HOGER INSTITUUT VOOR WIJSBEGEERTE KARDINAAL MERCIERPLEIN 2 – BUS 3200

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GUIDELINES FOR THE RESEARCH MASTER PAPER

Last update: September 2018

This guide is also available on the website of the Institute of Philosophy

(https://hiw.kuleuven.be/en/study/papers-theses-written-work/rmapaper/rmapaper)

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1. The Master’s Thesis in the Master’s Programme: General................................................................................... 1

Content ................................................................................................................................................................. 1

Form ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Reporting .............................................................................................................................................................. 3

Defense ........................................................................................................ Fout! Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd.

2. Evaluation Criteria and Grading Scale ................................................................................................................. 3

Grading Scale ....................................................................................................................................................... 5

3. Realisation of the work: practical tips .................................................................................................................. 6

The role of the supervisor ..................................................................................................................................... 6

Choosing and specifying the subject ........................................................... Fout! Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd.

Gathering and structuring the material ........................................................ Fout! Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd.

Reading and Writing ............................................................................................................................................. 7

4. Final editing .......................................................................................................................................................... 8

5. Additional information and help ........................................................................................................................... 8

APPENDIX – Profile of a good supervisor and master’s thesis student ................................................................ 10

Profile of a good master’s thesis supervisor ....................................................................................................... 10

Profile of a good master’s thesis student ............................................................................................................ 11

All the forms and links referred to below in the text are available for consultation and

downloading on https://hiw.kuleuven.be/en/study/papers-theses-written-work/rmapaper/rmapaper

1. The Research Master Paper: General

The Research Paper is your first major independent research project in the Research Master

programme. You are required to submit it within the first year of your Research Master studies.

Within the programme it has a weight of 12 out of 120 study points (credits), i.e., 12 out of 60

credits within the first phase. In the Research Paper you are to demonstrate an ability to do

independent research. It can also be regarded as a test run for the Research Master Thesis. Note,

however, that the Research Paper and the Research Master thesis are required to treat different

subjects. This does not rule out the possibility that the topic of your Research Master thesis

grows out of your work on the Research paper. (Nevertheless you are not allowed to recycle

pieces of your Research Paper for the thesis. Self-plagiarism is regarded a serious irregularity.

If you have doubts about the permissible amount of overlap please consult your Research Master

thesis supervisor.)

The topic of your Research Paper should relate to the Major you have chosen in the programme.

You should carry out your research under the immediate guidance of a supervisor. Before

choosing a subject and supervisor, you should consult the list of possible supervisors and their

areas of research expertise; an up-to-date version of this list is made available each year and can

be found on the Institute of Philosophy’s Research Paper website. Please note that post-docs

can act as your supervisor.

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Content

In the Research Paper you should:

• demonstrate mastery of the relevant research skills

• demonstrate advanced knowledge in the area of your research

• demonstrate originality of thought, work, and/or approach

• use the methods and techniques appropriate to the subject matter of the paper

Form

The Research Paper must always include the following elements, in this order (for more

explanation, see also further below):

• title page (use and adapt the template)

• table of contents (immediately following the title page, give page numbers for the

following: introduction; chapter titles; bibliography; abstract)

• main text of the paper

• bibliography

• an abstract of max. 3.500 characters, written as a summary of the paper for a non-

specialist reader

• the formal criteria checklist, which you have to sign (this is the only document that

should not be bound together with the others but just inserted loose in each hard copy of

the paper).

The Research Paper must be min. 10,000 and max. 12,000 words including footnotes or

endnotes, but not including the table of contents, bibliography, and the abstract. The word count

must be clearly indicated at the very end of the paper, and the word count limits must be

respected. Recommended fonts are Times New Roman 12pt, Arial 11pt, or Calibri 11pt;

recommended page size is A4 (standard European paper size); recommended line spacing is 1.5.

The paper can be printed on single- or double-sided pages. The paper in its entirety must be

written in correct English, and utilise a coherent system of bibliographic references.

Your work be only considered complete (and ready to submit) once it is bound. The

reproduction and binding of the final copy of your paper are usually done at a copy centre. You

should take into consideration that this can require some time, and you should be absolutely

certain that you give yourself the time you need, since there can be no late submission of your

paper (without the permission of the Institute of Philosophy Ombuds). After having your paper

bound you should check to see that there are no missing pages and that everything is where it

should be.

