Thesis tips

This document lists some tips for those who have started a thesis with one of our chair members.

Basics

Thesis Guide – by alumni Elmar Juergens; contains tips on thesis structure and content
TUM Citation Guide – mandatory rules regarding correct citations
TUM Guidelines for thesis writing and formatting (German version) – especially note:
- TUM Student Code of Conduct
- The Use of English in Thesis Titles at TUM
- Mandatory guidelines for registration and formatting

Thesis template
- Simple template – if you are new to LaTeX.
- Advanced template – for more advanced users.
Bibliography management
- Use a reference management software (comparison of popular options).
- We like JabRef, but anything that produces a valid .bib file is fine.
- You want to clean up your bib file? Use bibtex-tidy. It is available as a website or CLI.
LaTeX editor
- Online: TUM Overleaf / ShareLaTeX
- Local
  - TeXstudio
  - Visual Studio Code with LaTeX plugin
If you are inexperienced with it, check out learn LaTeX in X minutes

Use the eAccess bookmarklet to access scientific libraries and papers online.
As soon as you start reading a paper, save it to your database to avoid forgetting it.

Databases
- dblp
- The Lens
- Scopus (authentication required)
- Web of Science (authentication required)
- OPAC and OPACplus search of the TUM university library – mainly useful to search for books
- More databases can be found in the database information system.
Search engines
- Google Scholar
- Semantic Scholar
- Dimensions AI
- Internet Archive Scholar (find papers that are not on the Internet anymore – or never were)
Snowballing tools
- Connected Papers
- Citation Gecko

Query strategies
- Search with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)
- Utilize truncations (organi?ation*, colo$r)
- Find concrete help for dblp, for The Lens, for Scopus, and for Web of Science.
Search strategies
- Systematic Literature Review
- Snowballing