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Student dissertation handbook
MSc Management
and all pathways
EFIMM 0158
MSc Student Dissertation Handbook 2021/2022
School of Management
Page | 2
Table of Contents
Table of Contents .......................................................................................... 2
1. Dissertation unit team .............................................................................. 4
2. Introduction .............................................................................................. 5
2.1 Intended Learning Outcomes ............................................................................ 5
3. Forms of Dissertation ............................................................................... 7
3.1 An empirical dissertation project ................................................................... 7
Sample size guidance for empirical dissertations .......................................... 8
3.2 A library-based dissertation project ............................................................ 10
Number of companies or organisations requirement for library-based
dissertations ...................................................................................................... 10
4. Elements of the dissertation unit ............................................................ 12
4.1 Preparation ..................................................................................................... 12
Timetabled Preparation Sessions .................................................................. 12
4.2 Supervision ..................................................................................................... 13
External supervisors ......................................................................................... 15
Student conduct during the supervision period .......................................... 15
4.3 Research Protocols ........................................................................................ 16
Ethical approval ................................................................................................ 16
Researcher Conduct ........................................................................................ 22
4.4 Assessment ..................................................................................................... 25
Appropriate size of the final submission ....................................................... 26
5. Dissertation Submission Requirements ................................................. 27
5.1 Formatting of your dissertation ....................................................................... 28
5.2 Suggested structure of your dissertation ....................................................... 29
Suggested structure of empirical dissertations ............................................ 30
Suggested structure of library-based dissertations ..................................... 35
6. Submission Process ................................................................................ 39
6.1 Pre-submission: submitting ONE draft to Turnitin ........................................ 39
6.2 Submitting your final dissertation.................................................................... 39
6.3 Extension to study time ..................................................................................... 39
6.4 Penalties for late work ....................................................................................... 40
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7. Marking and Feedback ........................................................................... 41
7.1 Marking process ................................................................................................ 41
7.2 Feedback, intended learning outcomes and assessment guidelines ........ 41
7.3 Marking criteria .................................................................................................. 43
7.4 Resubmission of the Dissertation .................................................................... 46
8. Timeline and important dates ................................................................ 47
9. Recommended reading and resources ................................................... 48
10. Appendices: Examples of important forms ....................................... 49
Dissertation Title Page ............................................................................................ 49
Student - Supervisor Agreement Form ................................................................. 50
Ethical Approval Form ............................................................................................. 53
Participant Information and Consent Form .......................................................... 62
MSc Student Dissertation Handbook 2021/2022
School of Management
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1. Dissertation unit team
Dissertation Coordinator:
Dr. Surya Mahdi, FHEA
surya.mahdi@bristol.ac.uk
For dissertation queries of
MSc Management students
(all pathways)
Student Administration Team:
mgmt-pgt@bristol.ac.uk
For general admin queries,
extensions, extenuating
circumstances etc
Subject Librarian
Sarah Brain
sarah.brain@bristol.ac.uk
For library and resources queries
Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct
Officer:
Dr Roberta Bernardi
roberta.bernardi@bristol.ac.uk
For queries about plagiarism and
all aspects of academic
misconduct
School of Management Ethics Committee:
Dr Anita Mangan
management-ethicscommittee@bristol.ac.uk
For queries about ethical
approval. Please contact your
supervisor about ethical approval
in the first instance.
Postgraduate Personal Tutor Team:
management-ptt@bristol.ac.uk
For wellbeing queries and help if
you are worried about your
studies.
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School of Management
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2. Introduction
A dissertation is a piece of extended academic writing of an independent study that
identifies and investigates a particular research question and explores it
systematically over a sustained period of time. It provides the opportunity to read
extensively and apply research skills to a particular area of study under the guidance
of the assigned academic supervisor. Dissertations may be either empirical or
library-based (non-empirical).
The dissertation is undertaken after the taught part of the Master’s programme,
worth 60 of the 180 credits that make up an MSc degree.
The purpose of the Student Dissertation Handbook is to set out the common
requirements for the dissertation. Please always consult your handbook before
asking your supervisor. You can use the contents page or navigation view to find
the relevant parts of the handbook.
This handbook includes the following topics related to the dissertation unit:
❖ Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
❖ Principal forms of dissertation
❖ Support provided during the dissertation period
❖ Formal requirements for presentation and submission
❖ The marking procedures and assessment criteria.
2.1 Intended Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge
and understanding of the following:
1) frame a clear, central research question within the project topic chosen
2) identify and critically review literature relevant to the topic and central
research question
3) understand and apply an appropriate research methodology to investigate
the chosen topic including research ethics process and considerations
4) analyse data and/or evidence, where appropriate, and draw apposite
conclusions that answer the central research question
5) integrate conclusions into wider academic debates
6) produce a dissertation in a clear, well-written and grammatically-correct style,
that conforms to the conventions of academic presentation
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Notes
EFIMM0158: The Management Research Project: Dissertation is a separate unit to
EFIMM0149: Management Research Methods. EFIMM 0158 is not a continuation of
EFIMM0149 and thus the research topic that you would like to pursue in the
dissertation unit need not to be related with the research topic that you used for the
EFIMM0149 Research Proposal assignment.
You are obviously allowed to use the research a topic from your submitted
EFIMM0149 Research Proposal assignment as a basis for your dissertation topic.
However, you are free to come up with a fresh topic, different from the EFIMM0149
topic.
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3. Forms of Dissertation
Dissertation projects may typically be one of the following two forms: an empirical
dissertation project or a library-based dissertation project (non-empirical). These are
generic standards, and it should be noted that all dissertation projects will include
a substantial literature review and it is highly possible that many library-based
projects may also have a substantial empirical element to them.
3.1 An empirical dissertation project
This type of dissertation involves carrying out a piece of extensive academic
research on a scale suitable for a dissertation. It entails a review of the literature
leading to the formulation of a research question from the broader research topic,
planning a research study, collecting and analysing purposely created empirical
data – either primary data (eg survey data or transcripts of interviews) or secondary
data (eg previously collected statistical data), presenting the analysis of the data in
a systematic way, discussing them in depth before arriving to the final conclusion.
It is also possible that you might want to suggest some recommendations from your
research outcomes. The research may either be original research or involve the
replication of an existing research study in a different context.
Given the ongoing Covid-19 situation, students are recommended to collect all
data via online mechanisms this year where possible.
Key stages in an empirical dissertation
The key stages in an empirical dissertation usually involve the following activities:
1. Identifying a research topic within the scope of the project.
2. Refining the project title and formulate a research question. This will be
informed by reading and reviewing previous literature around the topic to
see what aspects have been researched; observation of aspects of the topic
drawing from experience, other learning etc; and discussions with the
supervisor, other tutors, and fellow students.
3. Determining how to set up the study so as to better understand the
area/issue in question. This will be informed by:
a. research methodologies and research methods that have been used
in comparable research studies. This will be discovered by reading in
the substantive area, and focusing on how others have researched the
topic, and
b. the nature of the focal topic area and what research methods are
possible.
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Sample size guidance for empirical dissertations
The findings of your Empirical Dissertation research should come from an
acceptable quality of inquiry. This acceptable quality of inquiry can be used to
ascertain whether the knowledge that you are producing from your empirical
research could satisfy at least the basic level of academic research scrutiny. One
important aspect to assess is whether the conclusions that you can draw from your
research finding can be valid and/or confidently generalised to the population that
your research participants represent. This is often related to whether or not you
draw your conclusions of your dissertation from an acceptable number of
participants who participate in your research.
Although there is no clear-cut answer on what constitutes an acceptable number of
participants for your research as this number depends on many considerations,
students have found the following guidance useful:
Sample size considerations for primary qualitative data collection
In qualitative data research where the collected data might come from interviews or
focus groups, the following points may be useful to consider when to keep
continuing collecting data from new interviews or focus groups or when to stop.
• Is the data collected sufficient to address the research question (i.e., have
you gathered the data that you need)?
4. Seeking ethical approval before undertaking research and collecting data
(including recruiting participants).
5. Depending on the form of empirical work (analysing data
sets/documents/etc or interviews/surveys etc), identify sources of data
including, where appropriate, target population and sampling method.
6. Where fieldwork is involved, seeking permission to access the places and
groups. Consider carefully alternative groups/places you could approach in
case permission is denied.
7. Developing and testing research tools and techniques.
8. Collecting, capturing and appropriately recording data.
9. Analysing data.
10. Reviewing earlier reading and evaluate other research and
conceptualisations in the light of the data gathered. Consider the academic
and ‘managerial’ contributions of your findings.
11. Drafting chapters of the dissertation for review by your supervisor.
Note
Your supervisor will provide support throughout this process and the activity of
drafting chapters and sending them to the supervisor can be done at any time along
the stages of dissertation research. For example, drafting the literature review
chapter can be undertaken as soon as the end of activity 2 above.
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• Is the data collected of sufficient quality to enable appropriate analysis (eg,
students may be doing something interesting or innovative within
interviews, such as photo elicitation)?
• Is the rationale for collecting the data (including at what point data
collection was stopped) clearly articulated?
• Is the data collection, data analysis and theoretical engagement of sufficient
quality and discussed in sufficient detail?
As a very rough guide, approximately 10-15 interviews (each 30+ minutes) or 2-3
focus groups (up to an hour in length) or else an equivalent to a minimum of 5 man-
hours inquiry can be used as a rough estimate for an MSc dissertation. However,
this is a rough estimate, and the four points explained previously need to be used
as the main guiding principles.
Sample size considerations for primary quantitative data collection
In quantitative data research where the collected data might come from surveys
(through questionnaires), the following points may be useful to decide on the
minimum sample size necessary to produce reliable findings. This is a guide.
1. If the population size of the subject that you are studying is small (ie consists
of 200 individuals or less), then you should use the entire population as a
sample. For example, if you plan to do research on Top 50 UK entrepreneurs
using survey, you need to sample the whole population of top 50
entrepreneurs. However, you also need to consider the cost and time factor
to collect such data.
2. You can also use the same sample size as those studies similar to the one that
you plan to do in your dissertation research. Focusing on reading the
methodological part from the similar research during your literature review
on your topic can provide guidance about the typical sample size that you
can use for your research.
3. Alternatively, you can use published tables of sample size for known sizes of
population, selected margin of error, selected confidence level and whether
you plan to collect categorical or continuous data. One of the well-known
tables for this purpose was produced by Taro Yamane (1967) [Yamane, T
(1967). Statistics, An Introductory Analysis, 2nd Ed., New York: Harper and
Row.]
4. If you do not know the size of the population of the subjects that you are
studying, then you are advised to use William Gemmell Cochran’s (1963)’s
formula to calculate sample size for a population with an infinite size (ie very
large size) [Cochran, W.G. (1963). Sampling Techniques, 2nd Ed., New York:
John Wiley and Sons, Inc.]. According to Cochran (1963), the suggested
sample size for studying an unlimited population size with the population
variability of 50% (maximum variability), margin of error of 5% and confidence
level of 95% is 385.
For dissertations in the School of Management, a guide for a sample for quantitative
data research, like surveys, is between 100 to 200. This corresponds to the
population variability of 50% (maximum variability), margin of error of 5% and the
confidence level between 70% and 85% (between 1 to 4 and 1 to 5 likely that your
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value will be off the specified range) for research on an unlimited population size.
This sample size is a guide.
Consequently, when planning the survey and reporting your research and in the
dissertation, you have to specify in advance the size of the population that you are
studying (eg unlimited (very large) or not). Also, if the characteristics of that
population are known from the previous literature and/or from the published
statistics, you are required to compare the characteristics of your collected sample
with the reported characteristics of the population that you are studying. Also,
because it is very rare to have 100% success rate, ideally, you should send your
questionnaires to a much larger number of respondents in order to make sure that
you can collect the minimum acceptable size of sample to be analysed.
3.2 A library-based dissertation project
A library-based dissertation is best distinguished from an empirical study by
regarding it as an investigation using “supporting evidence” and secondary data
that is already available in the public domain and in the forms which can be readily
utilised for supporting the dissertation arguments. This can involve the re-analysis
of an existing data set (eg published secondary data), a critical study of the existing
research on a particular topic, the study of the development of a specific concept
or theoretical framework in the literature, or a critical investigation into an area
relevant to your programme. Typically, it will involve the analysis of various forms
of documentary evidence: the research literature, government documents, web
sources, published data, etc.
A library-based study of this sort usually aims to add something extra to the existing
study that is being discussed or criticised, by providing a summary of the weight of
evidence for and against a particular position or theory, identifying key gaps in
knowledge, or providing a new perspective from which to view an issue. A library-
based study can provide an excellent opportunity to consider how research done
in a range of different contexts, relates to particular contexts.
It can potentially be very valuable and important work. However, it must be noted
that such a study goes further than the simple describing of what exists. It requires
properly formulated research questions which are used to critically evaluate the
sources, or the cases used. It also requires a clear and coherent research design
which outlines and justifies the search strategy for the evidence selected. Please
refer to the Session 6 in the Dissertation Preparation Sessions for a much more detail
explanation of the Library-Based Dissertation Project.
Number of companies or organisations requirement for library-based dissertations
You are NOT PERMITTED to write a library-based dissertation around ONE
PARTICULAR company or organisation. Your library-based dissertation MUST USE
AT LEAST TWO organisations as the key topic of its discussion. This might be in the
form of the comparison of at least those two companies or organisations.
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Key stages in a library-based dissertation
The key stages in producing a library-based dissertation usually involve the
following activities:
1. Identifying a research topic within the scope of the project.
2. Refining the project title and formulating a research question.
3. Clearly identifying, discussing and clarifying the key concepts being
investigated. This will require reading and review of previous literature
around the topic, together with advice and feedback from the supervisor.
4. Planning to collect evidence to support your plans of criticism.
5. Reviewing the available collected evidence. This will include:
a. constructing sets of criteria against which to judge the materials
reviewed.
b. making a detailed review of the collected evidence such as relevant
books and journal articles. Where relevant, it can also include other
relevant materials, eg company or government reports, market
research, newspaper articles etc.
6. Summing up. B uild case-evidence from the overall reviewed collected
evidence to act as the key supporting evidence to back up your critical
arguments against particular concepts or theory.
7. Providing discussion on how this evidence might provide answers to the
previously proposed research question, formulated at the beginning of
the dissertation. Weigh up the pros and cons.
8. Making recommendations for further research studies or draw out
implications for practice.
9. Drafting chapters of the dissertation for review by your supervisor.
Note
Your supervisor will provide support throughout this process and the activity of
drafting chapters and sending them – individually – to the supervisor can be done
at any time along the stages of dissertation research. For example, drafting the
literature review chapter can be undertaken as soon as the end of activity 3
above.
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4. Elements of the dissertation unit
The dissertation unit consists of the following elements:
1. Preparation
2. Supervision
3. Adherence to research protocols
4. Submission and assessment
4.1 Preparation
To support your dissertation research and writing, all School of Management PGT
students can access a comprehensive series of recorded dissertation preparation
sessions on Blackboard. These recordings are designed to help you with remote
dissertation research, generating your research plan, undertaking correct ethical
approval arrangements, utilising library resources and how to generally make the
most of your dissertation work. The materials covered in the recording include:
1) Introduction to the dissertation unit
2) Academic knowledge and the different philosophies of its production (ie.
research philosophy and research quality)
3) Choosing your dissertation topic; identifying and developing your research
question
4) How do you know that it is a topic worth researching? Sourcing for literature,
critically evaluating literature and identifying knowledge gaps or issues
within the current literature as well as managing the flow of information
5) Planning to reliably answer your dissertation/research questions: planning
your research methodology
6) Undertaking library-based dissertation research
7) Undertaking qualitative research
8) Making conclusions from qualitative data
9) Undertaking quantitative research
10) Making inference from quantitative data
11) Writing up your dissertation and formalities.
Timetabled Preparation Sessions
To guide you through the necessary materials for your dissertation, the following
preparation sessions have been also timetabled for you. Please look out for these
sessions in your calendar.
Introductory lecture for all School of Management PGT students via Zoom on:
• Thursday 5 May, 10-11am
General Q&A session via Zoom on:
• Thursday 26 May, 10-11am
There will also be a programme specific Q&A session via Zoom on:
• Monday 4 July, 10-11am
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4.2 Supervision
Each student is allocated ONE supervisor. However, one supervisor can supervise
several Master’s dissertation projects. There will be no co-supervision. The
allocation of the supervisor is ONLY based on anonymous matching between the
student research topic and methodology preferences with the research interest and
skills of the AVAILABLE supervisor. The supervisor allocation decision is final and
changing the supervisor in the middle of the supervision period is not permitted
and will not be accommodated.
Before the start of the supervision period in May, you will receive an email with
details of your supervisor. Supervision will mainly involve online meetings, email
and possibly other methods of communication.
Your supervisor can help you in:
✓ narrowing the focus of your research and (re)formulating your research
question(s), aims, objectives and outcomes
✓ discussing research ethics and granting approval
✓ guiding some of your reading
✓ preparing for fieldwork if you are undertaking an empirical project
✓ advising on any stage of the research process and any difficulties you may
face
✓ assisting in structuring your dissertation, and
✓ commenting on draft material and advising you on the final submission.
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the University of Bristol has taken the necessary steps
to generate alternative safe methods of supervision, teaching and assessment. As
a result, your supervision will be conducted entirely online for the duration of the
dissertation period via MS Teams or Zoom. The use of email and other textual
methods of communication should be limited to general correspondence or to
provide draft feedback only.
You can expect to receive the equivalent of a maximum of 5 hours ‘contact time’
supervision from your supervisor. The frequency of supervision meetings should
be agreed in advance between you and your supervisor as long as the cumulative
total hours does not exceed the maximum permitted contact hours.
You will be able to start communicating with your supervisor after Tuesday 3 May,
but not before.
Note that your supervisor will usually require you to turn on the camera during
supervision meetings. This not only makes the communication better between you
and your supervisor, but also it would enable your supervisor to use this as a way of
checking your identity. Either you or your supervisor are permitted to record the
supervision meeting with the agreement of the other party. Nevertheless, for the
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), all the recordings of the supervision
meetings are to be saved in a University of Bristol OneDrive folder.
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Your supervisor is only permitted to provide feedback on an equivalent of one full
draft of the dissertation once. The way the feedback will be provided – either
chapter by chapter along the supervision period or the whole dissertation draft (not
both) towards the end of the supervision period - should be agreed in advance
between you and your supervisor. In the case where the feedback is given chapter
by chapter along the supervision period, you and your supervisor need to agree in
advance on the timeline of the delivery of the chapters.
You will be required to complete and submit to Blackboard a Student/Supervisor
Agreement form by the end of May (see appendix ii). This will include what you
have agreed regarding what your topic and research question is, how you plan to
do your research, how often you will meet, when you will deliver dissertation
chapters and if there are any times when you or your supervisor will be unavailable
(due to holiday commitment for example). In all cases, supervisors will expect
students to manage their own time, set deadlines for the delivery of each chapter
and proactively communicate these deadlines to supervisors so that supervisors
know when draft chapters are to be expected.
Supervisors will explain their process of supervision at the earliest opportunity, and
this may be in a group supervision meeting. Some examples of expectations that
supervisors may explain include the following:
- Supervisors will establish how long meetings are likely to last, and how many
there are likely to be across the dissertation period. This will help students
plan how best to use meetings.
- Supervisors will establish how far in advance of the final deadline they will
accept final drafts for review.
- Supervisors will explain that draft chapters will only be commented on once
and that reworked chapters will not be reviewed with written comments
(although might be discussed). Supervisors do not edit work but provide
comments for guidance.
- Supervisors will explain when they will be away from work (ie taking leave or
if they work around caring responsibilities or are part time) and are unable to
answer requests for guidance.
- Supervisors will explain that written comments on language, style and tone
should be applied across the dissertation.
- Supervisors will explain their approach to planning meetings (eg that
students send calendar invites) and their approach to planned meetings that
students fail to attend.
- Supervisors will explain how they expect online meetings to be conducted,
eg without the use of face coverings and without background noise (so not
in public places) to aid communication and understanding.
Your supervisor will normally provide written feedback either within 10 working
days for each submission of the draft chapter by chapter, or within 15 working days
for the draft of the whole dissertation (not both). Your supervisor reserves the right
to refuse providing feedback within a much shorter timeframe if they think that it
would be impossible for them to provide quality feedback due to their other
commitments. For this reason, it is important for you to always check if your
supervisor will be away or not available during the supervision period.
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You might reasonably expect your supervisor to respond to general emails within 2
working days (not weekend or public holiday) – for example to confirm setting up a
meeting, but not if the response needs them to read through documentation. The
working day of the supervisor follows the University of Bristol and thus UK time. The
supervisor reserves the right not read and answer out of hours email.
The supervision period normally starts from early May until the submission of the
final dissertation in mid-September.
Any other issues related to the supervision process should be first discussed with
your supervisor. If it cannot be successfully resolved, then you or your supervisor
might wish to escalate this to the dissertation coordinator.
External supervisors
Several of our dissertation supervisors are based outside of the University of Bristol,
so there is a chance that you could be allocated to an external supervisor. This is
common with other Russell Group universities and the School of Management
employs a range of staff including academics external to the University for the
supervision of dissertations. This enables the School to ensure personal and
individual supervision for students and allows us to utilise skills and expertise of
academics who may not be full-time members of staff. In employing external
members of staff, there is an increased breadth and depth of research knowledge
allowing Schools to create the best match between students and supervisors.
Student conduct during the supervision period
You are expected to regularly attend the supervision sessions as agreed and
arranged with your supervisor. Frequent absence from the agreed meeting
sessions without a valid reason will be reported by your supervisor to the
Dissertation Unit Team for further action. In the case of the international students,
it may involve possible escalation to The UK Home Office. You are expected to
report any planned long-term absence to your supervisor and the PGT Student
Administration Team.
You are expected to undertake research with the approval of your supervisor. Any
changes in the previously agreed dissertation topic or in the way the data is
collected and analysed has to be reported to and approved by your supervisor.
Your supervisor can report any unreported changes of your dissertation to the
Dissertation Unit Team and subsequently provide a formal statement that the
dissertation was undertaken without your supervisor’s approval, especially if this
affects the ethical approval process. The student HAS TO submit a NEW Student-
Supervisor Agreement form for any approved changes of the previously
agreed dissertation topic.
Finally, you are expected to provide research data and evidence upon request by
your supervisors to check on the authenticity of the research. Your supervisor can
report to the Dissertation Unit Team any refusal of handing in research data and
evidence by you during the supervision period.
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4.3 Research Protocols
University of Bristol is proud to be among world-leading Higher Education
institutions which excel in their research quality and performance. As part of the
University of Bristol community, you are expected to do your research according to
the University of Bristol research quality standard protocols. This involves
respecting University of Bristol Research Guidelines as well as conducting research
with the highest integrity as a University of Bristol researcher. Information on
seeking ethical approval, GDPR and researcher conduct are below.
Ethical approval
Before starting to collect any data - either primary or secondary data - you must
discuss and agree your approach and methods with your supervisor. You can then
apply for ethical approval from your supervisor. All students are required to engage
fully with the ethics approval process, irrespective of the type of dissertation you are
doing (either Empirical or Library Based Dissertation). You must read the ethics
approval process carefully as you will need to complete different relevant sections
of the Ethics Approval Form with detailed information as required, depending on
the type of research you are conducting. Failure to seek such approval, or to change
your methods without the consent of your supervisor will have serious
repercussions for academic misconduct, which could mean that you fail the
dissertation without any permission to resubmit. You can download the Ethical
Approval Form from the Dissertation Information area within the relevant
dissertation unit on Blackboard.
Once this has been approved and signed off by your supervisor, you should submit
your Ethics Approval Form to Blackboard by the end of June (see appendix iii).
The online submission area for the Ethics Approval Form is open from mid-May.
Note that the proposed ethics documentation might not be approved the first time
when you send this to your supervisor and so you must allow plenty of time to
prepare this.
It is also possible, that, due to unforeseen circumstances, you might need to modify
the way you collect the data or evidence in the later stage of your dissertation
research. In this case, you must submit any subsequent amended or changed
versions of the Ethical Approval Form, approved and signed off again by your
supervisor, to Blackboard.
The School of Management Ethics Committee will audit the Ethics Approval Forms
submitted to Blackboard as part of the University’s agreed ethics process.
NOTE: The final approved version of the Ethical Approval Form for all types of
dissertations must be included in the appendices of your dissertation submission.
