While you are writing

In addition to supervision and seminars, the department supplies some supplementary resources. Some good advice on how to proceed is available in “The Art of Writing and Speaking”. It is a good idea to utilise the skills and literature you acquired during the methodology courses. There are also some methods courses on hand, which are specifically designed for the writing process.

Finding good information is essential to writing a good thesis. There is useful information in this regard in “The Art of Finding Information”, as well as some useful recommendation on methodological literature. 

Ethical Guidelines and Personal Information in the Thesis

When your thesis is examined, it is published online in the open access database LUP Student Publications. There is more information about this process in the section about handing in your thesis. The publishing of information about individuals is regulated in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You as an author need to reflect on what type of information there is in your thesis about individuals.

According to GDPR, it is illegal to publish names, civic registration numbers or other information which points to a specific individual without permission, unless the information is viewed as harmless. In practice, you do not have to obtain permission to reference the work of scholars or other published sources, nor do you need permission to mention politicians or other public figures by name.

GDPR is mainly relevant if you are working with interviews. It is important to come to an agreement with interviewees, you need to inform them that the thesis will be published online and any other way you are planning to use your text. If you are not granted permission to publish the interviewees name online, it is illegal to do so. There are of course a number of ethical rules with regard to qualitative interviews. More information about this is available in, e.g. Bryman, A, 2008. Social Research Methods (Oxford University Press).

Additional Information

There is information about how to search for information in databases, catalogues and ordering books from other libraries on the University Library Website. The library also provides a substantial number of books, periodicals and theses in printed form. Reading the work of other students is a good way of finding inspiration for your own project.

More recent theses are available in LUP Student Publications, where you can search among all of the published works.

The Department of Political Science also has a collection of links related to the subject from different points of view.

Department policy on Generative AI

Guidance for students on the use of generative artificial intelligence tools

General

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools are a type of Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can generate text, images or other media in response to prompts. They differ from pure search services in that they also create/generate/find something. If you are not sure whether a software tool uses GAI, you should check with the provider before using it. It is your responsibility to check this. There are other tools that use AI but do not create/generate/invent, such as translation tools or spelling and grammar checkers. The use of such tools is allowed.

Limitations of the tools and risks of use

There are many limitations and risks associated with the use of GAI tools, including that they may provide inaccurate or false results, they may provide you with proprietary information that you are not authorized to use, and they may provide an unbiased and/or only partial view of a particular topic. If you choose to use GAI tools, as with any other software, you should always check the terms and conditions and find out what happens to your personal data when you use them. You must not insert another student's text into a GAI tool without permission, as this compromises the other student's copyright to their own text.

Your responsibility

When you submit a piece of work under your own name, you are always responsible for the words, images and information contained in your work. If you use an unauthorized tool to perform an examination, you mislead the examiner in the assessment of your study performance. Such behavior is considered a crime according to the Higher Education Ordinance, what is colloquially known as cheating. 

You are allowed to use GAI tools to support your studies, for example to generate ideas, compare answers, search for information or identify key literature. However, please note the limitations and risks described above.

Examination

It is not allowed to use GAI tools to produce text or other material for examination/assessment of study performance unless explicitly authorized in writing by the examiner. It is important for your learning process and for meeting the learning objectives of the course that your examination assignment/study performance is based on an independent way of working.