Templates

The following templates can help you to prepare your document with the specified format: 

  • Template Latex: Latex template Version 23.03.2017 (gzip tar archive): this one
    (We acknowledge Latex template Version 23.03.2017 (gzip tar archive) kindly provided by Albert Alises Sorribas, using a package published by the Imperial College London, UK.)
  • Copyright: 

    Copyright © 2020 by YOUR NAME

    Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

  • You can also choose another  copyright license from: https://creativecommons.org/choose/

 

Formatting rules for master theses

Standard Elements

Your thesis must contain the following elements in the following order:

  • Front cover page (outermost, visible when thesis is not opened)
    • The text on the front cover page has to be centered and use the font sizes specified in points (pt) below. It has to contain the following items from top to bottom.
      • Two empty lines (16 pt)
      • The expression “Master thesis on Computational Biomedical Engineering” (16 pt)
      • The expression “Universitat Pompeu Fabra” (14 pt)
      • Three empty lines (16 pt)
      • The thesis title (24 pt)
      • The student’s name (14 pt)
      • The name and academic title of the principal supervisor, preceded by the expression “Supervisor:” (14 pt)
      • If the student has a second supervisor, the name and academic title of this second supervisor, preceded by the expression “Co-supervisor:” (14 pt)
      • Two empty lines (16 pt)
      • The expression “July 2017” (14 pt)
      • The graphical logotype of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra
    • You are encouraged to use a background image for the cover page. You can use some graphics that you produced in your thesis. This graphics should cover the entire size (or a large fraction) of the page. It should not contain text, or the text should be in light gray. Overall the colors of the background image should be pale enough such that all the text elements described above remain clearly readable.
  • Title page (first right page, visible when thesis is opened, this page is not numbered)
    • This should be an exact reproduction of the front cover page. However, here no background image should be used. Instead the background remains white.
  • Table of contents (subsequent right page, this page is not numbered)
    • For all sections and sub-sections the numbers (e.g. 3.2.1) and titles should be aligned left. The corresponding page number should be at the right end of the same line.
    • The front cover page, title page, dedication (if used), acknowledgement (if used), and abstract appear on unnumbered pages. Accordingly, these are not included in the table of contents.
  • Dedication (optional, subsequent right page, this page is not numbered)
  • Acknowledgements (optional, subsequent right page, this page is not numbered)
  • Abstract (subsequent right page, this page is not numbered) ◦The abstract should have at least 200 but not more than 600 words.
  • Keywords
    • a list of keywords (approximately 3 to 5) should be just below the abstract, preceded by the word "Keywords". Keywords should be seperated by ";". Like usual a keyword can contain more than one word (E.g. "Keywords: Imaging techniques; Cloud computing; Alzheimer" is a list of 3 keywords.)
  • Main sections
    • The first right page subsequent to the page containing the abstract is page number 1. The first main section starts on this page 1.
    • Your main sections can, for example, be structured in Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion.
    • All sections and subsections must be numbered hierarchically using Arabic numbers
      • Correct: 1; 1.1; 1.1.1; 1.1.1.1; 1.2 etc.
      • Not correct: A.1, 1.a, II.a, IV.1, among others
    • List of figures and tables (optional, if used, it is numbered as the next main section)
    • List of symbols used in the thesis (optional, if used, it is numbered as the next main section)
    • Bibliography (it is numbered as the next main section)
      • The references in your text should be numbered, in the order of their first appearance in the text.
      • In your bibliography, you have to list all references in this order. You should use the style used by the journal ‘Nature’ to format your references (see http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/gta/#a5.4). For example a journal article is cited as
        • Fyhn, M., Molden, S., Witter, M.P., Moser, E.I. & Moser, M.B. Spatial representation in the entorhinal cortex. Science 305, 1258–1264 (2004).

 

Page limits

There is no very strict page limit. Your number of pages will be strongly influenced by the size and total number of your figures and tables. It is recommended staying within 30-50 pages. Do not try to fill as many pages as you can. Longer theses are not necessarily of higher quality and of more non-redundant content than shorter theses. Certainly, a master thesis of 15 pages is too short, and a master thesis of 100 pages is too long.

 

Format Specs

  • Paper format: DIN A4, two-sided
  • Font type
    • For documents written in Microsoft Word or Open Office: Times New Roman, or Arial, or Garamond.
    • For documents written in Latex: The standard font used by Latex.
  • Font size
    • Main text: 12 pt
    • Headlines of sections and subsections should be highlighted by larger fonts up to 16 pt. They can be bold and/or italics.
    • Figure and table captions: italics, 11 pt
  • Line spacing: 1.5
  • Side margins all 3 cm (top, bottom, left and right)
  • Text alignment: justified, first line not indented
  • File format to send your thesis to the tribunal: PDF only.