If you do not include this, or if you include a previous version which does not match
the research you actually undertook, you will not have fulfilled the Learning
Outcomes required for the dissertation unit. This will be reflected in the marking of
your work and could result in a fail.
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Ethical approval for library-based dissertation projects
In library-based dissertation research, where you are only using anonymised
secondary datasets or using information from existing literature, you are only
expected to complete PART A of the Ethics Approval Form.
Ethical approval for students using anonymous collected secondary data
If you are only using anonymised collected secondary datasets for your empirical
dissertation (such as patent datasets, published statistical data etc), then the Ethical
Approval Form application will be similar to that for library-based dissertation
projects above: you are only expected to complete PART A of the Ethics Approval
Form.
Ethical approval for students collecting primary data from social media or using any non-
anonymous collected (primary or secondary) data
If any part of your dissertation research involves of collecting primary data or using
non-anonymous data such as social media posts, customer reviews, etc then you
must complete the full ethics form – PART B – and submit together with:
• a copy of your data collection instrument (eg questionnaire/interview
schedule), and
• consent form (if separate to your data collection instrument)
The completed ethics form together with the additional documentation above will
then comprise the Ethics Approval Form.
If your research involves a sensitive topic or data collection from vulnerable groups
(please refer to “Guidance” in the next page), then your supervisor will request you
to submit your approval form to the School’s Research Ethics Committee:
management-ethicscommittee@bristol.ac.uk. The Committee aims to provide a
response within 10 working days.
Additional note: Please bear in mind that the Committee will usually ask for
revisions and that this will extend the approval process. You will need to factor this
into your timetable for research, writing and submission. In general, the Committee
advises against researching sensitive topics or data collection from vulnerable
groups because of the additional skills and time needed.
In certain circumstances it may be necessary to refer your application to the Faculty
Research Ethics Committee. It may usually take more than one month to complete
the scrutiny process. You will need to factor this into your timetable for research,
writing and submission. If you have been told you must submit an application to
the Faculty Research Ethics Committee then please contact Liam McKervey
(Liam.McKervey@bristol.ac.uk), the University Research Governance and Ethics
Officer, for guidance.
Using social media for research
If you plan to use social media for your research data, please be aware that there
are specific ethical issues that you will need to consider. For example, if you are
using ‘closed groups’, you must get permission to use the data; if you are using
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‘open groups’, this will depend on whether they are professional posts which are
deliberately in the public domain (this should be ok to use as data), but posts by
members of the public would need informed consent. There are useful resources
available here:
https://www.ukri.org/councils/esrc/guidance-for-applicants/research-ethics-
guidance/internet-mediated-research/
Participant Information and Consent Form
When conducting any research involving human participants, the researcher should
give participants the information that enables them to decide whether they wish to
take part in the project or not. This information should be written in the first part of
the Participant Information and Consent Form and it should be shown to the
participant before the researcher starts collecting or recording the data. This sheet
should provide clear information on the essential elements of the dissertation
project. It may include the topic of the project, the voluntary nature of involvement,
what will happen during and after the research, what the project involves for the
Guidance
We strongly advise that you avoid undertaking research that requires you to
focus on vulnerable groups, sensitive personal data or children/young people
below the age of 18. Vulnerable groups include:
• any person over the age of 18 who has the following:
o a learning or physical disability
o a physical or mental illness or otherwise, including an addiction
to alcohol or drugs
o a reduction in physical or mental capacity.
• patients, their carers and NHS staff.
Also, unless it is absolutely necessary, you should also avoid undertaking
research that would collect personal data in relation to these sensitive issues:
• particular ethnic/ race origins
• health issues
• religious or political beliefs
• disability data
• trade union membership
• sexuality
• personal specific salary information
Undertaking research and collecting data from the above groups will require
written permission and approval from the School of Management Research
Ethics Committee as a legal requirement to collect and process such data.
Consequently, this will require longer approval time.
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participant, how data will be stored, and any potential risks or inconvenience for the
participant, balanced against any possible benefits for the participant or the wider
community, including the advancement of knowledge and understanding. The
second part of the Participant Information and Consent Form records participants
written agreement to willingly participate in your research project.
You can download the Participant Information and Consent Form from the
Dissertation Information area within the relevant dissertation unit on Blackboard,
but a template is provided in appendix iv.
You should keep any signed participant consent forms in a secure place according
to the GDPR policy, explained in the next section. You may be asked to show these
signed participant consent forms upon request by your supervisor, Dissertation
Coordinator or other members of University staff if we need to check on the
authenticity of your research.
The (unsigned) Participant Information and Consent Form should be put as an
attachment to and submitted together with Ethics Approval Form to Blackboard. It
also needs to be put together with the Ethics Approval Form in the Appendices of
your submitted dissertation (NB this will be blank if your research does not involve
collecting data from human participants).
Completing the ethics form
When completing the Ethics Approval Form, you are expected to provide as much
as possible the information on:
• the summary of what the research is about, and
• the detailed methodology on how the data would be collected and analysed.
If you are collecting primary data involving human participants, you are also
required to attach a Participant Information and Consent Form and sample
questions for your research instrument where appropriate.
You should consult with your supervisor about any questions relating to the ethics
form. Any additional questions can be submitted to management-
ethicscommittee@bristol.ac.uk.
Please remember: your supervisor will only sign their approval of the Ethics
Form when they are satisfied that this has been completed correctly and
follows the ethics research protocols. Your supervisor can sign with a digital
signature or using their name typed together with a confirmation email attached to
the submission of the Ethics Approval Form to Blackboard and as an appendix to
your final dissertation.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
You are required to observe the UK and University of Bristol GDPR policy when
conducting your research. Consequently, you are expected to follow these
guidelines:
• use securely encrypted end to end communication when engaging online
with either your respondents, interviewees, or participants of your research
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• if you are collecting data via questionnaires for your dissertation you have
access to two tools through University licenses: MS Forms which you can
access through MS Office 365 and Jisc Online Surveys. To access Jisc Online
Surveys please email the PGT student admin team via mgmt-
pgt@bristol.ac.uk. Both of these tools are GDPR compliant. Jisc Online
Surveys is more sophisticated than MS Forms with more question types. Jisc
Online Surveys also enables you to export your collected data straight into
SPSS. Both MS Forms and Jisc Online Surveys gives you the option of sharing
your draft questionnaire with your supervisor. There is a guide on how to set
up a questionnaire in both MS Forms and Jisc Online Surveys posted in your
Dissertation unit Blackboard course within the ‘Dissertation Information’ area.
There are also comprehensive help and support resources available here for
MS Forms and here for Jisc Online Surveys. Please ensure you discuss with
your supervisor what tool you should use to collect data via questionnaires
• in the case of using data collection software or data mining software or social
media to collect data, use only software, apps or social media which save and
store the communicated or recorded data in a UK server/cloud: it is not
permitted to use any non-GDPR compliant platforms, or those which
are overseas-based (including for example the Wenjuanxing platform
for data collection). Your supervisor will not be able to approve any
ethics forms which propose to use such data collection platforms
• if you wish to use SPSS or NVIVO for your data analysis, you can download
the University of Bristol official licensed SPSS analysis tool and the latest
NVIVO version from here http://www.bris.ac.uk/software/
• use only the University of Bristol secure OneDrive to save your research data
– either primary or secondary data
• make clear your procedure on how personal related data will be stored,
accessed, rectified, used, analysed, and removed.
Please refer to the following suggestions when collecting and handling data for your
research.
Don’t
Do
X Don’t randomly accrue data on the
basis that it might be useful
sometime.
X Don’t collect data that you do not
need.
✓ Do plan carefully what data you
need to collect.
✓ Do monitor data requirements
throughout your research project to
ensure that you are only collecting
required data.
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X Don’t store data about identifiable
individuals or otherwise sensitive
data on a non-secure computer
✓ Do make data anonymous so that
individuals cannot, by any means,
be identified.
✓ Do use encrypted storage media or
hard drive for storing any sensitive
data - contact the IT Service Desk
for further information.
Don’t
Do
X Don't reuse data for other purposes
other than those for which you have
permission.
✓ Do delete data once it is no longer
required. However, make sure
you've considered any external
requirements to preserve or share
research data before deleting it (ie
only delete data after you get the
permission to delete it from your
supervisor.)
X Don't keep sensitive data for any
longer than is necessary (please
refer to your funder's requirements).
✓ Do delete sensitive data when you
don't need it anymore.
✓ Do remember that the data
subjects have a right of access to
see what data is being held about
them.
X Don't just assume that the way you
are conducting your research is ok.
✓ Do gain the consent of data
subjects to hold personal data.
✓ Do seek advice from the
Information Rights Officer based in
the University Secretary’s Office.
Source: http://www.bris.ac.uk/infosec/uobdata/research/
Any questions related to the University GDPR policy can be sent to:
>
Anonymity
In undertaking empirical research, it is usual to respect the confidentiality of
individual participants who contribute to your research and to ensure that they
cannot be identified in your dissertation. It is usual to give respondents and places
a different name, or to use coded letters/numbers to give them anonymity. This
applies to all material included in your dissertation including appendices and
acknowledgements as well as within the body of the text.
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Researcher Conduct
As members of the University of Bristol community, you are expected to always
uphold high academic integrity standards and act professionally when undertaking
research, engaging with research subjects, collecting data, analysing data,
reporting and submitting it for assessment. A pre-recorded training session on
‘professionalism’ is available via the Blackboard site that we recommend you
engage with.
Academic Integrity
By agreeing to uphold high academic integrity standards, you are expected to
conduct your behaviour and attitudes while undertaking research and write the
dissertation according to the following values:
• Honesty. You are expected to demonstrate intellectual and personal
honesty in your research, in your relationship with your supervisor, in the
writing-up of as well as on the submission of your dissertation
• Trust and fairness. You are expected to observe dissertation and research
guidance as explained in this dissertation handbook, follow what is allowed
and avoid what is not allowed as well as to conduct yourself in such a way that
you are not seeking to gain an unfair advantage both in the research and the
writing up your dissertation
• Respect. You are expected to respect the view of your supervisor as well as
other academic staff
• Responsibility. You are expected to behave in such a way that the
perception of the quality of the degree you are undertaking is not
compromised and you are aware that an irresponsible selfish behaviour from
your part will affect not only you but also other students and the reputation
of the University more widely
• Courage. You are expected to show courage in resisting temptations to seek
to gain unfair advantage and to discourage others from doing so
Details of the University of Bristol Policy on Academic Integrity can be found here:
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/academic-quality/documents/policy/
academic-integrity-policy.pdf
Academic and Research Misconduct and Plagiarism
Although the University of Bristol’s approach to academic integrity centres around
the positive beliefs to its student attitude and behaviour, it still recognises that
transgression will undermine its core values and reputation and hence, it will
appropriately act upon those who have been reported to commit academic and
research misconduct in their dissertation.
All our supervisors and dissertation markers are trained to spot the following
academic misconduct in the dissertation unit.
• Breaching research ethics and obligations. Undertaking data collection
and analysis without proper ethical approval and/or submitting the
dissertation without attaching the required ethical documents.
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• Fabrication or falsification. Presenting fictitious or distorted data, results,
evidence, research or other material as factual and accurate. Fabrication of
research data or creating data from inexistent research using false
interviewees or false or fabricated survey participant consents
• Re-use of work. Re-using your own work which has already been used for
credit in an award from the University of Bristol or elsewhere
• Cheating in dissertation research. Attempting to gain an unfair advantage
in your dissertation research by procuring most of the research plan, the
research design, the data collection and its analysis from a third party
• Cheating in dissertation writing. Attempting to gain an unfair advantage
in the writing-up of the dissertation by procuring the work from a third party
• Misconduct behaviour in dissertation writing. Failing to meet the core
values of academic integrity such as honesty or trust and fairness. This
includes systematically misleading and acting dishonestly in the use of
references
• Plagiarism. Using words, ideas or work attributable to another identifiable
person or source without attributing the work to the source from which it was
obtained (see the explanation in the next page).
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Turnitin will be used by markers to determine the similarity index of your submission
document. The similarity index is a primary indicator but does not directly indicate
plagiarism. Unacceptably high similarity indices prompt further detailed
investigation focusing upon the provenance of your material and your adherence
to accepted conventions for presenting written academic material, including your
use of citations and references.
Source: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-
library/sites/secretary/documents/student-rules-and-regs/regulations-on-
research-misconduct.pdf
Any identified academic misconduct will be reported either by the supervisor
and/or by the dissertation marker to the Dissertation Coordinator and to the
Plagiarism Officer who may escalate the case to the School or Faculty Academic
Misconduct Panel for further investigation, depending on the gravity of the
allegation of misconduct.
Any questions relating to the School of Management plagiarism and misconduct
policy can be sent to: roberta.bernardi@bristol.ac.uk.
Research misconduct
The following activities whether they are done deliberately or as a result of
reckless behaviour or negligence are categorised as research misconduct:
• failure to obtain appropriate permission to conduct research
• deception in relation to research proposals
• unethical behaviour in the conduct of research
• unauthorised use of information which was acquired confidentially
• deviation from good research practice which can lead to unreasonable
risk of harm to humans and/or the environment
• fabrication, falsification or corruption of research data
• distortion of research outcomes, by distortion or omission of data that do
not fit expected results
• dishonest misinterpretation of results
• publication of data known or believed to be false or misleading
• plagiarism, or dishonest use of unacknowledged sources
• misquotation or misrepresentation of other authors
• inappropriate recognition and contribution of other people’s work
• fraud or other misuse of research tools, instruments or data from what was
initially agreed
• attempting, planning or conspiring to be involved in research misconduct
• inciting others to be involved in research misconduct
• collusion in or concealment of research misconduct by others.
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4.4 Assessment
Your dissertation will be assessed to consider to what extent you have met the
intended learning outcomes, in accordance with the assessment criteria.
Your submitted piece of work – a Dissertation (a Latin word which means
“Discussion”) – should be written in the form of an extended academic essay. It is
more than just reporting what you have found so far from your literature review
activities and/or from your research work. Similar to other academic essays, it
should be written around your own academic statements or arguments, whether it
is formulated in the form of a research question or its proposed answer. The whole
writing in the dissertation should be thus centred around how you support your own
academic statements or arguments using findings from your own research. It
outlines proofs – found from your own research – of why you make such academic
statements or arguments. It may consist of your account on “what you want to argue
here”, “why it is important to make such arguments”, “what previous work or
literature have said about this argument”, “what evidence that you are able to collect
Plagiarism
You must appropriately reference the work of others, following accepted
conventions for presenting written academic materials. You must ensure that
direct quotations from others’ work – from unpublished sources, such as other
Masters students’ dissertations, from the web and from books and journals, are
acknowledged. If you develop someone else’s ideas or concepts, you must
acknowledge that you have done this.
Any forms of intentional and unintentional plagiarism are not tolerated. These
include the use of Google Translate to report findings and ideas from other studies
in other language. In all circumstances, you must use your own words and
demonstrate your own understanding when reporting findings and ideas from
other resources in addition to properly citing and referencing sources. If you are
caught plagiarising through the use of Google Translate or other translation tools,
you will endure a penalty proportionate with the severity of your case. If you are
in any doubt on this matter, you should consult your dissertation supervisor.
The use of third-party proofreading services is allowed but limited to minor
changes. Major changes that substantially alter what students have originally
written may be considered as the breach of academic integrity and incur a penalty
proportionate with the severity of the case.
You also need to pay attention to not committing self-plagiarism of your previous
submitted works in Turnitin, such as submitted research proposal. Excessively
committing self-plagiarism (e.g. more than 25%) can be considered as breaching
academic integrity because you can be accused of gaining unfair advantage by
using your previous marked, graded or published works to your current work.
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to support your argument” (this may include the description on how you
deliberately plan and conduct particular research to collect or create that evidence),
“your discussion on whether or not the evidence sufficiently supports your
argument” as well as “your final conclusion on whether you have successfully proven
the validity of your argument”.
You are strongly advised to prepare your submission document in accordance with
the academic guidance explained within this section. Clarity of communication and
succinctness in presenting your argument are important considerations taken into
account by markers and examiners later. Using charts, diagrams, tables and so on
helps to reduce description, and saves words.
Appropriate size of the final submission
It is expected that your dissertation will be between 10,000 and 12,000 words in
length.
The School of Management does not have a policy for applying penalties for over-
length work, but assignment briefs (including the dissertation) will indicate a word
length guide that is expected for that piece of work. If your work is greater than the
suggested maximum, you should interpret this as a signal that you have not
expressed your ideas concisely or with sufficient focus. Similarly, if it is less than the
suggested minimum, you should interpret this as a signal that your coverage of the
subject is insufficiently comprehensive, either in depth or breadth of coverage.
Therefore, submitting work that is outside of the word length guide could affect the
marking of your work and will be reflected in your feedback. You are strongly
advised to make sure that you accept and follow this guidance since verbosity may
be interpreted as reflecting adversely upon the quality of your submission.
Note on word counts
Included in the word count: everything inside the main body of the dissertation,
including footnotes, embedded references, figures and tables.
Excluded in the word count: Title Page, Abstract/Executive Summary, Table of
Contents, List of Tables and Figures, List of Abbreviations, Acknowledgements,
Reference List and Appendices.
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5. Dissertation Submission
Requirements
The first page of your dissertation should contain:
• the logo of the University of Bristol
• the title of your dissertation
• your full name
• your student ID
• the words A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance
with the requirements of the degree of Master of Science in [degree
programme title] in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law.
• School of Management
• date of submission
• word count
• your signed declaration this is your own work and that you have read and
understand the University’s Academic Integrity Policy including plagiarism,
contract cheating, falsifying data and breaching ethical research protocols.
See sample dissertation title page in appendix i below.
Your list of references should contain all references that have been used as or cited
in-text references in the dissertation. A list of bibliography that also contain
background readings or other material that you may have read but not actually cited
is not permitted in the dissertation.
The most recent Ethical Approval Form and the Participant Information and Consent
Form must be included in the appendices of your dissertation (for all types of
dissertations – empirical research or library-based). See sections above on Ethical
Approval and the Participant Information and Consent Form.
For empirical dissertations, the following documents also need to be included in the
subsequent appendices:
• research instrument (eg interview guide) or list of original questionnaire
instruments (for those who are conducting surveys) that you send to your
respondents to answer
• a subset of your collected data or sample of data that are relevant to your
dissertation. For those who are conducting interviews or focus groups, it may
consist of a selection of transcripts (anonymised). For those who are
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conducting surveys, this may consist of a table of the subset data that you are
using to build your findings in the dissertation
• the data analytical parameters that you use to analyse your collected data.
For those who are conducting interviews or focus groups, it may consist of a
list of codes that you use to attribute meaning to your data. For those who
are conducting surveys, this may consist of the copy of the statistical syntax
as well as the list of their outputs that you use to make inference.
5.1 Formatting of your dissertation
When writing up your dissertation, the following suggestions need to be carefully
taken into account.
Language. All parts of your dissertation should be written in English. Although
grammatical correctness will not be part of the dissertation marking criteria, it is your
responsibility to write your dissertation in a language that can be understood by the
average English-speaking marker. All research documents (eg the Participant
Information and Consent Form, list of questionnaires) as well as interview transcripts
or direct quotes which are used in the dissertation have to be translated into the
English language.
Paper Size, Layout and Orientation. The dissertation should be written in A4 size.
The layout should be mostly in portrait orientation.
Font. You should use a legible standard font such as Arial, Calibri, Cambria, Calisto,
Century/ Century Gothic, Courier, Garamond, Palatino Linotype or Times New
Roman. Depending on the font used, the size can either be 11 or 12 point. Most of
the writing should be in normal font. The use of bold, italic and/or underline should
be limited to headings or if you want to emphasise certain points such as direct
quotations or if it is required by the Harvard Referencing Style.
Line Spacing. The spacing can be single or 1.5 line.
Headings. Headings should be used to separate different parts of the dissertation.
It should be written in a style which can be differentiated from the main body of the
paragraph and in a way that it can easily show the different levels of the dissertation
parts, for example between Chapters, Sections or Sub-Sections. Using numbering
in the headings is highly suggested to enable readers to follow the sequence of the
discussion as well as to differentiate the different level of discussion points.
Paragraphs. The dissertation should be written in a way that it would be easy for
any reader to differentiate between one paragraph to another. Adding at least a
line between paragraphs is advised to separate one paragraph to another. The
paragraph itself is suggested to be written around one particular message that you
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want to convey to a reader. Each paragraph is expected to be either left or justified
aligned (consistently throughout).
Quotes. Quotes should be written between two quotation marks, in a style which
makes it easier for the reader to differentiate it from the main body of the writing.
Direct quotes from sources should be referenced and a page number provided.
Footnotes (as opposed to Endnotes). The dissertation should use Footnotes
instead of Endnotes. They should be properly numbered so they can be easily
retrieved by the reader.
Referencing. The referencing of the dissertation should follow the Harvard
referencing style (Author – Date). For more information about referencing, see:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/library/subject-support/referencing/
The reference list should be sorted in alphabetical order by author’s name. The use
of bibliography is not permitted in the dissertation.
5.2 Suggested structure of your dissertation
It is usual for the dissertation to be structured into chapters, each fulfilling a
particular role in building your argument, demonstrating your understanding of the
issue, your understanding of others’ related research, explaining how you are
planning to collect and build upon the evidence, exploring your findings, discussing
your findings as well as providing conclusions and perhaps recommendations. All
the chapters need to be arranged in such way that it enables smooth coherent
discussions from the stating of your academic argument or research problem until
your final conclusion.
Each chapter needs to be carefully structured with certain introductory paragraphs
at the start of it to help steer the reader into the discussion and should end with a
concluding paragraph or a summary to remind the reader of the key themes,
concepts, ideas, or issues that were covered and to be taken forward. Each chapter
can be organised and sub-divided to support the reader’s ability to follow your
arguments as they are introduced and developed. However, it is important not to
over-organise a chapter to include so many headings and sub-headings that the
flow of the text is fractured.
Your supervisor can guide you on the appropriate structure of your dissertation
depending on the specific purpose of your study. Nevertheless, the following sub-
sections provide some suggestions on how you could structure your dissertation
depending on whether it’s an empirical dissertation or a library-based dissertation.
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Suggested structure of empirical dissertations
Empirical-Based Dissertation: A Suggested Structure
• Title page and declaration (words NOT counted in the submission)
See appendix i for template.
• Abstract (words NOT counted in the submission)
A succinct and clear outline setting out the problem investigated, how
it was investigated, the major findings and conclusions. This should
be no more than one page long.
• Acknowledgement (Optional) (words NOT counted in the
submission)
This is the part where you recognise and thank any individuals or
organisations who were supporting you in undertaking research and
the writing up of your dissertation.
• Table of Contents (words NOT counted in the submission)
A list of title of the key different parts of the dissertation, complete
with the page number on where to find them.
• List of Abbreviations (Optional) (words NOT counted in the
submission)
A list of abbreviations that you frequently use in the dissertation
writing.
• List of Figures, Tables or Images (Optional) (words NOT counted
in the submission)
A list of any figures, tables or images that you provide in the
dissertation, complete with their title and page number on where to
find them. These figures, tables or images should be arranged
according to the sequence of their position in the dissertation.
• Chapter 1. Introduction (words counted in the submission)
The introduction should briefly outline the purpose of the study and
offer the reader an introduction to the substantive area. It should
discuss the rationale for the study, providing a clear statement of the
questions, aims, objectives and outcomes, explaining why it was
selected, and why it is relevant and important to you. The introduction
should forewarn the reader what they will be reading. It should
therefore outline briefly what the dissertation is about and the ways in
which the research was undertaken, and any key issues or concerns
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presented by the dissertation. It is best written last, although an early
rough draft, which you share with your supervisor, can be a useful way
of clarifying your thoughts and intentions and keeping you focused as
your study progresses. It is a best practice to shortly explain the
remaining structure of the Dissertation at the end of the Introduction
Chapter.
