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Description: Abstract Background and rationale: x Objective: To investigate characteristics (use of appendixes, language of cited sources, references to two qualitative reporting guidelines in bibliographies) of social work Bachelor theses written by HETSL students. Methods: 57 social work bachelor theses published by HETSL students were purposively selected. Key data on bachelor characteristics was then manually collected into pre-made tables. Results: A total of 7 clusters including 57 bachelor theses published from 2010 to 2017 were assessed for inclusion. 2 theses (both from cluster number 3 and both published in 2010) were excluded (one for not including a qualitative project and the other one for being reported in Italian). A total of 55 individual bachelor theses therefore provided data for this project. The 55 bachelor Theses included a total of 670 appendix pages. Individual Theses included between 0 and 60 pages of appendixes, with on average 12.20 appendixes per thesis (median: 8 pages per thesis). 45 out of 55 bachelor Theses (81.82%) included the questionnaire(s) or question(s) used among appendixes. 11 out of 55 bachelor Theses (20.00%) included interview transcripts among appendixes. 9 out of 55 bachelor Theses (16.36%) included copies of legal documents among appendixes. 9 out of 55 bachelor Theses (16.36%) included participant consent forms among appendixes. 6 out of 55 bachelor Theses (10.91%) included copies of emails sent among appendixes. 5 out of 55 bachelor Theses (9.10%) did not include appendixes at all. 30 out of 55 bachelor Theses (54.55%) included other types of appendixes. A total of 25 additional types of appendixes were found within the 55 included bachelor theses. The most commonly found other types of appendixes were: Glossaries (n=6, in 10.91% of theses), diagrams (n=6, in 10.91% of theses), state documents (n=5, in 9.10% of theses), quantitative data (n=4, in 7.27% of theses), procedures (n=3, in 5.45% of theses), statistical data (n=3, in 5.45% of theses), specifications (n=3, in 5.45% of theses), competency frameworks (n=3, in 5.45% of theses), flyers (n=3, in 5.45% of theses), organizational charts (n=2, in 3.63% of theses), key themes derived from interviews (n=2, in 3.63% of theses) and deontology codes (n=2, in 3.63% of theses). The 55 bachelor theses assessed included between 12 and 150 references, with on average 40.69 references per thesis (median: 33 references per thesis). 55 out of 55 bachelor theses (100%) included references to French sources. 13 out of 55 bachelor theses (23.64%) included references to English sources. 10 out of 55 bachelor theses (18.18%) included references to non-English and non-French sources (German, Italian and Columbian). There were 0 (0%) explicit references to the COREQ and SRQR reporting guidelines in the bibliographies of the 55 bachelor theses. Complete personal phone numbers from students and professors were found among some appendixes; personal addresses (city, street, street number and postal number) were also found among some appendixes. One bachelor thesis (not included in this study) used “black shading” to hide text but the thesis was available as PDF format and the PDF made it possible for astute readers to discover the hidden text (in this case two anonymized locations and a last name). Limitations: Only 5 to 11 bachelor theses were included for each publication year. These small samples might not be representative. Slight counting errors could also have occurred. They are unlikely to meaningfully change overall results. Conclusions: No straightforward patterns emerged from the data regarding the length (pages) of appendixes or the number of references used over the years. A minority of bachelor Theses included interview transcripts, participant consent forms and emails sent among appendixes. Only about a quarter of bachelor Theses included references to English language sources (with only between 1 and 13 English sources) and no bachelor thesis cited the COREQ or SRQR reporting guidelines. Funding: No funding was received for this work. Registration: See https://osf.io/2r8nu/files/ (version 3/4) Data and materials: See https://osf.io/35x7u/ Keywords: Social work, Switzerland, bachelor thesis, cross-sectional analysis, HES-SO, reporting guideline, appendixes, references, French Suggested citation: Vuillème, M. (March 16, 2020). Characteristics of Bachelor theses written by Swiss social work undergraduate students from HES-SO: A cross sectional analysis. Retrieved from https://osf.io/2r8nu/files/

License: CC-By Attribution 4.0 International

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