thesis latex format

because LaTeX matters

Writing a thesis in latex.

Writing a thesis is a time-intensive endeavor. Fortunately, using LaTeX, you can focus on the content rather than the formatting of your thesis. The following article summarizes the most important aspects of writing a thesis in LaTeX, providing you with a document skeleton (at the end) and lots of additional tips and tricks.

Document class

The first choice in most cases will be the report document class:

See here for a complete list of options. Personally, I use draft a lot. It replaces figures with a box of the size of the figure. It saves you time generating the document. Furthermore, it will highlight justification and hyphenation errors ( Overfull \hbox ).

Check with your college or university. They may have an official or unofficial template/class-file to be used for writing a thesis.

Again, follow the instructions of your institution if there are any. Otherwise, LaTeX provides a few basic command for the creation of a title page.

Use \today as \date argument to automatically generate the current date. Leave it empty in case you don’t want the date to be printed. As shown in the example, the author command can be extended to print several lines.

For a more sophisticated title page, the titlespages package has a nice collection of pre-formatted front pages. For different affiliations use the authblk package, see here for some examples.

Contents (toc/lof/lot)

Nothing special here.

The tocloft package offers great flexibility in formatting contents. See here for a selection of possibilities.

Often, the page numbers are changed to roman for this introductory part of the document and only later, for the actual content, arabic page numbering is used. This can be done by placing the following commands before and after the contents commands respectively.

LaTeX provides the abstract environment which will print “Abstract” centered as a title.

The actual content

The most important and extensive part is the content. I strongly suggest to split up every chapter into an individual file and load them in the main tex-file.

In thesis.tex:

In chapter1.tex:

This way, you can typeset single chapters or parts of the whole thesis only, by commenting out what you want to exclude. Remember, the document can only be generated from the main file (thesis.tex), since the individual chapters are missing a proper LaTeX document structure.

See here for a discussion on whether to use \input or \include .

Bibliography

The most convenient way is to use a bib-tex file that contains all your references. You can download bibtex items for articles, books, etc. from Google scholar or often directly from the journal websites.

Two packages are commonly used to personalize bibliographies, the newer biblatex and the natbib package, which has been around for many years. These packages offer great flexibility in customizing the look of a bibliography, depending on the preference in the field or the author.

Other commonly used packages

• graphicx : Indispensable when working with figures/graphs.
• subfig : Controlling arrangement of several figures (e.g. 2×2 matrix)
• minitoc : Adds mini table of contents to every chapter
• nomencl : Generate and format a nomenclature
• listings : Source code printer for LaTeX
• babel : Multilingual package for standard document classes
• fancyhdr : Controlling header and footer
• hyperref : Hypertext links for LaTeX
• And many more

Minimal example code

I’m aware that this short post on writing a thesis only covers the very basics of a vast topic. However, it will help you getting started and focussing on the content of your thesis rather than the formatting of the document.

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16 comments.

8. June 2012 at 7:09

I would rather recommend a documentclass like memoir or scrreprt (from KOMA-Script), since they are much more flexible than report.

8. June 2012 at 8:12

I agree, my experience with them is limited though. Thanks for the addendum. Here is the documentation: memoir , scrreprt (KOMA script)

8. June 2012 at 8:02

Nice post Tom. I’m actually writing a two-part (or three) on Writing the PhD thesis: the tools . Feel free to comment, I hope to update it as I write my thesis, so any suggestions are welcome.

8. June 2012 at 8:05

Thanks for the link. I just saw your post and thought I should really check out git sometimes :-). Best, Tom.

8. June 2012 at 8:10

Yes, git is awesome. It can be a bit overwhelming with all the options and commands, but if you’re just working alone, and probably on several machines, then you can do everything effortlessly with few commands.

11. June 2012 at 2:15

That’s what has kept me so far. But I’ll definitely give it a try. Thanks!

8. June 2012 at 8:08

What a great overview. Thank you, this will come handy… when I finally get myself to start writing that thesis 🙂

8. June 2012 at 14:12

Thanks and good luck with your thesis! Tom.

9. June 2012 at 4:08

Hi, I can recommend two important packages: lineno.sty to insert linenumbers (really helpful in the debugging phase) and todonotes (allows you to insert todo-notes for things you still have to do.)

11. June 2012 at 0:48

Thanks Uwe! I wrote an article on both, lineno and todonotes . Here is the documentation: lineno and todonotes for more details.

12. June 2012 at 15:51

Thanks for the post, i’m currently writing my master thesis 🙂

A small note: it seems that subfig is deprecated for the subcaption package: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Floats,_Figures_and_Captions#Subfloats

12. June 2012 at 16:05

Hey, thanks for the tip. Too bad they don’t say anything in the documentation apart from the fact that the packages are not compatible.

1. August 2012 at 21:11

good thesis template can be also found here (free): http://enjobs.org/index.php/downloads2

including living headers, empty pages, two-sided with front and main matter as well as a complete structure

2. August 2012 at 11:03

Thanks for the link to the thesis template!

15. November 2012 at 22:21

Hi Tom, I’m writing a report on spanish in LaTex, using emacs, auctex, aspell (~170pags. ~70 files included by now) and this blog is my savior every time because I’m quite new with all these.

