Approved by Dean of the

“Faculty of Engineering and Natural Science”

_________Zhamanov А.

«____» _____________ 2022 year

Dissertation Guidebook

KASKELEN 2022
 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE
REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN
SULEYMAN DEMIREL UNIVERSITY

POSTGRADUATE DISSERTATIONS AND PROJECTS POLICY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF

COMPUTER SCIENCE

«APPROVED»
Dean of the
“Faculty of Engineering and Natural Science”
of Suleyman Demirel University
________________ A. Zhamanov
«______» _______________ 2021

POSTGRADUATE DISSERTATIONS AND PROJECTS POLICY OF THE

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

for the students of the following study programs:

7M06102 « MSc in Computer Science»

Kaskelen, 2022

1. Aims of a dissertation
A dissertation is a report of an academic research of the researcher conducted by
the supervision of his/her scientific advisor. The main aim of a dissertation is to
apply the theoretical knowledge into the practice by doing research. A dissertation
is expected to develop the following skills of the researcher:
- Research skills, based on theoretical knowledge
- Ability to conduct an independent research
- Academic writing and presentation skills
- Critical thinking, analyzing and interpreting the findings of the research

2. Research process

The dissertation must meet the requirement of a good dissertation. For example,
the researcher must identify the research problem and formulate the research
question(s) properly. In further steps, the researcher must define and clarify the
objectives of the study and choose a good dissertation title that reflects the general
framework. Finally, the researcher must select a relevant data collection and
analysis method. Hence, the quality of the research is highly dependent on how the
researcher aligned the problem statement, research question(s), objectives, methods
and finding.

Table 1. Research process

No Step Action

Research proposal The researcher identifies from the theory

1 Problem statement
or practice

The researcher searches and evaluates

2 Reviewing the literature
existing literatures of a given subject

Based on formulated problem statement

3 Research question(s) and literature review, the research
question are formulated

4 Research objectives Based on problem statement and

formulated research questions, objectives
of the research is defined
 Based on problem statements, research
5 Dissertation title questions and objectives, the most
reflective title is selected.

The researcher a methodology or

6 Research methodology technique to process, analyze the
information about the topic

Based on a previous steps the most

7 Data collection appropriate data collection method is
defined

Based on a data collection and research

objectives, the most appropriate
8 Research Activity Data analysis
interpretation of a collected data is
conducted

The researcher discusses how his/her

9 Findings and discussion findings helped him/her achieve research
objectives and answer research questions

The researcher based on all of his/her

10 Dissertation writing writes a dissertation thesis on his/her
original research
Written content
The researcher makes defends his/her
Presentation of the
11 dissertation by making presentation to
dissertation
the committee

3. General Rules

- Researchers and scientific supervisors must prepare the research work

schedule starting from defining the research topic until the dissertation
defending process.
- Research works are conducted under the leadership of scientific supervisors.
- Research works should be based on modern pedagogical, methodological,
and technological challenges of computer science. Research should be
performed using modern research methods of the relevant branch, contain
research problems based on international literature of the relevant field of
knowledge, contain specific practical recommendations.
- The topics of the dissertation are assigned to the researcher by the decision
of the Academic Council of the University and are approved by order of the
 Rector of the University. The topic of research should be relevant,
corresponding to the current state of science in the specialty related to the
plans of research works of the department.

4. Dissertation topic formulation

The researcher during his/her research process must select the dissertation
topic of interest in his/her area. A research topic must have the following qualities:
- The topic must be actual and offer practical applications
- The topic must address the current theoretical and practical issues
- The topic must be relevant to the area of the study
- The topic must address the research question(s) and objective(s)
- The topic must be clear, specific and narrow.
In order to choose the correct topic, researchers must define the area
of their research interests and revise theoretical knowledge in the field.
Here are several recommendations:
- It is highly recommended to the researcher that the dissertation
topic should be related to the area in which the he/she intends to
pursue his/her career.
- The researcher might have to revise the theoretical classes,
previous assignments to define his/her research area.
- A systematic literature review is the strongest guideline for a
proper research work. The researcher must complete the literature
review before selecting the dissertation topic.

