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PhD thesis template

Template for PhD thesis with customized title page conforming to requirement from the University of Amsterdam. This template has been used to format my thesis.

Features

AFAIK, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) does not dictate a strict template for PhD theses, only the title page which will be given by the Office of the Beadle. The following features are made for my taste only, which hopefully could catch your eyes.

  • Title page conforming to the requirement of UvA. Again the title page will be provided by the Office of the Beadle once the these defense is scheduled. This version is only meant to replicate that with some customization in style (font size and color). You can just take their version and attach to the compiled pdf as post-production for the ease of mind.
  • Each chapter starts with an epigraph
  • Chapter abstracts begin with initials, aka drop cap (using lettrine package)
  • Each chapter contains a thumb index that displaces one after another chapter. The thumb indices extend to the bleeding margin of the page so that the marks will show up after the book is printed and cut.

Disclaimer Although the template has been used to format my thesis, it does not mean it always conforms to UvA regulations, especially when there are revisions. A certain elements that I'd seen from previous theses have been disapproved during my time. So always double check with the Office of the Beadle and the up-to-date documents and forms.

Getting started

This project is run and compiled from Overleaf using XeLaTeX (due to the personalized fonts). It is highly recommended to use Overleaf to compile it. To activate XeLaTeX compiler in Overleaf, go to Menu (on the top-left corner of Overleaf), and change the compiler (see image).

The following steps are copied from the original repository from which this template was customized.

  1. Install LaTeX. For Mac OS X, we recommend MacTex (http://tug.org/mactex/); for Windows, MiKTeX (http://miktex.org/); and for Ubuntu, Tex Live (sudo apt-get install texlive-full)
  2. Install the default fonts: EB Garamond, Lato, and Source Code Pro. The files are provided in fonts/EB Garamond, fonts/Lato, and fonts/Source Code Pro.
  3. Personalize the document by filling out your name and all the other info in frontmatter/personalize.md.
  4. Build your dissertation with build.command, located in the scripts directory (e.g., you can cd into the main directory and then run ./scripts/build.command).

How do I make the text justified instead of ragged right? Remove or comment out the line \RaggedRight from the .cls file.

Structure

Following are the general structure of the thesis

disseration.tex, the main file

chapters directory, where all the chapters go

  • each individual chapter files have to be added to the main disseration.tex file.

figures directory, where all figures go

frontmatter directory

  • copyright.tex: copyright notice and ISBN number
  • dedication.tex: dedication message
  • funding.tex: acknowledge funding agency, ASCI and UvA logo
  • personalize.tex: title page information (thesis title, names of author, supervisors, committee members, defense place and time), thesis color theme
  • quote.tex: the thesis epigraph
  • thanks.tex: acknowledgement (which is placed at the end of the thesis)

BibTex file is currently my_bibs.bib. The setup is in Dissertate.cls (L531) and currently set to my_bibs

Layout

The thesis layout is down according to the dimension guideline of Offpage. The page margins can be done in Dissertate.cls file, L81 onward. The bleeding margin will be cut off after printing. The cut mark is currently shown, hence 3mm from the page edge, and can be removed by removing showcrop at L88.

paperwidth=176mm,   % full page width (content + 2 real margins + 2 horizontal bleeding margins)
paperheight=246mm,  % full page height (content + 2 real margins + 2 vertical bleeding margins )
layoutwidth=170mm,  % content width
layoutheight=240mm, % content height
layouthoffset=3mm,  % single horizontal bleeding 
layoutvoffset=3mm,  % single vertical bleeding margin
margin=20mm,        % single margin size
showcrop            % to show cut mark of bleeding margins

Credit

This template is customized from the Dissertate template by @suchow.