• Chapter 2. Literature Review (words counted in the submission)
The literature review chapter provides discussions on what the
previous literature has said about your research question or your
argument, previously stated in the introduction. It is beyond just
describing of what others have said. Thus, simply describing what
others have said is not enough. You are expected to add value to
extant literature and material, by critically assessing their relevancy to,
their problem or their inadequacy in supporting your stated argument
or answering your research question. You should critically evaluate
what they have said, maybe by asking yourself whether their research
was done in one place, in a particular way, with particular subjects,
and is relevant to a particular context but not directly answering your
research problem. The coherent discussion in your literature review
will be demonstrated in the way you use the work of others to
underpin your own research questions, aims, objectives and
outcomes and research methods. The literature review chapter
should provide academic justifications to the readers on why it is
academically sound to undertake your research problem. For
example, it is because it has never been exactly considered by any
previous literature or because there has been inadequate study by
existing literature in dealing with your stated research problem.
A good literature review chapter should show accuracy of reading
and of reporting of the existing literature. It should show accuracy in
citing references and in quoting material. It should demonstrate your
skills in using and commenting on cited materials and connecting
them to your argument. It should demonstrate your ability to
synthesise a volume of material and to sift out key themes out of them.
It should demonstrate your ability to evaluate differing sources and
recognising their limitations. It should show your ability to write a
balanced review and not simply to highlight sources that support a
favoured perspective.
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• Chapter 3. Theoretical Framework/ Development/ Propositions
(OPTIONAL) (words counted in the submission)
Depending on your method of inquiry, you may also need to include
a theoretical framework or theoretical proposition chapter. This
chapter usually provides discussion on proposed theoretical
foundations upon which you are going to use to answer your research
question. If you are planning to test a hypothesis as part of the
proposed answers to your research question, you can explain in this
chapter how you come up with such models. If you start your inquiry
with no theoretical foundation in mind, then you can skip this chapter.
• Chapter 3 or 4. Research Methodology (words counted in the
submission)
This chapter provides a detailed account on how you are planning to
conduct your research to answer your research questions. This is
beyond describing what you are planning to do in your research. You
have to also provide the rationales as to why you use a particular
methodology, particular data collection methods and particular data
analytical tools in your research. You need to be precise on what is
your source of data and why you have selected that particular source
of data for your research. If you ask questions or questionnaires to
the interviewees or respondents, you need to specifically explain why
you are asking those particular questions. What kind of answer you
expect to obtain from the respondents and how it will be used to
answer your research questions. Subsequently, you need to explain
how you would analyse those data to provide useful findings for your
research. It is imperative you also consider research ethics within the
methodology, including the process of ethical approval.
You should also be reflective, in that it might comment on limitations
of your research as it was finally executed, or on any differences
between your original plans and what subsequently proved possible.
Don’t forget to write in the past tense!
• Chapter 4 or 5. Research Findings or Results (words counted in
the submission)
In this chapter, you are expected to present key important findings
resulting from your research. This is done by describing the
responses obtained from your research instruments, presenting the
outcomes of your analysis as well as arguing on the significance of
what you have found.
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It is your responsibility to present the results of your research clearly
to the reader. They need to be well-presented and displayed in the
dissertation. Tables, diagrams, figures, and illustrative images are
usually used to enhance the clarity of your points. For qualitative
research, this is the place where you must use quotations to
substantiate the themes you have developed through your analysis.
If you have done quantitative data analysis, this is the place where you
present the statistical analytical outcomes of your research.
• Chapter 5 or 6. Discussion (can also be incorporated together
with the previous Finding chapter) (words counted in the
submission)
This is one of the most important chapters/sections in the dissertation.
The word “dissertation” means “discussion” in Latin. The discussions
in this chapter should be centred around how you could prove your
own academic statement or argument or else how you could answer
your research questions using findings from your own research. To
do this, you should compare your findings against that offered by
other researchers cited in your literature review, seeing where the
findings support or move away from others’ work, and try to account
for this. The strength of the links between this chapter/section and
the literature review would enhance your discussion. It is important
to revisit your research questions, aims, objectives and outcomes to
assess the extent to which you have achieved your expectations, fully
justifying and explaining your conclusions.
It is better to structure this chapter according to the analytical
breakdown of your initial arguments or research questions.
For quantitative studies, the findings and discussion should be
independent chapters. However, for qualitative studies, the findings
and discussion may be incorporated into one chapter.
• Chapter 5, 6 or 7. Conclusion (words counted in the submission)
This is the place to pull together the key themes of the Dissertation
and draw out implications for Management practice or
recommendations for further research in the area. It is not the place
to introduce new themes. A reader should be able to read the
conclusion and have a clear sense of what the dissertation has been
about, what has been discussed within it, and what you have made of
it.
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• References (words NOT counted in the submission)
This is a list of all the books, articles, or web sites you have referred to
as citations in the dissertation. This is NOT a bibliography.
• Appendix A. Ethical Approval Documents (words NOT counted in
the submission)
the most recent approved ethics form signed by you and your
supervisor and the Participant Information and Consent Form. Please
include either your latest approved and signed version (using digital
signatures) or the latest approved and signed version (using typed
names + confirmation emails attached)
• Appendix B. Data Collection Instrument(s) (Depending on the
Research) (words NOT counted in the submission)
If your research data is collected using particular data collection
instrument(s), you need to put the protocol of collecting the data in
this appendix. If you use interviews to collect the data, you need to
put your list of questions in here. If you use focus groups to collect
the data, you need to put the discussion topics in here. If you conduct
surveys to collect the data, you need to put the list of questionnaires
in this appendix. If you mine the data from commercial datasets or
from internet/ social media, you need to put the algorithm to harvest
such data in this appendix.
• Appendix B or C. Relevant Dataset (words NOT counted in the
submission)
You need to put the subset of your collected data which you use to
build your findings only in this appendix. For those who are
conducting interviews or focus groups, it may consist of a few sample
transcripts. Meanwhile for those who are conducting surveys or data
mining, it consists of a table of the subset data that you are using to
build your findings in the dissertation.
• Appendix C or D. Data Analysis (words NOT counted in the
submission)
You need to put the data analytical parameters that you use to analyse
your collected data. For those who are conducting interviews or focus
groups, it may consist of a list of codes that you use to attribute
meaning to your data. Meanwhile for those who are conducting
surveys, it consists of the copy of the statistical syntax as well as the list
of their outputs that you use to make inference.
• Other Appendices (words NOT counted in the submission)
Any other materials that can add to the clarity of your dissertation.
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Note:
In empirical dissertation, it is usual to respect the confidentiality of individual
participants who contribute to your research and to ensure that they cannot be
identified in your dissertation. It is then usual to give respondents and places a
different name, or to use coded letters/numbers to give them anonymity. This
applies to all material included in your dissertation including appendices and
acknowledgements as well as within the body of the text.
Also, when you seek consent to collect data, ensure you keep a copy of the SIGNED
consents yourself. Your supervisor, the dissertation coordinator and/or the
University of Bristol (eg ethics committee audit) may ask you to show this to check
on the authenticity of your research.
Suggested structure of library-based dissertations
It is difficult to be very prescriptive in the case of a library-based dissertation. The
structure of this dissertation can vary depending on the style of the inquiry, the type
of evidence being used and the type of argument, research questions, aims,
objectives and outcomes being posed. The following headings in bold text are just
an indicative example of how the library-based dissertation will likely be structured.
Library-Based Dissertation: A Suggested Structure
• Title page and declaration (words NOT counted in the submission)
See appendix i for template.
• Abstract (words NOT counted in the submission)
A succinct and clear outline setting out the problem investigated, how
it was investigated, the major findings and conclusions. This should
be no more than one page long.
• Acknowledgement (Optional) (words NOT counted in the
submission)
This is the part where you recognise and thank any individuals or
organisations who were supporting you in undertaking research and
the writing up of your dissertation.
• Table of Contents (words NOT counted in the submission)
A list of title of the key different parts of the dissertation, complete
with the page number on where to find them.
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• List of Abbreviations (Optional) (words NOT counted in the
submission)
A list of abbreviations that you frequently use in the dissertation
writing.
• List of Figures, Tables or Images (Optional) (words NOT counted
in the submission)
A list of any figures, tables or images that you provide in the
dissertation, complete with their title and page number on where to
find them. These figures, tables or images should be arranged
according to the sequence of their position in the dissertation.
• Chapter 1. Introduction (words counted in the submission)
The introduction should briefly outline the purpose of the study and
offer the reader an introduction to the substantive area. It should
discuss the rationale for the study, providing a clear statement of the
questions, aims, objectives and outcomes, explaining why it was
selected, and why it is relevant and important to you. The introduction
should forewarn the reader what they will be reading. It should
therefore outline briefly what the dissertation is about and the ways in
which the research was undertaken, and any key issues or concerns
presented by the dissertation. It is best written last, although an early
rough draft, which you share with your supervisor, can be a useful way
of clarifying your thoughts and intentions and keeping you focused as
your study progresses. It is a best practice to shortly explain the
remaining structure of the dissertation at the end of the Introduction
chapter.
• Chapter 2. Literature Review and Criticism of Current Orthodoxy
(words counted in the submission)
The literature review chapter provides discussions on what the
previous literature has said about your research question or your
argument, previously stated in the introduction. It is beyond just
describing of what others have said. Thus, simply describing of
what others have said is not enough. You are expected to add
value to extant literature and material, by critically assessing their
relevancy to, their problem or their inadequacy in supporting your
stated argument or answering your research question. You should
critically evaluate what they have said, maybe by asking yourself
whether their accounts or arguments are problematic or inadequate
to be used to address your inquiry or your research problem.
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The coherent discussion in your literature review will be
demonstrated in the way you use the work of others to underpin your
own research questions, aims, objectives and outcomes. The
literature review chapter should provide academic justifications to the
reader on why it is academically sounds to undertake research around
your stated research problem. For example, it is because it has never
been exactly considered by any previous literature or because there
has been inadequate or problematic explanation by existing literature
in dealing with your stated research problem.
A good literature review chapter should show accuracy of reading
and of reporting of the existing literature. It should show accuracy in
citing references and in quoting material. It should demonstrate your
skills in using and commenting on cited materials and connecting
them to your argument. It should demonstrate your ability to
synthesise a volume of material and to sift out key themes out of them.
It should demonstrate your ability to evaluate differing sources,
recognising their limitations. It should show your ability to write a
balanced review and not simply to highlight sources that support a
favoured perspective.
In the library-based dissertation, this review and criticism of the
current orthodoxy are often structured according to various key
objections of the current theories.
• Chapter 3. Methodological and/or Critical Approach (words
counted in the submission)
This chapter should provide detail account on how you are planning
to build up cases of evidence to address your research topics or to
support your previously stated arguments against current theories or
previous academic work. You should also describe how you are
going to use those cases to provide the counter arguments or counter
examples of the theory which is about to be improved, modified,
altered or replaced. In the case where you are planning replace the
current theoretical argument with your own argument, you should
also explain on what basis you are planning to do it. Some scholars
may base their critical approach on “Critical Realism”, “Historiological
accuracy”, “Chronological order”, “Morals and Ethics”, etc.
• Chapter 4. Cases of Evidence (words counted in the submission)
In this chapter, you should write your own cases of evidence that you
have built from published documents or literature which you will use
later to provide counter examples or proofs to support your
objections of the current scholarly works and/or to provide
supporting evidence for your proposed theory improvement.
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This chapter is usually structured according to various individual cases
that you have built to provide evidence for the theoretical discussion
chapter.
• Chapter 5. Theoretical Discussion, Theoretical Evaluation,
Theoretical Assessment, Theoretical Proposition or Theoretical
Synthesis (words counted in the submission)
This is the discussion part of a library-based Dissertation. The title of
the chapter has to properly reflect the topic discussed inside it. Is it
about improving, modifying, proposing novel theory (which does not
exist before) or replacing old theory with the new one? You need to
use cases written in the previous chapter to provide supporting
evidence and proof to your argument (previously stated in Chapter 1
– the introduction of the dissertation). The strength of the links
between this chapter and the objections to the previous works,
critically discussed in the literature review would enhances this
chapter. In this chapter, it is important to revisit your research
questions, aims, objectives and outcomes to assess the extent to
which you have achieved your expectations, fully justifying and
explaining your conclusions.
• Chapter 6. Conclusion (words counted in the submission)
This is the place to pull together the key themes of the dissertation
and draw out implications for Management practice or
recommendations for further research in the area. It is not the place
to introduce new themes. A reader should be able to read the
conclusion and have a clear sense of what the dissertation has been
about, what has been discussed within it, and what you have made of
it.
• References (words NOT counted in the submission)
This is a list of all the books, articles, or web sites you have referred to
as citations in the dissertation. This is NOT a bibliography.
• Appendix A. Ethical Approval Documents (words NOT counted in
the submission)
Please include the most recent approved ethics form signed by you
and your supervisor and the Participant Information and Consent
Form. Please include either your latest approved and signed version
(using digital signatures) or the latest approved and signed version
(using typed names + confirmation emails attached). In this library-
based dissertation project, you are expected to only fill in Part A of
the Ethics Approval Form.
• Other Appendices (words NOT counted in the submission)
Any other materials that can add to the clarity of your dissertation.
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6. Submission Process
6.1 Pre-submission: submitting ONE draft to Turnitin
You are allowed to submit one draft of your dissertation to Turnitin to check
similarity to other work. Instructions are set out in the Dissertation area on
Blackboard. This will enable you to check the similarity index, obtain an indication
of the number of words you have used and to identify and remedy any passages
where paraphrasing, citations and/or referencing are poor. The deadline for
submitting to the draft area will be one week before your deadline.
An important note of caution: You should only use the University of Bristol's secure
Turnitin checker available through Blackboard (for one draft of your work to check
for any similarities with other published materials) and check your spelling and
grammar using the tools built into your pc software. You should not use any other
online plagiarism checkers or online spelling/grammar correction products or other
writing enhancement tools, as this might inadvertently make your work vulnerable
to plagiarism.
6.2 Submitting your final dissertation
Towards the end of July, you will receive final guidelines as to how to submit your
final dissertation. All dissertation submissions will be online only. The deadline
(unless you have an approved extension to your formal period of study) is 3pm,
Monday 12 September 2022. You do not need to be in Bristol for your
dissertation submission. More information about submitting your dissertation
online will be provided within the next few months.
6.3 Extension to study time
An extension for the dissertation will mean asking for an extension to the formal
period of study for your programme and will be granted only to students who have
very good reasons, with relevant supporting evidence. If you wish to apply for an
extension to your dissertation deadline you should contact the Student
Administration Team (mgmt-pgt@bristol.ac.uk) in the first instance. If you are
experiencing difficulties you may also wish to discuss your situation with the
Postgraduate Personal Tutor Team (management-ptt@bristol.ac.uk). Tutors or your
dissertation supervisor do not have the authority to grant extensions. The request
to extend your period of study should be made at least two weeks before your
deadline.
Students who have to undertake reassessment in their taught units (coursework or
examination) are automatically granted a dissertation extension. You are advised
to continue working on your dissertation. However, you should be aware that if you
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fail those resit assessments, your dissertation will NOT be marked as you have to
obtain 120 credit points (ie pass all the taught units on the programme) in order to
‘progress’ to the dissertation stage. You are entitled to submit your dissertation
early if you wish, but we strongly advise that you use the extension appropriately
and focus wholly on preparing for your resit assessments. The deadline for the draft
submission will also be extended. You will be notified of your new extension
deadline by the Student Administration Team.
6.4 Penalties for late work
Dissertations submitted late after the deadline and without a permitted extension
will be subject to penalties. However, if there are extenuating circumstances, you
should complete the Extenuating Circumstances form and submit this along with all
supporting documentation. Details about how to submit Extenuating
Circumstances will be explained during the summer.
Dissertations submitted late without extenuating circumstances will be penalised in
accordance with the University Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught
Programmes.
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7. Marking and Feedback
7.1 Marking process
Dissertations are marked by two examiners, one of which will normally be your
supervisor. In addition, dissertations are also reviewed by the programme/subject
area external examiners. Special attention is paid to fails and distinctions.
The first marker provides feedback with additional comments from the second
marker, under the headings set out below, which correspond to the intended
learning outcomes for the dissertation.
The pass mark is 50%. Students must achieve the pass mark for the dissertation to
be awarded the associated credit points.
Important note: The University regulations for Student Progression and
Completion for taught postgraduate students include information about
dissertation resubmissions Section 38 of the University Regulations and Code of
Practice for Taught Programmes are relevant:
Where a student has achieved a near-pass mark (45 or over but less than 50 out of
100) for the dissertation, and, in addition, the examiners recommend that it is
suitable for re-assessment, the relevant Board of Examiners may decide to permit
the student to re-submit the dissertation.
Resubmission of the dissertation where the student has achieved a mark less than
45 out of 100 will be permitted where failure is due to validated extenuating
circumstances.
Unless there are validated extenuating circumstances, fails with a mark below 45
may not be resubmitted.
7.2 Feedback, intended learning outcomes and assessment guidelines
You will be given feedback on your marked Dissertation. The following table shows
the relationship between the Intended Learning Outcomes for the dissertation, the
headings that are on the dissertation feedback form, and the assessment guidelines
that examiners will use in considering the mark awarded.
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Intended Learning
Outcomes
Heading on the
feedback form
Assessment
The extent to which these elements have
been addressed (not all are relevant to all
dissertations)
1. Frame a clear, central
research question within
the project topic chosen
Framing a research topic and
question(s)
• Selection of problem area
• Importance and wider relevance
• Clear research question identified
• Development of sub questions and/or
hypotheses
• Statement of purpose and research outcomes
2. Identify and critically review
literature relevant to the
topic and central research
question
Understanding and use of
literature
• Knowledge of topic and related concepts
• Understanding of debates relevant to topic
• Range of academic sources employed
• Literature independently researched
• Selection of literature
• Effectiveness of integration of literature
• Evidence of critical thinking
3. Understand and apply an
appropriate research
methodology to investigate
the chosen topic, including
research ethics process and
considerations
Methodology and ethical
considerations
• Appropriate approach for research question
• Knowledge of methodology used
• Understanding of alternative approaches
• Awareness of strengths and weaknesses of
approach
• Awareness of appropriate ethical
considerations relating to the research
planned and undertaken.
4. Analyse data and/or
evidence, where
appropriate, and draw
apposite conclusions that
answer the central research
question; integrate
conclusions into wider
academic debates
Analysis, discussion, and
conclusions
• Interpretation, evaluation and integration of
material from primary and secondary sources
• Consideration of findings
• Discussion relevant to research question
• Insights achieved
• Development of original thinking
• Development of conclusions
5. Produce a dissertation in a
clear, well written and
grammatically correct style,
that conforms to the
conventions of academic
presentation.
Style and presentation • Coherence and structure
• Internal consistency
• Clarity of rationale
• Use of headings and sub-headings
• Style
• Readability
• Care in editing
• Accurate referencing
• Presented according to requirements
Overall comments.
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7.3 Marking criteria
To assign a particular mark to a dissertation, examiners use the following criteria:
Criteria
Distinction Merit Pass Fail Bad Fail
≥ 70% 60 – 69% 50 – 59% 45 – 49% ≤ 45%
Framing a
research topic
and
question(s).
Well argued, imaginative choice
of problem/area of study.
Clear and considered central
research question and
supplementary questions /
hypotheses where appropriate.
Excellent knowledge of related
concepts
Importance and relevance of
research discussed.
Clear and relevant statement of
purpose and research
outcomes
Suitable choice of problem / area
of study
Relevant and clear central
question identified, and
supplementary questions /
hypotheses where appropriate.
Good knowledge of related
concepts
Importance of research discussed
with limitations.
Clear statement of purpose and
intended research outcomes
Mainly coherent identification of
problem / area of study, development
of the central research question and
of supplementary questions /
hypotheses where appropriate.
Useful knowledge of related
concepts.
Some discussion of relevance and/or
importance of research
Weakness in the choice of
problem / area of study
Research question too
broad, or too vaguely
articulated, or inappropriate
Little or no knowledge of
related concepts
Little or no discussion of
relevance of the research
Unsuitable choice of problem
/ area of study
Little or no attempt at framing
the research topic or
question.
Little or no knowledge of
related concepts evident
No discussion of the
relevance of the research
Understanding
and use of
literature.
Wide-ranging, independent
reading evident.
Excellent knowledge and
understanding.
Critical appraisal strongly
evident
Development of original
thinking and insights
Evidence of independent reading,
although range of issues limited
in scope.
Good knowledge and
understanding.
Developing critical appraisal
evident.
Good organisation of literature
allowing for logical development
of arguments.
Some evidence of independent
reading although may rely too much
on recommended reading.
Satisfactory knowledge and
understanding.
Some emerging evidence of critical
thinking.
Organisation of literature satisfactory.
Key concepts addressed.
Little or no evidence of
independent reading.
Limited level of knowledge
and understanding of key
concepts and ideas.
There is little or no evidence
of critical thinking.
Organisation of literature is
poor and does not allow
development of arguments.
Scant evidence of familiarity
with literature relevant to
topic.
Insufficient knowledge and
understanding of key
concepts and ideas.
There is no evidence of
critical thinking.
Organisation of ideas is very
weak or non-existent
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Excellent organisation of
literature allowing for well-
reasoned arguments,
High degree of coherence
Good level of coherence Satisfactorily coherent Significant gaps in the
literature.
Little coherence
Methodology
and ethical
considerations
A clear and deep knowledge of
methodology used and of
underpinning theories.
Understanding of alternative
approaches
Fully justified choice of
research methods
Clear indication of strengths
and limitations of approach
Clear discussion of ethical
issues relating to planned and
executed research, drawing on
literature.
Well-justified methodology and
useful considerations of
underpinning theories.
Awareness of alternative
approaches
Choice of research methods well
justified
Indication of strengths and
limitations of approach
Awareness of ethical issues
relating to the research, drawing
on literature.
Methodology adequately justified and
chosen methods satisfactorily
explained.
Some awareness of wider research
methodologies.
Choice of research methods largely
suitable and justified.
Strengths and limitations of
methodology considered
Some awareness of potential ethical
issues, although these may be
generic and not backed up by
literature.
Methodology mot
adequately justified and/or
not clear what kind of study
was undertaken.
Choice of methods
inappropriate or poorly
executed.
Underpinning theories not
considered at a satisfactory
level.
Strengths and limitations
inadequately considered
Little or no consideration of
ethics in the methodology.
Not clear what kind of study
was undertaken.
Choice of methods
inappropriate and poorly
executed.
No consideration of
underpinning theories
No consideration of ethical
issues relating to the
research.
Analysis,
discussion,
and
conclusions.
Analysis carried out accurately
and with high degree of
competence in line with
methodological and theoretical
premises.
Selection, interpretation,
comparison, evaluation, and
integration of material from
empirical or library sources are
extremely effective.
Significant insight achieved.
Judgments strongly based on
critical appraisal.
Good analysis of data / concepts
or theoretical ideas in line with
methodological and theoretical
premises.
Selection, interpretation,
comparison, evaluation and
integration of material from
empirical or library sources are
effective, perhaps with some
omissions.
Useful insight achieved.
Judgements are based on critical
appraisal.
Satisfactory analysis of data,
concepts or theoretical ideas perhaps
with some deviation from theoretical
premises
Satisfactory selection, interpretation,
comparison, evaluation and
integration of material from empirical
or library sources, with limitations
Some insights achieved.
Judgements show some but limited
critical appraisal.
Analysis of data, concepts
or theoretical ideas is
uncertain and/or overly
descriptive or anecdotal
and/or incorrect.
Inadequate selection,
interpretation, comparison,
evaluation and integration
of material from empirical or
library sources.
Little or no insights
achieved.
Little or no analysis of data,
concepts or theoretical ideas;
descriptive, simplistic and
anecdotal and/or incorrect
Negligible ability to select,
interpret, compare, evaluate
and/or integrate material from
empirical or library sources.
No adequate evidence of:
insight achieved; critical
appraisal; and/or discussion
of relevance.
No conclusions made
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Discussion highly relevant to
research question and
literature.
Appropriate discussion of
limitations.
Logically developed and
pertinent conclusions
Discussion relevant to research
question and literature.
Some discussion of limitations.
Conclusion summarises issues
and considers implications
Discussion of relevance but not
comprehensive.
Conclusion provides summary
Judgements show lack of
critical appraisal.
Little or no discussion of
relevance.
Conclusions may lack any
insight due to inadequate
analysis
Style and
presentation.
Introduction is tightly focused
with a clear rationale.
High degree of internal
consistency overall and within
each chapter.
Well-chosen subheadings.
Highly readable style, ideas
communicated clearly.
Careful editing and proof-
reading; few errors.
Length within stipulations.
Referencing accurate,
appropriate, and conforms
exactly to conventions.
