Basic instructions for the oral exam and writing the dissertation

Oral exam

Students register for the oral exam no later than in the sixth semester of their studies. Registration is subject to completion of the Individual Study Plan IV course. (POLd0004). No later than two weeks before the exam, the student submits a list of at least 20 books or articles to the supervisor. The list is subsequently subject to the approval of the chairman of the commission. At the same time, the student selects at least 10 books or articles from lists (for the field of Political Science and for the specialization Security and Strategic Studies) published by the department on the department's website.

Dissertation

A dissertation in the field of Political Science (including the specialization Security and Strategic Studies) at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University can be either in the form of a monograph or in the form of a cumulative dissertation. It must certify that the author has mastered adequate theoretical, conceptual, methodological and empirical aspects of the treatment of the given topic. It should bring new knowledge about the given topic. It can be written in Czech, Slovak, English or another world language.

Monographs:

The dissertation is presented in the form of a scientific monograph. The scope of the dissertation is 150-250 standard pages. With the approval of the supervisor and the departmental council, which must precede the registration of the subject Dissertation (POLd0009), it is possible to submit a text that is shorter or longer than the specified scope.

If the submitted dissertation contains the results of a collective scientific work in which the submitter participated as an author, they must be:

• these parts are clearly marked in the work,
• in such a case, the work must include a declaration of the co-authors, confirming the authorship of the marked parts of the work and valuing the author's contribution.

The dissertation must contain (1.) a sworn statement by the author that he/she prepared it independently and indicated all the literature and sources used, and (2.) a brief annotation in Czech/Slovak and English, summarizing basic information about the focus text and research results.

The usual structure of a monographic dissertation:

• Introduction (definition of the subject of the research, its necessity, innovativeness and contribution)
• Analysis of the literature
• Theoretical and conceptual understanding of research
• Operationalization of research (data, methods of their collection and analysis)
• Data analysis
• Discussion of the results
• Conclusion (including a clearly defined contribution of the research results to the existing literature, a clear definition of the contribution to the state of knowledge, a discussion of the limits of the research, may also contain suggestions for further research)

Editing of citations and literature:
The dissertation of a monographic nature must be submitted in the university thesis template. Any citation standard common in the social sciences can be used.

Dissertation consisting of articles - cumulative dissertation:

The dissertation should contain an introduction, at least 4 articles accepted for publication/published, and a conclusion. There is no minimum number of words. The text should be coherent, written in a uniform style and language. The student should have at least a 50% share in all published texts and document the consent of the co-authors. If co-authored articles are included in the dissertation, the authorship shares must be explicitly stated in the introduction and the exact role of the individual authors must be described (literature review, elaboration of theoretical and conceptual starting points, operationalization of research, data collection and analysis, discussion of results, etc.). At least two articles should be in the Web of Science database (not ESCI).

The structure of a dissertation consisting of articles

• Determining the overall authorship of the text as a whole and describing the role of individual authors (typically in the following items: literature review, theoretical or conceptual definition of research, methodology, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, formal editing of the manuscript)
• Introduction (definition of the subject of the research, its necessity, innovativeness and contribution; definition of the topic in such a way that there is a clear connection between the texts included in the dissertation; definition of a common theoretical and methodological framework; may also contain a summarizing literature review)
• The first article
• The second article
• The third article
• The fourth article
• Conclusion (summary of research results connecting all included texts, clearly defined contribution of research results to existing literature, clear definition of contribution to the state of knowledge, discussion of research limits, may also contain topics for further research)

Editing of citations and literature:
A dissertation consisting of articles must be submitted in the university thesis template. Manuscripts of articles should be edited in such a way that the literature is cited according to one citation standard and that the text contains a unified list of all sources used in the text of the dissertation.

Defense

The defense of the dissertation must prove that its author knows the theoretical and research context of the work and is familiar with the relevant professional literature. He/she must be able to respond to the questions of the commission and other persons participating in the defense.