The question: Is there anyway (other than \- in every occurrence) to define the correct hyphenation for accented words (non english characters like é)? I have three o four accented words, about the subject of my report, that occur near 100 times each, across several files, and the \hyphenation{} command can’t handle these.

20. November 2012 at 3:47

I was wondering what packages you load in your preamble. For a better hyphenation (and easier typing), you should use these packages:

See here for more details.

If this doesn’t help, please provide a minimal working example to illustrate the problem.

Thanks, Tom.

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Research Guides

Submit and publish your thesis.

• The Graduate Thesis: What is it?
• Thesis Defences
• Deadlines and Fees
• Formatting in MS Word

Formatting in LaTeX

• Making Thesis Accessible
• Thesis Embargo
• Review and Release
• Your Rights as an Author
• Re-using Third Party Materials
• Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
• Turning Thesis into an Article
• Turning Thesis into a Book
• Other Venues of Publication

For formatting instructions and requirements see the Formatting section of the School of Graduate Studies website. The thesis style template for LaTeX ( ut-thesis ) implements these requirements. You are not required to use the template, but using it will make most of the formatting requirements easier to meet.

►► Thesis template for LaTeX .

Below are some general formatting tips for drafting your thesis in LaTeX.  In addition, there are other supports available:

• Regular LaTeX workshops are offered via the library, watch the library workshop calendar at https://libcal.library.utoronto.ca/
• With questions about LaTeX formatting, contact Map and Data Library (MDL) using this form
• There are also great resources for learning LaTeX available via Overleaf

Many common problems have been solved on the TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange Q & A Forum

LaTeX Template

To use the LaTeX and ut-thesis , you need two things: a LaTeX distribution (compiles your code), and an editor (where you write your code). Two main approaches are:

• Overleaf : is a web-based platform that combines a distribution (TeX Live) and an editor. It is beginner-friendly (minimal set-up) and some people prefer a cloud-based platform. However, manually uploading graphics and managing a bibliographic database can be tedious, especially for large projects like a thesis.
• A LaTeX distribution can be installed as described here . ut-thesis can then be installed either: a) initially, with the distribution; b) automatically when you try to compile a document using \usepackage{ut-thesis} ; or manually via graphical or terminal-based package manager for the distribution.
• The LaTeX distribution allows you to compile code, but provides no tools for writing (e.g. syntax highlighting, hotkeys, command completion, etc.). There are many editor options that provide these features. TeXstudio is one popular option.

Occasionally, the version of ut-thesis on GitHub  may be more up-to-date than the popular distributions (especially yearly TeX Live), including small bug fixes. To use the GitHub version, you can download the file ut-thesis.cls (and maybe the documentation ut-thesis .pdf ) and place it in your working directory. This will take priority over any other versions of ut-thesis on your system while in this directory.

LaTeX Formatting Tips

Here are a few tips & tricks for formatting your thesis in LateX.

Document Structure

Using the ut-thesis document class, a minimal example thesis might look like:

\documentclass{ut-thesis} \author {Your Name} \title {Thesis Title} \degree {Doctor of Philosophy} \department {LaTeX} \gradyear {2020} \begin {document}   \frontmatter   \maketitle   \begin {abstract}     % abstract goes here   \end {abstract}   \tableofcontents   \mainmatter   % main chapters go here   % references go here   \appendix   % appendices go here \end {document}

►►  A larger example is available on GitHub here .

You may want to consider splitting your code into multiple files. The contents of each file can then be added using \input{filename} .

The usual commands for document hierarchy are available like \chapter , \section , \subsection , \subsubsection , and \paragraph . To control which appear in the \tableofcontents , you can use \setcounter{tocdepth}{i} , where i = 2 includes up to \subsection , etc. For unnumbered sections, use \section* , etc. No component should be empty, such as \section{...} immediately followed by \subsection{...} .

Note: In the examples below, we denote the preamble vs body like:

preamble code --- body code

Tables & Figures

In LaTeX, tables and figures are environments called “floats”, and they usually don’t appear exactly where you have them in the code. This is to avoid awkward whitespace. Float environments are used like \begin{env} ... \end{env} , where the entire content ... will move with the float. If you really need a float to appear exactly “here”, you can use:

\usepackage{float} --- \begin{ figure}[H] ... \end {figure}

Most other environments (like equation) do not float.

A LaTeX table as a numbered float is distinct from tabular data. So, a typical table might look like:

\usepackage{booktabs} --- \begin {table}   \centering   \caption {The table caption}   \begin {tabular}{crll}     i &   Name & A &  B \\     1 &  First & 1 &  2 \\     2 & Second & 3 &  5 \\     3 &  Third & 8 & 13   \end {tabular} \end {table}

The & separates cells and \\ makes a new row. The {crll} specifies four columns: 1 centred, 1 right-aligned, and 2 left-aligned.

Fancy Tables

Some helpful packages for creating more advanced tabular data:

• booktabs : provides the commands \toprule , \midrile , and \bottomrule , which add horizontal lines of slightly different weights.
• multicol : provides the command \multicolumn{2}{r}{...} to “merge” 2 cells horizontally with the content ... , centred.
• multirow : provides the command \multirow{2}{*}{...} , to “merge” 2 cells vertically with the content ... , having width computed automatically (*).