Presentation meets required
expectations fully
Introduction is focused and
provides useful guidance to
rationale.
Good internal coherence overall
and within each chapter
Subheadings summarise content
effectively.
Readable; ideas generally
communicated clearly.
Well edited with few errors.
Length consistent with
expectations.
Referencing is accurate,
appropriate and conforms to
conventions.
Presentation meets required
expectations fully
Introduction describes the central
concerns.
Overall structure and organisation are
satisfactory.
Internal coherence of the whole, and
each chapter, is satisfactory.
Subheadings broadly effective
Ideas are generally communicated
clearly but language used may
present some comprehension
difficulties.
Length is acceptable.
Referencing generally conforms to
expectations with occasional
inaccuracies.
Presentation meets most
expectations
Introduction may not reflect
focus of study.
Structure and organisation
may not be satisfactory
leading to weakness in
internal coherence overall
and within chapters.
Subheadings not effective
Ideas may not be presented
clearly, and language may
present comprehension
difficulties.
Length may not be
consistent with
expectations.
Referencing may contain
inaccuracies in citation and
attribution.
Presentation may fail to
meet expectations
Ineffective introduction
Poor structure so that
arguments that may be
present fail to develop
logically.
Incoherence within and
between chapters evident
throughout.
Language used presents
significant comprehension
difficulties.
There may be significant
typological errors.
The length may be
unacceptable.
Referencing may contain
substantial inaccuracies in
citation and attribution.
Presentation may fail to meet
expectations
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7.4 Resubmission of the Dissertation
Students who have been permitted to resubmit their dissertation are entitled up to
1-hour maximum of additional supervision meetings with their supervisor and the
review of one draft. The student should contact their supervisor to arrange the
meeting. At that meeting, the supervisor should give sufficient feedback, additional
to the written feedback already provided, to ensure that the student clearly
understands what is required in their resubmission. The draft can be submitted to
the supervisor for comment and feedback up to four weeks before the revised
submission date to provide the opportunity for the supervisor to provide
constructive feedback.
The recorded mark of any resubmission will be capped at the minimum pass mark
(50 out of 100) unless there are validated extenuating circumstances.
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8. Timeline and important dates
Event Timeline/ Deadline
Responsible
Student Supervisor
Admin
Team
Supervision period 3 May - submission X X
Dissertation preparation resources on
BB
Available from late Apr X
Timetabled dissertation preparation
sessions
5 May, 26 May,
4 July
X
Send Agreement Form to supervisor;
when agreed by student and
supervisor, student submits to BB
By end of May X X
Complete Ethics documentation and
send to supervisor for consideration;
when approved, student submits to BB
By end of June X X
Start collecting data
After submission of
Approved Ethics Form
X
Submit draft of dissertation either:
• chapter by chapter, OR
• the whole draft,
once to the supervisor by email.
During May, June, July
and August until 3
weeks before the
dissertation submission
deadline
X
Submit whole draft to the draft Turnitin
area on Blackboard
One week before
dissertation submission
deadline
X
Dissertation Submission
Checklist:
• Check the work conforms to
the dissertation format
requirements
• Check that the signed student
declaration is included
• Check that the most recent
Ethical Approval Form is
included as appendix
• Include any other relevant
appendices as per list in
section 5
By 3pm, 12 September
(or later if an extension
has been approved)
X
Dissertation marking process Sep - Nov X X
Final Exam Boards Nov - Dec X
Release of final degree classification
outcomes and dissertation marks and
feedback
Dec X
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9. Recommended reading and
resources
Core Text
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., and Thornhill, A., (2019). Research Methods for Business
Students, 8th Ed. London: Pearson.
Recommended Reading:
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2016). Successful Qualitative Research. A practical guide
for beginners. London: Sage.
Curran, J. and Blackburn, R.A. (2001). Researching the Small Enterprise. London:
Sage.
De Vaus, D. (2010). Research Design in Social Science, Reprinted Ed. London: Sage.
De Vaus, D. (2013). Surveys in Social Research, 6th Ed. London: Routledge.
Field, A. (2017). Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics, 5th Ed. London:
Sage.
Jackson, K. and Bazeley, P. (2019). Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo, 3rd Ed.
London: Sage.
Lee, T.W. (1998). Using Qualitative Methods in Organisational Research. London:
Sage.
Yin, R.K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods, 6th Ed.
London: Sage.
Library Services
The library offers a range of useful services including assistance with using library
resources, finding information for research, designing a literature search, help with
search techniques and strategies, using electronic resources, accessing online
resources from remote workplace and reference management software. Any
questions related to library services for the Dissertation Unit can be addressed to
the subject librarian Sarah Brain (sarah.brain@bristol.ac.uk).
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10. Appendices: Examples of important forms
These forms are all downloadable from Blackboard.
Dissertation Title Page
1st Page
TITLE & SUBTITLE
Full Name
Student ID
A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the
requirements of the degree of Master of Science in [degree programme title] in
the Faculty of Social Science and Law.
School of Management
Month and Year of Submission
Word count: ######
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION
I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the
requirements of the University’s Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught
Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award.
Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, this work is my own work.
Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of others, is indicated as
such. I have identified all material in this dissertation which is not my own work
through appropriate referencing and acknowledgement. Where I have quoted or
otherwise incorporated material which is the work of others, I have included the
source in the references. Any views expressed in the dissertation, other than
referenced material, are those of the author.
I have read and understand the University’s Academic Integrity Policy including
plagiarism, contract cheating, falsifying data and breaching ethical research
protocols.
SIGNED: DATE:
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Student - Supervisor Agreement Form
MSc Dissertation / AEP / ARP
Instructions:
Students to complete this form, and both student and supervisor to sign it. The
student saves it as a PDF and then uploads to the relevant Blackboard unit any time
up to the deadline of the end of May. Student and supervisor to both keep a copy
for their records.
MSc Programme
(including pathway if relevant)
Name of student
Student number
Name of supervisor
Topic area [or AEP]
Research Question
Proposed research outline
Justification
Methodology
Timetable
Agreed Scheduled Delivery of Draft Chapters [taking into account supervisor annual
leave]
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Terms and conditions of the Student-Supervisor Agreement
1. Research proposal
The proposed research to be conducted by the student is set out in this form. Any
significant deviation from the plan for work described here should be discussed and
agreed in a formal supervision meeting. It is the responsibility of the student to
inform supervisors of any change to the plan of work.
2. Supervision
The maximum period of direct supervision provided to the student is five hours.
The student is responsible for making the best use of this resource. A meeting
schedule will be discussed at the first meeting. Supervisors will inform students
when their annual leave will be taken over the summer period. Notes should be
kept on the discussions and decisions made in supervision meetings. Best practice
is for students to send notes on the discussions and decisions made in supervision
meetings to supervisors by email immediately after meetings.
3. Draft Chapters
The supervisor should provide written feedback either within 10 working days for
each submission of the draft - chapter by chapter - or within 15 working days for the
draft of the whole dissertation. The protocol for receiving written feedback will be
discussed during the first meeting. It is essential that students keep to the agreed
schedule for delivery of drafts otherwise feedback and/or delivery within
timeframes may be impacted due to supervisor leave or other commitments.
4. Research Ethics
The supervisor agrees to discuss the Ethics Form proposed by the student, and to
grant approval when this is satisfactory. The form needs to be filled in and signed*
by both parties before any research is undertaken (including recruitment of
participants). The student must upload the Ethics Form to the relevant Blackboard
unit by the end of June. It is also the student’s responsibility to include the Ethics
Approval Form (and any additional documentation) in the dissertation appendices.
5. Agreement
The Student and the Supervisor agree to work within this agreement.
This agreement must be signed * by both parties and uploaded to Blackboard by
the end of May. Copies should also be kept by the student and supervisor, so that
the schedule as set out can be followed.
*Any documents which require supervisor approval can be submitted to Blackboard
and subsequently attached to the submitted dissertation using either of the
following methods:
• Using digital signatures; or
• Using typed names plus attached confirmation email from the supervisor.
We have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions of this agreement.
Signature of Student: Date:
Signature of Supervisor: Date:
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Notes on filling out the form
Subject Area
Your dissertation must be relevant to your named study programme and relate to
the topic you have chosen (where relevant). You should not be writing a dissertation
on a subject you haven’t studied. You can, however, draw on your first degree or
past work experience.
Title for the Proposed Research
What is going to be researched? This might take the form of a research question or
questions to be investigated, or a hypothesis to be tested.
Try to focus the title as much as possible and be succinct. Be specific, for instance:
focus on an industry or a geographical area; name a company as an example or
illustration or name a particular theoretical framework; or use a statement that you
wish to challenge or a problem you want to address.
Note that the title can (and normally does) change over the course of your research,
however a clear focus at the start makes the research process easier and the
resulting dissertation is usually of a higher standard, normally because it is well
structured. Indeed, you will be marked on the quality and appropriateness of your
research question. Your supervisor will help you further with your research question
and title during your first meeting. You should come to the first meeting with ideas
you have developed.
Proposal Outline
Justification: Explain why the research is important. This should take the form of a
short critique of the main themes and controversies in the relevant literature as they
relate to the research problem to be investigated. Identify gaps in the literature or
problems e.g. with past methods of investigation that need to be addressed. You
should also include your own reasons for wanting to study the area and why the
results might be useful to you and others.
Methodology. Outline the research methods you plan to use. Briefly explain how
you plan to carry out the research. How will you design any primary research? Will
this overcome previous methodological weaknesses or follow examples of others
in the field? What problems do you foresee and how do you plan to overcome
them? You may have received methods training via a previous unit, and you will be
given further advice on methodology in the Dissertation Preparation Sessions,
which will be available through Blackboard.
Timeline: Conclude by giving a (draft) timetable of your research. Include significant
events (such as completion of on-line interviews or chapters) and set deadlines for
yourself and in relation to planned delivery of draft chapters to your supervisor for
comment. Take your supervisor’s annual leave into consideration as you plan your
timetable.
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Ethical Approval Form
School of Management
Application for Ethical Approval – Dissertation Students
All research involving human participants1 requires University approval. You are not permitted to
begin conducting your research until ethical approval has been granted by your supervisor, and, if
necessary, by the School or Faculty Research Ethics Committee. This process is designed to help
you reflect on your ongoing responsibilities as a social science researcher and it is not meant to be
an obstacle to good research. Notes to help you think about the ethical dimensions of your research
are given at the end of this document.
Students who are using anonymised secondary data or reviewing literature only
If you are only using anonymised secondary datasets or reviewing existing literature, then please
complete Part A of this document and submit it via email to your supervisor for signature. The
completed form signed by both you and your supervisor must be submitted to Blackboard by the
deadline and included in the appendices of your dissertation. Please include either your latest
approved and signed version (using digital signatures) or the latest approved and signed version
(using typed names + confirmation emails attached).
Students who are collecting primary data or using non-anonymous data
If you are collecting primary data or using non-anonymous data such as social media posts, then
please complete this form in full and submit together with a copy of your data collection instrument
(eg questionnaire/interview schedule) and consent form (if separate to your data collection
instrument) via email to your supervisor for review and signature. The completed form signed by
both you and your supervisor must be submitted to Blackboard by the deadline and included in the
appendices of your dissertation.
If your research involves a sensitive topic or data collection from vulnerable groups, then your
supervisor will request you to submit your approval form to the School’s Research Ethics Committee
via the email for review: management-ethicscommittee@bristol.ac.uk
The Committee aims to provide a response within 10 working days.
In certain circumstances it may be necessary to refer your application to the Faculty Research Ethics
Committee. It may take more than one month to complete the scrutiny process. You will need to
factor this into your timetable for research, writing and submission. If you have been told you must
submit an application to the Faculty Research Ethics Committee then please contact Liam McKervey,
the Research Governance and Ethics Officer, for guidance – Liam.McKervey@bristol.ac.uk.
Not all sections of the form will necessarily apply to your research. Where you consider this to be
the case please indicate with ‘not applicable’.
PLEASE NOTE – If your research project changes significantly, then you must ask your supervisor
whether you need to submit a new version of this ethics form.
1 The ESRC Research Ethics Framework defines human participants as including living human beings
and human data and records (such as, but not restricted to, medical, genetic, financial, personnel,
criminal or administrative records and test results including scholastic achievements).
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Name and student ID:
Email:
Degree programme:
Name of dissertation supervisor:
Project title:
Project start and end dates (e.g. award of degree):
Please provide a brief summary of your project within the box below (1 to 3 paragraphs):
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Part A
1. Does your research only involve the use of large, secondary and
anonymised datasets or a review of published literature?
If YES, you do not need to complete Part B of this form. You and your
supervisor should sign below AFTER you have completed box 2-4. If you
answer NO, go straight to Part B.
2. Briefly describe your data. (e.g type of sample, sample size, level of aggregation
(individual, city, county, state…), main variables or other relevant information.
3. Explain where the data comes from and how you get access.
Describe name and source of data:
4. Indicate how the data are accessed: (a) publicly available; (b) publicly available if you
register; (c) subject to data protection contract agreement; (d) personally provided to
you by your supervisor; (e) personally provided to you by somebody else (please give
details):
If you have answered NO above, do not sign this page. You also need to complete
Part B of this form and submit it to your supervisor for review and signature.
I confirm that I store the used data in an appropriately protected folder to which
only I have access (e.g., password-protected computer/folder), and that I adhere to
all requirements imposed by registration and data protection agreements which
are related to the data.
Student name and signature
Date
Supervisor name and signature
Date
Yes
No
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Part B
1. Will your proposed research involve contact with any of the following groups:
a. Children/young people (younger than 18)
b. Vulnerable adults: meaning a person aged 18 or over who has a condition
of the following type: i) a learning or physical disability; ii) a physical or
mental illness, chronic or otherwise, including an addiction to alcohol or
drugs; or iii) a reduction in physical or mental capacity.
c. National Health Service patients, their carers, NHS staff recruited as
research participants by virtue of their professional role, or access
to or use of NHS premises
If you answer YES to questions 1a or 1b, you will require a Criminal Records Check –
see note 2, and you must submit this form to the relevant School’s Research Ethics
Committee.
If you answer YES to question 1c, you will require NRES Approval – see note 3, and
you must submit this form to the relevant School’s Research Ethics Committee.
2. Will your proposed research gather personal data in relation to any of the following sensitive
issues:
• Ethnic/racial origins
• Health issues
• Religious or political beliefs
• Disability
• Trade union membership
• Sexuality/practices
• Salary/personnel information
If you answer YES to this question, you will have to take note of the data protection
legislation – see note 4. In particular, it is a legal requirement to obtain written
permission (e.g. through a consent form) to collect and process such data.
3. Data collection
a. Please indicate your data collection method(s) by ticking the relevant box(es).
Interview
Focus group Questionnaire
Observation
Photographs/videos
Other
(specify)
b. Please provide details of the chosen method, including timeline of data collection, and how data
will be processed and analysed.
Yes No
Yes No
Yes No
Yes No
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NB. You must provide the data collection instrument or samples of questions that you will
use to your supervisor for review.
c. Please provide details of the participants (e.g. target sample, sample size, access and method of
recruitment)
d. Is there a risk of gatekeeping or power dynamics?
If you answer YES to this question, how will you address any risk that participants will feel obliged
to participate due to the influence of gatekeepers or other intermediaries? This might arise, for
example, in the case of junior level employees. See note 5. You may need to consider whether you
will be placing undue pressure on contacts to participate or whether those contacts will be acting as
gatekeepers. You will also have to consider whether your relationship with those contacts will affect
your independence and integrity as a researcher.
This is an important issue and every student answering Part B should explain their answer to this
question.
e. Please provide details of data transcription and/or analyses. For example, state whether you will
transcribe the data or whether the data will be transcribed by an agency? How will you ensure
anonymity if the data is transcribed by an agency?
4. Will the data be anonymised? See note 4.
If your answer is YES, please provide details about how the data will be anonymised (e.g. de-
identification process, pseudo-names, etc)
Yes No
Yes No
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If your answer is NO, please provide details about why and how the data will be left without
anonymization (e.g. identification process, real-names, etc)
5. How will confidentiality be assured during and after the data collection stage? (i.e. security of
technology used to collect data, data storage, access to data). The School policy is to encourage
using encrypted files and storage in the University drive.
6. How long will the data be kept and how and when will the data be destroyed? (e.g. destroy
audio-recording after data transcription or analysis, retain the hardcopy of the transcription, etc)
7. How will you ensure informed consent? Consider anonymity, confidentiality, and right to
withdraw. If you are not planning to gain consent in advance, please also provide a full
explanation. See notes 5 and 6.
NB. You must submit the consent form you will use (if separate to the data collection
instrument) to your supervisor for review.
8. Are there any health and safety risks (to either the researchers or the participants) associated
with this research (over and above those associated with everyday life)? Please comment on how
these will be addressed. See note 7.
9. Is there anything further that you consider your supervisor or the Research Ethics Committee
should know about in relation to your proposed research?
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TO BE COMPLETED BY THE STUDENT:
Checklist of documents included for supervisor’s review (please tick)
Ethical approval form signed
by student
Data collection
instrument
Participant
consent form
Student name and signature
Date
TO BE COMPLETED BY THE SUPERVISOR:
Please tick the appropriate box below
I have reviewed the student’s proposed research project and believe that no further ethical
review is necessary. Therefore, the student should submit their completed form via the
Blackboard submission point.
I have reviewed the student’s proposed research project and recommend that the student
submits the application to the School’s Research Ethics Committee for further review.
Supervisor name and signature
Date
TO BE COMPLETED BY THE ETHICS COMMITTEE IF REFERRED BY SUPERVISOR
Ethics committee name and signature
Date
Notes for guidance
1. The ethical requirements of conducting research at the University of Bristol are available at:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-governance/ethics/
You may also wish to look at the guidance produced by the British Sociological Association
which is available at: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/equality/
The site provides excellent guidance for those undertaking social sciences research.
2. Information and advice on Criminal Record Checks is available at:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/secretary/legal/disclosure/
This is the University Secretary's Office site on Criminal Record Bureau disclosures. It links to the
CRB website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/disclosure-and-barring-service
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3. Information and advice on obtaining NRES consent for research involving the NHS is available
at: http://www.hra.nhs.uk/
You can also get advice from RED (Research & Enterprise Development) at the University of
Bristol. There is a useful training pack for researchers on their website at:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/research/support/governance/links.html
4. Data protection: University advice on data protection legislation is available at:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/secretary/dataprotection/guidelines.html
Advice relevant to research is available at:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/secretary/dataprotection/research/
Some issues you need to think about include:
• Whether you will be saving any personal data, including views on sensitive topics, to the hard
drive of your home PC. You should be aware that the University prohibits this unless it owns
the machine in question.
• If anyone else has access to your home computer, you will need to password protect all
information from your research.
• Date protection legislation states that data should not be sent to countries outside the
European Economic Area which do not have an adequate level of data protection, unless
the individual consents. You therefore need to consider how you will protect your data if
transferring to/from other countries.
• You must consider how you will secure/dispose of data once the research project has
finished.
5. Informed consent: The principle that, as far as possible, the participation of those studied is on
the basis of freely given informed consent is very important in social sciences research. This
implies a responsibility to explain in appropriate detail, and in terms meaningful to participants,
what the research is about, who is undertaking and financing it, why it is being undertaken, and
how it is to be disseminated and used. You should ensure that participants understand in
advance:
• the purpose and exact nature of the research
• the exact nature of their participation in the research
• how much of their time you will need
• that their participation is voluntary, that they can withdraw from participation at any point
• and what you intend to do with the data
It is also good practice to provide a contact number for participants to contact if they have any
complaints or other issues arising from their involvement in the research.
If your research will not conform to this principle, you will need to provide a sound justification.
In some situations, access to a research setting is gained via a ´gatekeeper´. In these situations,
researchers should adhere to the principle of obtaining informed consent directly from the
research participants to whom access is required, while at the same time taking account of the
gatekeepers´ interest.
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6. Privacy, anonymity and confidentiality: Research participants should understand how far they
will be given anonymity and confidentiality and should be able to reject the use of>devices such as tape recorders and video cameras. However, researchers should not give
unrealistic guarantees of confidentiality. You will therefore need to think about:
• Whether the privacy of research participants will be violated
• How you will be able to maintain confidentiality of data in relation to your research
participants and keep their identities anonymous at all stages of the research process
• How you will address these problems when seeking informed consent from participants
7. Health and safety: As well as the health and safety of participants (including psychological,
social and economic health), you should think about your own safety, so you need to consider:
• The health and safety aspects of your proposed project, e.g. if conducting interviews/focus
groups, will these be taking place in your/participant’s private residence?
• Will you inform someone (family member, colleague or friend) of your schedule and
whereabouts when out in the ‘field’?
• If conducting covert observations, what might happen to you if people discover who you
are?
You may find it helpful to carry out a risk assessment exercise. Carrying out a risk assessment
simply means that you should:
• identify possible hazards that might arise from your research;
• identify who might be harmed;
• consider ways of controlling the risk and,
• propose what action is necessary to achieve this.
It may be impossible, or disproportionate, to seek to eliminate all possible risks arising from your
research. This does not necessarily make the research unethical.
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Participant Information and Consent Form
School of Management
Student’s name: xxxxxx xxxxxx, e-mail : xxxxxx@bristol.ac.uk
Supervisor’s name: xxxxxx xxxxxx, e-mail : xxxxxx@bristol.ac.uk
Participant information and consent form
STUDY TITLE: ______________________________________________________
<< Ensure you remove check-box questions below that are not relevant, e.g.
opportunity to ask questions or tape-recording/transcribing if participants are
completing an online survey. >> DELETE
<< You will be providing this document to participants. It should outline what it is you are asking them to do. Modify
this template as appropriate. Use some or all of the following headings, with relevant information for participants
included underneath. >> DELETE this and descriptions in italics below
Brief Project Outline: Explain the purpose of the project in a few easily understood sentences and that this is for your
dissertation.
Why have I been invited to participate? Explain briefly why and how the participant was chosen or recruited, and how
many others will participate in the project.
Do I have to take part? E.g. No. Participation is voluntary.
Can I withdraw at any time? E.g. - Yes, you can withdraw at any time during the survey/interview without giving a
reason. You can withdraw your data at any time.
What do I have to do? – Make it very clear what the participant will be asked to do. For example, will they be asked to
take part in a focus group or be the subject of an interview? How long will this take (for example, an hour for a focus
group meeting, 15 minutes for a survey)? Also include any other relevant information: for example, will a digital voice
recorder be used to capture an interview? Please bear in mind that if you publish material derived from the project that
can be used to identify a participant, you will need to get specific written consent for this.
How will the findings be used? – E.g. dissertation for your UG/PG degree, publication. Will a copy be available for
participants?
What are the possible advantages/disadvantages/risks of taking part? – Be clear and realistic.
Will my participation in the study be kept confidential? – tell the participant the measures that you will take to keep
their participation and any data that you gather through their participation confidential, both during and after the study.
Explain how data will be collected (e.g. notes, recordings) and how data will be anonymised. Make it clear that
participants will not be identified as a named individual in any report/publication unless they have given their consent.
What will happen to the data collected? – Provide some guidance on how the data will be stored, managed, and
archived and/or destroyed at the end of the project (i.e. once your dissertation has been submitted and graded), in
accordance with University policies.
Who has reviewed the study? Give the name and Department of your supervisor, or the School/Faculty Research Ethics
Committee if your project has been submitted for full ethical review.
