Provision of the Vice-Dean for Study P5
On the Submission of Bachelor’s, Master’s, and advanced Master´s Theses at the Faculty of Science, USB

on 1.11.2024

1. Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral theses (hereinafter “theses”) are published according to § 47b of Act No. 111/1998 Col. as amended (hereinafter “the Act”). The details of the method applied at USB are set by Provision of the Rector No. R 452 from 4.12.2010 (hereinafter “Provision R 452”) and for students of FSci USB also by this Provision.

2. The student is to submit to the Department of Student Affairs of FSci USB within the prescribed time period:

• a printed page listing the bibliographical details, annotations of the thesis, and a declaration in accordance with Article 4 of this Provision,
• in the case of a thesis containing published publications, a document with the student's declaration of their contribution to the published work as a percentage confirmed by the co-authors (confirmation for all co-authors may be issued by the corresponding author if he/she is not the student himself/herself),
• in the case of a thesis submitted only in full, but which contains published publications, a letter with the consent of the copyright holder^[1],
• in the case of postponed publication of a thesis, a statement of reasons containing the signatures of the author of the thesis and the supervisor, and the consent of the Dean,
• in the case of a thesis containing classified information, a statement of reasons containing the signatures of the author and the supervisor of the thesis^[2].

3. Electronic versions of a thesis entered into IS STAG

3.1 Format of electronic version of the thesis

• the text of the thesis is entered in PDF/A format without watermarks,
• electronic attachments are inserted compressed into a single file in ZIP format,
• the name of the uploaded files is to have the obligatory structure Surname_Name_year_type of thesis [BT/MT/RT] (_attachments), for example pdf,

in the case of attachments Smith_John_2020_BT_attachments.zip.

3.2 Entered versions and their publication

For the purposes of this provision, a full version of a thesis is one that contains the unabridged text of the thesis and any attachments convertible into electronic form. If the result of the thesis is software, the full version is to include its complete source code stored in an attachment to the text section.

For the purposes of this provision, an abbreviated version of a thesis means one that contains a text, some parts of which have been deleted and duly marked, or replaced by complete bibliographic data and an abstract, if a publication of which the student is the author or co-author has been published. If the result of the work is software, the abbreviated version is to include its complete source code stored in an appendix to the text section.

The following options are available for entering a thesis into IS STAG:

   a) If the thesis does not contain publications subject to the copyright of third parties (e.g., publishers), parts intended for deferred publication, or information classified according to a special regulation or contractual cooperation with a partner/s of USB, the student is to upload only the full version for publication into IS STAG.

   b) If the thesis contains already published parts and the student has the written consent of the copyright holder of the published work (typically the publisher of the publication, if it is not published in open access) with the inclusion of the work in a publicly available version of the qualification thesis, the student is to upload only the full version intended for publication into IS STAG, along with the student's declaration of their share in the published work in percent, confirmed by the co-authors, entered after the page with bibliographic data.

   c) If the thesis contains already published publications or manuscripts accepted for publication, but the student does not have the consent of the copyright holder to include them in a publicly available version of the qualification thesis, the student is to upload an abbreviated version for publication and a full version as a non-published attachment into IS STAG. In both forms, a page with the student's declaration of their share in the published work in percent, confirmed by the co-authors, is to be entered after the bibliographic data page. In the abbreviated version, bibliographic data and an abstract are always to be entered instead of the published thesis. In the case of a thesis demonstrably accepted for publication, the publisher of the journal or book where the manuscript is to be published is to be listed as well as information on the present stage of publication of the manuscript.

   d) If there is an intention to publish the qualifying thesis or its part or use it for the preparation of a patent application, the publication of the qualifying thesis or its part may be postponed with the consent of the Dean of the Faculty^[3], for the maximum period permitted by law. The student is to upload into IS STAG the version of the thesis that corresponds to the definitions given in points a), b) or c) of this article as a file permitted for publication no later than after the expiration of the statutory period.

   e) If the thesis contains classified information according to special regulations or based on a contract between USB, or an institution implementing a study programme in cooperation with USB, with an external partner, the student is to upload the full version of the thesis into IS STAG as a non-published attachment and an abbreviated version for publication which is to contain, enter after the bibliographic data page a document^[4] justifying the redaction of certain parts along with a link to the document on the basis of which the relevant part is classified. The justification is to include the signatures of the author of the thesis and the supervisor, as well as the consent of the Dean. The original version of the justification is to be delivered by the student to the Department of Student Affairs along with the documents meeting point 2 of this Provision.

4. Formal requirements of the thesis

4.1 The edges of the presented thesis are to be adjusted so that the edge at the back is 3 cm and the outer edge is 2.2 cm. The work is to be written in Times New Roman font size 12, line spacing is 1.5, text of the thesis aligned in block style.

