolled on the MSc Master's Project module when they start their MSc Programme. Students who start their Programmes in Term 1 will normally undertake their MSc Master's Project in Term 3. Those students who start in T2 will normally begin their MSc Master's Project in Term 2 of the following session.
- As soon as you are enrolled on the Master Project module, you should, automatically, have access to the MSc Master's Project’s Aula page. Please let me know if you have difficulties accessing this page.
- Overseas students are not allowed to enrol for part-time study on the MSc Master's project. If non-EC students opt to return home to complete their Master's Project, they may be able to undertake the project on a part-time basis (students interested in this option should discuss this with their Programme Leader).
- MSc Masters module takes place at the end of each trimester, and so MSc projects need to be submitted by the end of the assessment period for whichever term(s) you are enrolled. Submission dates will be advised on Aula. These dates are usually set by the School for all MSc Programmes.
Length of time available to complete the Project
- If you are a full-time student, you have 15 weeks (one term) in which to complete the MSc Master's project.
- Part-time students have 30 weeks (two terms).
Step 2 – Project Proposal – Confirm topic and Supervisor
- Your first academic step is to confirm your topic for study. This must be thematically aligned to your MSc programme pathway (if you have a specialised pathway) or to one or more modules from your programme of study (in case you do not have a specific programme pathway). Your Programme Leader or Project Supervisor should be able to advise whether a subject area is appropriate for your Programme (pathway) of study if you are unsure.
- All projects need to include primary research that involves practical work of some kind using computing/IT technology. This is most frequently achieved by the creation of an artefact as the focus for covering all or part of an implementation process. Please note that projects based solely on literature review activity and/or user/market surveys are not acceptable.
- We cannot guarantee that an academic of your choice will be available to supervise your project since this depends on the individual workload of staff members.
Step 3 – Project Specification – Blank Form on Moodle
- See Aula – “The Project Specification” for a full explanation
- Your project specification is a formal document that must be approved by your Supervisor, Moderator, Programme Leader and the MSc Project co-ordinator before you can proceed with your MSc project.
- Once you have confirmed your project topic and met with a member of staff who is willing to supervise you then you need to transcribe your proposal onto the Project Specification form for the MSc Master's Project. You will need to complete the Ethics Approval & Pathway Confirmation form with the help of your project supervisor (online – please see Aula for details).
- Please make sure that your proposed project is appropriate to your MSc Programme and aligns with the Specialist Pathway. If you are unsure about this, please check with your Programme Leader.
- Once your supervisor and moderator are happy with your specification then you must submit your final specification to Aula.
- You should try to submit your ‘agreed’ Project specification (within 2-3 weeks of the beginning of term is a good guide).
- Once you have submitted your final approved specification you may start the project in earnest.
Step 4 – Interim Report
- See Aula – “The Interim Report” for guidelines
- You are required to submit an Interim Report at about the half-way stage of your project. So, for example, for full-time students starting their project in T1 of 2023-24, I advise a date of around the 3rd November as the date for the submission of your interim report. Your submission must allow time for your supervisor and moderator to read your report and give you feedback in time for your final submission. For part-time students I suggest you submit your interim reports by the end of your first term.
- The interim report cannot be submitted until after your project specification has been approved by your supervisor and moderator and submitted to Aula.
- Please make sure that you take into account any feedback you receive on the content of your interim report (written and verbal) in your final report.
- A final project report will not be accepted unless an interim report has been submitted in sufficient time to allow for feedback.
- The Interim Report should not be longer than 5,000 words in length and should describe in detail how you are conducting your research: the recommended format is a short introduction, a draft literature review, a complete description of the research methodology you have adopted and a draft plan for completion of the project. Interim reports which exceed the 5000 word limit are likely to be returned and a request for a resubmission made.