5. Rights and responsibilities

Dissertation is the product of joint work between scientific advisor and

researcher. High quality of the research highly depends on mutual cooperation,
decent communication and respect. Therefore, the rights and responsibilities of
scientific advisor and researcher must be clear.
Rights of the researcher:
- Researchers can request the faculty to change his/her scientific supervisor if
they feel uncomfortable due to absence of support or due to personal
conflicts.
 - Researchers can change the topic of his/her dissertation within two weeks
after proposal defense.
- Researchers can ask a scientific advisor to help them to develop a research
schedule.
- Researchers can ask for academic feedback at any stage of the research
process.
- Researchers can ask an advisor to prepare them for defense
Responsibilities of the researcher:
- Researchers must be in touch with the scientific supervisor based on their
schedule.
- Researchers must follow the instructions of their scientific supervisor.
- Researchers must be respectful to their supervisor.
- Researchers must work in compliance with the moral and ethical standards
of a research.
- Researchers must strictly follow the rules and regulations of this guidebook.
Rights of scientific advisors:
- Advisor can ask the faculty to dismiss the researcher from supervision in
cases of poor work and poor communication from the researcher's side.
- Advisor can ask to change the topic of dissertation, if he/she is convinced
that research progress is no longer feasible.
Responsibilities of scientific supervisor:
- Supervisors must help researchers to modify the research framework and
define research topics based on the available research proposals.
- Supervisor must set the time for each researcher every week. The duration of
the meeting must be 30 minutes for each researcher.
- Supervisors must announce meeting schedules and notify any changes
related to meetings.
- Supervisors must provide the academic support at every stage of the
research.
- Supervisors must notify the faculty if they lost the connection with
researchers?
- Supervisors must be respectful to every researcher under their supervision.

6. Requirements of dissertation defense

 According to the state standards, dissertation defense is a compulsory stage
for graduation. A dissertation is qualified for final defense after completing the
following steps:
a) Researcher has to complete all the corrections suggested by his/her scientific
supervisor. These corrections might include grammatical mistakes as well as the
research itself.
b) Volume of the dissertation must be more than 15000 words or 50 pages, not
including references and appendices.
c) Researchers must publish two scientific articles. One article must be
published in a local university journal (СДУ хабаршысы) and the second article
can be published in any external journal/conference. The template of scientific
articles (works) can be found in Appendix 3.
d) Dissertation must pass the uniqueness test. Uniqueness of the dissertation
must be more than 80%. Uniqueness tests must be conducted by the specialist in
the department. The report of the uniqueness test must be signed and approved by
the specialist.
e) One external reviewer must assess the quality of the dissertation. External
reviewers are suggested and approved by the department. The template of a report
can be found in Appendix 1.
f) Recommendation letter must be provided by the scientific supervisor,
containing his/her opinion on the work that has been done by the researcher. The
template of a recommendation letter can be found in Appendix 2.
g) Researcher must prepare a proper presentation for final defense, which
includes
- Justification of a problem
- The research question(s)
- Aims and objectives
- Literature review, which provides the background for the study
- Research method, including sampling, measurements, data collection and
analysis
- Analysis results
- Interpretation of the findings based on background theories and research
objectives (Discussion)
- Conclusion and future plans
h) Duration of the presentation must be limited to 30 minutes. For questions and
discussion another 10 minutes must be provided.
i) Presentation must include only relevant information regarding the research.
Time consuming and unnecessary information is the reason for low grades or even
failure.

7. Evaluation Criteria

The assessment of dissertation defense must be provided by the commission,

organized and prepared by the department. In assessing the quality of the research
the following points should be considered:
- Researchers theoretical knowledge on the field
- Supervisors comments and feedback
- External reviewers comments and feedback
- Dissertation’s scientific value (relevant problem statement, adequate
objectives, proper data collection, analysis and discussion)
- Uniqueness (Plagiarism)
Final grade will be calculated as an average of the grades of the commission
members and will be declared as “.. out of 100”.
If any issue in the evaluation process occurs, the department initiates an
“appellation procedure” with different commission members.

