Thesis-formatting-instructions

Print/Screen Read Versions

  1. For print ready version of the thesis, use black and white version of the title page, preamble pages and remove colour links. Printed version should use double sided printing.
  2. For soft copy submissions, use the colour version of the title page, preamble pages and links. Title page colour scheme should not be modified. It is recommended that section titles in table of contents are hyperlinked to the corresponding sections. Similarly, in-text citations and references should be linked.

 

Organizing the preamble (see sample-thesis-screen-view.pdf and sample-thesis-for-print.pdf)

The initial few pages should contain the following in that order:
  Page 1 : Title page
  Page 2 (backside of page 1) : Copyright Information
  Page 3 : Certificate from supervisor(s) in the prescribed format.
  Page 4 : Blank
  Page 5 : Declaration by the student in the prescribed format.
  Page 6 : Blank
  Page 7 : Dedications (if any)
  Page 8 : Blank (not required if dedications are not present).

This should be followed by the following items. Each item should start on an odd numbered page.

  •  Abstract

          (Last couple of lines in abstract should mention Keywords and Subject classification (if relevant).

  • List of Publications by the student
  • Acknowledgements
  • Contents in the prescribed format.

           The contents page should include the following (if relevant)
           List of Figures, List of Tables, List of Algorithms, Listings (for code), List of Symbols, Abbreviations

Organizing the thesis

  1. It is advised that the thesis is organized into parts (if required), chapters, sections, subsections, and paragraphs.
  2. An optional part named Appendix may be added which may contain one or more chapters.
  3. In the end, Bibliography should be provided. The format of the bibliography should follow some standard  convention.
  4. Each new part or chapter should start on an odd numbered page, so that it looks good on print.
  5. Theorem like environments follow section-wise numbering, with minor exceptions allowed.
  6.  Floating environments like figures, tables and algorithms should follow chapter-wise numbering.


Bibliography and References

  1. For typesetting bibliography section and the ordering of items in the bibliography, adhere to one of the standard format that is followed in your discipline of study. Similarly, follow a standard convention of your discipline for citing references.
  2. Latex users are advised to maintain compatibility with natbib. Settings in the template may be tuned by editing relevant section of classicthesis-config.tex.
     

Margins and formatting the margin

  • Top : 1 inch for normal pages, 1.6 inches for first page of chapter
  • Bottom : 1.6 inches (on pages without footnotes)
  • Binding side : 1.3 inches  (Binding side is left on odd pages and right on even pages)
  • Non-binding side (Recommended): 2.3 inches (This space may be used for margin notes). This may be reduced to 1.6 inches but not lesser, if margin notes are not used. For doing this, 'marginnotes' flag may be changed in the file classicthesis-config.tex. See the file sample-thesis-no-margin-notes.pdf for a sample pdf file with reduced margins.
  • Header (Recommended): Section title should appear along with section number in the header of every odd numbered page other than the first page of a chapter.      Chapter title should appear along with chapter number in the header of every even numbered page.

Font Options (Recommended)

  • For Latex:
  1. Palatino together with eulermath for math fonts (see sample-thesis-for-print.pdf) or
  2. Palatino together with cmmodern for math fonts (see sample-thesis-no-euler-math.pdf). Additionally, the typesetting of numbers can be modified by uncommenting the last  line in the file classicthesis-config.tex. This option is not recommended and is not thoroughly tested.  
  • For Word format :
  1. Palatino Linotype or
  2. Book Antiqua.
  • For Open office :
  1. Palatino


Font sizes / Typesetting

  • Latex font size : 11pt for regular text and suitable larger font sizes for titles.
  • Titles (recommended): Chapter headings and main section headings should be capitalized.
  • Linespacing : 1.1 for Palatino or Book Antiqua.

        Note : If a font different from recommended fonts is used (like Times New Roman), the font size may be upto 12pt for regular text with a maximum linespacing upto 1.5.

Template 

Download and unzip thesis-template-iitpkd-v-1-1.zip
For instructions for compilation and customization, follow README document in the directory classicthesis_iitpkd. Three important options are the flags 'eulermath', 'printready' and 'marginnotes' that configurable in the file classicthesis-config.tex
 

Author : Jasine Babu (jasine@iitpkd.ac.in)
Version : 1.1
Release Date : May 5, 2019