Theses

Theses are handed in digitally via MyLEARN, where they are then forwarded to your thesis supervisor and subjected to plagiarism testing using special software.

1. In the menu on the left-hand side, click “Theses.”
2. Then click “New” and select “Upload new thesis” from the drop-down menu.
3. Select your program, enter the title of your thesis, any co-authors if applicable, and your thesis supervisor, then upload your thesis in PDF format.
4. Click “Save” when you’re done.
5. If you need to change any of the information you’ve entered, click “Edit Data.”
6. When you have finished editing and are ready to hand in your thesis, click “Send final version to examiner.”

When you return to your overview page, the thesis will be shown on your list. Plagiarism testing can take up to 24 hours.

Your thesis supervisor will be sent an automated email notification that your thesis been submitted. If you have indicated any co-authors, your co-authors will also be notified by email and will be required to give their consent as well. The thesis will not be forwarded to your supervisor until all co-authors have given their consent.

PLEASE NOTE:

• If you have written the thesis in cooperation with one or more other students, please name them as co-authors. The other person will receive a message asking them to confirm that they are a co-author of this thesis. Once the confirmation is received, the submission will be checked for plagiarism. The thesis is uploaded only once and then assigned to all authors.
• When entering names, make sure to write names directory style (last name first). The person you have named as your supervisor will be notified by email of your submission.
• Please make sure that the document you upload is in PDF format and not encrypted. Only non-encrypted files can be uploaded. Use the integrated PDF function of your word processing software (e.g. PDF add-in for Microsoft Office) or an original Adobe conversion program to create the PDF file. PDFs created using freeware often cause problems during the uploading process.
• The uploaded PDF file may not exceed 16 MB in size.
• The uploaded thesis must be at least 1,000 words in length.

Further information and tips on writing theses and avoiding plagiarism are available in the Student Support area on LEARN. For more on administrative steps and organizational topics, please see the “My Degree Program” page on the WU website.

Your students’ uploaded theses can be found on MyLEARN under “Theses” in the menu on the left-hand side of the page. Click this menu item to see a list of all theses submitted by students who named you as a supervisor. Theses are filtered by semester and type, and on the individual pages, you can also search for theses by name.

If a student has named you as a supervisor for his/her thesis, you will be automatically notified by email when the paper has been uploaded and you will be able to access the work at any time using the link provided. If two or more students have co-authored a thesis, one student initiates submission and all co-authors are required to give their consent. Theses will not be forwarded to supervisors until all co-authors have given their consent.

The “Status” column shows you the following information:

Please note: The percentage of textual matches in the result is not significant on its own, it is important to review the Similarity Report in detail.

The “Actions” column provides the following information:

Please be sure to check all work for plagiarism yourself as well. Digital plagiarism testing can never replace a review by the supervisor. No plagiarism detection software can provide 100% assurance that the tested document has not been plagiarized.

After completion of digital plagiarism testing, supervisors need to interpret the results.

In the “Status” column, click the link “View details" to see the Similarity Report on the submitted thesis.

Percentage values alone are not a reliable indicator if work has been plagiarized, and if so, to what extent. This can only be determined after careful review of the sources found and a comparison with the submitted thesis.

For a detailed description and explanation of the Similarity Report, please see the Turnitin website.

If you have additional questions about plagiarism or if you have reasonable grounds to suspect plagiarism or other forms of academic fraud, please contact plagiate@wu.ac.at.

For further information, please see the Directive on Plagiarism and Other Types of Academic Fraud in Academic Theses.

Theses that were uploaded before February 1, 2019 and were tested for plagiarism using Ephorus cannot be excluded from the comparison using the eye icon. This means that these older sources will be included in the iThenticate software’s plagiarism check. As a supervisor, you will need to keep this in mind when interpreting the results. The results will remain available on MyLEARN.

For theses uploaded before November 9, 2021 and tested for plagiarism with the iThenticate plagiarism software, the results will remain available in the interactive web viewer until January 31, 2022. When viewing the results after this date, the results will be displayed as plain HTML.

Uploaded theses can't be deleted from the system. They can only be locked so that they are no longer used for comparison.

If you want to exclude a thesis in the database from the comparison made by the plagiarism software (e.g. if you are reviewing a revised thesis for the second time, or for blocked theses),  you must deselect the source in the web viewer. This will also update the match percentage on MyLEARN.

A detailed description of how to exclude sources can be found on the homepage of the provider Turnitin.