<< Resize this box as necessary to fit your text in >> DELETE
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Please answer the following questions to the best of your knowledge
HAVE YOU: YES/NO
• been given information explaining about the study? □/□
• had an opportunity to ask questions and discuss this
study? □/□
• received satisfactory answers to all questions you asked? □/□
• received enough information about the study for you to
make a decision about your participation? □/□
DO YOU UNDERSTAND:
That you are free to withdraw from the study and free to
withdraw your data prior to final consent
YES/NO
• at any time? □/□
• without having to give a reason for withdrawing? □/□
DO YOU CONSENT THE RESEARCHER: YES/NO
• tape-recording and transcribing the interview? □/□
• citing quotations of yours in the publications generated
by this research? □/□
I hereby fully and freely consent to my participation in this study
Participant’s signature: ___________________________ Date: ________________
Name in BLOCK Letters: _____________________________________
If you have any concerns related to your participation in this study please direct
them to the Faculty of Social Science Research Ethics Committee, via Liam
McKervey, Research Governance and Ethics Officer (Tel: 0117 331 7472, email:
Liam.McKervey@bristol.ac.uk)
MSc Management
and all pathways
EFIMM 0158
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents .......................................................................................... 2
1. Dissertation unit team .............................................................................. 4
2. Introduction .............................................................................................. 5
2.1 Intended Learning Outcomes ............................................................................ 5
3. Forms of Dissertation ............................................................................... 7
3.1 An empirical dissertation project ................................................................... 7
Sample size guidance for empirical dissertations .......................................... 8
3.2 A library-based dissertation project ............................................................ 10
Number of companies or organisations requirement for library-based
dissertations ...................................................................................................... 10
4. Elements of the dissertation unit ............................................................ 12
4.1 Preparation ..................................................................................................... 12
Timetabled Preparation Sessions .................................................................. 12
4.2 Supervision ..................................................................................................... 13
External supervisors ......................................................................................... 15
Student conduct during the supervision period .......................................... 15
4.3 Research Protocols ........................................................................................ 16
Ethical approval ................................................................................................ 16
Researcher Conduct ........................................................................................ 22
4.4 Assessment ..................................................................................................... 25
Appropriate size of the final submission ....................................................... 26
5. Dissertation Submission Requirements ................................................. 27
5.1 Formatting of your dissertation ....................................................................... 28
5.2 Suggested structure of your dissertation ....................................................... 29
Suggested structure of empirical dissertations ............................................ 30
Suggested structure of library-based dissertations ..................................... 35
6. Submission Process ................................................................................ 39
6.1 Pre-submission: submitting ONE draft to Turnitin ........................................ 39
6.2 Submitting your final dissertation.................................................................... 39
6.3 Extension to study time ..................................................................................... 39
6.4 Penalties for late work ....................................................................................... 40
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7. Marking and Feedback ........................................................................... 41
7.1 Marking process ................................................................................................ 41
7.2 Feedback, intended learning outcomes and assessment guidelines ........ 41
7.3 Marking criteria .................................................................................................. 43
7.4 Resubmission of the Dissertation .................................................................... 46
8. Timeline and important dates ................................................................ 47
9. Recommended reading and resources ................................................... 48
10. Appendices: Examples of important forms ....................................... 49
Dissertation Title Page ............................................................................................ 49
Student - Supervisor Agreement Form ................................................................. 50
Ethical Approval Form ............................................................................................. 53
Participant Information and Consent Form .......................................................... 62
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1. Dissertation unit team
Dissertation Coordinator:
Dr. Surya Mahdi, FHEA
surya.mahdi@bristol.ac.uk
For dissertation queries of
MSc Management students
(all pathways)
Student Administration Team:
mgmt-pgt@bristol.ac.uk
For general admin queries,
extensions, extenuating
circumstances etc
Subject Librarian
Sarah Brain
sarah.brain@bristol.ac.uk
For library and resources queries
Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct
Officer:
Dr Roberta Bernardi
roberta.bernardi@bristol.ac.uk
For queries about plagiarism and
all aspects of academic
misconduct
School of Management Ethics Committee:
Dr Anita Mangan
management-ethicscommittee@bristol.ac.uk
For queries about ethical
approval. Please contact your
supervisor about ethical approval
in the first instance.
Postgraduate Personal Tutor Team:
management-ptt@bristol.ac.uk
For wellbeing queries and help if
you are worried about your
studies.
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2. Introduction
A dissertation is a piece of extended academic writing of an independent study that
identifies and investigates a particular research question and explores it
systematically over a sustained period of time. It provides the opportunity to read
extensively and apply research skills to a particular area of study under the guidance
of the assigned academic supervisor. Dissertations may be either empirical or
library-based (non-empirical).
The dissertation is undertaken after the taught part of the Master’s programme,
worth 60 of the 180 credits that make up an MSc degree.
The purpose of the Student Dissertation Handbook is to set out the common
requirements for the dissertation. Please always consult your handbook before
asking your supervisor. You can use the contents page or navigation view to find
the relevant parts of the handbook.
This handbook includes the following topics related to the dissertation unit:
❖ Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
❖ Principal forms of dissertation
❖ Support provided during the dissertation period
❖ Formal requirements for presentation and submission
❖ The marking procedures and assessment criteria.
2.1 Intended Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge
and understanding of the following:
1) frame a clear, central research question within the project topic chosen
2) identify and critically review literature relevant to the topic and central
research question
3) understand and apply an appropriate research methodology to investigate
the chosen topic including research ethics process and considerations
4) analyse data and/or evidence, where appropriate, and draw apposite
conclusions that answer the central research question
5) integrate conclusions into wider academic debates
6) produce a dissertation in a clear, well-written and grammatically-correct style,
that conforms to the conventions of academic presentation
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Notes
EFIMM0158: The Management Research Project: Dissertation is a separate unit to
EFIMM0149: Management Research Methods. EFIMM 0158 is not a continuation of
EFIMM0149 and thus the research topic that you would like to pursue in the
dissertation unit need not to be related with the research topic that you used for the
EFIMM0149 Research Proposal assignment.
You are obviously allowed to use the research a topic from your submitted
EFIMM0149 Research Proposal assignment as a basis for your dissertation topic.
However, you are free to come up with a fresh topic, different from the EFIMM0149
topic.
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3. Forms of Dissertation
Dissertation projects may typically be one of the following two forms: an empirical
dissertation project or a library-based dissertation project (non-empirical). These are
generic standards, and it should be noted that all dissertation projects will include
a substantial literature review and it is highly possible that many library-based
projects may also have a substantial empirical element to them.
3.1 An empirical dissertation project
This type of dissertation involves carrying out a piece of extensive academic
research on a scale suitable for a dissertation. It entails a review of the literature
leading to the formulation of a research question from the broader research topic,
planning a research study, collecting and analysing purposely created empirical
data – either primary data (eg survey data or transcripts of interviews) or secondary
data (eg previously collected statistical data), presenting the analysis of the data in
a systematic way, discussing them in depth before arriving to the final conclusion.
It is also possible that you might want to suggest some recommendations from your
research outcomes. The research may either be original research or involve the
replication of an existing research study in a different context.
Given the ongoing Covid-19 situation, students are recommended to collect all
data via online mechanisms this year where possible.
Key stages in an empirical dissertation
The key stages in an empirical dissertation usually involve the following activities:
1. Identifying a research topic within the scope of the project.
2. Refining the project title and formulate a research question. This will be
informed by reading and reviewing previous literature around the topic to
see what aspects have been researched; observation of aspects of the topic
drawing from experience, other learning etc; and discussions with the
supervisor, other tutors, and fellow students.
3. Determining how to set up the study so as to better understand the
area/issue in question. This will be informed by:
a. research methodologies and research methods that have been used
in comparable research studies. This will be discovered by reading in
the substantive area, and focusing on how others have researched the
topic, and
b. the nature of the focal topic area and what research methods are
possible.
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Sample size guidance for empirical dissertations
The findings of your Empirical Dissertation research should come from an
acceptable quality of inquiry. This acceptable quality of inquiry can be used to
ascertain whether the knowledge that you are producing from your empirical
research could satisfy at least the basic level of academic research scrutiny. One
important aspect to assess is whether the conclusions that you can draw from your
research finding can be valid and/or confidently generalised to the population that
your research participants represent. This is often related to whether or not you
draw your conclusions of your dissertation from an acceptable number of
participants who participate in your research.
Although there is no clear-cut answer on what constitutes an acceptable number of
participants for your research as this number depends on many considerations,
students have found the following guidance useful:
Sample size considerations for primary qualitative data collection
In qualitative data research where the collected data might come from interviews or
focus groups, the following points may be useful to consider when to keep
continuing collecting data from new interviews or focus groups or when to stop.
• Is the data collected sufficient to address the research question (i.e., have
you gathered the data that you need)?
4. Seeking ethical approval before undertaking research and collecting data
(including recruiting participants).
5. Depending on the form of empirical work (analysing data
sets/documents/etc or interviews/surveys etc), identify sources of data
including, where appropriate, target population and sampling method.
6. Where fieldwork is involved, seeking permission to access the places and
groups. Consider carefully alternative groups/places you could approach in
case permission is denied.
7. Developing and testing research tools and techniques.
8. Collecting, capturing and appropriately recording data.
9. Analysing data.
10. Reviewing earlier reading and evaluate other research and
conceptualisations in the light of the data gathered. Consider the academic
and ‘managerial’ contributions of your findings.
11. Drafting chapters of the dissertation for review by your supervisor.
Note
Your supervisor will provide support throughout this process and the activity of
drafting chapters and sending them to the supervisor can be done at any time along
the stages of dissertation research. For example, drafting the literature review
chapter can be undertaken as soon as the end of activity 2 above.
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• Is the data collected of sufficient quality to enable appropriate analysis (eg,
students may be doing something interesting or innovative within
interviews, such as photo elicitation)?
• Is the rationale for collecting the data (including at what point data
collection was stopped) clearly articulated?
• Is the data collection, data analysis and theoretical engagement of sufficient
quality and discussed in sufficient detail?
As a very rough guide, approximately 10-15 interviews (each 30+ minutes) or 2-3
focus groups (up to an hour in length) or else an equivalent to a minimum of 5 man-
hours inquiry can be used as a rough estimate for an MSc dissertation. However,
this is a rough estimate, and the four points explained previously need to be used
as the main guiding principles.
Sample size considerations for primary quantitative data collection
In quantitative data research where the collected data might come from surveys
(through questionnaires), the following points may be useful to decide on the
minimum sample size necessary to produce reliable findings. This is a guide.
1. If the population size of the subject that you are studying is small (ie consists
of 200 individuals or less), then you should use the entire population as a
sample. For example, if you plan to do research on Top 50 UK entrepreneurs
using survey, you need to sample the whole population of top 50
entrepreneurs. However, you also need to consider the cost and time factor
to collect such data.
2. You can also use the same sample size as those studies similar to the one that
you plan to do in your dissertation research. Focusing on reading the
methodological part from the similar research during your literature review
on your topic can provide guidance about the typical sample size that you
can use for your research.
3. Alternatively, you can use published tables of sample size for known sizes of
population, selected margin of error, selected confidence level and whether
you plan to collect categorical or continuous data. One of the well-known
tables for this purpose was produced by Taro Yamane (1967) [Yamane, T
(1967). Statistics, An Introductory Analysis, 2nd Ed., New York: Harper and
Row.]
4. If you do not know the size of the population of the subjects that you are
studying, then you are advised to use William Gemmell Cochran’s (1963)’s
formula to calculate sample size for a population with an infinite size (ie very
large size) [Cochran, W.G. (1963). Sampling Techniques, 2nd Ed., New York:
John Wiley and Sons, Inc.]. According to Cochran (1963), the suggested
sample size for studying an unlimited population size with the population
variability of 50% (maximum variability), margin of error of 5% and confidence
level of 95% is 385.
For dissertations in the School of Management, a guide for a sample for quantitative
data research, like surveys, is between 100 to 200. This corresponds to the
population variability of 50% (maximum variability), margin of error of 5% and the
confidence level between 70% and 85% (between 1 to 4 and 1 to 5 likely that your
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value will be off the specified range) for research on an unlimited population size.
This sample size is a guide.
Consequently, when planning the survey and reporting your research and in the
dissertation, you have to specify in advance the size of the population that you are
studying (eg unlimited (very large) or not). Also, if the characteristics of that
population are known from the previous literature and/or from the published
statistics, you are required to compare the characteristics of your collected sample
with the reported characteristics of the population that you are studying. Also,
because it is very rare to have 100% success rate, ideally, you should send your
questionnaires to a much larger number of respondents in order to make sure that
you can collect the minimum acceptable size of sample to be analysed.
3.2 A library-based dissertation project
A library-based dissertation is best distinguished from an empirical study by
regarding it as an investigation using “supporting evidence” and secondary data
that is already available in the public domain and in the forms which can be readily
utilised for supporting the dissertation arguments. This can involve the re-analysis
of an existing data set (eg published secondary data), a critical study of the existing
research on a particular topic, the study of the development of a specific concept
or theoretical framework in the literature, or a critical investigation into an area
relevant to your programme. Typically, it will involve the analysis of various forms
of documentary evidence: the research literature, government documents, web
sources, published data, etc.
A library-based study of this sort usually aims to add something extra to the existing
study that is being discussed or criticised, by providing a summary of the weight of
evidence for and against a particular position or theory, identifying key gaps in
knowledge, or providing a new perspective from which to view an issue. A library-
based study can provide an excellent opportunity to consider how research done
in a range of different contexts, relates to particular contexts.
It can potentially be very valuable and important work. However, it must be noted
that such a study goes further than the simple describing of what exists. It requires
properly formulated research questions which are used to critically evaluate the
sources, or the cases used. It also requires a clear and coherent research design
which outlines and justifies the search strategy for the evidence selected. Please
refer to the Session 6 in the Dissertation Preparation Sessions for a much more detail
explanation of the Library-Based Dissertation Project.
Number of companies or organisations requirement for library-based dissertations
You are NOT PERMITTED to write a library-based dissertation around ONE
PARTICULAR company or organisation. Your library-based dissertation MUST USE
AT LEAST TWO organisations as the key topic of its discussion. This might be in the
form of the comparison of at least those two companies or organisations.
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Key stages in a library-based dissertation
The key stages in producing a library-based dissertation usually involve the
following activities:
1. Identifying a research topic within the scope of the project.
2. Refining the project title and formulating a research question.
3. Clearly identifying, discussing and clarifying the key concepts being
investigated. This will require reading and review of previous literature
around the topic, together with advice and feedback from the supervisor.
4. Planning to collect evidence to support your plans of criticism.
5. Reviewing the available collected evidence. This will include:
a. constructing sets of criteria against which to judge the materials
reviewed.
b. making a detailed review of the collected evidence such as relevant
books and journal articles. Where relevant, it can also include other
relevant materials, eg company or government reports, market
research, newspaper articles etc.
6. Summing up. B uild case-evidence from the overall reviewed collected
evidence to act as the key supporting evidence to back up your critical
arguments against particular concepts or theory.
7. Providing discussion on how this evidence might provide answers to the
previously proposed research question, formulated at the beginning of
the dissertation. Weigh up the pros and cons.
8. Making recommendations for further research studies or draw out
implications for practice.
9. Drafting chapters of the dissertation for review by your supervisor.
Note
Your supervisor will provide support throughout this process and the activity of
drafting chapters and sending them – individually – to the supervisor can be done
at any time along the stages of dissertation research. For example, drafting the
literature review chapter can be undertaken as soon as the end of activity 3
above.
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4. Elements of the dissertation unit
The dissertation unit consists of the following elements:
1. Preparation
2. Supervision
3. Adherence to research protocols
4. Submission and assessment
4.1 Preparation
To support your dissertation research and writing, all School of Management PGT
students can access a comprehensive series of recorded dissertation preparation
sessions on Blackboard. These recordings are designed to help you with remote
dissertation research, generating your research plan, undertaking correct ethical
approval arrangements, utilising library resources and how to generally make the
most of your dissertation work. The materials covered in the recording include:
1) Introduction to the dissertation unit
2) Academic knowledge and the different philosophies of its production (ie.
research philosophy and research quality)
3) Choosing your dissertation topic; identifying and developing your research
question
4) How do you know that it is a topic worth researching? Sourcing for literature,
critically evaluating literature and identifying knowledge gaps or issues
within the current literature as well as managing the flow of information
5) Planning to reliably answer your dissertation/research questions: planning
your research methodology
6) Undertaking library-based dissertation research
7) Undertaking qualitative research
8) Making conclusions from qualitative data
9) Undertaking quantitative research
10) Making inference from quantitative data
11) Writing up your dissertation and formalities.
Timetabled Preparation Sessions
To guide you through the necessary materials for your dissertation, the following
preparation sessions have been also timetabled for you. Please look out for these
sessions in your calendar.
Introductory lecture for all School of Management PGT students via Zoom on:
• Thursday 5 May, 10-11am
General Q&A session via Zoom on:
• Thursday 26 May, 10-11am
There will also be a programme specific Q&A session via Zoom on:
• Monday 4 July, 10-11am
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4.2 Supervision
Each student is allocated ONE supervisor. However, one supervisor can supervise
several Master’s dissertation projects. There will be no co-supervision. The
allocation of the supervisor is ONLY based on anonymous matching between the
student research topic and methodology preferences with the research interest and
skills of the AVAILABLE supervisor. The supervisor allocation decision is final and
changing the supervisor in the middle of the supervision period is not permitted
and will not be accommodated.
Before the start of the supervision period in May, you will receive an email with
details of your supervisor. Supervision will mainly involve online meetings, email
and possibly other methods of communication.
Your supervisor can help you in:
✓ narrowing the focus of your research and (re)formulating your research
question(s), aims, objectives and outcomes
✓ discussing research ethics and granting approval
✓ guiding some of your reading
✓ preparing for fieldwork if you are undertaking an empirical project
✓ advising on any stage of the research process and any difficulties you may
face
✓ assisting in structuring your dissertation, and
✓ commenting on draft material and advising you on the final submission.
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the University of Bristol has taken the necessary steps
to generate alternative safe methods of supervision, teaching and assessment. As
a result, your supervision will be conducted entirely online for the duration of the
dissertation period via MS Teams or Zoom. The use of email and other textual
methods of communication should be limited to general correspondence or to
provide draft feedback only.
You can expect to receive the equivalent of a maximum of 5 hours ‘contact time’
supervision from your supervisor. The frequency of supervision meetings should
be agreed in advance between you and your supervisor as long as the cumulative
total hours does not exceed the maximum permitted contact hours.
You will be able to start communicating with your supervisor after Tuesday 3 May,
but not before.
Note that your supervisor will usually require you to turn on the camera during
supervision meetings. This not only makes the communication better between you
and your supervisor, but also it would enable your supervisor to use this as a way of
checking your identity. Either you or your supervisor are permitted to record the
supervision meeting with the agreement of the other party. Nevertheless, for the
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), all the recordings of the supervision
meetings are to be saved in a University of Bristol OneDrive folder.
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Your supervisor is only permitted to provide feedback on an equivalent of one full
draft of the dissertation once. The way the feedback will be provided – either
chapter by chapter along the supervision period or the whole dissertation draft (not
both) towards the end of the supervision period - should be agreed in advance
between you and your supervisor. In the case where the feedback is given chapter
by chapter along the supervision period, you and your supervisor need to agree in
advance on the timeline of the delivery of the chapters.
You will be required to complete and submit to Blackboard a Student/Supervisor
Agreement form by the end of May (see appendix ii). This will include what you
have agreed regarding what your topic and research question is, how you plan to
do your research, how often you will meet, when you will deliver dissertation
chapters and if there are any times when you or your supervisor will be unavailable
(due to holiday commitment for example). In all cases, supervisors will expect
students to manage their own time, set deadlines for the delivery of each chapter
and proactively communicate these deadlines to supervisors so that supervisors
know when draft chapters are to be expected.
Supervisors will explain their process of supervision at the earliest opportunity, and
this may be in a group supervision meeting. Some examples of expectations that
supervisors may explain include the following:
- Supervisors will establish how long meetings are likely to last, and how many
there are likely to be across the dissertation period. This will help students
plan how best to use meetings.
- Supervisors will establish how far in advance of the final deadline they will
accept final drafts for review.
- Supervisors will explain that draft chapters will only be commented on once
and that reworked chapters will not be reviewed with written comments
(although might be discussed). Supervisors do not edit work but provide
comments for guidance.
- Supervisors will explain when they will be away from work (ie taking leave or
if they work around caring responsibilities or are part time) and are unable to
answer requests for guidance.
- Supervisors will explain that written comments on language, style and tone
should be applied across the dissertation.
- Supervisors will explain their approach to planning meetings (eg that
students send calendar invites) and their approach to planned meetings that
students fail to attend.
- Supervisors will explain how they expect online meetings to be conducted,
eg without the use of face coverings and without background noise (so not
in public places) to aid communication and understanding.
Your supervisor will normally provide written feedback either within 10 working
days for each submission of the draft chapter by chapter, or within 15 working days
for the draft of the whole dissertation (not both). Your supervisor reserves the right
to refuse providing feedback within a much shorter timeframe if they think that it
would be impossible for them to provide quality feedback due to their other
commitments. For this reason, it is important for you to always check if your
supervisor will be away or not available during the supervision period.
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You might reasonably expect your supervisor to respond to general emails within 2
working days (not weekend or public holiday) – for example to confirm setting up a
meeting, but not if the response needs them to read through documentation. The
working day of the supervisor follows the University of Bristol and thus UK time. The
supervisor reserves the right not read and answer out of hours email.
The supervision period normally starts from early May until the submission of the
final dissertation in mid-September.
Any other issues related to the supervision process should be first discussed with
your supervisor. If it cannot be successfully resolved, then you or your supervisor
might wish to escalate this to the dissertation coordinator.
External supervisors
Several of our dissertation supervisors are based outside of the University of Bristol,
so there is a chance that you could be allocated to an external supervisor. This is
common with other Russell Group universities and the School of Management
employs a range of staff including academics external to the University for the
supervision of dissertations. This enables the School to ensure personal and
individual supervision for students and allows us to utilise skills and expertise of
academics who may not be full-time members of staff. In employing external
members of staff, there is an increased breadth and depth of research knowledge
allowing Schools to create the best match between students and supervisors.
Student conduct during the supervision period
You are expected to regularly attend the supervision sessions as agreed and
arranged with your supervisor. Frequent absence from the agreed meeting
sessions without a valid reason will be reported by your supervisor to the
Dissertation Unit Team for further action. In the case of the international students,
it may involve possible escalation to The UK Home Office. You are expected to
report any planned long-term absence to your supervisor and the PGT Student
Administration Team.
You are expected to undertake research with the approval of your supervisor. Any
changes in the previously agreed dissertation topic or in the way the data is
collected and analysed has to be reported to and approved by your supervisor.
Your supervisor can report any unreported changes of your dissertation to the
Dissertation Unit Team and subsequently provide a formal statement that the
dissertation was undertaken without your supervisor’s approval, especially if this
affects the ethical approval process. The student HAS TO submit a NEW Student-
Supervisor Agreement form for any approved changes of the previously
agreed dissertation topic.
Finally, you are expected to provide research data and evidence upon request by
your supervisors to check on the authenticity of the research. Your supervisor can
report to the Dissertation Unit Team any refusal of handing in research data and
evidence by you during the supervision period.
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4.3 Research Protocols
University of Bristol is proud to be among world-leading Higher Education
institutions which excel in their research quality and performance. As part of the
University of Bristol community, you are expected to do your research according to
the University of Bristol research quality standard protocols. This involves
respecting University of Bristol Research Guidelines as well as conducting research
with the highest integrity as a University of Bristol researcher. Information on
seeking ethical approval, GDPR and researcher conduct are below.
Ethical approval
Before starting to collect any data - either primary or secondary data - you must
discuss and agree your approach and methods with your supervisor. You can then
apply for ethical approval from your supervisor. All students are required to engage
fully with the ethics approval process, irrespective of the type of dissertation you are
doing (either Empirical or Library Based Dissertation). You must read the ethics
approval process carefully as you will need to complete different relevant sections
of the Ethics Approval Form with detailed information as required, depending on
the type of research you are conducting. Failure to seek such approval, or to change
your methods without the consent of your supervisor will have serious
repercussions for academic misconduct, which could mean that you fail the
dissertation without any permission to resubmit. You can download the Ethical
Approval Form from the Dissertation Information area within the relevant
dissertation unit on Blackboard.
Once this has been approved and signed off by your supervisor, you should submit
your Ethics Approval Form to Blackboard by the end of June (see appendix iii).
The online submission area for the Ethics Approval Form is open from mid-May.
Note that the proposed ethics documentation might not be approved the first time
when you send this to your supervisor and so you must allow plenty of time to
prepare this.
It is also possible, that, due to unforeseen circumstances, you might need to modify
the way you collect the data or evidence in the later stage of your dissertation
research. In this case, you must submit any subsequent amended or changed
versions of the Ethical Approval Form, approved and signed off again by your
supervisor, to Blackboard.
The School of Management Ethics Committee will audit the Ethics Approval Forms
submitted to Blackboard as part of the University’s agreed ethics process.
NOTE: The final approved version of the Ethical Approval Form for all types of
dissertations must be included in the appendices of your dissertation submission.
