Introduction
1. The dissertation is an important part of your MSc Programme. The objectives of the dissertation are given below. These may help you understand what is expected of students in writing a dissertation. Objectives of a dissertation
To allow a student to demonstrate the ability to:
(a) complete a major and worthwhile piece of work, with some guidance, but largely self-motivated and with a minimum of supervision;
(b) write a large academic paper which is well-organised and which clearly and concisely communicates its contents to its readers;
(c) apply knowledge of investment analysis gained through coursework to a specific area of study, and to demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of that area; and
(d) recognise and formulate a problem, and show evidence of skills of inquiry, logical reasoning and analysis in addressing that problem.
2. The dissertation requires a considerable amount of work and in order to meet the deadline for the submission of your dissertation you must schedule your work through a series of self-imposed targets which you must ensure that you achieve. You must, therefore, plan ahead and keep to your plan.
3. There is a word limit on the dissertation of 10,000 words excluding tables and appendices. Any submission significantly in excess of this will not be acceptable and there should be a variance of no more than 10%.
4. Students whose dissertations fail to achieve a grade of 50% or better will be permitted one opportunity to resubmit and the deadline for resubmission will be three months from the date of notification of the fail grade. Databases and Statistical software
5. Access to the S&P Capital IQ and Thomson Reuters DataStream financial databases are available from the A-Z list on the Library website at http://libguides.stir.ac.uk/az or at http://libguides.stir.ac.uk/company. Both Capital IQ and DataStream provide access to data on shares and other financial instruments as well as financial statement information. Data from many financial markets around the world are available. Capital IQ can be accessed both on and off campus, enabling you to conduct research from your own accommodation or from your home country, if required. Our subscription permits an unlimited number of users, so everyone can use it at the same time. You will
find this the easiest way to collect financial data for your dissertation. To access Capital IQ you must be logged into the University portal before using the links above. DataStream is only available on campus, with a restricted number of users, so you are advised to obtain necessary data early in the dissertation process. Examples of how to
4 .access and how to search DataStream can also be found at the above web links. You may also find the FAME (Financial Management Made Easy) database of UK and Irish companies, published by Bureau van Dijk, to be of use. FAME may be accessed within the Library or via the A-Z list on the Library website. Some financial data are also freely available on the Internet, on websites such as Yahoo! Finance, although the coverage is less extensive than that provided by Capital IQ, DataStream and FAME. The analysis of data can be undertaken using Microsoft Excel or a variety of econometric and statistical software packages, including Stata, SPSS and Minitab, all of which are
available in University computer labs. You should discuss the use of appropriate software with your supervisor. Use this Search page to find out where the software is available on campus. SPSS and Minitab can also be installed on your own device using a University licence. The statistical packages most likely to be of assistance are Minitab, SPSS and Stata. Access to Microsoft Office for word processing will also be available in computing labs during the summer period. Supervision
6. The responsibility of the Supervisor is to give advice on the methodology needed to complete a good dissertation. It is NOT the Supervisor’s responsibility to proofread the student’s work.
7. The dissertation is the student’s responsibility and is a means of demonstrating personal ability to complete independently a major piece of work with minimum supervision. The end product must be your work not that of your supervisor, and it is your responsibility to determine what needs to be done within what time frame.
8. The frequency of contact and methods of working are matters for you to arrange between yourself and your supervisor. Students can reasonably expect up to 8 hours of supervision (including supervisor’s reading time) during the preparation of their dissertation and before final submission. Supervisors may require students to prepare contact reports of all meetings.
9. The supervisor’s main concerns will be to advise on
(a) The identification of an appropriate topic;
(b) General methodology;
(c) Approaches to the literature review and analysis of the chosen topic;
(d) Linking up and connecting the chapters of the dissertation;
(e) Choice of method(s) of analysis;
(f) Analysis of the findings; and
(g) Presentation of meaningful recommendations and conclusions.
10. You should not expect your supervisor to read every word in your drafts nor to provide detailed and comprehensive comments on each chapter. The supervisor’s responsibility is to assist you to identify deficiencies in your work which may be discernible only by an external reader. Any work submitted to your supervisor should be word processed.
11. The standard of English, style and overall presentation of the dissertation is the responsibility of the student. The student must ensure a high standard of English grammar
5 and spelling. This is NOT the Supervisor’s responsibility and students should find another student or friend to assist ensuring a high standard of English within the dissertation.