The formal requirements set out above must be strictly observed. A Research Paper that does

not fulfill one or more of these requirements will not be accepted for submission!

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Reporting and submission

Check the deadlines on https://hiw.kuleuven.be/en/study/papers-theses-written-

work/master/mathesis

You must submit the following progress reports in connection with your Research Paper: 1st

progress report (outline) and 2nd progress report. The deadline for submission of these must be

strictly observed. For each of the two reports, you will submit one copy to the supervisor, one

copy to the Institute of Philosophy’s Education and Students Office, and you will keep one copy

for yourself. All copies of the forms have to be signed by your supervisor. Further information

(including deadlines) and the forms themselves are available on the Research Paper webpage,

under “Progress Reports”.

Before final submission of the Research Paper, you are strongly advised to obtain your

supervisor’s permission to submit.

Before the submission deadline, you must hand in two printed and bound copies of the Research

Paper at the Education and Students Office of the Institute of Philosophy, together with two

printed copies of the formal criteria checklist. Before this deadline, you must also upload via

Toledo under Research Paper [W0R09a] twice an electronic copy of your Research Paper as a

pdf file: (1) upload your paper in the Toledo assignment, for the library archive; (2) upload your

paper in the Turnitin assignment, for the plagiarism check.

A paper that is not submitted before the submission deadline and not submitted as required –

i.e., 1) electronically uploaded in Toledo, 2) submitted to the Education and Students Office in

two hard copies, 3) together with two signed copies of the formal criteria checklist – will not be

accepted. Deadlines can be found on the Research Master’s programme webpage.

NB: If you are, for whatever reason, not in Belgium on the submission date, then you will need

to find someone in Leuven who can print and submit the Research Paper on your behalf, or else

you will need to have the hard copies of the Research Paper mailed (not emailed!) so that they

arrive before the deadline. Extensions to the deadline can only be obtained through the HIW

Ombuds and are possible exclusively in special/serious circumstances.

2. Evaluation Criteria and Grading Scale

Your Research Paper is evaluated by two faculty members: your supervisor and a second reader.

Based on the quality of the paper, both evaluators give a grade (on a scale of 20); the two grades

are averaged for the final grade (rounded to the nearest tenth). The supervisor also takes the

writing process into account when determining her/his grade.

You must receive a passing grade on your Research Paper in order to be able to complete the

first phase of the Research Master programme and to start the second, i.e. to enroll for the

Common Seminar, the Research Seminars, and the Research Master’s Thesis.

In their evaluation of the Research Paper, the evaluators take the criteria listed below into

account.

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Content

• The student has clearly defined an original and relevant research question for the paper.

• The student has made a judicious selection (showing intelligence and judgment)of the

(primary and secondary) literature.

• The student has thoroughly analysed and correctly interpreted the consulted sources.

• The student has demonstrated specialised knowledge in the area of research.

• The student has used a well-defined research method appropriate to the subject-matter.

• The student has clearly and correctly used the philosophical terminology and has

preferable worked with the texts in the original language.

• The student has developed a well-structured philosophical argumentation of a high

quality.

• The student has drawn the appropriate and correct conclusions from the presented

research.

• The student has developed an original, well-supported standpoint.

• The student clearly differentiates between her/his own ideas and the ideas of others.

Form

• The thesis is logically and evenly structured (the choice of titles, division into chapters,

paragraphs, table of contents, page numbers, etc.).

• The thesis is written in an academic style.

• The paper complies with the standards of academic writing today.

• The student has used a coherent system of footnotes and references.

• The English used in the paper is correct, fluent and without mistakes (grammar, spelling,

punctuation, etc.).

Supervision Process (supervisor only)

• The student has worked independently and shown initiative and creativity in the

researching and writing of the Research Paper.

• The student has efficiently organised the research and writing of the paper. The student

has met her or his obligations with regard to communication with the supervisor (kept

appointments, turned in progress reports on time and drafts sufficiently early to allow

the supervisor to return feedback on them, etc.).

• The student has taken the supervisor’s feedback into account.

