PG Handbook for Research (Structure A)

A candidate shall pass the proposal defence within the norm and maximum periods, relative to the registration date of the programme as follows:

Upon recommendation from the Supervisor and Co-Supervisor, the candidate shall submit the proposal defence form together with a mini thesis to the Faculty at least TWO weeks before the proposal defence. The mini thesis should include (but is not limited to) the following:

1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Methodology
4. Future Work

A candidate shall be given THREE attempts to pass the proposal defence. A pass will be graded as ‘S’ while failure will be graded as ’US’. Failure on the third consecutive attempt within the maximum period of proposal defence or obtaining the grade of ‘US’ beyond the maximum period of proposal defence, whichever is earlier, shall result in the termination of the candidature.

Forms and Guidelines

1. Research Proposal Defence Form

Every candidate must submit a half-yearly progress report and present his progress report in a research colloquium twice a year as part of the progress monitoring in June and December.

The progress report shall indicate the achievements/milestones achieved/list of publications (if any), etc. and also include the work plan (including thesis writing plan) for the next 6 months.

Candidate has to register for Progress Monitoring via system.

The appointed panel of evaluators shall grade the progress of the candidate either Satisfactory (S) or Unsatisfactory (US).

Failure to present in the half-yearly research colloquium will result in the candidate being given a ‘US’ grade.

A candidate will have his candidature terminated after obtaining 3 consecutive ‘US’ grades

Forms and Guidelines

1. PPM Guidelines
2. PPM Kit – A Step by Step Guide

The Work Completion Defense (WCD) is to evaluate if the student has done sufficient work for the relevant degree. The WCD is a pre-requisite for thesis submission.

The candidate must obtain the agreement and signatures of the Supervisor, Co-Supervisor and Dean of Faculty, who will verify on the work completion defence form whether the candidate has:

1) Completed and passed all pre-requisite courses and proposal defence seminar
2) An active candidature by the time of work completion defence
3) Fulfilled the minimum period for thesis submission
4) Completed the draft thesis (containing all chapters)
5) Paid up in full all fees and dues owed to the University
6) Ensure a valid VISA is held during the time the WCD is undertaken (Applicable to International Students only)
7) Acknowledge the requirement to fulfill the academic residential requirement (Applicable to International Students only)

IMPORTANT NOTE: All candidates must ensure their research work is fully completed and aim to submit the final thesis within a maximum of THREE (3) MONTHS from the date of thesis title approval. Failure to submit the thesis within this stipulated period after WCD will result in the need to re-examination of the WCD. Please also note that the thesis submission should only proceed after the Senate has granted the approval of the thesis title.

Forms and Guidelines

1. Work Completion Defence Form

A candidate is advised to make early plan for research publication with the supervisors. The publication requirements are given as follows:

Notes:

• Publications accepted should be co-authored with supervisor(s).
• If there are two or more students listed as co-authors of an article, only the first student author is allowed to use the article to fulfill his publication requirement.
• Publications accepted must be within the candidature period of the candidate.
• Publications accepted must be derived from the research output of the candidate and conform to the candidate’s thesis/dissertation.
• Publications accepted must carry the affiliation of the department/faculty/institution where the candidate is registered.
• It is the accountability of the candidate and supervisor(s) to ensure that the contents of the published work are allowed by the publisher to be used in the candidate’s thesis/dissertation for academic purpose.
• Blacklisted journals by MOE are NOT accepted.

¹        If a journal is listed both in the MyCite and WoS/SCOPUS, thus the publication is considered indexed by WoS/SCOPUS.

²        Conference proceedings that are listed in the CORE Conference (A* or A) Ranking List (applicable to IT domain). A* and A are equivalent to SCOPUS Q1 and Q2, respectively.

³        Equivalent creative outputs that are listed in Appendix 1 which are recommended by the Faculty R&I Committee (applicable for creative domain).

⁴        Malayan Law Journal (MLJ) and Current Law Journal (CLJ) are accepted as other publications (applicable to law domain).

Web of Science (WoS) was originally produced and managed by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) but now it is managed by the Clarivate Analytics.

⁵          Web of Science Master Journal List – https://mjl.clarivate.com/search-results/

⁶          SCOPUS Book Title List – https://www.scopus.com/home.uri

⁷          CORE Conference Ranking List https://www.core.edu.au/

MMU financial sponsorship for language editing services for publication of SCOPUS/WoS/MyCite indexed journals. For more information, refer: http://research.mmu.edu.my/index.php?req=176&act=a6

For the list of the Blacklisted Journals, as recognized by the Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) and in accordance with other publication guidelines, please refer to the following source: http://research.mmu.edu.my/index.php?req=99&act=a35

For Publications Accepted/Published After 1 January 2024

Submit the Publication Verification Form to IPS via email (ips@mmu.edu.my) for verification.
Use one form per each publication.
The form should be submitted to IPS as soon as the publication is ACCEPTED by the publisher.