- You should consider the Interim Report as a kind of executive summary rather than a first draft final report. Remember, its purpose is to allow your future markers to gain a good overview of your whole project and give you as much help as they can (so a first draft of mainly the Literature Review does not allow them to do this). However, you may reuse content of the interim report for your final report.
- There is a guide to writing the interim report on Aula – The Interim Report.
- You must submit your interim report via Turnitin in Aula. Turnitin will not generate a similarity report or store your submission in any repository, but Turnitin is used to help ensure your report is formally received and recorded.
- Once your interim report is received, it will be reviewed by your supervisor and moderator for their comments/feedback and marking. Your supervisor will discuss this feedback with you.
Step 5 – Final Project Report
- Your final report must be submitted by your deadline. Your submission date is your latest possible date for submission – you may submit your project before this date if you wish to. The University’s regulation on penalties for late submission apply (i.e. up to 1 week late for a 10 mark penalty). However, if you do submit after your stated original deadline it is possible that your project will not be considered at the next subject panel as there may be insufficient time for its marking.
- The dissertation should be a maximum of 18,000
- words in length (excluding appendices)
- If you experience difficulties that are outside your control during the duration of the project (e.g ill health), the process for “extenuating circumstances” is the same for the MSc Masters Project module as for any other module.
- Extensions cannot be given by either the MSc Project co-ordinator or the project supervisor/moderator. Students may apply for ECS (please see the MSc Project Aula page for details).
- Your final Project Report should include your Project Management documents (see below) in the Appendices
- After submission of your final report, you will be required to attend a short oral examination on your project.
The weighting of these 3 components of assessment is as follows:
- Interim Report - worth 20%
- Final Master's Project Report (including Project Process Documentation) - worth 60%
- Oral Examination/Demonstration - worth 20%
Step 6 – Final submission
It is now possible to submit your MSc Project in one of two different formats:
“Traditional Project Report”
- Guidelines for the format of your dissertation can be found on Aula - Dissertation Submission. It is expected that most students will submit their MSc work in this format.
Academic Journal Format
- It is possible to make a final submission in the format of an academic journal publication (instead of the traditional MSc project report). Any student interested in doing this must discuss this with their project supervisor and receive confirmation from the MSc Masters Project Co-ordinator that this format would be suitable for your project. The format for such a submission will be found within the ‘guidelines for authors’ for a stated recognised academic Journal – to be identified by the supervisor and student. Submissions in this format are NOT required to be accepted for publication by the selected Journal, although we would expect the student and supervisor to be able to submit the paper to the Journal for consideration for publication.
Whichever format you choose:
- You must submit your final report to Turnitin to check for plagiarism. The project co-ordinator has access to the report that Turnitin generates for your project submission. You are also provided with a draft Turnitin submission point, which you may use before your final submission so that you can check that your project is free from plagiarism. Whilst Turnitin is an important means of checking a student’s work for its originality, other methods may also be used. If, for any reason, there is some question as to the originality of a student’s work, the student may be required to attend a viva voce – an oral examination. It is your responsibility to ensure that the final version you submit to the university is free of plagiarism and that it is all your work.
- You must submit an electronic version of your final report to the MSc project-co-ordinator and 2 bound hard copies of the work to the Student Office by your submission date (due to current restrictions regarding access to the university campuses, please check with your supervisor to see if they wish hard copies. If not, then you do not need to produce these. Once we can work on campus, hard copies will be required.
- A signed Library Release form, a signed Statement of Originality form need to be included in the hard copies of your work. These documents, together with a template of the front page for your dissertation, can be found on Moodle - Dissertation Submission.
- Extensions – will not be given. Students may submit their final report up to one week late with a penalty of 10 marks (in line with University regulations).
Step 7 – Assessment of your work
- Your project report/paper will be marked by your Supervisor and Moderator and presented to the first Module Confirmation Results Meeting following your deadline date (or your submission date if this is earlier). If there is any serious disagreement between your supervisor and moderator over your mark, then a 3rd marker will be used. All MSc projects are presented to the external examiner for your Programme and they will check your work and the marking of these projects.
