Before embarking on this journey, I suggest you read my LaTeX and content tips.
Let us not waste any time, you have a project to write up! Here is a complete example (PDF format) of what this LaTeX template looks like. Or quicker...
Now back to the boring bits ...
A modern, highly configurable assignment/project/fyp/dissertation/thesis template for the University of Malta. (In reality, there is nothing specific to the University of Malta, and this LaTeX class may be used anywhere). This template is loosely based on my D.Phil. Thesis at the University of Oxford, which was loosely based on ... You get the drift.
This template was clearly needed, as I keep correcting/examining poorly and inconsistently formatted dissertations all the time. Updates to the template with examples (2-page landscape table anyone?) are greatly appreciated -- either through pull requests, github issues or emails ([email protected]).
The main file is dissertation_main.tex, and this will show you how to organise your dissertation. Basically replace all \blindtext commands with your content and you are there, ready to print. This is obviously a case of something more easily said than done.
I am also keen on keeping an FAQ with the most common LaTeX problems, which you are bound to face on the night before your submission deadline.
To build this template you will need latexmk, biber as a bibtex replacement, the beautiful Lato font for headings, and also algorithm typesetting from the science packages. The Lato sans font using in headings creates a pleasing contrast with the serif text.
The required packages can be installed (on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) with:
sudo apt install latexmk biber texlive-fonts-extra texlive-science texlive-bibtex-extra
To build this template into a dissertation you can either use a GUI (like TexStudio) or the command line.
In the directory where dissertation_main.tex resides:
latexmk -pdf
This generates a lot of clutter, but it is important to go through it as some warnings can give you valuable insight on stuff to fix for a perfect presentation. To clean all the LaTeX generated files:
latexmk -c
Note that this will leave the generated pdf file, as is desirable most of the cases.
To build using TexStudio (F5) you will need to set some options to use biber instead of BibTeX. Under Options -> Configure TeXstudio select Build and set the Default Bibliography Tool to Biber from the drop-down list as highlighted in red below.
Additionally, under Options -> Configure TeXstudio select Commands and set the Biber text field to biber % (highlighted in red below).
You should now be able to load the main TEX file (i.e.\ dissertation_main.tex) and select Tools -> Build & View (or press the F5 shortcut). Voilà (but do get in touch via the Issues page or email if you cannot sort this out).
The following are a few questions which have been asked about this template (sometime multiple times).
University of Malta regulations specify a thesis only in case of PhD, and SThD degrees. In all other cases it is a dissertation.
Bet you didn't know this one bit of academic trivia! (Note: The answer is specific to the University of Malta, answer given by our dear registrar, Ms Veronica Grech).
The template uses the APA referencing style, although it is pretty easy to change to IEEE or Harvard (or anything else for the matter). The template uses the BibLaTeX package.
Many computational scientists are used to the IEEE referencing style with numbers, i.e. (42). But there is a reason why author year citations, or similar, are superior. Your examiners (and supervisors) will be well acquainted with the research area and will know which are the main papers you should have read (and cited). If you use numbered referencing, the examiner has to keep cross-referencing the References section. This is not the case when using the name of the author and year directly in the citation. Moreover, it is easier for the examiner to realize when you are mis-citing an author. Modern typesetting is moving in this direction.
By default the template uses one-sided printing settings as most submissions are electronic nowadays. If you want to change that, simply pass twoside as an option to the document class (as opposed to oneside) in dissertation_main.tex.
The default in books is for footnote numbers to restart at each chapter (like figures or equations). If you do not want this behaviour, and require continuous numbering for your footnotes add \counterwithout{footnote}{chapter} to the preamble in dissertation_main.tex.
You must, not should! You should view any written submission as a training opportunity for your final dissertation. Getting familiar with the template will help you out later in the course. Of course, some (very) minor changes to the template are required; as follows:
- From
dissertation_main.texcomment out (%) frontmatter sections for originality, dedication, acknowledgements, and abstract (these would look silly in an assignment). - Also, from the same file
dissertation_main.texcomment out all the appendix material (unless you actually have an appendix; unlikely)
(Let me know if any more changes are required)
Blank pages are only generated with the twoside option. This is because typesetters don't start new chapters (and abstracts/acknowledgements/etc.) on the verso side (left in the western-world) when using both sides of the paper. Chapters start on the recto side (right), so an empty page is inserted if the chapter start falls on the verso side (left). The oneside option clearly has no empty pages (or has blank pages at the back of each paper, so every verso page is empty). Note that the page margins are different for the recto and verso sides in the twoside option, this is because of the spline (which is on the right for verso and left for recto). I hope this is clear, I am an amateur typesetter.
It is always counter-productive to not listen to your supervisor. This is a generic template, and your specific use-case may have different requirements. For example, in some departments it is common to have a "Methodology" section instead of the (more experimental) "Materials & Methods". Elsewhere, the "Evaluation" section is sometimes merged in the "Results and Discussion" chapter. Some faculties require a standard cover page. This template is very flexible, and any changes are easy/trivial to make. The important thing is to use good judgement and that you follow your supervisor's advice.
In my opinion you don't want to do this because the document is going to become very long. The idea of having double line spacing is to let examiners/supervisors write between the lines. This is not required for the final submission and mostly superceded by more modern word-processing and reviewing tools. Also, the current one and a half line spacing gives enough space for this.
If you want to go ahead anyway with this, change this line in um.cls from \OnehalfSpacing to \DoubleSpacing.
Also required in ancient times to write notes in the margin (and again superceded by modern word-processing and reviewing tools).
Still, should be an easy one, just change the values in the following line in um.cls.
The Math on Quora is all you need. Any math notation you might need is available conveniently in the menu bar. All examples contain live code blocks so you can try out your math formulae directly in the web browser.
You can change the whole document to a sans-serif typeface simply by switching commenting in these two code blocks in um.cls. The top two lines (below commented out below with %) will give you a document using only a sans-serif (Lato) typeface. If you leave this as is, you will get a serif typeface (Palatino) with headings in a sans-serif typeface (for contrast).
% Use this for an all-lato typeface document
%\RequirePackage[defaultsans]{lato} % Use the Lato font by default (sans)
%\renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault} % Use sans serif font as the default
%% OR the following for a serif body and sans serif headings doc
\RequirePackage{mathpazo} % Use the Palatino font by default (serif)
\RequirePackage[defaultsans]{lato} % Use the Lato font by default for a sans
Some of the longer documents, such as doctoral dissertations, require a sub-grouping of chapters together. This may be easily achieved with \part{My First Part} in the the main document file (e.g. dissertation_main.tex) right before the chapters which make up the part (see example).
I have a huge figure which takes up all the page. I would like to switch off headers and the bottom page numbers, but \thispagestyle{empty} does nothing (or changes some other page).
The template uses the floatpag package. All you need to do is place a \thisfloatpagestyle{empty} inside the figure or table environment. Et voilà! There is an example of this here.