Thesis

Wihi is a tool for communicating and archiving thesis work. It is used to communicate between the student, the thesis supervisor, and the client. The thesis topic proposal, the thesis plan, the thesis cooperation agreement, and the various stages of the thesis process are processed in Wihi, where the thesis is also assessed in due course.

You can find the instructions for using Wihi here.

The thesis guide provides general guidelines for implementation and evaluation. It is intended for both the student and the supervising teacher. The guide also provides information for Humak’s partners in the working world, who act as commissioners and supervisors of theses.

Humak Thesis Guide, Bachelor’s degree

The purpose of the Master’s degree Thesis guide is to describe what a Master’s-level thesis at Humak means, what kinds of methods are applied in the thesis, and how the thesis process progresses from idea to finished work. The guide also provides advice to students at various stages of the process.

Humak Thesis Guide, Master’s degree

Instructions for the Commissioner

• Thesis cooperation agreement Humak:
  • Cooperation Agreement for a Humak Thesis (old)
  • Thesis cooperation agreement Humak (new)
• Data management plan
• Thesis Template (with Finnish abstract page)
• Thesis Template (without Finnish abstract page)
• Thesis Assessment Form Bachelor’s Degree
• Thesis Assessment Form Master’s Degree
• Ethical recommendations for thesis writing at universities of applied sciences
• Student’s checklist for ethical recommendations of thesis writing
• Research Data Protection Privacy Policy
• Participation Information Sheet
• Participant Consent Form
  • Informing the participants is done with the participant information form. Participant consent form and research data protection privacy policy are also used if necessary.
  • In all research acitivity, information can be made anonymous without handling justification. In that case, the information is no longer classified as personal data and thus is outside the data protection regulations.
  • More information on informing participants can be found on articles 12, 13, and 14 of the EU general data protection regulation.
  • More information on the data protection of scientific research can be found from the office of the data protection ombudsman’s website.

Filling in the Cooperation Agreement Form and Obtaining the Approval of the Parties 

Complete the thesis cooperation agreement template with the details of your thesis. Circulate the agreement for review and approval by all parties via email before confirming it with signatures in AtomiSign. Alternatively, the agreement can be reviewed together in a joint meeting between the thesis instructor, the student and the commissioner. 

During the completion phase of the agreement, discuss the following matters with the commissioner: 

• Remind the commissioner to review the commissioner’s guidelines and ask them to either check the corresponding box themselves or grant permission for you to do so. 
• Clarify whether a separate research permit is required for the thesis. 
• Clarify whether separate agreements are needed regarding the broader use of the thesis output or any payment/compensation related to the thesis. 
• Check the boxes or ask the commissioner to check the relevant sections of the agreement. 
• Add the date and the details of the signatories (names, and for the commissioner, also the organization) at the end of the agreement. 

The Digital Services Act (306/2019) requires all organizations receiving public funding to make their online services accessible. This also applies to Humak’s theses published in the Theseus online library – in other words, almost all theses.

Accessibility requirements for theses

Citation guide

• Thesis seminars for daytime students and multiform students are usually held four times a year. For more detailed dates, please refer to the theses page on Hoodle and contact the coach of your degree program. 
• Return the completed thesis to the examiners and submit it to Urkund according to the instructions given by your supervisor.
• Once the thesis has been approved and passed Urkund, save the completed thesis in the Theseus database. The thesis is saved as a pdf-file with the file name in the format surname_firstname. 
• Instructions for creating a Theseus file can be found in the section below (Saving the thesis to Theseus) or on the Theseus website
• If there is more than one author of the thesis, it is sufficient for one person to record the work in Theseus. If the thesis has several authors from different educational institutions, each author will save the work in the collections of their educational institution.
• Humak keeps an electronic archive copy of all theses, either in Theseus or in Humak’s internal archive in cases where online publication of the thesis is prohibited. 
• For more information about Theseus, please contact theseus@humak.fi.

Theseus is the joint publication repository of Finnish universities of applied sciences. Students upload their completed theses to Theseus. The latest, approved version of the thesis must be uploaded to Theseus. Upload your thesis to Theseus only after you have received permission from your thesis supervisor. A thesis uploaded to Theseus cannot be edited afterwards. The thesis must follow Humak’s guidelines regarding both content and layout. It must also meet accessibility requirements.

An approved thesis is a public document. A thesis cannot contain confidential information.

Choose which collection you will upload your thesis to:

• Upload your thesis to either the open collection OR the restricted access collection in Theseus.