- Notification of your mark/grade will be made available to you through Banner.
Hours Required
Throughout the Project, each student is expected to put in 600 hours of work: this time includes any formal class contact hours, 15 hours for meetings and communication with their Project Supervisor (as a general guide for a 15-week project duration), and the remaining hours on independent study. For easy calculation, this equates to 40 hours per week.
Section 3: Formal Processes of The MSc Project Module
The purpose of this section is to give you an idea of the formal mechanisms by which the MSc project is conducted.
MSc Project Module activities:
Production of the specification
- Produce MSc Masters Project specification on MSc Specification Form from Aula
- Discuss the specification with the supervisor, especially any ‘ethical’ aspects of the project and how it is to be dealt with. Ensure that supervisor is happy to sign off the ‘ethics’ statement on your specification form.
- You need to make sure that the project you undertake is appropriate to your Programme of study/ Specialist Pathway. If you are unsure about this, please check with your Programme Leader and/or the MSc Project module co-ordinator, who should be able to advise you.
- Submit your final (signed by both you and your supervisor) in Aula.
Production of the interim report
- Halfway through the time you have available for your project, produce an interim report.
- Submit the interim report to Turnitin via Aula (Turnitin submission point in the Interim Report section).
- The supervisor and moderator will read your report, discuss their ideas about what needs to be done and record a single set of action points/feedback for you. The supervisor should send you the feedback and discuss this at your next meeting.
- Ensure you take the feedback into account.
- Please note that once this feedback is received, you are not required to submit a new interim report – you use the feedback to improve your final report.
Production of the final report
Submit your final report to the FINAL submission point in Turnitin via Aula.
If requested by your supervisor, submit 1 hard, bound copy of your final report to either your supervisor or module co-ordinator.
- The date of receipt of your final report is recorded. A copy of your final report and your Turnitin report is send to your supervisor and moderator for marking.
- All projects, Turnitin reports and marking sheets from the supervisor and moderator are made available for scrutiny by the Module Moderator and the external examiner.
Your results will be made known to you in the usual way (through Banner) after the Module Confirmation Results Meeting, at which your work is considered.
Attendance at a viva voce (oral examination)
- After submitting your final report, arrange a suitable time with your supervisor and moderator to attend a short oral examination (approx. 30 minutes).
Section 4: The Project Specification
As soon as possible after starting the MSc Masters Project module, you should produce a project specification (on the MSc Project specification form – a copy is reproduced in Appendix I). You need to produce this specification form, but can expect assistance from your supervisor and moderator. If, for any reason, you do not have a supervisor at this stage, you should contact the module co-ordinator immediately.
Project Marking Scheme
As part of the Specification, you are required to provide a marking scheme for your project (there is a space on the project specification form for this purpose). Since each MSc project is individual work, it would be difficult to provide a general marking scheme that takes into account all of the possible MSc project activities that your project could involve. Some MScs will make much use of previously published literature and a very formalised research process. Others will be more of a demonstration of your high-level technical capabilities and will draw less from academic publications and more from technical specifications, manufacturers' documentation and industrial data. However, regardless of the type of project you undertake, you must undertake and present a literature review, but the relative importance of this will depend on what type of project you undertake. For example, in a software development project, your literature review will probably concentrate on finding suitable approaches for solving a particular problem so that you are able to evaluate the methods you used according to established criteria at the end of the project. In comparison, case study projects tend to be more introspective than this and concentrate on an evaluation of the actual research approach. In both cases, a literature review is essential, but in the software development project it is more likely that we will be assessing your technical capabilities based on the standards you have identified in the literature review, while in a case study we would be more interested in assessing the way you conducted the primary research given the breadth of prior research that you have evaluated. The sample marking schemes provided below are guidelines only. The person most aware of what you intend to do in your project is you, and you ought to be aware from early on what activities you will spend most time on. Therefore, you should adjust the relative marking of the range of activities according to this. The literature review is important in all projects, and so should have a minimum mark of 15%, but depending on the project, you could decide that up to 25% of the project marks are more appropriate. If in doubt, consult your supervisor on the allocations in the marking scheme. When you submit your project specification, the marking scheme will be reviewed, and if the one you provide is inappropriate for the project, you will be asked to either change it or at least justify it.