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Grading Scale

18-20 A+ Excellent:

high distinction, work of excellent quality

The student has demonstrated a high level of competence with respect to the

criteria

16-17 A Outstanding:

work of very good quality and well above average

The student has demonstrated more than an adequate level of competence with

respect to the criteria listed above.

15 A- Very Good:

distinction, work of good quality

The student has demonstrated an adequate level of competence with respect to

the criteria listed above.

14 B+ Good:

generally competent work of quality

The student has demonstrated a certain level of competence with respect to the

criteria listed above.

13 B Satisfactory:

fair but with some shortcomings

The student has demonstrated more than a minimum level of competence with

respect to the criteria listed above.

12 C+ Sufficient:

fair but with shortcomings

The student has demonstrated a minimum level of competence with respect to

the criteria listed above.

11 C Barely Sufficient:

performance meets the minimal criteria

The student has barely demonstrated any level of competence with respect to

the criteria listed above.

10 D Barely Sufficient:

performance just meets the minimal criteria

The student has barely demonstrated any level of competence with respect to

the criteria listed above.

8-9 F Insufficient:

some more work is required to obtain a passing grade

The student has not demonstrated a sufficient level of competence with respect

to the criteria listed above.

6-7 F Very Insufficient:

more work is required to obtain a passing grade

The student has demonstrated a lack of competence with respect to the criteria

listed above

0-5 F Totally Insufficient:

considerable further work is required to obtain a passing grade

The student has demonstrated a significant lack of competence with respect to

the criteria listed above.

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3. Writing Your paper: Practical Advice

The role of the supervisor

A good working relationship with your supervisor is an important factor in the successful

completion of your paper. The supervisor’s overall task is to make sure that the topic of the

paper is well-defined, feasible, and philosophically relevant. As part of this, your supervisor can

give you advice on the available literature, help you to focus your research questions, and give

you comments on your first drafts. In that connection it is important that at regular intervals you

send written work to your supervisor, since only in this way can he or she get you important

feedback on what will eventually be your Research Paper.

Note that some supervisors, after the initial meeting(s) when a topic is agreed upon, will only

meet with you when you have something in writing to discuss; inquire with your supervisor

early on as to what sorts of strategies he or she finds most helpful in the supervision process. In

any event, it is in your best interest to make and keep appointments with your supervisor to

discuss ideas, problems, and drafts.

If you experience difficulties in your work and you feel the temptation to avoid your supervisor,

resist: giving in to this temptation will only make the problems worse. The Director of the

International Programme (who is Director of the Research Master programme) is available to

help you if you have trouble finding a supervisor. It is, however, up to you to take the first steps.

Gathering and structuring the material

The idea behind any piece of writing (or any academic talk) is structuring the material at your

disposal in order to best subordinate it to answering the question that you want answered. The

structure, then, comes from the question you want answered. This means that you have to begin

with delineating a research question: both the structure and the content of the various parts of

the Research Paper follow from it. It is recommended that you choose a question on a topic with

which you are already familiar (for instance, from current or previous coursework) and that

really interests you. Eventually, your question will become a claim or question around which

your Research Paper will revolve, with all the parts organised by you in order to effectively

answer the question/demonstrate your claim.

At the beginning your research question will almost undoubtedly be very vague; the process of

focusing will be done in part through discussion with your supervisor, in part by studying

primary and secondary sources. From this early phase of narrowing down your question and

finding essential material to answer it, you should move on as quickly as possible to genuine

research literature more specific to the subject of your narrowed-down claim or question. To

find the most relevant literature, you can fruitfully follow references that are in the literature

that you have already read.

When researching the literature it is recommended that you work methodically, by noting down

complete bibliographic references right from the start, supplemented when applicable with

references to critical discussions of the paper/book in question and, most importantly, with your

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own views on and criticisms of specific passages/ideas (and on what pages those are found).

Never forget your own critical sense when reading! While you are doing this, you should be

further narrowing your research question, deciding on the most important literature you will be

using, and (in consultation with your supervisor) laying down the basic framework that you

would like to give to your paper, i.e. how you will structure the material at your disposal to best

answer the question you want answered and prove the thesis you want to prove.

Reading and writing

You should begin to write your paper as soon as possible and should continue to write regularly.