A LaTeX figure is similarly distinct from graphical content. To include graphics, it’s best to use the command \includegraphics from the graphicx package. Then, a typical figure might look like:

\usepackage{graphicx} --- \begin {figure}   \centering   \includegraphics[width=.6 \textwidth ]{figurename} \end {figure}

Here we use .6\textwidth to make the graphic 60% the width of the main text.

By default, graphicx will look for figurename in the same folder as main.tex ; if you need to add other folders, you can use \graphicspath{{folder1/}{folder2/}...} .

The preferred package for subfigures is subcaption ; you can use it like:

\usepackage{subcaption} --- \begin {figure} % or table, then subtable below   \begin {subfigure}{0.5 \textwidth }     \includegraphics[width= \textwidth ]{figureA}     \caption {First subcaption}   \end {subfigure}   \begin {subfigure}{0.5 \textwidth }     \includegraphics[width= \textwidth ]{figureB}     \caption {Second subcaption}   \end {subfigure}   \caption {Overall figure caption} \end {figure}

This makes two subfigures each 50% of the text width, with respective subcaptions, plus an overall figure caption.

Math can be added inline with body text like $E = m c^2$ , or as a standalone equation like:

\begin {equation}   E = m c^2 \end {equation}

A complete guide to math is beyond our scope here; again, Overleaf provides a great set of resources to get started.

Cross References

We recommend using the hyperref package to make clickable links within your thesis, such as the table of contents, and references to equations, tables, figures, and other sections.

A cross-reference label can be added to a section or float environment using \label{key} , and referenced elsewhere using \ref{key} . The key will not appear in the final document (unless there is an error), so we recommend a naming convention like fig:diagram , tab:summary , or intro:back for \section{Background} within \chapter{Intro} , for example. We also recommend using a non-breaking space ~ like Figure~\ref{fig:diagram} , so that a linebreak will not separate “Figure” and the number.

You may need to compile multiple times to resolve cross-references (and citations). However, this occurs by default as needed in most editors.

The LaTeX package tikz provides excellent tools for drawing diagrams and even plotting basic math functions. Here is one small example:

\usepackage{tikz} --- \begin {tikzpicture}   \node [red,circle]  (a) at (0,0) {A};   \node [blue,square] (b) at (1,0) {B};   \draw [dotted,->]   (a) -- node[above]{ $ \alpha $ } (b); \end {tikzpicture}

Don’t forget semicolons after every command, or else you will get stuck while compiling.

There are several options for managing references in LaTeX. We recommend the most modern package: biblatex , with the biber backend.  A helpful overview is given here .

Assuming you have a file called references.bib that looks like:

@article{Lastname2020,   title = {The article title},   author = {Lastname, First and Last2, First2 and Last3 and First3},   journal = {Journal Name},   year = {2020},   vol = {99},   no = {1} } ...

then you can cite the reference Lastname2020 using biblatex like:

\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex} \addbibresource {references.bib} --- \cite {Lastname2020} ... \printbibliography

Depending on what editor you’re using to compile, this may work straight away. If not, you may need to update your compiling command to:

pdflatex main && biber main && pdflatex main && pdflatex main

Assuming your document is called main.tex . This is because biber is a separate tool from pdflatex . So in the command above, we first identify the cited sources using pdflatex , then collect the reference information using biber , then finish compiling the document using pdflatex , and then we compile once more in case anything got missed.

There are many options when loading biblatex to configure the reference formatting; it’s best to search the CTAN documentation for what you want to do.

Windows users may find that biber.exe or bibtex.exe get silently blocked by some antivirus software. Usually, an exception can be added within the antivirus software to allow these programs to run.

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• Last Updated: Sep 15, 2023 3:23 PM
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Overleaf for Scholarly Writing & Publication: LaTeX Theses and Dissertations

• Reference Managers and Overleaf
• Adding Graphs, Tables, and Images
• Using Templates on Overleaf
• LaTeX Theses and Dissertations

LaTeX Theses and Dissertatons

Tips and tools for writing your LaTeX thesis or dissertation in  Overleaf, including templates, managing references , and getting started guides.

Managing References

BibTeX  is a file format used for lists of references for  LaTeX  documents. Many citation management tools support the ability to export and import lists of references in .bib format. Some reference management tools can generate  BibTeX  files of your library or folders for use in your  LaTeX  documents.

LaTeX on Wikibooks   has a  Bibliography Management  page.

Find list of BibTeX styles available on Overleaf   here

View a video tutorial on how to include a bibliography using BibTeX  here

Collaborate with Overleaf

Collaboration tools

Every project you create has a secret link. Just send it to your co-authors, and they can review, comment and edit. Overleaf synchronizes changes from all authors, so everyone always has the latest version. More advanced tools include protected projects and integration with Git.

Collaborate online and offline with Overleaf and Git

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Getting Started with Your Thesis or Dissertation

How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard thesis template from the  Overleaf Gallery .