ALL MSc Master's Project marking schemes MUST include a ‘Critical Reflection’ element of 10%.
As a general rule, all MSc Master's Projects should be set out along the following lines:
Introduction
This section should contain an introduction to the project presented in the report, clearly stating the purpose or hypothesis of the work. It may be appropriate to explain the motivation for the work and the results achieved. It is a good idea to outline the structure of the report.
Background
In this section, you should provide a background and context for the project. This will involve the presentation of a critical and evaluative discussion of the literature appropriate to your project. In setting out this context, your reader should have a clear idea of the previous work undertaken in your project area, the problems with this previous work, any conflict of ideas, and how your study contributes to the area of study. (Note: this section reports your secondary research, i.e. your literature review.)
Description of the work undertaken
This section may best be divided into two parts – the research design (methodology) and the implementation of the design (technical, practical work implemented). This section should also cover any ‘testing’ or evaluation of technical artefacts (e.g. software, models, designs) produced as the output of the project. (Note: this section reports your primary research.)
Analysis and/or Evaluation
This section should present and then discuss, critically, the results of your practical work (primary research) Where appropriate evaluation of the work against the original objectives/hypothesis/purpose should be presented. It is also appropriate to include an evaluation of your work against the lessons you learnt from the literature.
Conclusion
This section should contain concluding remarks and observations as a result of the work you have undertaken. It may also contain suggestions for future work.
Critical Reflection
This section should contain your reflections regarding the whole project process and your personal journey during this process. Reflection may include comments relating to: the design of the project, implementation of the project, your management of the project process, the role of the project in the development of your technical skills/knowledge, limitations of your work, unsolved problems, etc.
Marking Scheme Examples
Example 1:
|
Introduction
|
5%
|
|
Context – literature review
|
15%
|
|
Research Design
|
15%
|
|
Implementation (practical work)
|
25%
|
|
Testing
|
10%
|
|
Presentation of results
|
10%
|
|
Conclusions and recommendations
|
10%
|
|
Critical self-evaluation
|
10%
|
The weighting of marks in the example above might suit a software development and implementation type of project.
Example 2:
|
Introduction
|
5%
|
|
Context – literature review
|
20%
|
|
Research Design
|
20%
|
|
Implementation (practical work)
|
25%
|
|
Evaluation
|
5%
|
|
Presentation of results
|
5%
|
|
Conclusions and recommendations
|
10%
|
|
Critical self-evaluation
|
10%
|
The weighting of marks in the example above might suit a project where there is a rich and complex literature to be discussed.
Example 3:
|
Introduction
|
5%
|
|
Context – literature review
|
15%
|
|
Research Design
|
15%
|
|
Implementation (practical work)
|
30%
|
|
Evaluation
|
10%
|
|
Presentation of results
|
5%
|
|
Conclusions and recommendations
|
10%
|
|
Critical self-evaluation
|
10%
|
The weighting of marks in the example above might suit a project that is adopting a fairly standard research design (ie experimentation) or a well-established subject specific approach (e.g. an approach used in machine learning studies).
We allow you the flexibility to create a marking scheme that reflects your proposed project: hopefully, the three examples above will give you some ideas about how to do this and the kind of issues to consider when allocating mark weightings.
Please note: once your specification has been agreed and submitted, you may not alter your marking scheme without agreement from your Supervisor, Moderator and the Module co-ordinator. Alterations to the marking scheme will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances.
