The College has rules for that presentation and binding of research degree theses as well as your thesis might not be examined if you can’t follow these.

Take a moment to familiarise yourself using these rules before getting too much to your writing. You could also want to check out some recent theses out of your Department to determine how they come. For those who have any queries regarding these rules, you need to talk to your supervisory team or even the Graduate School Office.

The Graduate School’s Some Tips for Formatting Your Thesis

1. If You’re Unsure, Ask
2. Take A Look At Recent Theses inside your Department to determine The Way They Are Formatted
3. Continue with the Word Limit – If It Appears As Though You’ll Exceed It, Talk To Your Supervisors
4. Re-use within the Thesis of labor You’ve Authored and which Was Already Printed is okay – As Long As it’s Appropriately Referenced and Standard Practices for Academic Honesty are Stuck To

Thesis Format

The guidelines for formatting research degree theses are very straightforward, but it is crucial that you receive them right:

• except for short quotes that an British translation is supplied, the thesis should be designed in British unless of course the Graduate Dean has provided approval just before submission for examination for those or area of the thesis to stay in another language
• the thesis should be presented on top quality A4 paper
• the thesis pages should be printed somewhere only
• the printed text should be of excellent quality with 1.5 line spacing and really should normally maintain 12 point type
• the thesis pages should have a margin with a minimum of 3.5 centimetres around the left side of every page to match binding – other margins should be with a minimum of 2.5 centimetres

Page one from the thesis should be a title page which includes the next information:

• the entire title from the thesis
• your complete name
• the your School/Department – for example School of, Department of, Center for, etc.
• the month and year where the thesis was posted for examination

You are able to download sign of the items your thesis title page need to look like:

The title page from the thesis should be adopted through the thesis abstract. The abstract mustn’t exceed 300 words and should include by means of a heading the entire title from the thesis as well as your complete name.

It’s suggested that you simply allow it to be obvious inside your abstract what your original contribution to understanding is.

You will find then rules for the way the items in the thesis should be purchased. The thesis abstract should be adopted within this order by:

• acknowledgements page
• table of contents
• primary body from the thesis
• appendices (as needed)

Explanatory notes and references should be numbered and presented as footnotes at the end from the relevant page.

The thesis appendices – or even the primary body from the thesis should there be no appendices – should be adopted with a complete and accurate bibliography. All works referenced within the thesis should be incorporated within the bibliography.

Thesis Word Limits

The College includes a maximum word limit for research degree theses and also you must make sure that your thesis doesn’t exceed the appropriate limit.

Within the College of Arts, Humanities, and Law, the size of the thesis – including footnotes, but excluding the table of contents, tabulated data, diagrams, any appendices, the bibliography, and table(s) of cases/legislation/agreements reported – mustn’t exceed the next limits:

Referencing and Citations

You will have to reference your thesis fully and precisely both to understand your financial obligations to other people and also to let your readers to differentiate your opinions from individuals of others you have attracted on.

You will find three key rules that you ought to follow:

1. consult with your supervisors in early stages for suggestions about referencing conventions inside your discipline – the 2 primary ones would be the Harvard (author/date) system and also the Vancouver (numbered) system, however in the college of Law the Oxford Standard for that Citation of Legal Government bodies (OSCOLA) can be used
2. your references should be accurate – getting inaccurate references is really as bad as getting no references whatsoever and potentially can lead to you being charged with poor academic practice or plagiarism
3. your referencing should be consistent – make certain that the formatting of references regarding capitalisation and punctuation is consistent completely using your thesis

If you want general advice regarding how to be sure that your thesis is appropriately referenced, check out the Referencing and Bibliographies Study Guide .

The College Library offer detailed guides on how to use the Harvard Referencing and Vancouver Referencing systems.

Bibliographic software enables you to definitely create databases of references which could then be stored, looked and used along with MS Word to input citations while you write your thesis. The 2 primary kinds of bibliographic software are EndNote and RefWorks. The College Library offer suggestions about being able to access and taking advantage of bibliographic software .

Utilization of Printed Work Within Research Degree Theses

You might wish inside your thesis to re-use work that you’ve authored and which was already printed elsewhere.

Research degree theses can include:

• complete examples of printed work you have authored and that are posted for the thesis

• material from printed work you have authored and that has been re-labored and incorporated inside the primary body from the thesis

The inclusion inside the thesis of labor that’s been recognized for publication should not be taken like a be certain that the thesis will come across the needs for obtaining an investigation degree. The choice to award a diploma rests using the analyzing team.

In every case, printed work can be utilized during these ways so long as:

1. the printed work was written on your duration of registration in the College to represent work carried out wholly or largely by you
2. in which the printed work represents a collaborative effort the thesis must incorporate a statement regarding the nature of the contribution plus an acknowledgement from the contribution of others
3. the thesis acknowledges in which the printed work continues to be posted for examination in the College or elsewhere with a co-author
4. standard rules regarding plagiarism and academic honesty are stuck to

It’s your responsibility to make sure that using printed work inside the thesis matches any relevant limitations.

If you plan to supply complete examples of printed work for the thesis, these should be presented as appendices towards the primary body from the thesis. Appendices will count toward the utmost word limit as specified above.

Complete examples of printed work which are posted for the thesis must:

• apply to the study question(s) addressed through the thesis

• have made an appearance in publications and have been recognized for publication