If you do not include this, or if you include a previous version which does not match
the research you actually undertook, you will not have fulfilled the Learning
Outcomes required for the dissertation unit. This will be reflected in the marking of
your work and could result in a fail.
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Ethical approval for library-based dissertation projects
In library-based dissertation research, where you are only using anonymised
secondary datasets or using information from existing literature, you are only
expected to complete PART A of the Ethics Approval Form.
Ethical approval for students using anonymous collected secondary data
If you are only using anonymised collected secondary datasets for your empirical
dissertation (such as patent datasets, published statistical data etc), then the Ethical
Approval Form application will be similar to that for library-based dissertation
projects above: you are only expected to complete PART A of the Ethics Approval
Form.
Ethical approval for students collecting primary data from social media or using any non-
anonymous collected (primary or secondary) data
If any part of your dissertation research involves of collecting primary data or using
non-anonymous data such as social media posts, customer reviews, etc then you
must complete the full ethics form – PART B – and submit together with:
• a copy of your data collection instrument (eg questionnaire/interview
schedule), and
• consent form (if separate to your data collection instrument)
The completed ethics form together with the additional documentation above will
then comprise the Ethics Approval Form.
If your research involves a sensitive topic or data collection from vulnerable groups
(please refer to “Guidance” in the next page), then your supervisor will request you
to submit your approval form to the School’s Research Ethics Committee:
management-ethicscommittee@bristol.ac.uk. The Committee aims to provide a
response within 10 working days.
Additional note: Please bear in mind that the Committee will usually ask for
revisions and that this will extend the approval process. You will need to factor this
into your timetable for research, writing and submission. In general, the Committee
advises against researching sensitive topics or data collection from vulnerable
groups because of the additional skills and time needed.
In certain circumstances it may be necessary to refer your application to the Faculty
Research Ethics Committee. It may usually take more than one month to complete
the scrutiny process. You will need to factor this into your timetable for research,
writing and submission. If you have been told you must submit an application to
the Faculty Research Ethics Committee then please contact Liam McKervey
(Liam.McKervey@bristol.ac.uk), the University Research Governance and Ethics
Officer, for guidance.
Using social media for research
If you plan to use social media for your research data, please be aware that there
are specific ethical issues that you will need to consider. For example, if you are
using ‘closed groups’, you must get permission to use the data; if you are using
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‘open groups’, this will depend on whether they are professional posts which are
deliberately in the public domain (this should be ok to use as data), but posts by
members of the public would need informed consent. There are useful resources
available here:
https://www.ukri.org/councils/esrc/guidance-for-applicants/research-ethics-
guidance/internet-mediated-research/
Participant Information and Consent Form
When conducting any research involving human participants, the researcher should
give participants the information that enables them to decide whether they wish to
take part in the project or not. This information should be written in the first part of
the Participant Information and Consent Form and it should be shown to the
participant before the researcher starts collecting or recording the data. This sheet
should provide clear information on the essential elements of the dissertation
project. It may include the topic of the project, the voluntary nature of involvement,
what will happen during and after the research, what the project involves for the
Guidance
We strongly advise that you avoid undertaking research that requires you to
focus on vulnerable groups, sensitive personal data or children/young people
below the age of 18. Vulnerable groups include:
• any person over the age of 18 who has the following:
o a learning or physical disability
o a physical or mental illness or otherwise, including an addiction
to alcohol or drugs
o a reduction in physical or mental capacity.
• patients, their carers and NHS staff.
Also, unless it is absolutely necessary, you should also avoid undertaking
research that would collect personal data in relation to these sensitive issues:
• particular ethnic/ race origins
• health issues
• religious or political beliefs
• disability data
• trade union membership
• sexuality
• personal specific salary information
Undertaking research and collecting data from the above groups will require
written permission and approval from the School of Management Research
Ethics Committee as a legal requirement to collect and process such data.
Consequently, this will require longer approval time.
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participant, how data will be stored, and any potential risks or inconvenience for the
participant, balanced against any possible benefits for the participant or the wider
community, including the advancement of knowledge and understanding. The
second part of the Participant Information and Consent Form records participants
written agreement to willingly participate in your research project.
You can download the Participant Information and Consent Form from the
Dissertation Information area within the relevant dissertation unit on Blackboard,
but a template is provided in appendix iv.
You should keep any signed participant consent forms in a secure place according
to the GDPR policy, explained in the next section. You may be asked to show these
signed participant consent forms upon request by your supervisor, Dissertation
Coordinator or other members of University staff if we need to check on the
authenticity of your research.
The (unsigned) Participant Information and Consent Form should be put as an
attachment to and submitted together with Ethics Approval Form to Blackboard. It
also needs to be put together with the Ethics Approval Form in the Appendices of
your submitted dissertation (NB this will be blank if your research does not involve
collecting data from human participants).
Completing the ethics form
When completing the Ethics Approval Form, you are expected to provide as much
as possible the information on:
• the summary of what the research is about, and
• the detailed methodology on how the data would be collected and analysed.
If you are collecting primary data involving human participants, you are also
required to attach a Participant Information and Consent Form and sample
questions for your research instrument where appropriate.
You should consult with your supervisor about any questions relating to the ethics
form. Any additional questions can be submitted to management-
ethicscommittee@bristol.ac.uk.
Please remember: your supervisor will only sign their approval of the Ethics
Form when they are satisfied that this has been completed correctly and
follows the ethics research protocols. Your supervisor can sign with a digital
signature or using their name typed together with a confirmation email attached to
the submission of the Ethics Approval Form to Blackboard and as an appendix to
your final dissertation.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
You are required to observe the UK and University of Bristol GDPR policy when
conducting your research. Consequently, you are expected to follow these
guidelines:
• use securely encrypted end to end communication when engaging online
with either your respondents, interviewees, or participants of your research
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• if you are collecting data via questionnaires for your dissertation you have
access to two tools through University licenses: MS Forms which you can
access through MS Office 365 and Jisc Online Surveys. To access Jisc Online
Surveys please email the PGT student admin team via mgmt-
pgt@bristol.ac.uk. Both of these tools are GDPR compliant. Jisc Online
Surveys is more sophisticated than MS Forms with more question types. Jisc
Online Surveys also enables you to export your collected data straight into
SPSS. Both MS Forms and Jisc Online Surveys gives you the option of sharing
your draft questionnaire with your supervisor. There is a guide on how to set
up a questionnaire in both MS Forms and Jisc Online Surveys posted in your
Dissertation unit Blackboard course within the ‘Dissertation Information’ area.
There are also comprehensive help and support resources available here for
MS Forms and here for Jisc Online Surveys. Please ensure you discuss with
your supervisor what tool you should use to collect data via questionnaires
• in the case of using data collection software or data mining software or social
media to collect data, use only software, apps or social media which save and
store the communicated or recorded data in a UK server/cloud: it is not
permitted to use any non-GDPR compliant platforms, or those which
are overseas-based (including for example the Wenjuanxing platform
for data collection). Your supervisor will not be able to approve any
ethics forms which propose to use such data collection platforms
• if you wish to use SPSS or NVIVO for your data analysis, you can download
the University of Bristol official licensed SPSS analysis tool and the latest
NVIVO version from here http://www.bris.ac.uk/software/
• use only the University of Bristol secure OneDrive to save your research data
– either primary or secondary data
• make clear your procedure on how personal related data will be stored,
accessed, rectified, used, analysed, and removed.
Please refer to the following suggestions when collecting and handling data for your
research.
Don’t
Do
X Don’t randomly accrue data on the
basis that it might be useful
sometime.
X Don’t collect data that you do not
need.
✓ Do plan carefully what data you
need to collect.
✓ Do monitor data requirements
throughout your research project to
ensure that you are only collecting
required data.
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X Don’t store data about identifiable
individuals or otherwise sensitive
data on a non-secure computer
✓ Do make data anonymous so that
individuals cannot, by any means,
be identified.
✓ Do use encrypted storage media or
hard drive for storing any sensitive
data - contact the IT Service Desk
for further information.
Don’t
Do
X Don't reuse data for other purposes
other than those for which you have
permission.
✓ Do delete data once it is no longer
required. However, make sure
you've considered any external
requirements to preserve or share
research data before deleting it (ie
only delete data after you get the
permission to delete it from your
supervisor.)
X Don't keep sensitive data for any
longer than is necessary (please
refer to your funder's requirements).
✓ Do delete sensitive data when you
don't need it anymore.
✓ Do remember that the data
subjects have a right of access to
see what data is being held about
them.
X Don't just assume that the way you
are conducting your research is ok.
✓ Do gain the consent of data
subjects to hold personal data.
✓ Do seek advice from the
Information Rights Officer based in
the University Secretary’s Office.
Source: http://www.bris.ac.uk/infosec/uobdata/research/
Any questions related to the University GDPR policy can be sent to:
>
Anonymity
In undertaking empirical research, it is usual to respect the confidentiality of
individual participants who contribute to your research and to ensure that they
cannot be identified in your dissertation. It is usual to give respondents and places
a different name, or to use coded letters/numbers to give them anonymity. This
applies to all material included in your dissertation including appendices and
acknowledgements as well as within the body of the text.
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Researcher Conduct
As members of the University of Bristol community, you are expected to always
uphold high academic integrity standards and act professionally when undertaking
research, engaging with research subjects, collecting data, analysing data,
reporting and submitting it for assessment. A pre-recorded training session on
‘professionalism’ is available via the Blackboard site that we recommend you
engage with.
Academic Integrity
By agreeing to uphold high academic integrity standards, you are expected to
conduct your behaviour and attitudes while undertaking research and write the
dissertation according to the following values:
• Honesty. You are expected to demonstrate intellectual and personal
honesty in your research, in your relationship with your supervisor, in the
writing-up of as well as on the submission of your dissertation
• Trust and fairness. You are expected to observe dissertation and research
guidance as explained in this dissertation handbook, follow what is allowed
and avoid what is not allowed as well as to conduct yourself in such a way that
you are not seeking to gain an unfair advantage both in the research and the
writing up your dissertation
• Respect. You are expected to respect the view of your supervisor as well as
other academic staff
• Responsibility. You are expected to behave in such a way that the
perception of the quality of the degree you are undertaking is not
compromised and you are aware that an irresponsible selfish behaviour from
your part will affect not only you but also other students and the reputation
of the University more widely
• Courage. You are expected to show courage in resisting temptations to seek
to gain unfair advantage and to discourage others from doing so
Details of the University of Bristol Policy on Academic Integrity can be found here:
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/academic-quality/documents/policy/
academic-integrity-policy.pdf
Academic and Research Misconduct and Plagiarism
Although the University of Bristol’s approach to academic integrity centres around
the positive beliefs to its student attitude and behaviour, it still recognises that
transgression will undermine its core values and reputation and hence, it will
appropriately act upon those who have been reported to commit academic and
research misconduct in their dissertation.
All our supervisors and dissertation markers are trained to spot the following
academic misconduct in the dissertation unit.
• Breaching research ethics and obligations. Undertaking data collection
and analysis without proper ethical approval and/or submitting the
dissertation without attaching the required ethical documents.
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• Fabrication or falsification. Presenting fictitious or distorted data, results,
evidence, research or other material as factual and accurate. Fabrication of
research data or creating data from inexistent research using false
interviewees or false or fabricated survey participant consents
• Re-use of work. Re-using your own work which has already been used for
credit in an award from the University of Bristol or elsewhere
• Cheating in dissertation research. Attempting to gain an unfair advantage
in your dissertation research by procuring most of the research plan, the
research design, the data collection and its analysis from a third party
• Cheating in dissertation writing. Attempting to gain an unfair advantage
in the writing-up of the dissertation by procuring the work from a third party
• Misconduct behaviour in dissertation writing. Failing to meet the core
values of academic integrity such as honesty or trust and fairness. This
includes systematically misleading and acting dishonestly in the use of
references
• Plagiarism. Using words, ideas or work attributable to another identifiable
person or source without attributing the work to the source from which it was
obtained (see the explanation in the next page).
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Turnitin will be used by markers to determine the similarity index of your submission
document. The similarity index is a primary indicator but does not directly indicate
plagiarism. Unacceptably high similarity indices prompt further detailed
investigation focusing upon the provenance of your material and your adherence
to accepted conventions for presenting written academic material, including your
use of citations and references.
Source: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-
library/sites/secretary/documents/student-rules-and-regs/regulations-on-
research-misconduct.pdf
Any identified academic misconduct will be reported either by the supervisor
and/or by the dissertation marker to the Dissertation Coordinator and to the
Plagiarism Officer who may escalate the case to the School or Faculty Academic
Misconduct Panel for further investigation, depending on the gravity of the
allegation of misconduct.
Any questions relating to the School of Management plagiarism and misconduct
policy can be sent to: roberta.bernardi@bristol.ac.uk.
Research misconduct
The following activities whether they are done deliberately or as a result of
reckless behaviour or negligence are categorised as research misconduct:
• failure to obtain appropriate permission to conduct research
• deception in relation to research proposals
• unethical behaviour in the conduct of research
• unauthorised use of information which was acquired confidentially
• deviation from good research practice which can lead to unreasonable
risk of harm to humans and/or the environment
• fabrication, falsification or corruption of research data
• distortion of research outcomes, by distortion or omission of data that do
not fit expected results
• dishonest misinterpretation of results
• publication of data known or believed to be false or misleading
• plagiarism, or dishonest use of unacknowledged sources
• misquotation or misrepresentation of other authors
• inappropriate recognition and contribution of other people’s work
• fraud or other misuse of research tools, instruments or data from what was
initially agreed
• attempting, planning or conspiring to be involved in research misconduct
• inciting others to be involved in research misconduct
• collusion in or concealment of research misconduct by others.
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4.4 Assessment
Your dissertation will be assessed to consider to what extent you have met the
intended learning outcomes, in accordance with the assessment criteria.
Your submitted piece of work – a Dissertation (a Latin word which means
“Discussion”) – should be written in the form of an extended academic essay. It is
more than just reporting what you have found so far from your literature review
activities and/or from your research work. Similar to other academic essays, it
should be written around your own academic statements or arguments, whether it
is formulated in the form of a research question or its proposed answer. The whole
writing in the dissertation should be thus centred around how you support your own
academic statements or arguments using findings from your own research. It
outlines proofs – found from your own research – of why you make such academic
statements or arguments. It may consist of your account on “what you want to argue
here”, “why it is important to make such arguments”, “what previous work or
literature have said about this argument”, “what evidence that you are able to collect
Plagiarism
You must appropriately reference the work of others, following accepted
conventions for presenting written academic materials. You must ensure that
direct quotations from others’ work – from unpublished sources, such as other
Masters students’ dissertations, from the web and from books and journals, are
acknowledged. If you develop someone else’s ideas or concepts, you must
acknowledge that you have done this.
Any forms of intentional and unintentional plagiarism are not tolerated. These
include the use of Google Translate to report findings and ideas from other studies
in other language. In all circumstances, you must use your own words and
demonstrate your own understanding when reporting findings and ideas from
other resources in addition to properly citing and referencing sources. If you are
caught plagiarising through the use of Google Translate or other translation tools,
you will endure a penalty proportionate with the severity of your case. If you are
in any doubt on this matter, you should consult your dissertation supervisor.
The use of third-party proofreading services is allowed but limited to minor
changes. Major changes that substantially alter what students have originally
written may be considered as the breach of academic integrity and incur a penalty
proportionate with the severity of the case.
You also need to pay attention to not committing self-plagiarism of your previous
submitted works in Turnitin, such as submitted research proposal. Excessively
committing self-plagiarism (e.g. more than 25%) can be considered as breaching
academic integrity because you can be accused of gaining unfair advantage by
using your previous marked, graded or published works to your current work.
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to support your argument” (this may include the description on how you
deliberately plan and conduct particular research to collect or create that evidence),
“your discussion on whether or not the evidence sufficiently supports your
argument” as well as “your final conclusion on whether you have successfully proven
the validity of your argument”.
You are strongly advised to prepare your submission document in accordance with
the academic guidance explained within this section. Clarity of communication and
succinctness in presenting your argument are important considerations taken into
account by markers and examiners later. Using charts, diagrams, tables and so on
helps to reduce description, and saves words.
Appropriate size of the final submission
It is expected that your dissertation will be between 10,000 and 12,000 words in
length.
The School of Management does not have a policy for applying penalties for over-
length work, but assignment briefs (including the dissertation) will indicate a word
length guide that is expected for that piece of work. If your work is greater than the
suggested maximum, you should interpret this as a signal that you have not
expressed your ideas concisely or with sufficient focus. Similarly, if it is less than the
suggested minimum, you should interpret this as a signal that your coverage of the
subject is insufficiently comprehensive, either in depth or breadth of coverage.
Therefore, submitting work that is outside of the word length guide could affect the
marking of your work and will be reflected in your feedback. You are strongly
advised to make sure that you accept and follow this guidance since verbosity may
be interpreted as reflecting adversely upon the quality of your submission.
Note on word counts
Included in the word count: everything inside the main body of the dissertation,
including footnotes, embedded references, figures and tables.
Excluded in the word count: Title Page, Abstract/Executive Summary, Table of
Contents, List of Tables and Figures, List of Abbreviations, Acknowledgements,
Reference List and Appendices.
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5. Dissertation Submission
Requirements
The first page of your dissertation should contain:
• the logo of the University of Bristol
• the title of your dissertation
• your full name
• your student ID
• the words A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance
with the requirements of the degree of Master of Science in [degree
programme title] in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law.
• School of Management
• date of submission
• word count
• your signed declaration this is your own work and that you have read and
understand the University’s Academic Integrity Policy including plagiarism,
contract cheating, falsifying data and breaching ethical research protocols.
See sample dissertation title page in appendix i below.
Your list of references should contain all references that have been used as or cited
in-text references in the dissertation. A list of bibliography that also contain
background readings or other material that you may have read but not actually cited
is not permitted in the dissertation.
The most recent Ethical Approval Form and the Participant Information and Consent
Form must be included in the appendices of your dissertation (for all types of
dissertations – empirical research or library-based). See sections above on Ethical
Approval and the Participant Information and Consent Form.
For empirical dissertations, the following documents also need to be included in the
subsequent appendices:
• research instrument (eg interview guide) or list of original questionnaire
instruments (for those who are conducting surveys) that you send to your
respondents to answer
• a subset of your collected data or sample of data that are relevant to your
dissertation. For those who are conducting interviews or focus groups, it may
consist of a selection of transcripts (anonymised). For those who are
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conducting surveys, this may consist of a table of the subset data that you are
using to build your findings in the dissertation
• the data analytical parameters that you use to analyse your collected data.
For those who are conducting interviews or focus groups, it may consist of a
list of codes that you use to attribute meaning to your data. For those who
are conducting surveys, this may consist of the copy of the statistical syntax
as well as the list of their outputs that you use to make inference.
5.1 Formatting of your dissertation
When writing up your dissertation, the following suggestions need to be carefully
taken into account.
Language. All parts of your dissertation should be written in English. Although
grammatical correctness will not be part of the dissertation marking criteria, it is your
responsibility to write your dissertation in a language that can be understood by the
average English-speaking marker. All research documents (eg the Participant
Information and Consent Form, list of questionnaires) as well as interview transcripts
or direct quotes which are used in the dissertation have to be translated into the
English language.
Paper Size, Layout and Orientation. The dissertation should be written in A4 size.
The layout should be mostly in portrait orientation.
Font. You should use a legible standard font such as Arial, Calibri, Cambria, Calisto,
Century/ Century Gothic, Courier, Garamond, Palatino Linotype or Times New
Roman. Depending on the font used, the size can either be 11 or 12 point. Most of
the writing should be in normal font. The use of bold, italic and/or underline should
be limited to headings or if you want to emphasise certain points such as direct
quotations or if it is required by the Harvard Referencing Style.
Line Spacing. The spacing can be single or 1.5 line.
Headings. Headings should be used to separate different parts of the dissertation.
It should be written in a style which can be differentiated from the main body of the
paragraph and in a way that it can easily show the different levels of the dissertation
parts, for example between Chapters, Sections or Sub-Sections. Using numbering
in the headings is highly suggested to enable readers to follow the sequence of the
discussion as well as to differentiate the different level of discussion points.
Paragraphs. The dissertation should be written in a way that it would be easy for
any reader to differentiate between one paragraph to another. Adding at least a
line between paragraphs is advised to separate one paragraph to another. The
paragraph itself is suggested to be written around one particular message that you
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want to convey to a reader. Each paragraph is expected to be either left or justified
aligned (consistently throughout).
Quotes. Quotes should be written between two quotation marks, in a style which
makes it easier for the reader to differentiate it from the main body of the writing.
Direct quotes from sources should be referenced and a page number provided.
Footnotes (as opposed to Endnotes). The dissertation should use Footnotes
instead of Endnotes. They should be properly numbered so they can be easily
retrieved by the reader.
Referencing. The referencing of the dissertation should follow the Harvard
referencing style (Author – Date). For more information about referencing, see:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/library/subject-support/referencing/
The reference list should be sorted in alphabetical order by author’s name. The use
of bibliography is not permitted in the dissertation.
5.2 Suggested structure of your dissertation
It is usual for the dissertation to be structured into chapters, each fulfilling a
particular role in building your argument, demonstrating your understanding of the
issue, your understanding of others’ related research, explaining how you are
planning to collect and build upon the evidence, exploring your findings, discussing
your findings as well as providing conclusions and perhaps recommendations. All
the chapters need to be arranged in such way that it enables smooth coherent
discussions from the stating of your academic argument or research problem until
your final conclusion.
Each chapter needs to be carefully structured with certain introductory paragraphs
at the start of it to help steer the reader into the discussion and should end with a
concluding paragraph or a summary to remind the reader of the key themes,
concepts, ideas, or issues that were covered and to be taken forward. Each chapter
can be organised and sub-divided to support the reader’s ability to follow your
arguments as they are introduced and developed. However, it is important not to
over-organise a chapter to include so many headings and sub-headings that the
flow of the text is fractured.
Your supervisor can guide you on the appropriate structure of your dissertation
depending on the specific purpose of your study. Nevertheless, the following sub-
sections provide some suggestions on how you could structure your dissertation
depending on whether it’s an empirical dissertation or a library-based dissertation.
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Suggested structure of empirical dissertations
Empirical-Based Dissertation: A Suggested Structure
• Title page and declaration (words NOT counted in the submission)
See appendix i for template.
• Abstract (words NOT counted in the submission)
A succinct and clear outline setting out the problem investigated, how
it was investigated, the major findings and conclusions. This should
be no more than one page long.
• Acknowledgement (Optional) (words NOT counted in the
submission)
This is the part where you recognise and thank any individuals or
organisations who were supporting you in undertaking research and
the writing up of your dissertation.
• Table of Contents (words NOT counted in the submission)
A list of title of the key different parts of the dissertation, complete
with the page number on where to find them.
• List of Abbreviations (Optional) (words NOT counted in the
submission)
A list of abbreviations that you frequently use in the dissertation
writing.
• List of Figures, Tables or Images (Optional) (words NOT counted
in the submission)
A list of any figures, tables or images that you provide in the
dissertation, complete with their title and page number on where to
find them. These figures, tables or images should be arranged
according to the sequence of their position in the dissertation.
• Chapter 1. Introduction (words counted in the submission)
The introduction should briefly outline the purpose of the study and
offer the reader an introduction to the substantive area. It should
discuss the rationale for the study, providing a clear statement of the
questions, aims, objectives and outcomes, explaining why it was
selected, and why it is relevant and important to you. The introduction
should forewarn the reader what they will be reading. It should
therefore outline briefly what the dissertation is about and the ways in
which the research was undertaken, and any key issues or concerns
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presented by the dissertation. It is best written last, although an early
rough draft, which you share with your supervisor, can be a useful way
of clarifying your thoughts and intentions and keeping you focused as
your study progresses. It is a best practice to shortly explain the
remaining structure of the Dissertation at the end of the Introduction
Chapter.
• Chapter 2. Literature Review (words counted in the submission)
The literature review chapter provides discussions on what the
previous literature has said about your research question or your
argument, previously stated in the introduction. It is beyond just
describing of what others have said. Thus, simply describing what
others have said is not enough. You are expected to add value to
extant literature and material, by critically assessing their relevancy to,
their problem or their inadequacy in supporting your stated argument
or answering your research question. You should critically evaluate
what they have said, maybe by asking yourself whether their research
was done in one place, in a particular way, with particular subjects,
and is relevant to a particular context but not directly answering your
research problem. The coherent discussion in your literature review
will be demonstrated in the way you use the work of others to
underpin your own research questions, aims, objectives and
outcomes and research methods. The literature review chapter
should provide academic justifications to the readers on why it is
academically sound to undertake your research problem. For
example, it is because it has never been exactly considered by any
previous literature or because there has been inadequate study by
existing literature in dealing with your stated research problem.
