Make sure that all essential information is included on your title page:

• Topic of the thesis
• Thesis / Master Thesis / Project Report for the degree Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) or Master of Science (M.Sc.)
• By Jane Doe
• Supervisor: Prof. Prof. Dr. Firstname Lastname
• Nuremberg, DD.MM.YYYY (Summer Semester YYYY)

The statutory declaration must not be missing from any thesis:

I, Jane Doe, Matriculation No. 123456789, certify that I have written this thesis independently, have not submitted it elsewhere for examination purposes, have indicated all sources and tools used, and have marked literal and analogous quotes as such.

Plagiarism Declaration in Accordance with Examination Rules: I herewith declare that I have worked on this thesis independently. Furthermore, it was not submitted to any other examining committee. All sources and tools used in this thesis, including literal and analogous quotes, have been identified.

Here is the form.

This section contains a brief summary of the most important results of your work.

Structure and features:

• Total 250 to 300 words
• Purpose / Objective (5–10 sentences)
• Method (1–2 sentences)
• Results (2–3 sentences)
• Value / Benefit (2–3 sentences)

The summary is also called “abstract”.

This section lists all symbols and abbreviations used as a reference.

Latin symbols:

Greek symbols:

The introduction presents the background of your thesis.

It should clarify which current problems exist and why you aim to solve certain tasks in your work.

Your introduction should answer the following questions:

• Why is your work important?
• What contribution does your work make?
• What is the objective of your work? (research question, hypothesis, research goal)
• How was the research conducted?
• If applicable: How is the work structured?

The “theory” or “state of the art” section provides information on the most important theoretical and practical foundations of your thesis.

If applicable, multiple chapters may be useful: Optionally work with subchapters.

This also includes a critical assessment and discussion of the literature. After this, the readers understand the current state of knowledge or state of the art in the task area.

This section allows your audience to understand the type of work conducted, the analyses, and the subsequent evaluation or discussion of the results.

Information that is not necessary for understanding your work or not applied should not be described here.

Clarify with your supervisor whether a separate chapter for objectives and problem solving is needed or whether these aspects can be included in the introduction.

If you decide to include this chapter for a better understanding of your thesis, ensure that it fully covers the objectives or task description.

If your thesis involves multiple tasks contributing to the overall solution, it is helpful for readers to understand which tasks need to be completed and how you intend to solve them.

In this section, you document your experiments or measurements.

The following questions should be answered:

• Which devices (manufacturer), chemicals etc. were used?
• Which techniques were applied?
• How exactly did you perform the work?
• Why was this specific setup chosen?
• How were the obtained results analyzed?
• Are there factors that could influence the research?

Equipment:

Indicate which chemicals (incl. manufacturer and purity used) / devices were employed and how the experimental setup looked.

Methods:

Describe how you conducted your experiments or measurements.

This section documents the experimental procedure so that other professionals can reproduce the experiments.

Record all parameters relevant for later analysis (e.g. device parameters, eluents, preparation of standard and sample solutions etc.).

The traceability of your results is a strict requirement of quality assurance systems based on ISO 9000 ff.

If you develop a method, indicate the starting and final method and if applicable relevant intermediate steps.

Present your obtained measurement results – display them in tables!

If you have many spectra, chromatograms, or similar data, show only selected examples.

Avoid overly detailed displays in huge tables or too many measurement charts. If necessary, these are better placed in the appendix.

Your experimental results should be analyzed with respect to the fundamentals described in section 2 and, if possible, supported by statistical data, e.g. coefficient of variation, confidence interval, statistical significance of differences, number of replicates etc.

In the discussion, evaluate the results. Discuss how well the results fit theoretical frameworks or models, and how well they correspond with known literature results.

Also discuss the consequences of the results with respect to the research question.

This ensures that the obtained results are immediately interpreted and the derived conclusions are applied to further development.

Results: Neutral (!) presentation; no interpretation or personal opinion; concise and precise numbers, data, and facts; illustration of results using tables or charts (must be introduced in the text and have self-explanatory captions).

Discussion: Discussion based on derived diagrams, tables etc.; interpretation of results; What do the results mean? Why are they interesting? What can we learn from the results? Discussion must answer the research question! Discussion is more than personal opinion; What does the literature say? How can the results be explained or reconciled with the literature? Where are differences compared to the literature? Why do they exist?

Contents of a discussion: Point out similarities and differences; describe causes and effects; compare with literature, derive, confirm or refute hypotheses; support your discussion with derived data (diagrams), calculations, or models.

Provide – in a maximum of two pages – information about the results you have achieved regarding the fulfillment of your research question and the consequences you derive from these results.

The conclusion should consist of three parts:

• Summary
• Limitations
• Outlook / Further Work

Summary:

• Summary of the most important findings from the work
• Should not contain new aspects
• The “promises” from the introduction must be kept

Limitations:

• Specify limitations of your research (methodological, temporal, data collection)
• 3 to 5 aspects

Outlook:

• What would / could you research next based on your findings?
• 3 to 5 aspects

At the end of your work, include a complete literature list that details all sources.

More information on citing in chemistry and the literature list can be found in this article: Citing in Chemistry.

All tools used (programs, AI-tools etc.) must be indicated.

Coordinate with your supervisors regarding whether and to what extent you may use generative AI-tools in your final thesis.

All information necessary for understanding the work, which due to its volume or lower relevance does not fit into the main sections, is placed in the appendix.

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This article was published in October 2025 and last updated in February 2025.