For Publications Published Before 1 January 2024

While optional, we strongly encourage students to perform publication verification even if the papers were published before 1 January 2024 to speed up the thesis submission process later on.

Important Notes:

Students must keep a copy of the form until the completion of their studies.
During thesis submission, students are required to attach all verified Publication Verification Forms along with the necessary documents to IPS.

Forms and Guidelines

1. Publication Verification Form

Go to https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri

Enter journal name or ISSN to search.

The percentile of a journal’s CiteScore percentile indicates its quartile. Use the display filter function to confirm the journal’s quartile.

Click on the journal name to view its detailed information.

Alternative Methods:
Method 1 (By Journal Title)

Method 2 (By Journal Title)

Method 3 (By Article Title)

On completion of the thesis, it is essential for the candidate to submit an unbound copy of the thesis to the Supervisors to be checked for conformity to the format stipulated in the ‘Guideline for Thesis Preparation’ (can be found in “Thesis Template and Writing Guideline” below) before it is allowed to be submitted for examination.

The candidate is also required to submit the Thesis Submission Form to IPS while adhering to the provided guideline (please refer to the “Guideline for Thesis Submission for Examination”).

Forms and Guidelines

1. Guideline for Thesis Submission for Examination
2. Thesis Submission Form
3. Similarity Index Form
4. Thesis Template and Writing Guideline

The viva voce will be arranged once the reports from all the examiners have been received. The candidate will be given ONE week notice for the viva. Due to the short notice given, candidates are advised to keep IPS informed of their whereabouts and contact numbers.

The University shall practice an open viva system where the viva session shall be open to the University community. The BOE will deliberate on the reports by the external and internal examiners without the presence of the candidate, after which the viva session shall start with the presentation by the candidate (approximately 30 – 45 minutes for a Ph.D. candidate and 20 – 30 minutes for a Master’s candidate) covering all aspects of a typical thesis:

• Introduction
• Objectives and Deliverables
• Contribution to Knowledge
• Research Background/Literature review
• Research Methodology/Analysis and Design
• Implementation/Results and Discussion
• Conclusion and Future Work

This will be followed by a defence of the thesis, i.e. Q&A session. In this session, the Supervisor and Co-Supervisor are not allowed to answer on behalf of the candidate unless requested by the Board.

The decision of the Board of Examiners will be conveyed to the candidate officially in writing by the Secretary of the Board within ONE week from the date of the viva voce.

The letter will indicate the amendments to be made to the thesis as suggested by the BOE. A copy of the letter will also be sent to the Supervisor/Co-Supervisor. One of the following decisions shall be made on the thesis at the conclusion of the viva-voce.

• Accepted
  • Accepted with some corrections in spelling, grammar and syntax.
  • Corrected thesis to be checked and verified by the Supervisors.
• Accepted with Minor Modifications
  • A thesis is accepted with minor modifications if it requires any of the followings: reformatting of chapters, improvement in declaration of research objectives or statement, insertion of missing references, amendment of inaccurately cited references, and minimal improvement in spelling, grammar, syntax and presentation.
  • BOE will decide on the duration for the candidate to make the corrections
• Accepted with Major Corrections
  • A thesis is accepted with major modifications if it requires any of the followings but not additional experimental work or data collection: major revision of the literature, major improvement in the description of the methodology, statistical analysis of the research data, re-presentation of written data in the form of figures or tables, an improvement in the discussion of results and extensive improvement in grammar, syntax and presentation.
  • The examiners may recommend the candidate to seek for the assistance of an editorial service if errors in grammar and syntax are extensive, in which case, the candidate is required to submit proof of engaging the service along with the final thesis.
  • BOE will decide on the duration for the candidate to make the corrections.
• Re-examination
  • The candidate is required to undertake further work, after which he shall re-submit the thesis for re-examination.
  • The duration for the candidate to complete the corrections and additional work, and resubmit the thesis is TWELVE (12) months from the date of the official written notice of the result to the candidate.
• Rejected
  • The thesis has not attained the status of a Master’s or a Ph.D. degree.

Forms and Guidelines

1. Viva-Voce Presentation Guideline

A candidate is required to submit an electronic copy to IPS within the stipulated time.

A candidate who fails to submit the amended thesis within the stipulated time is deemed to have the thesis rejected/failed.

*Please refer to the guideline : Guideline for Softcopies of Thesis Submission After Viva

Prior to the final submission, the candidate must submit a copy of the corrected thesis to the Supervisors for checking and verification that all required amendments have been completed.

If required, after the Supervisors have checked the thesis, it will be submitted to the stipulated Examiner to verify that all required amendments have been made. In the event of the absolute unavailability of the Examiner (resignation of the Examiner or other unforeseen circumstances), any member of the BOE may be assigned to verify the changes made to the thesis.

Forms and Guidelines

1. Guideline for Softcopies of Thesis Submission After Viva
2. Similarity Index Form

The Senate shall award the degree upon the recommendation of the BOE once all Requirements for Conferment of Degree have been met.

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