Students are often inclined to postpone writing because they have not read all the relevant

literature, feel they have nothing original to say, or cannot see how a particular topic will fit into

their final thesis. To avoid these pitfalls, it is important not to ask too much of yourself in the

beginning stages of your work. Do not embark on a long period of unfocused reading. Start by

writing a critical account of a small part of the literature on your topic. This will help you to

understand the issues being discussed and see what problems they raise. As you go on, you will

be able to produce a focused research question that you want your paper to answer; only from

there can you arrive at a good notion of the structure your paper must have in order to effectively

answer the question. Remember that you will not be able to settle on the form or content of your

paper before you have begun to write, since the process of writing will alter your conception of

the problems you are studying.

Even if you follow all this advice, you may find that you accomplish less than you and your

supervisor were expecting. If this happens, do not let it stand in the way of your keeping in touch

with your supervisor; it is not the case that you can only contact her or him when you have a

completely finished and totally polished piece of writing. It may be worthwhile to tell your

supervisor of any intellectual or personal difficulties that are holding back the progress of your

research. He or she may be able to offer you advice. In addition to this the Institute of Philosophy

Writing Lab can offer you help with (for instance) structuring your paper, clarifying your

research question, or developing your conclusions. If you need linguistic guidance the ILT offers

courses in academic writing and other valuable tools to help you (see below for more

information). Finally, you are welcome to contact the Director of the International Programme

(who is Director of the Research Master programme), to discuss any other academic problems

that may be affecting your work.

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4. Editing

For more information about writing a paper at the Institute of Philosophy, we refer to the

document “Paper Guidelines at the Institute of Philosophy”. This document is available on

the HIW website (https://hiw.kuleuven.be/en/study/papers-theses-written-work).

The document contains information on the following aspects:

- Preparative work

- Structure

- Makeup

- Language use and style

- Bibliographic references

- Quoting and paraphrasing

- Plagiarism

- Bibliographic software

5. Additional information and help

• The Toledo community, HIW Online Writing Lab, offers a lot of useful information on the

writing process, formatting, editing (with rules related to punctuation and spelling, common

mistakes in English), and presenting.

• HIW writing tutors can help you free of charge at any stage of the writing process: from

outlining a presentation to finalizing a thesis, from clarifying a question to developing a

conclusion. If you have any questions, you can contact the tutors of the writing lab by email

or you can make an appointment with them.

https://hiw.kuleuven.be/en/study/papers-theses-written-work/writinglab

• KU Leuven offers students support with respect to the use of academic language (listening,

reading, writing, speaking, and presenting), more specifically the Language Institute (ILT)

of KU Leuven.

http://ilt.kuleuven.be/english/cursus/acadeng_portal.php

▪ They organize courses in academic English for master’s students

▪ They offer online tools through the Academic English portal, for example an academic

writing assistant (https://ilt.kuleuven.be/schrijfhulp_eng/). You paste the text you have

written in the box. The GUI (graphical user interface) of the tool is comprised of a button

for text review and a button for text enrichment. The comments are generated

automatically by the computer.

When you have written a text and you would like to improve it or receive comments, you could

first use the academic writing assistant to find mistakes in language. Then you could consult

one of the tutors of the Writing Lab.

When studying philosophy, one always has to relate oneself to the texts, arguments, ideas, and

positions of others. Therefore, it is very important to know how to handle this source material,

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to avoid plagiarism. A thorough discussion on types of plagiarism, the prevention and the

detection of plagiarism can be found in the Paper Guidelines. You can also consult:

• the HIW webpage on plagiarism:

https://hiw.kuleuven.be/en/study/papers-theses-written-work/plagiarism

• the KU Leuven webpage on plagiarism:

https://www.kuleuven.be/english/education/plagiarism

• At the Institute of Philosophy we use the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition for

source citation (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html). When you are

logged in to Limo, you can consult the full Chicago Manual of Style Online, which

contains very detailed guidelines. A short quick guide is available for free:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. The Chicago Manual

of Style contains both guidelines for the notes and bibliography system as well as for

the author-year system. On the website of the Institute of Philosophy

(https://hiw.kuleuven.be/en/study/papers-theses-written-

work/plagiarism/bibliographic-references) you can find two documents that summarize

these systems.

