Table of Contents

Rules Pertaining to Manuscripts

Generally, any documents composed by personnel at MCh needs to contain:

When compiling documents in MS Word, always use:

For ease of orientation, the following naming conventions for compiled manuscripts are enforced:

Here, YYYY stands for year, MM for month, DD for day, xy is your initials, #n corresponds to manuscript number n, and Vx represents version x of the manuscript. Below is an example for a third version of a second manuscript compiled by Franz Kafka on 23.01.1900:

Generally, it is a good idea to add a leading zero when introducing information about version as it allows easier sorting. As long as the version number does not reach 100 (or more), a single leading zero is fully sufficient.

When saving references as PDF files, follow this naming convention:

Publications

This section covers general workflow when working on a publication manuscript, as well as how to approach manuscripts in work with external partners.

Workflow

  1. compile manuscript skeleton:
    • first page:
      • RQ answered or addressed by the manuscript
      • overall story in 5+1 sentences (hypothesis, experiments + calculations, observation, explanation)
    • second page:
      • title of the manuscript
      • authors
      • target journals for publishing
    • subsequent pages:
      • include all figures with a concise description of the key data
  2. upload skeleton & send it by email to JMS
  3. once the skeleton is agreed upon with JMS, draft the full paper:
    • format:
      • formatting: Helvetica 12 pt, double spaced, justified text
      • include figures, tables and captions in the text where they are discussed
      • figures formatted “In Line with Text”
    • always check spelling
    • printing:
      • in color
      • single page
  4. first iteration:
    • upload manuscript & send it by email to JMS
    • upload PDF files of all references to sciebo
    • put unstapled printout with date stamp in blue plastic cover in JMS mail folder
  5. subsequent iterations:
    • track changes with “Show All Revisions Inline” option
    • implement all changes from JMS and coauthors - if you do not like the suggested changes, implement them and add your comment
    • never delete comments from JMS
    • for printouts, always include previous versions
  6. once the manuscript gets published:
    • send the final publication in PDF to Dr.-Ing. S. Münstermann with CC to G. Strauch and JMS
    • upload the final publication with full bibliographic details at RWTH Publications

External Cooperations

This set of rules applies to all manuscripts that are being compiled in cooperation with persons outside MCh:

Uploading Online

The following rules generally apply when uploading your research articles to online platforms such as ResearchGate:

Theses

In case of the main seminar (Hauptseminar), mini theses or BSc and MSc theses:

Length

PhD Thesis

Back to the overview

1)
In accordance with Faculty V rule, this grade can be awarded to only 5-10% of all dissertations.