You can  upload your own thesis template to the Overleaf Gallery   if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files or you may find your university's thesis template already in the Overleaf Gallery.

This video assumes you've used LaTeX before and are familiar with the standard commands (see our other  tutorial videos   if not), and focuses on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

How to Write your Thesis/Dissertation in LaTeX: A Five-Part Guide

Five-Part LaTeX Thesis/Dissertation  Writing Guide

Part 1: Basic Structure   corresponding  video

Part 2: Page Layout   corresponding  video

Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables   corresponding  video

Part 4: Bibliographies with Biblatex  corresponding  video

Part 5: Customizing Your Title Page and Abstract   corresponding  video

Link Your ORCID

Link yo ur  ORCiD  account  to your  Overleaf account  via the  ORCID @ CMU Portal

Open Knowledge Librarian

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Overleaf for LaTeX Theses & Dissertations: Home

• Using Templates on Overleaf
• Reference Managers and Overleaf
• Adding Tables, Images, and Graphs

Tips and tools for writing your LaTeX thesis or dissertation in Overleaf, including templates, managing references , and getting started guides.

Managing References

BibTeX is a file format used for lists of references for LaTeX documents. Many citation management tools support the ability to export and import lists of references in .bib format. Some reference management tools can generate BibTeX files of your library or folders for use in your LaTeX documents.

LaTeX on Wikibooks has a Bibliography Management page.

Find list of BibTeX styles available on Overleaf here

View a video tutorial on how to include a bibliography using BibTeX  here

Collaborate with Overleaf

Collaboration tools

• One version of your project accessible to collaborators via a shared link or email invitation
• Easily select the level of access for collaborators (view, edit, or owner access)
• Real-time commenting speeds up the review process
• Tracked changes and full history view help to see contributions from collaborators
• Labels help to organize and compare different versions
• Chat in real time with collaborators right within the project

How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard thesis template from the Overleaf Gallery .

You can upload your own thesis template to the Overleaf Gallery if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files or you may find your university's thesis template already in the Overleaf Gallery.

This video assumes you've used LaTeX before and are familiar with the standard commands (see our other tutorial videos  if not), and focuses on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

Add Institutional Library contact info here.

Contact Overleaf   or email [email protected]

5-part Guide on How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX

5-part LaTeX Thesis Writing Guide

Part 1: Basic Structure corresponding  video

Part 2: Page Layout corresponding  video

Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables   corresponding video

Part 4: Bibliographies with Biblatex corresponding video

Part 5: Customizing Your Title Page and Abstract corresponding video

ShareLaTeX Joins Overleaf!

Read more about Overleaf and ShareLaTeX joining forces here

Link your ORCiD ID

Link your ORCiD account to your Overleaf account.

See Overleaf news   on  our blog.

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• Last Updated: May 18, 2021 1:57 PM
• URL: https://overleaf.libguides.com/Thesis

Graduate Education

Office of graduate and postdoctoral education, thesis templates.

The following thesis format templates should help you get started with formatting your thesis or dissertation. Georgia Tech provides free Overleaf Professional accounts for all students, faculty, and staff who would like to use the collaborative, online LaTeX editor for their projects.

• LaTeX Template (.zip) - updated May 2020
• Featured LaTeX templates on Overleaf
• Word Thesis Template (.docx) - updated August 2016
• Georgia Tech Engineering Reference Management System (GTERMS)

LaTeX Resources

• LaTeX Project
• Set the Quick Build command configuration to: “PdfLaTeX + Bib(la)tex) + PdfLaTeX (x2) + View Pdf”.
• Use the Quick Build command to compile and view your .pdf file.
• If you decide to use a “build” subdirectory for output files, you must point BibTeX to the proper subdirectory.

LaTeX is a powerful text processing and formatting tool that produces clean, consistent results. This high-quality typesetting system is a free service provided by Georgia Tech. It is available on many platforms and can be used with the editor of your choice. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents.

Although Graduate Education does not offer direct technical support, Tech does provide help via campus partners such as the Library and Overleaf (online LaTeX editor). Please check the Library events page for courses on LaTex, or contact Overleaf directly.

Many students have also found useful tips for dealing with specific problems by entering keywords such as "LaTeX formatting table captions" in their favorite search engines.

Most Common LaTeX to PDF Problem

The most common problem we see with Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETDs) created in LaTeX is the altering of the page size, particularly an increase of the bottom margin to more than one inch, and sometimes an accompanying decrease in the top and/or right margins to less than the requisite one inch. Less frequently, there will also be problems with figures disappearing or changing appearance. The sizing error may be introduced inadvertently during the conversion from .dvi to .pdf or .ps when the program doing the converting defaults to the A4 European page size. Always check your PDF file after conversion, even if your source file looked perfect.

The following fixes have been found by your fellow Tech graduate students and passed along to the Graduate Thesis Office. We hope they help you:

• First, before converting the .tex file to .dvi, make sure the class header file in your .tex file says something like "\documentclass[12pt, letter]{article}".
• If you are converting the resulting .dvi file to a .ps file, be sure the dvips options specify "-P pdf -t letter".
• When you are converting to .pdf from either the .dvi file directly or from a .ps file, locate the C:\texmf\dvipdfm\config\config\ or analogous folder for PDFs in your system. Replace the line "p a4" with "p letter".