Section 5: The Interim Report
Guidelines for the production and submission of the MSc Interim Report
You are required to submit an Interim Report at about the halfway stage of your project (if you are a full-time student, this will be halfway through week 7; if you are a part-time student, this will be at the end of the first term of your 2-term project). The Interim Report should not be submitted until after your project specification has been approved by your supervisor and moderator, and all their comments and suggestions have been taken into account. Once you have received feedback on your interim report from your supervisor and moderator, you should take great care to incorporate your responses to this feedback in your final report (we do check to make sure you have acted on feedback given). It is probably a good idea not to go too far on the writing of the final report until you have the feedback from the interim report. However, it is not sensible to stop all work whilst you wait for such feedback, so careful planning is required to ensure you do not waste your time.
The interim report should be a maximum of 5,000 words in length and should describe in detail how you are conducting your research. If you submit an interim report that is longer than 5000 words, expect to have it returned to you for editing. You mustn't consider the interim report as a first draft or final report. It is required by your supervisor and moderator to allow them to assess your overall progress on the project, and as such need to give them a clear view of the whole project. It is NOT appropriate to submit the first few chapters of your proposed final report – if you do this, expect to have the interim report returned to you for rewriting.
Required Components of the Interim Report are:
Introduction and Summary Literature Review (30 Marks)
A section that critically summarises the current academic literature in your subject area, thereby providing an academic framework for the research you are undertaking
Research Methodology (40 Marks) :
A section which describes in some detail how you intend to conduct (or are already conducting) your research. In this section, it is essential that you make clear the basis of your research method (e.g. is it a survey, a technology review or comparison, a development project) and how you intend to gather, analyse and interpret the results from it. No matter what type of project you are undertaking, it is a requirement that you perform a study that has some verifiable academic goal. You should also consider how you are going to present the data you have collected in order to ‘prove’ the rigor of the process of your research and your interpretation of the results. The research methodology section of your interim report should be a full description of the academic worth of your project, which you may only have described in a brief overview in the project specification. It is also crucial that your final report contains a section on critical reflection of your work – how well has it been conducted, what errors you have made, how reliable, accurate or significant your results are – and in this section you may wish to highlight any areas of your study that you anticipate including in this
Plan for completion (30 Marks)
This section should briefly describe the current status of your project and in more detail describe how you intend to progress it to completion. This may be a description of the technical work you still have to do and how the results will be analysed and their worth evaluated, or may describe how the results obtained from a proposed data collection method might be collated for critical analysis and then used in order to develop, critique make suggestions about future practice. Depending on the work already done, it may also be expedient to include some indication of how you will proceed if the results you collect are in some way deficient (e.g. if you send out 200 survey forms but only 8 are returned, or if the benefits you expected from a piece of technical development do not arise).
Submission of the interim report:
The interim report is assessed and you are required to submit it to Turnitin via Aula but it will not be subject to a plagiarism check and will not be stored in any repository. Once submitted it will be sent to your supervisor and moderator together with a feedback form so that they can record their comments on your work. Your supervisor should then forward this completed form to you (and a copy to the module co-ordinator for her records) and discuss its contents with you at your next meeting.
Please note: your final report will not be accepted until you have submitted an interim report, in time for your supervisor and moderator to read it and give you feedback. For this reason, you should aim to submit your interim report about halfway through the time you have available for your project. In the final project marking, the contribution made by your interim report and how you subsequently responded to feedback on the report will be factors that are taken into consideration.
A front page template and originality form for the Interim Report can be found in the Appendix.
Section 6: The Final Report
In this section, you will find guidelines relating to the MSc final report.