4.2 The thesis is to begin with a title page containing:

• name of the university and name of the faculty,
• title of the thesis,
• type of thesis ("Bachelor’s thesis", "Master‘s thesis", "RNDr. thesis"),
• name and surname of the student and his/her titles,
• name, surname, and titles of the supervisor, if one has been appointed (if the supervisor is not an employee of the Faculty of Science of University of South Bohemia an abbreviation of the name of the supervisor or their employer) and the consultant (if appointed),
• place ("České Budějovice"),
• year of completion.

The language on the title page is to be the same as the language of the whole thesis. Examples of title pages for different types of thesis are attached (P3a-c) to this Provision. The form of the title page is binding.

4.3 Following the title page is to be inserted the page listing the bibliographic details of the thesis, including:

• the complete bibliographic details of the thesis, in which, after the Czech version of the name is to be inserted, in brackets, the English translation with the note: X thesis, in Czech, where instead of X, according to the study programme of the student, there should be , Mgr., or RNDr.,
• an annotation of the thesis in English to the length of several sentences defining what the thesis is concerned with (what the thesis is about, not a detailing of results),
• if the work includes materials that cannot be published electronically (e.g., models, prototypes ...), information on the place of their storage is to be provided,
• the following is the text of the declaration:

I declare that I am the author of this qualification thesis and that in writing it I have used the sources and literature displayed in the list of used sources only.

If the student has used any of the generative artificial intelligence tools in writing the thesis, the following text is added to the statement:

I further declare that I have used the [INSERT NAME(S)] generative artificial intelligence tool(s) or service(s) in accordance with academic ethics for the purpose of [ADD REASONS].

Place, date.
Student's signature

Example - Master’s thesis:

Hora, A., 1999: The distribution and population structure of golden mice of the genus Aureomys in Central Europe. Mgr. Thesis, in English. – 63 p., Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic. 

Annotation:
The distribution of six species of golden mice was studied in Central Europe including territories of the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Austria. For each species, population structure (sex ratio and age composition) was examined in at least two populations from each of the countries listed above.

The student's statement (detailed above), place, date and signature follow here:

4.4 Regarding a thesis of which parts are publications, a page detailing the contribution by the student to individual publications is to follow the page with bibliographical data and the declaration of the student. The expression of the student´s contribution is to be given as a percentage figure. This expression is not to be signed by the student or the co-authors (they are to sign the document submitted to the Department of Student Affairs only.) A page giving thanks to the supervisor, co-authors etc. may follow.

4.5 A contents page including the page number of the beginnings of individual chapters is to follow.

4.6 The title page, page with bibliographic data, and other pages including a contents page (list of chapters and page placement) are to be either without page numbers, with Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, VI ....), or, unless there are more than 4 pages, with small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv). Numbering with Arabic numerals is to start with number 1 on the page entitled Introduction and to continue throughout the whole volume including pages of attachments included with the thesis (i.e., after the list of literary references).

4.7 If the work contains results that cannot be converted into electronic form, such as models, prototypes etc., the electronic version of the work is to also include photographic documentation of such results.

4.8 If the thesis contains electronic attachments that are larger than 50 MB after compression according to point 3.1, the workplace where the defence of the thesis is to take place is to take responsibility for their secure storage in IS STAG. In such a case, the deposit is to take place before the application for defence can be filed.

4.9 If the thesis contains classified information, the student is to insert a statement of justification according to point 3.2 e) of this measure after the annotation and declaration sheet and in the place of each of the redacted parts in the abbreviated version insert the text “The following passage ranging from ... pages contain classified information and is contained in the full version of the thesis only, which is stored at the Faculty of Science, USB ".

5. In the case of deferred publication, the Department of Student Affairs of the Faculty will prepare one printed version of the thesis in order to comply with the provisions of § 47b, Paragraph 4 of the Act.

6. The provision P1 is cancelled.

7. This Provision shall enter into force on 1. 11. 2024.

RNDr. Tomáš Hauer, Ph.D.
Vice-Dean for Study

Annexes:

- P1 - application form - Request for Consent to Postpone Publication,
- P2 - application form - Justification for the Redaction of Certain Parts of a Thesis,
- P3 - templates of the title page of a Bachelor's (P3a), Master‘s (P3b), and RNDr. thesis (P3c); modification of the title page according to the example from the appendix is binding,
- P4 - Check-list - a guide for students submitting a qualification thesis

^[1]Not necessary if the thesis was published in open-access form.
^[2]Submission of such a thesis must be preceded by the Dean's consent to the use of classified information granted at least six months in advance (see Provision of the Dean D48).
^[3] The form set out in Annex 2 to this Provision is to be used to request consent to deferred publication.
^[4] The form set out in Annex 1 of this Provision is to be used.