Check our frequently asked questions (FAQ) to see if your question has already been answered. Else, contact Graduate Education at [email protected] .

Accessibility Information

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The MIT thesis template in LaTeX

The latex template.

The current MIT thesis template was developed in 2023, using up-to-date LaTeX coding, to meet the current formatting requirements of the MIT Libraries. The title and abstract pages are automatically laid out from information provided by the user. This template includes options to use a variety of fonts, and it is compatible with either pdfTeX or unicode engines such as luaLaTeX. When using LaTeX formats dated November 2022 or later, the resulting pdf file meets the PDF/A-2b archivability standard. A standard TeX Live installation includes all other packages required by the template.

This template was written by John Lienhard at the request of the MIT Libraries.

• Documentation: Documentation for the template is available in pdf format here .
• Download: The most current LaTeX files for this template are distributed through the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN): https://ctan.org/pkg/mitthesis Download
• Overleaf.com: A copy of the thesis template is also present in Overleaf.com's template gallery, here . Overleaf includes all the packages in TeX Live, so no additional downloads are needed. Learn more about Overleaf at MIT .

Specifications for MIT theses

The formatting requirements for MIT theses are set by the MIT Libraries, as described at this url: http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/thesis-specs/ . Questions regarding these specifications should be directed to [email protected] .

The original LaTeX 2.09 template was written by Stephen Gildea in the late 1980s (also in CTAN, here ). That template was edited by many later students, leading to the files archived here.

LaTeX has changed greatly since the original MIT thesis template was written. LaTeX 2.09 was replaced by LaTeX2e in 1994. New engines were developed, particularly pdfTeX during the 1990s and Unicode-aware engines in the decades that followed. Many packages and fonts were developed to accompany the original platform, particularly after 2000; and major updates to the LaTeX kernel began in 2018. Over the years, the MIT Libraries have changed the required format several times, especially as electronic thesis submission has become the norm. The original template served MIT well; but by the early 2020s, it was substantially out of date. That situation motivated the creation of this new template.

Frequently Asked Question List for TeX

Formatting a thesis in LaTeX

Thesis styles are usually very specific to your university, so it’s usually not profitable to ask around for a package outside your own university. Since many universities (in their eccentric way) still require double-spaced thesis text, you may also need separately to set up double spacing .

If you want to write a new thesis class of your own, a good place to start is the University of California style, but remember that it’s often difficult to produce a thesis that both looks good and conforms with the style that your university demands.

FAQ ID: Q-thesis Tags:  classes

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LaTeX/BibTeX Templates

Under "Support for Formatting Theses and Dissertations", there are some handy LaTeX thesis and dissertation templates:

• https://graduate.ku.edu/etd-formatting-and-working-multimedia-files

LaTeX/ BibTeX Libguide

Do you have a general question about how to use LaTeX? Here is a link to the KU libguide:

• https://guides.lib.ku.edu/LaTeX/BibTeX
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• Last Updated: May 9, 2024 9:48 AM
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An academic thesis, also known as a dissertation, is a substantial work produced by a graduate student to communicate their research and earn a degree. A thesis will typically include a review of the current state of research in the field of study followed by a central hypothesis to be investigated. The bulk of the thesis will then focus on the methods and results of the research performed, followed by a discussion on how the results add to the field in general. Theses are long, highly structured and include a lot of advanced document elements.

This template is designed for writing books and graduate-level theses and provides numerous examples and documentation to enable complex requirements. The design features a relatively narrow main text column with an adjacent wide margin to house notes, figures, tables, citations and captions.

• View Template Information

Masters/Doctoral Thesis

This template provides a full framework for writing a graduate level thesis. It is carefully structured and separated into multiple parts for easy editing. Included are the following pages/sections: a cover page, declaration of authorship, quotation, abstract, acknowledgements, contents page(s), list of figures, list of tables, abbreviations, physical constants, symbols, dedication, example chapter, example appendix and bibliography.

Classicthesis Typographic Thesis

This template has been designed as a homage to the Elements of Typographic Style. As such, it has an air of efficiency and optimal design. It is suitable for any high-level degree thesis such as for a PhD, Masters or Honors. Sections within the thesis are clearly separated in a consistent way, as are sections within each chapter. The default structure of the thesis proceeds in the following order: title page, dedication, abstract, publications, acknowledgements, contents, list of tables/figures/listings, acronyms, content chapters, appendices, bibliography, colophon and declaration.

Maggi Memoir Thesis

This template uses the memoir document class to beautifully typeset a thesis. It is suitable for any high-level degree thesis such as for a PhD, Masters or Honors. The layout of the content is in a thin format to promote easy reading and the template features advanced specification of margins and trimming. The thesis boasts a professional look which is immediately obvious from the title page itself and carries through the design of the rest of the document. Three custom fonts are used in the template to match the design and beautifully display your content.

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Guide to Writing Your Thesis in LaTeX

Step 4: configure the options specific to your thesis.

At this point, it is assumed that you have a working LaTeX distribution, an editor, have downloaded and installed the necessary template files, and confirmed that you can build this sample thesis . If not, do that first. Now we will explain how to set things like the title, the author name, and whether it is a masters thesis or a doctoral dissertation.