12. It must be stressed that the aim of the dissertation is to assess the ability of the student to undertake INDEPENDENT work.
Plagiarism
13. The dissertation must represent the student’s own efforts and be the student’s own work. It is plagiarism for a student to pass off the work of others as though it were the work of the student. Plagiarism may be defined as: “presenting written material where there is lack of acknowledgement of the source of work including data such as graphs and tables.” Clear evidence of plagiarism in the dissertation will result in students being penalised
in accordance with the University’s policy on ‘Academic Misconduct’. Note that it is not sufficient merely to list a source in the bibliography to express a general indebtedness. To avoid a charge of plagiarism, all sources must be specifically, precisely and accurately referenced in accordance with good academic practice. When a source is directly quoted word-for-word, the passage quoted should be placed within quotation marks or indented and the source accurately referenced, in parenthesis, in a footnote, or in an endnote, according to a recognised system. There must be no ambiguity about where the quotation ends or begins. The source of any data cited (e.g. figures, tables, charts) should be made explicit. Crucially, you should note that when ideas, or an argument, are reproduced from a source in a general or paraphrased way, the source must also be acknowledged. A link to the University’s policy on ‘Academic Misconduct’ is provided the end of this handbook. If you are in any doubt about what constitutes plagiarism, or how to properly acknowledge a source, consult your supervisor. You may find The Little Book of Plagiarism, a publication produced by Stirling University’s Student Learning Services, to be a useful source of information. It is located at: http://www.plagiarism.stir.ac.uk/documents/BookofPlagiarism.pdf Students should be aware that all dissertations will be processed by the JISC plagiarism detection software Turnitin. This is used to determine if plagiarism is likely to be present in a dissertation, though other means of plagiarism detection may
also be used. Turnitin will be available for all students to check their own work. It is very important that only your work is uploaded to your Turnitin account. Formal Meeting In situations where we have doubts that the dissertation is the work of the student, we may require the student to undertake a formal meeting (oral interview) to determine whether or not the dissertation is indeed the work of the student.
6 Types of Dissertation
14. You are free to choose one of the following two types of dissertation:
(a) Case Study Dissertation
An investment analysis of a company with the objective of producing an evaluation of the worth of the company’s shares for a potential investor. You should reach a recommendation as to whether the company is a “buy”, “hold” or
“sell”, with the conclusion carefully supported by argument and appropriate calculations.
(b) Academic Topic Dissertation
Research an academic topic of relevance and importance to investment analysis. You may choose a topic which was discussed in one of the taught modules or a particular issue from the finance literature. You can consider the application of different research methodologies commonly used in finance, such as the event study methodology, multiple regression analysis, logit /probit analysis, etc.
15. Case Study Dissertation
You should recognise that the Case Study Dissertation has two purposes:
(a) It should represent a substantial piece of academic work which refers to appropriate material which you have studied whilst on the MSc in Investment Analysis. Though similar to a stockbroker’s financial analysis report it should be clear that such an academic work requires fully supported arguments and justified calculations. Unsupported journalese will not suffice. Make sure you include a comprehensive and accurate bibliography.
(b) It should be aimed at investors who wish to make decisions on whether to buy, sell or hold shares in the company/sector you are investigating. The quantitative analysis used to reach the decision should be consistent with the main issues of the dissertation (e.g. there is no point in including an analysis of the effect of National Income on sales of soft drinks if you are analysing companies in the footwear sector). It also implies that the main text of your dissertation should be comprehensible to the average (institutional) investor. If you use technical terms, explain them in footnotes, appendices or a glossary. Your company should be listed on a stock market, and may be from any sector, though you should be conscious of the greater challenges involved in analysing a financial company. A company covered by another MSc student either this academic year, or the previous academic year, may not be chosen, so please check with the list of excluded companies listed later in this document. One chapter of the case study must include an overview of an academic topic that is relevant to the company in question, including a
literature review of the topic. In addition, your selected company should not be one of which you either have much prior knowledge or have privileged access via friends, relatives or other contacts. This is necessary to avoid an unfair advantage being available to certain fortunate individuals. It is important that you recognise the limitations of fundamental analysis as applied to company valuations and any specific valuation models which you use (for example in