A good literature review chapter should show accuracy of reading
and of reporting of the existing literature. It should show accuracy in
citing references and in quoting material. It should demonstrate your
skills in using and commenting on cited materials and connecting
them to your argument. It should demonstrate your ability to
synthesise a volume of material and to sift out key themes out of them.
It should demonstrate your ability to evaluate differing sources and
recognising their limitations. It should show your ability to write a
balanced review and not simply to highlight sources that support a
favoured perspective.
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• Chapter 3. Theoretical Framework/ Development/ Propositions
(OPTIONAL) (words counted in the submission)
Depending on your method of inquiry, you may also need to include
a theoretical framework or theoretical proposition chapter. This
chapter usually provides discussion on proposed theoretical
foundations upon which you are going to use to answer your research
question. If you are planning to test a hypothesis as part of the
proposed answers to your research question, you can explain in this
chapter how you come up with such models. If you start your inquiry
with no theoretical foundation in mind, then you can skip this chapter.
• Chapter 3 or 4. Research Methodology (words counted in the
submission)
This chapter provides a detailed account on how you are planning to
conduct your research to answer your research questions. This is
beyond describing what you are planning to do in your research. You
have to also provide the rationales as to why you use a particular
methodology, particular data collection methods and particular data
analytical tools in your research. You need to be precise on what is
your source of data and why you have selected that particular source
of data for your research. If you ask questions or questionnaires to
the interviewees or respondents, you need to specifically explain why
you are asking those particular questions. What kind of answer you
expect to obtain from the respondents and how it will be used to
answer your research questions. Subsequently, you need to explain
how you would analyse those data to provide useful findings for your
research. It is imperative you also consider research ethics within the
methodology, including the process of ethical approval.
You should also be reflective, in that it might comment on limitations
of your research as it was finally executed, or on any differences
between your original plans and what subsequently proved possible.
Don’t forget to write in the past tense!
• Chapter 4 or 5. Research Findings or Results (words counted in
the submission)
In this chapter, you are expected to present key important findings
resulting from your research. This is done by describing the
responses obtained from your research instruments, presenting the
outcomes of your analysis as well as arguing on the significance of
what you have found.
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It is your responsibility to present the results of your research clearly
to the reader. They need to be well-presented and displayed in the
dissertation. Tables, diagrams, figures, and illustrative images are
usually used to enhance the clarity of your points. For qualitative
research, this is the place where you must use quotations to
substantiate the themes you have developed through your analysis.
If you have done quantitative data analysis, this is the place where you
present the statistical analytical outcomes of your research.
• Chapter 5 or 6. Discussion (can also be incorporated together
with the previous Finding chapter) (words counted in the
submission)
This is one of the most important chapters/sections in the dissertation.
The word “dissertation” means “discussion” in Latin. The discussions
in this chapter should be centred around how you could prove your
own academic statement or argument or else how you could answer
your research questions using findings from your own research. To
do this, you should compare your findings against that offered by
other researchers cited in your literature review, seeing where the
findings support or move away from others’ work, and try to account
for this. The strength of the links between this chapter/section and
the literature review would enhance your discussion. It is important
to revisit your research questions, aims, objectives and outcomes to
assess the extent to which you have achieved your expectations, fully
justifying and explaining your conclusions.
It is better to structure this chapter according to the analytical
breakdown of your initial arguments or research questions.
For quantitative studies, the findings and discussion should be
independent chapters. However, for qualitative studies, the findings
and discussion may be incorporated into one chapter.
• Chapter 5, 6 or 7. Conclusion (words counted in the submission)
This is the place to pull together the key themes of the Dissertation
and draw out implications for Management practice or
recommendations for further research in the area. It is not the place
to introduce new themes. A reader should be able to read the
conclusion and have a clear sense of what the dissertation has been
about, what has been discussed within it, and what you have made of
it.
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• References (words NOT counted in the submission)
This is a list of all the books, articles, or web sites you have referred to
as citations in the dissertation. This is NOT a bibliography.
• Appendix A. Ethical Approval Documents (words NOT counted in
the submission)
the most recent approved ethics form signed by you and your
supervisor and the Participant Information and Consent Form. Please
include either your latest approved and signed version (using digital
signatures) or the latest approved and signed version (using typed
names + confirmation emails attached)
• Appendix B. Data Collection Instrument(s) (Depending on the
Research) (words NOT counted in the submission)
If your research data is collected using particular data collection
instrument(s), you need to put the protocol of collecting the data in
this appendix. If you use interviews to collect the data, you need to
put your list of questions in here. If you use focus groups to collect
the data, you need to put the discussion topics in here. If you conduct
surveys to collect the data, you need to put the list of questionnaires
in this appendix. If you mine the data from commercial datasets or
from internet/ social media, you need to put the algorithm to harvest
such data in this appendix.
• Appendix B or C. Relevant Dataset (words NOT counted in the
submission)
You need to put the subset of your collected data which you use to
build your findings only in this appendix. For those who are
conducting interviews or focus groups, it may consist of a few sample
transcripts. Meanwhile for those who are conducting surveys or data
mining, it consists of a table of the subset data that you are using to
build your findings in the dissertation.
• Appendix C or D. Data Analysis (words NOT counted in the
submission)
You need to put the data analytical parameters that you use to analyse
your collected data. For those who are conducting interviews or focus
groups, it may consist of a list of codes that you use to attribute
meaning to your data. Meanwhile for those who are conducting
surveys, it consists of the copy of the statistical syntax as well as the list
of their outputs that you use to make inference.
• Other Appendices (words NOT counted in the submission)
Any other materials that can add to the clarity of your dissertation.
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Note:
In empirical dissertation, it is usual to respect the confidentiality of individual
participants who contribute to your research and to ensure that they cannot be
identified in your dissertation. It is then usual to give respondents and places a
different name, or to use coded letters/numbers to give them anonymity. This
applies to all material included in your dissertation including appendices and
acknowledgements as well as within the body of the text.
Also, when you seek consent to collect data, ensure you keep a copy of the SIGNED
consents yourself. Your supervisor, the dissertation coordinator and/or the
University of Bristol (eg ethics committee audit) may ask you to show this to check
on the authenticity of your research.
Suggested structure of library-based dissertations
It is difficult to be very prescriptive in the case of a library-based dissertation. The
structure of this dissertation can vary depending on the style of the inquiry, the type
of evidence being used and the type of argument, research questions, aims,
objectives and outcomes being posed. The following headings in bold text are just
an indicative example of how the library-based dissertation will likely be structured.
Library-Based Dissertation: A Suggested Structure
• Title page and declaration (words NOT counted in the submission)
See appendix i for template.
• Abstract (words NOT counted in the submission)
A succinct and clear outline setting out the problem investigated, how
it was investigated, the major findings and conclusions. This should
be no more than one page long.
• Acknowledgement (Optional) (words NOT counted in the
submission)
This is the part where you recognise and thank any individuals or
organisations who were supporting you in undertaking research and
the writing up of your dissertation.
• Table of Contents (words NOT counted in the submission)
A list of title of the key different parts of the dissertation, complete
with the page number on where to find them.
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• List of Abbreviations (Optional) (words NOT counted in the
submission)
A list of abbreviations that you frequently use in the dissertation
writing.
• List of Figures, Tables or Images (Optional) (words NOT counted
in the submission)
A list of any figures, tables or images that you provide in the
dissertation, complete with their title and page number on where to
find them. These figures, tables or images should be arranged
according to the sequence of their position in the dissertation.
• Chapter 1. Introduction (words counted in the submission)
The introduction should briefly outline the purpose of the study and
offer the reader an introduction to the substantive area. It should
discuss the rationale for the study, providing a clear statement of the
questions, aims, objectives and outcomes, explaining why it was
selected, and why it is relevant and important to you. The introduction
should forewarn the reader what they will be reading. It should
therefore outline briefly what the dissertation is about and the ways in
which the research was undertaken, and any key issues or concerns
presented by the dissertation. It is best written last, although an early
rough draft, which you share with your supervisor, can be a useful way
of clarifying your thoughts and intentions and keeping you focused as
your study progresses. It is a best practice to shortly explain the
remaining structure of the dissertation at the end of the Introduction
chapter.
• Chapter 2. Literature Review and Criticism of Current Orthodoxy
(words counted in the submission)
The literature review chapter provides discussions on what the
previous literature has said about your research question or your
argument, previously stated in the introduction. It is beyond just
describing of what others have said. Thus, simply describing of
what others have said is not enough. You are expected to add
value to extant literature and material, by critically assessing their
relevancy to, their problem or their inadequacy in supporting your
stated argument or answering your research question. You should
critically evaluate what they have said, maybe by asking yourself
whether their accounts or arguments are problematic or inadequate
to be used to address your inquiry or your research problem.
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The coherent discussion in your literature review will be
demonstrated in the way you use the work of others to underpin your
own research questions, aims, objectives and outcomes. The
literature review chapter should provide academic justifications to the
reader on why it is academically sounds to undertake research around
your stated research problem. For example, it is because it has never
been exactly considered by any previous literature or because there
has been inadequate or problematic explanation by existing literature
in dealing with your stated research problem.
A good literature review chapter should show accuracy of reading
and of reporting of the existing literature. It should show accuracy in
citing references and in quoting material. It should demonstrate your
skills in using and commenting on cited materials and connecting
them to your argument. It should demonstrate your ability to
synthesise a volume of material and to sift out key themes out of them.
It should demonstrate your ability to evaluate differing sources,
recognising their limitations. It should show your ability to write a
balanced review and not simply to highlight sources that support a
favoured perspective.
In the library-based dissertation, this review and criticism of the
current orthodoxy are often structured according to various key
objections of the current theories.
• Chapter 3. Methodological and/or Critical Approach (words
counted in the submission)
This chapter should provide detail account on how you are planning
to build up cases of evidence to address your research topics or to
support your previously stated arguments against current theories or
previous academic work. You should also describe how you are
going to use those cases to provide the counter arguments or counter
examples of the theory which is about to be improved, modified,
altered or replaced. In the case where you are planning replace the
current theoretical argument with your own argument, you should
also explain on what basis you are planning to do it. Some scholars
may base their critical approach on “Critical Realism”, “Historiological
accuracy”, “Chronological order”, “Morals and Ethics”, etc.
• Chapter 4. Cases of Evidence (words counted in the submission)
In this chapter, you should write your own cases of evidence that you
have built from published documents or literature which you will use
later to provide counter examples or proofs to support your
objections of the current scholarly works and/or to provide
supporting evidence for your proposed theory improvement.
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This chapter is usually structured according to various individual cases
that you have built to provide evidence for the theoretical discussion
chapter.
• Chapter 5. Theoretical Discussion, Theoretical Evaluation,
Theoretical Assessment, Theoretical Proposition or Theoretical
Synthesis (words counted in the submission)
This is the discussion part of a library-based Dissertation. The title of
the chapter has to properly reflect the topic discussed inside it. Is it
about improving, modifying, proposing novel theory (which does not
exist before) or replacing old theory with the new one? You need to
use cases written in the previous chapter to provide supporting
evidence and proof to your argument (previously stated in Chapter 1
– the introduction of the dissertation). The strength of the links
between this chapter and the objections to the previous works,
critically discussed in the literature review would enhances this
chapter. In this chapter, it is important to revisit your research
questions, aims, objectives and outcomes to assess the extent to
which you have achieved your expectations, fully justifying and
explaining your conclusions.
• Chapter 6. Conclusion (words counted in the submission)
This is the place to pull together the key themes of the dissertation
and draw out implications for Management practice or
recommendations for further research in the area. It is not the place
to introduce new themes. A reader should be able to read the
conclusion and have a clear sense of what the dissertation has been
about, what has been discussed within it, and what you have made of
it.
• References (words NOT counted in the submission)
This is a list of all the books, articles, or web sites you have referred to
as citations in the dissertation. This is NOT a bibliography.
• Appendix A. Ethical Approval Documents (words NOT counted in
the submission)
Please include the most recent approved ethics form signed by you
and your supervisor and the Participant Information and Consent
Form. Please include either your latest approved and signed version
(using digital signatures) or the latest approved and signed version
(using typed names + confirmation emails attached). In this library-
based dissertation project, you are expected to only fill in Part A of
the Ethics Approval Form.
• Other Appendices (words NOT counted in the submission)
Any other materials that can add to the clarity of your dissertation.
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6. Submission Process
6.1 Pre-submission: submitting ONE draft to Turnitin
You are allowed to submit one draft of your dissertation to Turnitin to check
similarity to other work. Instructions are set out in the Dissertation area on
Blackboard. This will enable you to check the similarity index, obtain an indication
of the number of words you have used and to identify and remedy any passages
where paraphrasing, citations and/or referencing are poor. The deadline for
submitting to the draft area will be one week before your deadline.
An important note of caution: You should only use the University of Bristol's secure
Turnitin checker available through Blackboard (for one draft of your work to check
for any similarities with other published materials) and check your spelling and
grammar using the tools built into your pc software. You should not use any other
online plagiarism checkers or online spelling/grammar correction products or other
writing enhancement tools, as this might inadvertently make your work vulnerable
to plagiarism.
6.2 Submitting your final dissertation
Towards the end of July, you will receive final guidelines as to how to submit your
final dissertation. All dissertation submissions will be online only. The deadline
(unless you have an approved extension to your formal period of study) is 3pm,
Monday 12 September 2022. You do not need to be in Bristol for your
dissertation submission. More information about submitting your dissertation
online will be provided within the next few months.
6.3 Extension to study time
An extension for the dissertation will mean asking for an extension to the formal
period of study for your programme and will be granted only to students who have
very good reasons, with relevant supporting evidence. If you wish to apply for an
extension to your dissertation deadline you should contact the Student
Administration Team (mgmt-pgt@bristol.ac.uk) in the first instance. If you are
experiencing difficulties you may also wish to discuss your situation with the
Postgraduate Personal Tutor Team (management-ptt@bristol.ac.uk). Tutors or your
dissertation supervisor do not have the authority to grant extensions. The request
to extend your period of study should be made at least two weeks before your
deadline.
Students who have to undertake reassessment in their taught units (coursework or
examination) are automatically granted a dissertation extension. You are advised
to continue working on your dissertation. However, you should be aware that if you
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fail those resit assessments, your dissertation will NOT be marked as you have to
obtain 120 credit points (ie pass all the taught units on the programme) in order to
‘progress’ to the dissertation stage. You are entitled to submit your dissertation
early if you wish, but we strongly advise that you use the extension appropriately
and focus wholly on preparing for your resit assessments. The deadline for the draft
submission will also be extended. You will be notified of your new extension
deadline by the Student Administration Team.
6.4 Penalties for late work
Dissertations submitted late after the deadline and without a permitted extension
will be subject to penalties. However, if there are extenuating circumstances, you
should complete the Extenuating Circumstances form and submit this along with all
supporting documentation. Details about how to submit Extenuating
Circumstances will be explained during the summer.
Dissertations submitted late without extenuating circumstances will be penalised in
accordance with the University Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught
Programmes.
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7. Marking and Feedback
7.1 Marking process
Dissertations are marked by two examiners, one of which will normally be your
supervisor. In addition, dissertations are also reviewed by the programme/subject
area external examiners. Special attention is paid to fails and distinctions.
The first marker provides feedback with additional comments from the second
marker, under the headings set out below, which correspond to the intended
learning outcomes for the dissertation.
The pass mark is 50%. Students must achieve the pass mark for the dissertation to
be awarded the associated credit points.
Important note: The University regulations for Student Progression and
Completion for taught postgraduate students include information about
dissertation resubmissions Section 38 of the University Regulations and Code of
Practice for Taught Programmes are relevant:
Where a student has achieved a near-pass mark (45 or over but less than 50 out of
100) for the dissertation, and, in addition, the examiners recommend that it is
suitable for re-assessment, the relevant Board of Examiners may decide to permit
the student to re-submit the dissertation.
Resubmission of the dissertation where the student has achieved a mark less than
45 out of 100 will be permitted where failure is due to validated extenuating
circumstances.
Unless there are validated extenuating circumstances, fails with a mark below 45
may not be resubmitted.
7.2 Feedback, intended learning outcomes and assessment guidelines
You will be given feedback on your marked Dissertation. The following table shows
the relationship between the Intended Learning Outcomes for the dissertation, the
headings that are on the dissertation feedback form, and the assessment guidelines
that examiners will use in considering the mark awarded.
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Intended Learning
Outcomes
Heading on the
feedback form
Assessment
The extent to which these elements have
been addressed (not all are relevant to all
dissertations)
1. Frame a clear, central
research question within
the project topic chosen
Framing a research topic and
question(s)
• Selection of problem area
• Importance and wider relevance
• Clear research question identified
• Development of sub questions and/or
hypotheses
• Statement of purpose and research outcomes
2. Identify and critically review
literature relevant to the
topic and central research
question
Understanding and use of
literature
• Knowledge of topic and related concepts
• Understanding of debates relevant to topic
• Range of academic sources employed
• Literature independently researched
• Selection of literature
• Effectiveness of integration of literature
• Evidence of critical thinking
3. Understand and apply an
appropriate research
methodology to investigate
the chosen topic, including
research ethics process and
considerations
Methodology and ethical
considerations
• Appropriate approach for research question
• Knowledge of methodology used
• Understanding of alternative approaches
• Awareness of strengths and weaknesses of
approach
• Awareness of appropriate ethical
considerations relating to the research
planned and undertaken.
4. Analyse data and/or
evidence, where
appropriate, and draw
apposite conclusions that
answer the central research
question; integrate
conclusions into wider
academic debates
Analysis, discussion, and
conclusions
• Interpretation, evaluation and integration of
material from primary and secondary sources
• Consideration of findings
• Discussion relevant to research question
• Insights achieved
• Development of original thinking
• Development of conclusions
5. Produce a dissertation in a
clear, well written and
grammatically correct style,
that conforms to the
conventions of academic
presentation.
Style and presentation • Coherence and structure
• Internal consistency
• Clarity of rationale
• Use of headings and sub-headings
• Style
• Readability
• Care in editing
• Accurate referencing
• Presented according to requirements
Overall comments.
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7.3 Marking criteria
To assign a particular mark to a dissertation, examiners use the following criteria:
Criteria
Distinction Merit Pass Fail Bad Fail
≥ 70% 60 – 69% 50 – 59% 45 – 49% ≤ 45%
Framing a
research topic
and
question(s).
Well argued, imaginative choice
of problem/area of study.
Clear and considered central
research question and
supplementary questions /
hypotheses where appropriate.
Excellent knowledge of related
concepts
Importance and relevance of
research discussed.
Clear and relevant statement of
purpose and research
outcomes
Suitable choice of problem / area
of study
Relevant and clear central
question identified, and
supplementary questions /
hypotheses where appropriate.
Good knowledge of related
concepts
Importance of research discussed
with limitations.
Clear statement of purpose and
intended research outcomes
Mainly coherent identification of
problem / area of study, development
of the central research question and
of supplementary questions /
hypotheses where appropriate.
Useful knowledge of related
concepts.
Some discussion of relevance and/or
importance of research
Weakness in the choice of
problem / area of study
Research question too
broad, or too vaguely
articulated, or inappropriate
Little or no knowledge of
related concepts
Little or no discussion of
relevance of the research
Unsuitable choice of problem
/ area of study
Little or no attempt at framing
the research topic or
question.
Little or no knowledge of
related concepts evident
No discussion of the
relevance of the research
Understanding
and use of
literature.
Wide-ranging, independent
reading evident.
Excellent knowledge and
understanding.
Critical appraisal strongly
evident
Development of original
thinking and insights
Evidence of independent reading,
although range of issues limited
in scope.
Good knowledge and
understanding.
Developing critical appraisal
evident.
Good organisation of literature
allowing for logical development
of arguments.
Some evidence of independent
reading although may rely too much
on recommended reading.
Satisfactory knowledge and
understanding.
Some emerging evidence of critical
thinking.
Organisation of literature satisfactory.
Key concepts addressed.
Little or no evidence of
independent reading.
Limited level of knowledge
and understanding of key
concepts and ideas.
There is little or no evidence
of critical thinking.
Organisation of literature is
poor and does not allow
development of arguments.
Scant evidence of familiarity
with literature relevant to
topic.
Insufficient knowledge and
understanding of key
concepts and ideas.
There is no evidence of
critical thinking.
Organisation of ideas is very
weak or non-existent
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Excellent organisation of
literature allowing for well-
reasoned arguments,
High degree of coherence
Good level of coherence Satisfactorily coherent Significant gaps in the
literature.
Little coherence
Methodology
and ethical
considerations
A clear and deep knowledge of
methodology used and of
underpinning theories.
Understanding of alternative
approaches
Fully justified choice of
research methods
Clear indication of strengths
and limitations of approach
Clear discussion of ethical
issues relating to planned and
executed research, drawing on
literature.
Well-justified methodology and
useful considerations of
underpinning theories.
Awareness of alternative
approaches
Choice of research methods well
justified
Indication of strengths and
limitations of approach
Awareness of ethical issues
relating to the research, drawing
on literature.
Methodology adequately justified and
chosen methods satisfactorily
explained.
Some awareness of wider research
methodologies.
Choice of research methods largely
suitable and justified.
Strengths and limitations of
methodology considered
Some awareness of potential ethical
issues, although these may be
generic and not backed up by
literature.
Methodology mot
adequately justified and/or
not clear what kind of study
was undertaken.
Choice of methods
inappropriate or poorly
executed.
Underpinning theories not
considered at a satisfactory
level.
Strengths and limitations
inadequately considered
Little or no consideration of
ethics in the methodology.
Not clear what kind of study
was undertaken.
Choice of methods
inappropriate and poorly
executed.
No consideration of
underpinning theories
No consideration of ethical
issues relating to the
research.
Analysis,
discussion,
and
conclusions.
Analysis carried out accurately
and with high degree of
competence in line with
methodological and theoretical
premises.
Selection, interpretation,
comparison, evaluation, and
integration of material from
empirical or library sources are
extremely effective.
Significant insight achieved.
Judgments strongly based on
critical appraisal.
Good analysis of data / concepts
or theoretical ideas in line with
methodological and theoretical
premises.
Selection, interpretation,
comparison, evaluation and
integration of material from
empirical or library sources are
effective, perhaps with some
omissions.
Useful insight achieved.
Judgements are based on critical
appraisal.
Satisfactory analysis of data,
concepts or theoretical ideas perhaps
with some deviation from theoretical
premises
Satisfactory selection, interpretation,
comparison, evaluation and
integration of material from empirical
or library sources, with limitations
Some insights achieved.
Judgements show some but limited
critical appraisal.
Analysis of data, concepts
or theoretical ideas is
uncertain and/or overly
descriptive or anecdotal
and/or incorrect.
Inadequate selection,
interpretation, comparison,
evaluation and integration
of material from empirical or
library sources.
Little or no insights
achieved.
Little or no analysis of data,
concepts or theoretical ideas;
descriptive, simplistic and
anecdotal and/or incorrect
Negligible ability to select,
interpret, compare, evaluate
and/or integrate material from
empirical or library sources.
No adequate evidence of:
insight achieved; critical
appraisal; and/or discussion
of relevance.
No conclusions made
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Discussion highly relevant to
research question and
literature.
Appropriate discussion of
limitations.
Logically developed and
pertinent conclusions
Discussion relevant to research
question and literature.
Some discussion of limitations.
Conclusion summarises issues
and considers implications
Discussion of relevance but not
comprehensive.
Conclusion provides summary
Judgements show lack of
critical appraisal.
Little or no discussion of
relevance.
Conclusions may lack any
insight due to inadequate
analysis
Style and
presentation.
Introduction is tightly focused
with a clear rationale.
High degree of internal
consistency overall and within
each chapter.
Well-chosen subheadings.
Highly readable style, ideas
communicated clearly.
Careful editing and proof-
reading; few errors.
Length within stipulations.
Referencing accurate,
appropriate, and conforms
exactly to conventions.
Presentation meets required
expectations fully
Introduction is focused and
provides useful guidance to
rationale.