8. Technical requirements for the dissertation

The Researcher must focus on the use of academic language, scientific literacy,
the proper methodical tool, ethical standards, and technical requirements for
writing the dissertation and dissertation work.
In addition to academic requirements, a dissertation must meet the following
technical requirements as provided in the dissertation LaTeX template. Therefore,
a correct and neat layout is one of the assessment criteria. Particularly, a
dissertation must meet the followings:
1) A dissertation must be typed/printed on a standard white A4 paper
(297x210 mm size).
2) Writings must be in one and half line spacing range, font “Times New
Roman” with size of 14. However, certain concepts and important ideas
are allowed to be in bold or italic.
3) Paper margins are right margin 10 mm, upper margin 20 mm, left
margin 30mm and bottom margin 20mm.
4) A new paragraph must have LaTeX standard indentation from the left.
5) Tables and figures must be easy to read and understand with 150-300
dpi resolution.
6) All headings/sections and subsections must be bold and they must be
numbered accordingly (1.,1.1., 1.1.1, 1.1.1.1 etc…). All types of
headings must appear in the table of contents. Main headings will be
written with 18-font size, second headings will be 16-font size, third
headings will be 14 size and the following sub-heading will be 12-font
size.
7) Page numbering must be started right after the title page with small
roman symbols (i, ii,iii, iv,v,vi etc.). This numbering must proceed until
the introduction page. Introduction chapter starts with small Arabic
symbols (1, 2, and 3) until the last page. Page numbering must be in the
center of the bottom of the page
8) Every chapter (main heading) must start by the new page. For other
sub-sections, it is not necessary to start from a new page.
9) In any dissertation, it is highly possible that the Researcher needs to
present numerical data within a table. Tables enable the Researcher to
present data in a comprehensive way. Each table must have a short title,
which describes its content. Title of the table must be centered. A table
longer than a page must appear in the appendix section of the
dissertation. If no data appears in a row or column, just a dash is used.
10) In addition to tables, the Researcher might need to present some
visual illustrations as figures. Figures might include graphs, pictures or
any other illustrations. The figures must be visually clear, as they are not
allowed to be blurred.
11) Tables and figures, which are accepted as a part of dissertation,
are also assigned special numbers. (Table 1.1, Table 2.3, Figure 3.2). In
this numeration, the first number indicates the chapter of the dissertation
and the second number reveals the sequence. This numeration must
appear in the table of contents and figures. Numeration and title of tables
and figures must appear above them. Use double spacing between tables,
figures and text
12) If tables and figures are taken from an external source, it is
imperative to show that source. Moreover, if they are compiled from a
database, that database must also be shown. If they are internet sources,
the full internet address and retrieval date must be written below the
figure.
13) It is imperative that the Researcher must use the IEEE
referencing system.
 1. Appendix
Appendix 1

External Reviewer Report

Student name ___________________________________________________________

Major ____________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

The topic:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
The scientific advisor
__________________________________________________________________

The content of the review:

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

The assessment:
______________________________________________________________________________
__

Reviewer _____________________________________________________________________
 (signature) (Name) Position, Degree, institution\ place of work

«____» ___________________

Appendix 2

Scientific Advisor Recommendation Letter

Student name ___________________________________________________________

Major ____________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

The topic:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________

The content of review:

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________

General conclusion:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Scientific Advisor ____________________________________________________________
(signature) (Position, Degree, Name)
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Appendix 3

Список научных трудов ______________________(Ф.И.О. магистранта)

Наименование специальности, шифр ______________________

№ Название статьи Характер Издательство, журнал, Объем Фамилии

название,
работы (п.л.) соавторов
номер, год, страницы

1 2 3 4 5 6

1 Статья

2 Статья

3 Статья

Технический секретарь (подпись) И.О.Ф.

Зав. Кафедрой (подпись) И.О.Ф.

Магистрант (подпись) И.О.Ф.

Дата «_____»___________ 20__г.

Approved at the Department meeting, protocol № 10 12.10. 2021 y.