Start by opening the file thesis.tex in your editor.

Setting the Class Options

The first line of the file will be:

This tells LaTeX to use the urithesis document class with all default options. There are many options that that can be given, but for now we will only concern ourselves with one.

If this is a Ph.D. dissertation, change the first line to be:

Setting the Title and Author

To set the title, you use the command:

Make sure to use proper capitalization.

Since you will be the author, set your name using the command:

The tilde between the middle initial and the last name tells LaTeX that the period does not indicate the end of a sentence, and to use a normal interword space.

The Bibliography Source File

The references will come from one or more .bib files that you create. This is the only type of file without a .tex extension that you will need to edit. The line:

tells BibTeX to look in the file references.bib for references cited in the thesis. The argument to the \reffile command can be a comma separated list of files (without the .bib extension), and it will look in all of those files.

The Preliminary Material

The pages that come before the first chapter are called the preliminary material. See the page Guidelines for the Format of Theses and Dissertations , on the Graduate School’s web site, for more information about the preliminary material. The preliminary material includes, in this order:

The automatic sections will be generated automatically, and you need not worry about them. The List of Tables and List of Figures sections will only be generated if the thesis contains any tables or figures, respectively. The argument to the command to include the four manual sections, is the name of the .tex file that contains the content for that section, without the .tex extension. For example the abstract is included with the command:

which means it will us the contents of the file abstract.tex as the abstract. The file abstract.tex should contain only the text of the abstract, as the title will be generated automatically.

The Chapters

Chapters are included with the command:

which will include the file chapterN.tex in the thesis. There should be one \newchapter{} command for each chapter of the thesis.

The chapter source files should each begin with the command

followed by the contents of the chapter.

The Appendices

Appendices are optional, but if present, they are included with the command:

which will include the file appendixN.tex in the thesis. There should be a \newappendix{} command for each appendix of the thesis.

The main difference between appendices and chapters, are that chapters are numbered starting with 1, while appendices start with the letter A. The contents of an appendix is identical to that of a chapter. Each appendix source file should begin with the command:

command, just like with chapters.

Additional Considerations

By default, the department named on the title page is Electrical Engineering, but that can be changed by using the command:

before any of the chapters are included.

The year that the thesis is generated is displayed on the title page and approval page, but the Graduate School requires that year must be the year of your official graduation. To set that date to a specific year, other than the current year, use the command:

before the \begin{document} command.

USCthesis - a LaTeX style for theses and dissertations at USC

USCthesis provides a LaTeX style package for writing your thesis, dissertation, or thesis proposal at the University of Southern California (USC), based on the USC Graduate School Thesis and Dissertation Formatting Guidelines.

A public git repository is at https://github.com/cardi/USCthesis

Updated to the latest formatting guidelines.

This style has floated around and evolved informally across students and departments. See the other templates that exist for other versions.

See paper.tex and paper.pdf for an example thesis.

Use make to compile the paper. Requires latexmk .

The full changelog can be found inside USCthesis.sty .

known issues

• has not been tested with thesis proposals

other templates

• rudazhang/USCthesis
• USC Graduate School: Manuscript Formatting and Documentation Styles

• Visit the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
• Apply to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
• Give to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln

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How to format your thesis using latex.

The  Office of Graduate Studies  dictates the style and format for a thesis at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Information about these standards can be found on their website for current students at  http://www.unl.edu/gradstudies/current/ , and specifically in a publication titled " Guidebook For Preparation and Submission of a Thesis ". 

The  Department of Mathematics  maintains a LaTex class file that helps format your thesis to Nebraska's guidelines. This template may be helpful to Computer Science and Engineering students as well. Look for the "NU Thesis LaTeX Class File" under the Resources section of this page:  https://math.unl.edu/current-graduate

SDSU's Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response

Master's thesis latex template.

"LaTeX is a document preparation system. When writing, the writer uses plain text as opposed to the formatted text found in WYSIWYG ("what  you see is what you get") word processors. The writer uses markup tagging conventions to define the general structure of a document (such as article, book, letter, or thesis), to stylise text throughout a document (such as bold and italics), and to add citations and cross-references. A TeX distribution such as TeX Live or MikTeX is used to produce an output file (such as PDF or DVI) suitable for printing or digital distribution. Within the typesetting system, its name is stylised as L a T e X ." — Adopted from Wikipedia. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX )

• Linux/Unix — sdsu-thesis-latex.tar.gz
• Windows — sdsu-thesis-latex.zip
• Note: The generated sample pdf is available because many people asked for it, not because it is a good idea to use it as a reference. The style file and sample LaTeX document contain instructions and comments on why/how certain things were done in a certain way...
• Note: Official Unofficial Guide for Thesis Chairs
• Note: Official LaTeX format approval form; this is an official SDSU form — Do Not Edit .
• Peter Blomgren ( [email protected] , webpage ) reviews LaTeX theses for the Department of Mathematics and Statistics; the Department of Computer Science; and the Computational Sciences program; thus bypassing the review by Montezuma Publishing
• Fedora >> sudo yum install texlive* texmaker
• Ubuntu — help/community/LaTeX
• Texmaker (editor, recommended)
• TeX Live (LaTeX distribution)
• MiKTeX (LaTeX distribution)
• Overleaf (Tested)
• Typeset.io (Untested, Looks Promising)
• Session 1 (February 23, 1981)
• Session 2 (February 24, 1981)
• Session 3 (February 25, 1981)
• Session 4 (February 26, 1981)
• Session 5 (February 27, 1981)
• More Donald Knuth Lectures
• LaTeX Graphics Blog
• Wikibooks: LaTeX/Introduction
• TeX Resources: LaTeX Matters
• LaTeX Templates for FUTURE reference; DO NOT use for your thesis.
• LaTeX Tables Generator
• LMGTFY: More LaTeX Resources

One thesis, two supports, three months

Completing a thesis within 12 weeks may seem impossible, but by combining AI and your supervisor’s expertise, it can be done. Mariam Shadan shows how

Mariam Shadan

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A completed thesis is the pinnacle of academic accomplishment, demanding rigorous research, critical analysis and a compelling argument. However, anyone undertaking such a commitment may face challenges in time management, resource utilisation and feedback integration. Drawing from my own experiences, I am confident that harnessing the combined power of human expertise, embodied by your supervisor, and the efficiency of AI technology holds the key to streamlining the process and achieving completion within just three months.

The task:  Writing the thesis

Time frame:  Three months

The first tool: the supervisor

Recognising the pivotal role that supervisors play in guiding and supporting students throughout their academic journey is crucial. They serve as mentors, providing direction, constructive criticism and encouragement throughout the thesis journey. Yet students are often hesitant to fully engage with their supervisors.

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Acknowledge that honest communication about your challenges and limitations can lead to constructive feedback and tailored support during the thesis writing period. Since supervisors are well acquainted with the intellectual standard required to pass a PhD in your discipline and have access to resources both within and outside the institution, their advice is crucial for completing a high-quality thesis efficiently. It’s understandable to be worried about admitting your inadequacies to supervisors, but embracing open communication and leveraging their expertise can be incredibly beneficial. Respecting the deadlines and milestones set by the supervisor and reaching out for help when needed are key to staying focused and on the right track.

The second tool: artificial intellgence (AI)

Artificial intelligence is a game changer for PhD students working on their theses. By using AI tools and technologies, students can supercharge the process. AI-powered writing assistants can help refine their writing, offering suggestions for improving sentence structure, fixing grammar mistakes and enriching their vocabulary. It also comes in handy for combing through and analysing numerous research articles, saving students valuable time and ensuring that they don’t miss any important sources. It can even pinpoint areas for discussion in a research paper and create a summary. What’s more, AI can assist with data analysis and visualisation, delivering quick and accurate results.

Through AI tools, PhD students can manage administrative tasks such as scheduling meetings, transcribing, preparing agendas and even translating meetings with supervisors. Furthermore, AI software can be employed to analyse meeting notes and comments on drafts to identify key tasks, helping students to effectively translate feedback into action points.

By tapping into AI, students can save time, keep track of their progress, manage references and enhance the quality of their research. Plus, AI-driven peer review and plagiarism detection software help uphold the quality and integrity of the thesis. While AI-generated data has its limitations, the powerful collaboration between supervisors and AI technologies creates a thriving environment that accelerates thesis completion.

The plan: master progressive milestones, one step at a time

Dividing our writing journey into smaller tasks is a highly effective strategy when working under strict time frames. Instead of submitting an entire thesis for review, submitting chapters regularly allows for continuous feedback and helps to prevent repeating mistakes.

For instance, my supervisor pointed out that my university required UK English for dissertations and deducted marks for any other style, which I promptly corrected in future submissions. Grouping similar tasks together also reduces the workload. When in doubt, seek advice from your supervisor.

Additionally, embracing AI solutions fosters a collaborative and inclusive environment, driving productivity, innovation and academic excellence.

Embrace the absurdity, share your struggles and remember that even in the darkest depths of academic despair, there’s always a punchline waiting to lighten the load. The collaborative interplay between supervisors and AI technologies holds immense potential to expedite thesis writing endeavours. By capitalising on the complementary strengths of human mentorship and technological innovation, scholars can navigate the academic landscape with greater efficiency, efficacy and scholarly rigour.

Here’s the sample weekly timeline, including AI tools that can assist in each stage. This timeline was also created with AI assistance.

Week 1: planning and outline

• Zotero for organising research materials and references.
• Trello for setting goals and tracking progress.

Week 2: literature review

• Connected Papers for exploring related research papers and mapping connections.
• Mendeley for managing and annotating PDFs.
• Grammarly for initial revision and refinement.

Week 3: methodology

• Overleaf for writing and formatting the methodology in LaTeX (if applicable).
• Grammarly for refining the text.

Week 4: data collection and analysis

• NVivo for qualitative data organisation and analysis.
• Excel or R for quantitative data analysis and visualisation.
• Canva or Tableau for creating figures and charts.

Week 5: results

• SPSS for statistical analysis and results presentation.

