Thesis for a UAS master’s degree can be written in the form of an article. An article thesis consists of either one academic article (publication types A–C) or of at least two articles aimed for a professional community (publication type D). In the article(s), the results of a research or a development activity are presented. The article can be written in Finnish, Swedish, or English. The article manuscript follows the writing guidelines of the publication to which the article is intended to be send to evaluation and publishing. The results of the thesis must not be published prior the submission, and the results shall only be reported in the article manuscript.
In addition to the article manuscript, an article thesis includes a report section based on the research plan of the thesis with introduction, a more extensive theoretical framework compared to the article manuscript, literature overview, and the purpose and objectives of the research or development activity, as well as the justified description of the division of labour between the manuscript authors and of the publication, to which the article is intended to be sent. Furthermore, the report section includes analysis and justifications for the reliability of the thesis, ethical questions, and the impact of the thesis for the development of work life. The report section should be about 20–25 pages long, including references and appendices.
The decision of writing an article thesis is agreed upon together with the supervising teachers already at the beginning of the thesis process. The article manuscript must correspond to the extent and quality requirements set for a UAS Master’s thesis. The supervision, pre-examination, and evaluation of the article thesis follow the same principles as other theses. An article thesis is evaluated in accordance with the Diak UAS Master’s thesis evaluation criteria.
In the article, the student is always, first and foremost, an author. In addition to the student and the supervisor, the members of the research or development working group from the field of the thesis topic can act as authors for the article manuscript. Other authors should be agreed upon together with the student and the supervisors. Furthermore, all authors must approve the contents of the article prior to submission. An article manuscript can only be sent to one publication at a time.
The article manuscript is going to be approved as a part of the thesis once the supervisors deem the manuscript fit for the chosen publication. The commitment to possible revisions (peer assessment process) must be agreed upon together with the student prior submitting the article manuscript to the publishing process. If the student does not commit to revisions, the supervisors of the thesis have the right to use the article manuscript. In this case, the first author of the article is the supervisor, who also takes the main responsibility of the proper publication process. The name of the student will remain as one of the authors of the article. Consequently, other possible changes of the author order will be agreed on.
The report section of the article thesis will be uploaded to the Theseus database. The article manuscript of the thesis will also be uploaded to Theseus; however, the manuscript will not be publicly available. Once the article has been published, republishing the article, for example as a parallel publication, requires a permission from the publisher.
An example of the report section of the thesis has been presented below. The structure can also be agreed in detail together with the supervisors.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Theoretical Framework
Function and Objectives of the Thesis
Implementation Process
Reliability and Ethical Aspects of the Thesis
The Significance of the Results for the Development of Work Life at the Time of Publication
List of References
Appendices
Arja Suikkala and Satu Kajander-Unkuri (2021)