Submitting Your Dissertation
You should aim for approximately 18,000 words in the main body of your dissertation. Substantial blocks of technical material, such as program code, experimental data, questionnaire responses, etc., should be placed in appendices – if sections of this type of material are required in the main body to clarify the text, short excerpts can be used. Stylistically, you should use the following guidelines:
Text
1. Line spacing should be 1.5 lines
2. Text size should be 11 point or greater for the main body text
3. Plain typefaces should be used. Typically, a sans-serif font (e.g. Arial, Franklyn) is used for headings and a serif font (e.g. Times New Roman, Garamond) for the main body of text. Generally, there should be no more than two fonts used in the main text, although you can use other fonts for, e.g. program code or tables if you wish
Diagrams and Tables
4. You should number diagrams, tables, etc, either sequentially or within chapters (e.g. Figure 2.3 is the third diagram in chapter 2)
5. All diagrams should have captions and, where appropriate, a reference to their source.
Contents Lists
6. The dissertation pages should be numbered, using a simple consecutive numbering style (i.e. not separate numbering for each chapter)
7. The dissertation should have a main table of contents and separate tables of figures, tables, charts etc. These should be linked to page numbers in the document.
Project Process Documents
9. Include copies of your completed project process documents in the appendix.
Document Layout
10. The general document structure should be:
- Front sheet (download template from Aula: Final Submission of Project Report/MSc Masters Project - Front sheet for final report)
- Signed declaration of originality (download from Aula: Final Submission of Project Report/ MSc Masters Project - declaration of originality form)
- Signed Library Release form (download from Moodle: Final Submission of Project Report/ MSc Masters Project - Library Release Form)
- Dedications (if used)
- Abstract – no more than 200 words
- Table of contents
- Tables of figures, tables, charts etc, if used
- Body of dissertation
- References
- Appendices (including project process documents)
- A copy of your project specification
Printed Copies
11. Your supervisor may request a ‘hard’ copy of your final report. If so, you can use the UWS print shop to print the copy and send this to your supervisor. The purpose of the hard copy is to allow your supervisor to show your work to future students. Presently, we are unable to use electronic copies of past projects to be distributed to students as examples. Additionally, you may wish to print and bind a copy of your project report for your own use.
Electronic Submission & Originality Check
12. You are required to make two electronic submissions of your final report:
- one to the module co-ordinator via email
- one to Turnitin via Aula (submit to the FINAL submission point).
When you submit your work to Turnitin, an originality check on your work will be undertaken using the Turnitin software. The dissertation text will be checked against a database of known academic papers, professional publications, websites, books and other students’ dissertations for plagiarism. It is your responsibility to ensure that the report is free from plagiarism. You may chose to do this by checking your document in Turnitin (use the draft submission point for Turnitin in the MSc Project module on Aula to check your document prior to its final submission).
Whilst the overall similarity % is useful, all Turnitin reports are looked at in detail by the module co-ordinator, supervisor, moderator and external examiner. You should take care to ensure that all sources are <1%. As a rule of thumb, no overall similarity score should be >10%.
A submitted report which is shown to contain a significant amount of material from other sources will not be marked and your work may be presented to the Faculty Plagiarism panel for consideration. If a significant amount of plagiarism is indicated you may be subject to disciplinary proceedings.
13. Note that although we provide the on-line service to allow you to check your own work for inadvertently copied material, we do not consider the on-line result as definitive, and will perform other checks for plagiarism if we consider this necessary.
14. After submission of your final report, you must contact your supervisor and moderator to arrange a mutually convenient time to undertake your oral examination (short viva voce, 30 minutes). This examination may take place in person or online via Teams/Zoom. This event should, ideally, take place within a week of your final submission date. Your supervisor and moderator may ask you to demonstrate any software you have developed during your project but you are NOT required to make a presentation of your project work. Instead, expect to be asked to answer detailed questions on the work you have submitted.
15. Please note that the submission date in Turnitin is NOT necessarily your project submission date. Your submission date will be given on Aula and is a date that is set by the School for the submission of all final MSc project reports.
Guidance on how to write a good Abstract, together with good and poor examples, can be found on Aula.