Week 6: discussion

• Chat GPT for outlining the discussion section.
• Grammarly, Jenni.ai for initial draft writing and grammar checking.
• Hemingway Editor and Writefull for improving readability and style.

Week 7: conclusion and recommendations

• Grammarly, Hemingway Editor and Writefull for final revisions and readability.

Week 8: introduction

• Grammarly, Hemingway Editor and Writefull for improving clarity and coherence.

Week 9: abstract and title

• Grammarly, Hemingway Editor and Writefull

Week 10: full draft review

• Grammarly for a comprehensive grammar check.
• EndNote for reference and citation management.

Week 11: feedback and revisions and formatting

• Zotero for ensuring all citations and references are correct.
• Grammarly and ProWritingAid for a final proofreading pass.

Week 12: buffer period

Mariam Shadan is assistant professor of biomedical sciences at Dubai Medical College for Girls.

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How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX (Part 2): Page Layout

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Author: Josh Cassidy (August 2013)

This five-part series of articles uses a combination of video and textual descriptions to teach the basics of writing a thesis using LaTeX. These tutorials were first published on the original ShareLateX blog site during August 2013; consequently, today's editor interface (Overleaf) has changed considerably due to the development of ShareLaTeX and the subsequent merger of ShareLaTeX and Overleaf. However, much of the content is still relevant and teaches you some basic LaTeX—skills and expertise that will apply across all platforms.

In the previous tutorial we looked at setting up the basic structure for a thesis. In this post we'll start customising the page layout using the geometry and fancyhdr packages. We'll continue working on the same project as last time and the first thing we will do is make the document two-sided so that we save paper by printing on both sides. To do this we add the keyword twoside into the document class command:

The geometry package

Next we'll load up the geometry package. To configure the page layout, we enter instructions into the square brackets of this command. The first thing we will do is change the paper size. By default the paper size is set to US letter but we'll change this to a4paper . Next we'll change the width of the text by entering the keyword width followed by an equals sign and a number in millimetres. We can also change the margin sizes at the top and bottom of the page:

You will notice that on even pages the text is positioned slightly closer to the right-hand side and on odd pages it's closer to the left. Or in other words, the inner margin is smaller than the outer:

This is due to us specifying the twoside option but it often confuses people. The reason LaTeX does this is because when you bind the document together, the smaller inner margins will be adjacent and then combined will be a similar size to the larger outer margins. This mean that the three columns of white space you get with a double page spread will be a similar size:

However, you may also want to compensate for the actual binding. To do this we will use the bindingoffset command and we'll choose to offset it by 6mm:

You can see that the margins have now shifted:

The fancyhdr package

Next we'll add in headers and footers using the fancyhdr package. First let's load up the package. Immediately after the \usepackage command we need to add the \pagestyle command and enter fancy into the curly brackets:

If we now compile the code you will see that a header has been added to all the pages except the title page, the contents page and the first page of each new chapter. By default, the headers all contain the chapter and section titles:

If you're happy with this layout you can leave it like this. However, I'm going to show you how you can customise it using two commands provided by the fancyhdr package: \fancyhead and \fancyfoot . The standard format for these commands is the command followed by square brackets and then curly brackets:

In the curly brackets we enter the text we want and in the square brackets we specify which parts of the header we want that text printed in. The fancyhdr package lets us add things in the left (L), right (R) and centre (C) of the header or footer and also lets us specify a different arrangement depending on whether its on an odd (O) or even (E) page. Here's an example of how we might customise our headers and footers:

Here's the meaning of the various commands used in the above LaTeX fragment:

• In the first line we've entered a blank \fancyhead command which clears all the header fields.
• In the second line we've told LaTeX that we want the text "Thesis title" on the right-hand side of the header for the odd pages and the left for even pages.
• The third line clears the footer fields using a blank \fancyfoot command.
• The fourth line makes the page number appear on the left of the footer for an even page and the right for an odd. The \thepage command returns the page number of the page it's used on.
• The \thechapter command in line five is similar to \thepage but, of course, typeset the chapter number.
• Lines five and six add some text about the chapter and author into the footer again in different places depending on whether the page is odd or even.

Now if we compile the document with this code in we can see the headers and footers have been added in:

Before moving on I should briefly introduce you to two more commands that you may find helpful when customising your headers and footers. The \leftmark and \rightmark commands. Here's an example of what the \leftmark command produces:

And an example of what the \rightmark command produces:

To change the thickness of the lines in the headers and footers we use this code entering a size in points:

I recommend you keep it fairly small to keep it looking sensible.

Finally I want to mention the \pagestyle command. If we have a page that we want completely clear of headers and footers, we can use this command entering the the keyword empty in as an argument; for example:

If we want a page with no headers or footers except for a simple page number at the bottom we would use the keyword plain . However you need to be aware that using this command changes the page style for all the pages following the command. Therefore we need to turn the page style back to fancy as soon as we want the headers back.

This concludes our discussion on page layout. In the next post we'll look at using images and tables.

All articles in this series

• Part 1: Basic Structure ;
• Part 2: Page Layout ;
• Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables ;
• Part 4: Bibliographies with BibLaTeX ;
• Part 5: Customising Your Title Page and Abstract .
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