Templates

Getting started with your seminar paper or thesis

Authors

Prof. Dr. Knut Haase

Dr. Tobias Vlćek

Types of Academic Work

The Institute of Logistics, Transport and Production supervises three types of academic work. The structure is similar across all three, but they differ in scope and depth.

Table 1: Comparison of academic work types
Seminar Paper Bachelor Thesis Master Thesis
Length 14–18 pages 26–40 pages 38–50 pages
Literature review Focused overview Comprehensive Exhaustive, with clear gap analysis
Own contribution Reproduce or extend an existing approach Apply a method to a new problem or dataset Develop or significantly extend a method
Computational study Small-scale Expected Required (thorough, with benchmarks)
Timeline 4 months Depends 6 months

Page counts include images, tables, and references, but exclude the title page, table of contents, and the lists of abbreviations and symbols. These are general guidelines. Your supervisor may set different expectations, so clarify the scope early.

Evaluation Criteria

Your work will be graded on these criteria. Keep them visible from day one, not just before submission.

Table 2: Evaluation criteria for academic work
Category What is evaluated
Problem statement & objective Practical and theoretical relevance, clarity of the research question
Structure Systematic organization, balanced sections, logical flow
Content Breadth and depth, connection to the research question, stringency of argumentation, originality
Methodology Appropriateness of the chosen method, traceability, quality (validity, reliability)
Literature Specificity and currency of sources, critical engagement, depth of reception
Form & style Comprehensibility, precision, figures and tables, error-free text, consistency

The criteria are adapted from the University of Hamburg’s guidelines for academic work at the Faculty of Business Administration.

Working with Your Supervisor

Talk to your supervisor before you start writing. Not after.

Discuss the scope, methodology, and timeline in your first meeting. Ask about specific requirements for your thesis type. Before you invest weeks of writing, submit a short exposé (one page for a bachelor thesis, one to two pages for a master thesis) outlining the problem, your research question, the planned methodology, and expected contributions. Your supervisor will give feedback on whether you are heading in a reasonable direction.

If you are unsure about whether a method is appropriate, ask. Adjusting your approach in week two costs you an afternoon. Discovering the problem during the final review costs you much more.

Revisit your research question regularly. Many students lose sight of it mid-way through and end up answering a different question by the conclusion. If your work drifts, discuss with your supervisor whether to adjust the question or refocus.

Check the evaluation criteria in Table 2 periodically as you write. If a criterion is clearly not being met, address it early rather than hoping it won’t be noticed.

Choosing a Template

We provide ready-to-use templates for seminar papers, bachelor theses, and master theses. The recommended option is Quarto with Typst, which produces professional PDFs without a LaTeX installation. A traditional LaTeX template is also available.

Table 3: Available templates
Template Language Format Requirements
seminar-paper-en.qmd English Quarto/Typst Quarto installed
seminar-paper-de.qmd German Quarto/Typst Quarto installed
Vorlage.tex German LaTeX LaTeX distribution + Biber

Download the files using the buttons in the sidebar.

Setting Up the Quarto Templates

Pick one language version of the .qmd file. Place it together with references.bib and typst-show.typ in your project folder, and create an images/ subfolder for the example figure:

Table 4: Required files
File Location Purpose
seminar-paper-en.qmd or seminar-paper-de.qmd project folder Your paper (edit this) — download only the language you need
references.bib project folder Your bibliography entries
typst-show.typ project folder Required helper for the custom title page
Image.pdf images/ subfolder Example figure referenced by the template

If you download the files individually from the sidebar, recreate the images/ subfolder and place the downloaded Image.pdf inside it. The template references images/Image.pdf as a placeholder figure, so rendering will fail until both the folder and the file are in place. Use the same images/ folder for your own figures, and do not delete typst-show.typ — it is required for the custom title page.

What the templates include

  • Custom UHH title page with university name, faculty, institute, thesis type, supervisor, and your details, all pre-formatted
  • Correct margins and formatting (left 40 mm, top 30 mm, right 25 mm, bottom 20 mm; 11 pt; 1.5 line spacing) matching UHH requirements
  • Table of contents, list of figures, and list of tables, generated automatically
  • List of abbreviations and list of symbols, pre-filled with examples
  • Citation setup with APA style using [@key] syntax
  • Booktabs-style tables with horizontal rules only
  • Example content with sample sections, figures, tables, equations, and cross-references
  • Declaration of authorship formatted according to university guidelines
  • AI tools declaration section

Editing the Title Page

The title page is defined in Typst code inside the YAML header. Look for the // ← markers to find the fields you need to change:

# In include-before-body, look for lines like:
#text(...)[Title of the Thesis]  // ← your title
*Last Name, First Name*          // ← your name
Matriculation No.: XXXXXXX       // ← your number
Prof. Dr. Knut Haase             // ← your supervisor

The rest of the YAML controls formatting and should not need changes.

Rendering

Render your document from the terminal:

quarto render seminar-paper-en.qmd

Or use live preview while writing:

quarto preview seminar-paper-en.qmd

quarto preview opens a browser window that automatically refreshes every time you save the file.

Setting Up the LaTeX Template

For the LaTeX template, download Vorlage.tex together with references.bib, and create an images/ subfolder for the example figure:

Table 5: Required files for LaTeX
File Location Purpose
Vorlage.tex project folder Your paper (edit this)
references.bib project folder Your bibliography entries
Image.pdf images/ subfolder Example figure referenced by the template

As with the Quarto templates, you must create an images/ subfolder yourself and place Image.pdf inside it. The template references images/Image.pdf, so compilation will fail until both the folder and the file are in place. The Quarto typst-show.typ helper is not needed for the LaTeX path.

Compile with the standard LaTeX toolchain:

pdflatex Vorlage.tex
biber Vorlage
pdflatex Vorlage.tex
pdflatex Vorlage.tex

Look for ############# markers in the file to find the fields you need to change (name, title, matriculation number, etc.).

AI Tools Declaration

Both templates include a required section for documenting your use of AI tools. Fill it in honestly and specifically. For each tool, describe which tool you used, for which tasks, and how you verified the output.

All AI-generated content must be reviewed, verified, and revised by you. You are responsible for the correctness of everything in your paper.

Next Steps

  • Read the Scientific Writing guide for paper structure, academic language, and common mistakes.
  • See the Quarto workshop to learn the formatting syntax (citations, cross-references, equations, figures, tables).
  • Set up Zotero for reference management (covered in the Literature Research workshop).