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APPENDIX – Profile of a good supervisor and master’s thesis student

Profile of a good master’s thesis supervisor

• The master’s thesis supervisor has been, or is still, actively involved with research on

the subject s/he is willing to supervise, and is therefore knowledgeable both about the

subject itself and the relevant literature. With the supervisor’s approval, a student may

choose to work on a subject that lies outside the supervisor’s area of specialization, but

in that case the supervisor needs to make the student aware that an even greater than

normal amount of self-initiative and responsibility for the thesis’ content may be

required.

• The supervisor supports the student throughout the process of writing the master’s thesis,

with the goal of having the student submit a thesis that fulfills all requirements. The

supervisor takes extra care to support the student during the first phase of the thesis

research, to get the student on the right track as soon as possible.

• The supervisor gives advice when the student chooses a thesis subject and encourages

the student not to work on an area of philosophy that is completely unfamiliar to the

student. At the beginning of the academic year, the supervisor makes available online a

list with a set of well-defined and feasible subjects for students to choose from.

• The supervisor helps the student to come up with a feasible research question and work

plan, so that the student will in principle be able to finish the thesis in a single academic

year.

• The supervisor helps the student when choosing secondary literature to consult and

suggests some of the most relevant primary texts pertaining to the student’s thesis

subject.

• The supervisor evaluates each of the two progress reports, with special attention to the

work plan that is part of the first report. If the work plan is unrealistic, the supervisor

advises the student on how to modify it.

• The supervisor communicates to the student whether he or she will be available during

holidays or, e.g., during research stays abroad during the academic year. It is up to the

supervisor to decide and communicate to the student in advance to what extent feedback

will be given during the summer break.

• The supervisor aims to reply to the student’s emails in a timely manner (within a week)

and to meet with the student in person upon request, communicating to the student as

early as possible if an appointment needs to be rescheduled.

• The supervisor aims to provide feedback on the student’s drafts within two weeks of

having received them. If this is not possible, the supervisor should inform the student

when feedback can be expected. Whenever possible feedback should be given during

face-to-face meetings. The feedback should be sufficiently concrete and indicate how

the student’s work can be improved.

• The supervisor gives feedback on formal aspects (language, structure, references, ...) of

the first draft chapter the student submits; the supervisor may – but is not required to –

do so for the remaining chapters submitted.

• The supervisor gives feedback on the contents of all chapters the student sends her or

him, but does not have to provide feedback on the same part of the thesis twice.

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• The supervisor reminds the student of the evaluation criteria pertaining to both the thesis

and the defence.

• The supervisor chairs the thesis defence.

Profile of a good master’s thesis student

• It is the student’s responsibility to know the various deadline and guidelines pertaining

to the master’s thesis (evaluation criteria, formal criteria, plagiarism rules, etc.) and to

respect them.

• Students are recommended to contact possible supervisors one after another (and not

simultaneously); in the event that the student contacts more than one possible supervisor,

the student must inform all contacted supervisors with whom the student will not be

working as soon as that decision is taken.

• If the student chooses to work on a subject that lies outside the supervisor’s area of

specialization, the choice of a fitting and feasible subject is the student’s own

responsibility, although it is still subject to the supervisor’s approval.

• The student and supervisor agree on a realistic thesis work plan.

• It is the student’s responsibility to contact the supervisor if s/he wants advice or

feedback. The student is expected to take this feedback into account.

• The student submits drafts to the supervisor on a regular basis; the student should

recognize that without written drafts a supervisor cannot give detailed feedback on the

thesis project.

• The student makes sure to submit drafts at least two weeks before feedback is needed.

• The student keeps all appointments and agreements with the supervisor, and makes sure

to submit the progress reports and final version of the master’s thesis on time.

• The student understands that the supervisor’s aim is to advise the student such that s/he

can finish a thesis that fulfills all requirements. On the other hand, the student must

understand that the final grade for the thesis includes the thesis defence as well as the

evaluation of two readers (besides the supervisor); for this reason it is strictly impossible

for a supervisor to guarantee in advance of the thesis defence that the student will pass

or will receive a particular grade.

Contact

In case of serious problems with regard to thesis supervision students or supervisors can contact

the Education Ombudsperson of the Institute of Philosophy.