Finnish universities of applied sciences have signed the Declaration for Open Science, and students are encouraged to publish openly. A thesis is always a public document that anyone interested may access (Act on the Openness of Government Activities 621/1999). The metadata of theses uploaded to either collection (author, title, keywords, abstract) is visible online. Theses in the restricted access collection can only be read in Theseus within Humak’s network. However, anyone can request a thesis from the restricted collection through Humak’s registry office, and it must then be provided to them by email according to the law on public access to information.

If you are completing your thesis as a pair or group project, decide who will upload the thesis to Theseus. The thesis is uploaded to Humak’s Theseus collection only once. If you are completing the thesis with a student from another university of applied sciences, the thesis must be uploaded to the Theseus collections of all universities involved (each student uploads the thesis themselves to their own university’s Theseus collection). The thesis uploaded to Humak’s Theseus collection must use Humak’s official thesis template.

Check the following before uploading your thesis:

• The thesis or its appendices do not contain addresses, phone numbers, contact details, or other personal information that identifies individuals and that you do not want to appear online.
• The thesis formatting follows Humak’s guidelines. The correct Humak thesis template has been used, and the cover page includes the Humak logo.
• The thesis meets accessibility requirements. The table of contents must be navigable, meaning that clicking the headings in the table of contents takes the reader to the correct section.
• It is the correct version that your supervisor has approved for submission.
• The file is in PDF/A format (a regular PDF is not sufficient).
• The file is named in the format Surname_Firstname, for example Mallikas_Mikko. If there are multiple authors, the file name should be Surname_Surname_Surname. Do not use the Finnish characters Å, Ä, or Ö in the file name.

Note: Do not make a new upload if you notice an error after uploading. Instead, contact kirjasto@humak.fi.

Uploading the Thesis to Theseus

1. Go to the Theseus submission page and click “Submit thesis”.
2. Select Humak – Humanistinen ammattikorkeakoulu from the menu.
3. Log in with your Haka credentials. Check your personal information and approve it.
4. Choose whether to upload to the open collection or the restricted access collection. More information: https://submissions.theseus.fi/en/restrictedcollection.htm
5. Read and accept the publication license and continue saving.
6. Upload the PDF/A file and any possible video/audio file. Upload only one PDF/A file and leave the file description empty. All written appendices must be included in the same file. If your thesis includes a video or audio file, upload it here.
7. Next, add the metadata of your thesis to the submission form. Read the instructions on the form carefully.

• • Author name*: Add your name. If there are multiple authors, list the names in the same order as on the thesis cover page.

1. • Author email*: Add an email address that you will still use after graduation.
   • Thesis level*: Select either Bachelor’s thesis (AMK) or Master’s thesis (YAMK).
   • Field of study*: Select your field: Cultural Management, Interpreting, or Community Education.
   • Degree programme name: Optional. You may add your programme name, e.g. Degree Programme in Cultural Management (AMK). Programme names can be found in the curricula in the Student Guide.
   • Specialization option: Optional.
   • Thesis title*: Type or copy the title from Word. The title format is Title : subtitle. Note: include a space before the colon and begin the subtitle with a lowercase letter.
   • URN identifier*: Click Retrieve URN identifier. You can already copy the URN at this stage for Wihi.
   • Copyright / usage rights*: Choose a license for your thesis.
   • Year of completion*: Add the year your thesis was completed.
   • Language of the thesis*: Add the language of your thesis.
   • Keywords*: Choose keywords according to the YSO ontology. When you type keywords, Theseus will suggest terms from YSO.
   • Abstract*: Add your abstract by copying it directly from the Word file. Do not copy it from the PDF/A file, otherwise hyphenation and paragraph formatting may not transfer correctly.
   • Commissioning organization: Optional.
   • Duration of attached media file (mp3 or mp4) in full minutes: Optional. If your thesis includes a video or audio file, add its duration here.
   • Additional information: Optional.

Copying the Theseus Link and Saving It to Wihi

At the final stage of the thesis evaluation process, students are asked to add the Theseus link of their thesis to Wihi. The link format is https://urn.fi/URN. It is created after the thesis has been uploaded to Theseus and the library has approved the submission. You can then copy the permanent link from Theseus.

However, you may add the link to Wihi before the library approves the submission if you save the URN during the submission process.

Follow these instructions:

• When publishing your thesis in Theseus, copy the URN identifier from the Publication submission form.
• Paste the URN identifier into the correct place in Wihi. Add https://urn.fi/ at the beginning and confirm the link. The link will not work without this prefix.
• The link does not work immediately after submission. It will start working after some time. This does not prevent you from progressing in Wihi.
• The library staff will approve the Theseus submission as soon as possible. Only after this will your thesis appear in the Theseus collection.

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