Good internal coherence overall
and within each chapter
Subheadings summarise content
effectively.
Readable; ideas generally
communicated clearly.
Well edited with few errors.
Length consistent with
expectations.
Referencing is accurate,
appropriate and conforms to
conventions.
Presentation meets required
expectations fully
Introduction describes the central
concerns.
Overall structure and organisation are
satisfactory.
Internal coherence of the whole, and
each chapter, is satisfactory.
Subheadings broadly effective
Ideas are generally communicated
clearly but language used may
present some comprehension
difficulties.
Length is acceptable.
Referencing generally conforms to
expectations with occasional
inaccuracies.
Presentation meets most
expectations
Introduction may not reflect
focus of study.
Structure and organisation
may not be satisfactory
leading to weakness in
internal coherence overall
and within chapters.
Subheadings not effective
Ideas may not be presented
clearly, and language may
present comprehension
difficulties.
Length may not be
consistent with
expectations.
Referencing may contain
inaccuracies in citation and
attribution.
Presentation may fail to
meet expectations
Ineffective introduction
Poor structure so that
arguments that may be
present fail to develop
logically.
Incoherence within and
between chapters evident
throughout.
Language used presents
significant comprehension
difficulties.
There may be significant
typological errors.
The length may be
unacceptable.
Referencing may contain
substantial inaccuracies in
citation and attribution.
Presentation may fail to meet
expectations
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7.4 Resubmission of the Dissertation
Students who have been permitted to resubmit their dissertation are entitled up to
1-hour maximum of additional supervision meetings with their supervisor and the
review of one draft. The student should contact their supervisor to arrange the
meeting. At that meeting, the supervisor should give sufficient feedback, additional
to the written feedback already provided, to ensure that the student clearly
understands what is required in their resubmission. The draft can be submitted to
the supervisor for comment and feedback up to four weeks before the revised
submission date to provide the opportunity for the supervisor to provide
constructive feedback.
The recorded mark of any resubmission will be capped at the minimum pass mark
(50 out of 100) unless there are validated extenuating circumstances.
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8. Timeline and important dates
Event Timeline/ Deadline
Responsible
Student Supervisor
Admin
Team
Supervision period 3 May - submission X X
Dissertation preparation resources on
BB
Available from late Apr X
Timetabled dissertation preparation
sessions
5 May, 26 May,
4 July
X
Send Agreement Form to supervisor;
when agreed by student and
supervisor, student submits to BB
By end of May X X
Complete Ethics documentation and
send to supervisor for consideration;
when approved, student submits to BB
By end of June X X
Start collecting data
After submission of
Approved Ethics Form
X
Submit draft of dissertation either:
• chapter by chapter, OR
• the whole draft,
once to the supervisor by email.
During May, June, July
and August until 3
weeks before the
dissertation submission
deadline
X
Submit whole draft to the draft Turnitin
area on Blackboard
One week before
dissertation submission
deadline
X
Dissertation Submission
Checklist:
• Check the work conforms to
the dissertation format
requirements
• Check that the signed student
declaration is included
• Check that the most recent
Ethical Approval Form is
included as appendix
• Include any other relevant
appendices as per list in
section 5
By 3pm, 12 September
(or later if an extension
has been approved)
X
Dissertation marking process Sep - Nov X X
Final Exam Boards Nov - Dec X
Release of final degree classification
outcomes and dissertation marks and
feedback
Dec X
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9. Recommended reading and
resources
Core Text
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., and Thornhill, A., (2019). Research Methods for Business
Students, 8th Ed. London: Pearson.
Recommended Reading:
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2016). Successful Qualitative Research. A practical guide
for beginners. London: Sage.
Curran, J. and Blackburn, R.A. (2001). Researching the Small Enterprise. London:
Sage.
De Vaus, D. (2010). Research Design in Social Science, Reprinted Ed. London: Sage.
De Vaus, D. (2013). Surveys in Social Research, 6th Ed. London: Routledge.
Field, A. (2017). Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics, 5th Ed. London:
Sage.
Jackson, K. and Bazeley, P. (2019). Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo, 3rd Ed.
London: Sage.
Lee, T.W. (1998). Using Qualitative Methods in Organisational Research. London:
Sage.
Yin, R.K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods, 6th Ed.
London: Sage.
Library Services
The library offers a range of useful services including assistance with using library
resources, finding information for research, designing a literature search, help with
search techniques and strategies, using electronic resources, accessing online
resources from remote workplace and reference management software. Any
questions related to library services for the Dissertation Unit can be addressed to
the subject librarian Sarah Brain (sarah.brain@bristol.ac.uk).
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10. Appendices: Examples of important forms
These forms are all downloadable from Blackboard.
Dissertation Title Page
1st Page
TITLE & SUBTITLE
Full Name
Student ID
A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the
requirements of the degree of Master of Science in [degree programme title] in
the Faculty of Social Science and Law.
School of Management
Month and Year of Submission
Word count: ######
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION
I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the
requirements of the University’s Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught
Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award.
Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, this work is my own work.
Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of others, is indicated as
such. I have identified all material in this dissertation which is not my own work
through appropriate referencing and acknowledgement. Where I have quoted or
otherwise incorporated material which is the work of others, I have included the
source in the references. Any views expressed in the dissertation, other than
referenced material, are those of the author.
I have read and understand the University’s Academic Integrity Policy including
plagiarism, contract cheating, falsifying data and breaching ethical research
protocols.
SIGNED: DATE:
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Student - Supervisor Agreement Form
MSc Dissertation / AEP / ARP
Instructions:
Students to complete this form, and both student and supervisor to sign it. The
student saves it as a PDF and then uploads to the relevant Blackboard unit any time
up to the deadline of the end of May. Student and supervisor to both keep a copy
for their records.
MSc Programme
(including pathway if relevant)
Name of student
Student number
Name of supervisor
Topic area [or AEP]
Research Question
Proposed research outline
Justification
Methodology
Timetable
Agreed Scheduled Delivery of Draft Chapters [taking into account supervisor annual
leave]
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Terms and conditions of the Student-Supervisor Agreement
1. Research proposal
The proposed research to be conducted by the student is set out in this form. Any
significant deviation from the plan for work described here should be discussed and
agreed in a formal supervision meeting. It is the responsibility of the student to
inform supervisors of any change to the plan of work.
2. Supervision
The maximum period of direct supervision provided to the student is five hours.
The student is responsible for making the best use of this resource. A meeting
schedule will be discussed at the first meeting. Supervisors will inform students
when their annual leave will be taken over the summer period. Notes should be
kept on the discussions and decisions made in supervision meetings. Best practice
is for students to send notes on the discussions and decisions made in supervision
meetings to supervisors by email immediately after meetings.
3. Draft Chapters
The supervisor should provide written feedback either within 10 working days for
each submission of the draft - chapter by chapter - or within 15 working days for the
draft of the whole dissertation. The protocol for receiving written feedback will be
discussed during the first meeting. It is essential that students keep to the agreed
schedule for delivery of drafts otherwise feedback and/or delivery within
timeframes may be impacted due to supervisor leave or other commitments.
4. Research Ethics
The supervisor agrees to discuss the Ethics Form proposed by the student, and to
grant approval when this is satisfactory. The form needs to be filled in and signed*
by both parties before any research is undertaken (including recruitment of
participants). The student must upload the Ethics Form to the relevant Blackboard
unit by the end of June. It is also the student’s responsibility to include the Ethics
Approval Form (and any additional documentation) in the dissertation appendices.
5. Agreement
The Student and the Supervisor agree to work within this agreement.
This agreement must be signed * by both parties and uploaded to Blackboard by
the end of May. Copies should also be kept by the student and supervisor, so that
the schedule as set out can be followed.
*Any documents which require supervisor approval can be submitted to Blackboard
and subsequently attached to the submitted dissertation using either of the
following methods:
• Using digital signatures; or
• Using typed names plus attached confirmation email from the supervisor.
We have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions of this agreement.
Signature of Student: Date:
Signature of Supervisor: Date:
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Notes on filling out the form
Subject Area
Your dissertation must be relevant to your named study programme and relate to
the topic you have chosen (where relevant). You should not be writing a dissertation
on a subject you haven’t studied. You can, however, draw on your first degree or
past work experience.
Title for the Proposed Research
What is going to be researched? This might take the form of a research question or
questions to be investigated, or a hypothesis to be tested.
Try to focus the title as much as possible and be succinct. Be specific, for instance:
focus on an industry or a geographical area; name a company as an example or
illustration or name a particular theoretical framework; or use a statement that you
wish to challenge or a problem you want to address.
Note that the title can (and normally does) change over the course of your research,
however a clear focus at the start makes the research process easier and the
resulting dissertation is usually of a higher standard, normally because it is well
structured. Indeed, you will be marked on the quality and appropriateness of your
research question. Your supervisor will help you further with your research question
and title during your first meeting. You should come to the first meeting with ideas
you have developed.
Proposal Outline
Justification: Explain why the research is important. This should take the form of a
short critique of the main themes and controversies in the relevant literature as they
relate to the research problem to be investigated. Identify gaps in the literature or
problems e.g. with past methods of investigation that need to be addressed. You
should also include your own reasons for wanting to study the area and why the
results might be useful to you and others.
Methodology. Outline the research methods you plan to use. Briefly explain how
you plan to carry out the research. How will you design any primary research? Will
this overcome previous methodological weaknesses or follow examples of others
in the field? What problems do you foresee and how do you plan to overcome
them? You may have received methods training via a previous unit, and you will be
given further advice on methodology in the Dissertation Preparation Sessions,
which will be available through Blackboard.
Timeline: Conclude by giving a (draft) timetable of your research. Include significant
events (such as completion of on-line interviews or chapters) and set deadlines for
yourself and in relation to planned delivery of draft chapters to your supervisor for
comment. Take your supervisor’s annual leave into consideration as you plan your
timetable.
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Ethical Approval Form
School of Management
Application for Ethical Approval – Dissertation Students
All research involving human participants1 requires University approval. You are not permitted to
begin conducting your research until ethical approval has been granted by your supervisor, and, if
necessary, by the School or Faculty Research Ethics Committee. This process is designed to help
you reflect on your ongoing responsibilities as a social science researcher and it is not meant to be
an obstacle to good research. Notes to help you think about the ethical dimensions of your research
are given at the end of this document.
Students who are using anonymised secondary data or reviewing literature only
If you are only using anonymised secondary datasets or reviewing existing literature, then please
complete Part A of this document and submit it via email to your supervisor for signature. The
completed form signed by both you and your supervisor must be submitted to Blackboard by the
deadline and included in the appendices of your dissertation. Please include either your latest
approved and signed version (using digital signatures) or the latest approved and signed version
(using typed names + confirmation emails attached).
Students who are collecting primary data or using non-anonymous data
If you are collecting primary data or using non-anonymous data such as social media posts, then
please complete this form in full and submit together with a copy of your data collection instrument
(eg questionnaire/interview schedule) and consent form (if separate to your data collection
instrument) via email to your supervisor for review and signature. The completed form signed by
both you and your supervisor must be submitted to Blackboard by the deadline and included in the
appendices of your dissertation.
If your research involves a sensitive topic or data collection from vulnerable groups, then your
supervisor will request you to submit your approval form to the School’s Research Ethics Committee
via the email for review: management-ethicscommittee@bristol.ac.uk
The Committee aims to provide a response within 10 working days.
In certain circumstances it may be necessary to refer your application to the Faculty Research Ethics
Committee. It may take more than one month to complete the scrutiny process. You will need to
factor this into your timetable for research, writing and submission. If you have been told you must
submit an application to the Faculty Research Ethics Committee then please contact Liam McKervey,
the Research Governance and Ethics Officer, for guidance – Liam.McKervey@bristol.ac.uk.
Not all sections of the form will necessarily apply to your research. Where you consider this to be
the case please indicate with ‘not applicable’.
PLEASE NOTE – If your research project changes significantly, then you must ask your supervisor
whether you need to submit a new version of this ethics form.
1 The ESRC Research Ethics Framework defines human participants as including living human beings
and human data and records (such as, but not restricted to, medical, genetic, financial, personnel,
criminal or administrative records and test results including scholastic achievements).
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Name and student ID:
Email:
Degree programme:
Name of dissertation supervisor:
Project title:
Project start and end dates (e.g. award of degree):
Please provide a brief summary of your project within the box below (1 to 3 paragraphs):
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Part A
1. Does your research only involve the use of large, secondary and
anonymised datasets or a review of published literature?
If YES, you do not need to complete Part B of this form. You and your
supervisor should sign below AFTER you have completed box 2-4. If you
answer NO, go straight to Part B.
2. Briefly describe your data. (e.g type of sample, sample size, level of aggregation
(individual, city, county, state…), main variables or other relevant information.
3. Explain where the data comes from and how you get access.
Describe name and source of data:
4. Indicate how the data are accessed: (a) publicly available; (b) publicly available if you
register; (c) subject to data protection contract agreement; (d) personally provided to
you by your supervisor; (e) personally provided to you by somebody else (please give
details):
If you have answered NO above, do not sign this page. You also need to complete
Part B of this form and submit it to your supervisor for review and signature.
I confirm that I store the used data in an appropriately protected folder to which
only I have access (e.g., password-protected computer/folder), and that I adhere to
all requirements imposed by registration and data protection agreements which
are related to the data.
Student name and signature
Date
Supervisor name and signature
Date
Yes
No
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Part B
1. Will your proposed research involve contact with any of the following groups:
a. Children/young people (younger than 18)
b. Vulnerable adults: meaning a person aged 18 or over who has a condition
of the following type: i) a learning or physical disability; ii) a physical or
mental illness, chronic or otherwise, including an addiction to alcohol or
drugs; or iii) a reduction in physical or mental capacity.
c. National Health Service patients, their carers, NHS staff recruited as
research participants by virtue of their professional role, or access
to or use of NHS premises
If you answer YES to questions 1a or 1b, you will require a Criminal Records Check –
see note 2, and you must submit this form to the relevant School’s Research Ethics
Committee.
If you answer YES to question 1c, you will require NRES Approval – see note 3, and
you must submit this form to the relevant School’s Research Ethics Committee.
2. Will your proposed research gather personal data in relation to any of the following sensitive
issues:
• Ethnic/racial origins
• Health issues
• Religious or political beliefs
• Disability
• Trade union membership
• Sexuality/practices
• Salary/personnel information
If you answer YES to this question, you will have to take note of the data protection
legislation – see note 4. In particular, it is a legal requirement to obtain written
permission (e.g. through a consent form) to collect and process such data.
3. Data collection
a. Please indicate your data collection method(s) by ticking the relevant box(es).
Interview
Focus group Questionnaire
Observation
Photographs/videos
Other
(specify)
b. Please provide details of the chosen method, including timeline of data collection, and how data
will be processed and analysed.
Yes No
Yes No
Yes No
Yes No
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NB. You must provide the data collection instrument or samples of questions that you will
use to your supervisor for review.
c. Please provide details of the participants (e.g. target sample, sample size, access and method of
recruitment)
d. Is there a risk of gatekeeping or power dynamics?
If you answer YES to this question, how will you address any risk that participants will feel obliged
to participate due to the influence of gatekeepers or other intermediaries? This might arise, for
example, in the case of junior level employees. See note 5. You may need to consider whether you
will be placing undue pressure on contacts to participate or whether those contacts will be acting as
gatekeepers. You will also have to consider whether your relationship with those contacts will affect
your independence and integrity as a researcher.
This is an important issue and every student answering Part B should explain their answer to this
question.
e. Please provide details of data transcription and/or analyses. For example, state whether you will
transcribe the data or whether the data will be transcribed by an agency? How will you ensure
anonymity if the data is transcribed by an agency?
4. Will the data be anonymised? See note 4.
If your answer is YES, please provide details about how the data will be anonymised (e.g. de-
identification process, pseudo-names, etc)
Yes No
Yes No
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If your answer is NO, please provide details about why and how the data will be left without
anonymization (e.g. identification process, real-names, etc)
5. How will confidentiality be assured during and after the data collection stage? (i.e. security of
technology used to collect data, data storage, access to data). The School policy is to encourage
using encrypted files and storage in the University drive.
6. How long will the data be kept and how and when will the data be destroyed? (e.g. destroy
audio-recording after data transcription or analysis, retain the hardcopy of the transcription, etc)
7. How will you ensure informed consent? Consider anonymity, confidentiality, and right to
withdraw. If you are not planning to gain consent in advance, please also provide a full
explanation. See notes 5 and 6.
NB. You must submit the consent form you will use (if separate to the data collection
instrument) to your supervisor for review.
8. Are there any health and safety risks (to either the researchers or the participants) associated
with this research (over and above those associated with everyday life)? Please comment on how
these will be addressed. See note 7.
9. Is there anything further that you consider your supervisor or the Research Ethics Committee
should know about in relation to your proposed research?
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TO BE COMPLETED BY THE STUDENT:
Checklist of documents included for supervisor’s review (please tick)
Ethical approval form signed
by student
Data collection
instrument
Participant
consent form
Student name and signature
Date
TO BE COMPLETED BY THE SUPERVISOR:
Please tick the appropriate box below
I have reviewed the student’s proposed research project and believe that no further ethical
review is necessary. Therefore, the student should submit their completed form via the
Blackboard submission point.
I have reviewed the student’s proposed research project and recommend that the student
submits the application to the School’s Research Ethics Committee for further review.
Supervisor name and signature
Date
TO BE COMPLETED BY THE ETHICS COMMITTEE IF REFERRED BY SUPERVISOR
Ethics committee name and signature
Date
Notes for guidance
1. The ethical requirements of conducting research at the University of Bristol are available at:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-governance/ethics/
You may also wish to look at the guidance produced by the British Sociological Association
which is available at: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/equality/
The site provides excellent guidance for those undertaking social sciences research.
2. Information and advice on Criminal Record Checks is available at:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/secretary/legal/disclosure/
This is the University Secretary's Office site on Criminal Record Bureau disclosures. It links to the
CRB website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/disclosure-and-barring-service
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3. Information and advice on obtaining NRES consent for research involving the NHS is available
at: http://www.hra.nhs.uk/
You can also get advice from RED (Research & Enterprise Development) at the University of
Bristol. There is a useful training pack for researchers on their website at:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/research/support/governance/links.html
4. Data protection: University advice on data protection legislation is available at:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/secretary/dataprotection/guidelines.html
Advice relevant to research is available at:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/secretary/dataprotection/research/
Some issues you need to think about include:
• Whether you will be saving any personal data, including views on sensitive topics, to the hard
drive of your home PC. You should be aware that the University prohibits this unless it owns
the machine in question.
• If anyone else has access to your home computer, you will need to password protect all
information from your research.
• Date protection legislation states that data should not be sent to countries outside the
European Economic Area which do not have an adequate level of data protection, unless
the individual consents. You therefore need to consider how you will protect your data if
transferring to/from other countries.
• You must consider how you will secure/dispose of data once the research project has
finished.
5. Informed consent: The principle that, as far as possible, the participation of those studied is on
the basis of freely given informed consent is very important in social sciences research. This
implies a responsibility to explain in appropriate detail, and in terms meaningful to participants,
what the research is about, who is undertaking and financing it, why it is being undertaken, and
how it is to be disseminated and used. You should ensure that participants understand in
advance:
• the purpose and exact nature of the research
• the exact nature of their participation in the research
• how much of their time you will need
• that their participation is voluntary, that they can withdraw from participation at any point
• and what you intend to do with the data
It is also good practice to provide a contact number for participants to contact if they have any
complaints or other issues arising from their involvement in the research.
If your research will not conform to this principle, you will need to provide a sound justification.
In some situations, access to a research setting is gained via a ´gatekeeper´. In these situations,
researchers should adhere to the principle of obtaining informed consent directly from the
research participants to whom access is required, while at the same time taking account of the
gatekeepers´ interest.
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6. Privacy, anonymity and confidentiality: Research participants should understand how far they
will be given anonymity and confidentiality and should be able to reject the use of>devices such as tape recorders and video cameras. However, researchers should not give
unrealistic guarantees of confidentiality. You will therefore need to think about:
• Whether the privacy of research participants will be violated
• How you will be able to maintain confidentiality of data in relation to your research
participants and keep their identities anonymous at all stages of the research process
• How you will address these problems when seeking informed consent from participants
7. Health and safety: As well as the health and safety of participants (including psychological,
social and economic health), you should think about your own safety, so you need to consider:
• The health and safety aspects of your proposed project, e.g. if conducting interviews/focus
groups, will these be taking place in your/participant’s private residence?
• Will you inform someone (family member, colleague or friend) of your schedule and
whereabouts when out in the ‘field’?
• If conducting covert observations, what might happen to you if people discover who you
are?
You may find it helpful to carry out a risk assessment exercise. Carrying out a risk assessment
simply means that you should:
• identify possible hazards that might arise from your research;
• identify who might be harmed;
• consider ways of controlling the risk and,
• propose what action is necessary to achieve this.
It may be impossible, or disproportionate, to seek to eliminate all possible risks arising from your
research. This does not necessarily make the research unethical.
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Participant Information and Consent Form
School of Management
Student’s name: xxxxxx xxxxxx, e-mail : xxxxxx@bristol.ac.uk
Supervisor’s name: xxxxxx xxxxxx, e-mail : xxxxxx@bristol.ac.uk
Participant information and consent form
STUDY TITLE: ______________________________________________________
<< Ensure you remove check-box questions below that are not relevant, e.g.
opportunity to ask questions or tape-recording/transcribing if participants are
completing an online survey. >> DELETE
<< You will be providing this document to participants. It should outline what it is you are asking them to do. Modify
this template as appropriate. Use some or all of the following headings, with relevant information for participants
included underneath. >> DELETE this and descriptions in italics below
Brief Project Outline: Explain the purpose of the project in a few easily understood sentences and that this is for your
dissertation.
Why have I been invited to participate? Explain briefly why and how the participant was chosen or recruited, and how
many others will participate in the project.
Do I have to take part? E.g. No. Participation is voluntary.
Can I withdraw at any time? E.g. - Yes, you can withdraw at any time during the survey/interview without giving a
reason. You can withdraw your data at any time.
What do I have to do? – Make it very clear what the participant will be asked to do. For example, will they be asked to
take part in a focus group or be the subject of an interview? How long will this take (for example, an hour for a focus
group meeting, 15 minutes for a survey)? Also include any other relevant information: for example, will a digital voice
recorder be used to capture an interview? Please bear in mind that if you publish material derived from the project that
can be used to identify a participant, you will need to get specific written consent for this.
How will the findings be used? – E.g. dissertation for your UG/PG degree, publication. Will a copy be available for
participants?
What are the possible advantages/disadvantages/risks of taking part? – Be clear and realistic.
Will my participation in the study be kept confidential? – tell the participant the measures that you will take to keep
their participation and any data that you gather through their participation confidential, both during and after the study.
Explain how data will be collected (e.g. notes, recordings) and how data will be anonymised. Make it clear that
participants will not be identified as a named individual in any report/publication unless they have given their consent.
What will happen to the data collected? – Provide some guidance on how the data will be stored, managed, and
archived and/or destroyed at the end of the project (i.e. once your dissertation has been submitted and graded), in
accordance with University policies.
Who has reviewed the study? Give the name and Department of your supervisor, or the School/Faculty Research Ethics
Committee if your project has been submitted for full ethical review.
<< Resize this box as necessary to fit your text in >> DELETE
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Please answer the following questions to the best of your knowledge
HAVE YOU: YES/NO
• been given information explaining about the study? □/□
• had an opportunity to ask questions and discuss this
study? □/□
• received satisfactory answers to all questions you asked? □/□
• received enough information about the study for you to
make a decision about your participation? □/□
DO YOU UNDERSTAND:
That you are free to withdraw from the study and free to
withdraw your data prior to final consent
YES/NO
• at any time? □/□
• without having to give a reason for withdrawing? □/□
DO YOU CONSENT THE RESEARCHER: YES/NO
• tape-recording and transcribing the interview? □/□
• citing quotations of yours in the publications generated
by this research? □/□
I hereby fully and freely consent to my participation in this study
Participant’s signature: ___________________________ Date: ________________
Name in BLOCK Letters: _____________________________________
If you have any concerns related to your participation in this study please direct
them to the Faculty of Social Science Research Ethics Committee, via Liam
McKervey, Research Governance and Ethics Officer (Tel: 0117 331 7472, email:
Liam.McKervey@bristol.ac.uk)
