General Guidelines for Preparation of Dissertation/Thesis
ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS/DISSERTATION/REPORT
THESIS FORMAT
AUXILIARY FORMAT
ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS/DISSERTATION/REPORT
Introduction
Review of Literature
Report on the Present Investigation
Results and Discussions
Summary and Conclusions
Appendix
Literature Cited
Publications by the Candidate
Acknowledgements
THESIS FORMAT
Paper
Chapter and Section format
AUXILIARY FORMAT
Binding
Front Covers
Blank sheets
Title sheet
Dedication sheet
Approval sheet
Course work sheet
Abstract
Contents
Introduction
The title of Chapter 1 shall be Introduction. It shall justify and highlight the problem
poser and define the topic and the aim and scope of the work presented in the thesis. It
may also highlight the significant contributions from the investigation.
Review of Literature
Review of Literature This shall normally from the Chapter 2 and shall present a critical
appraisal of the previous work published in the literature pertaining to the topic of the
investigation. The extent and emphasis of the chapter shall depend on the nature of the
investigation
Report on the Present Investigation
The reporting on the investigation shall be the presented in one or more chapters with
appropriate chapter titles.
Results and Discussions
This shall form the penultimate chapter of the thesis and shall include a thorough
evaluation of the investigation carried out and bring out the contributions from the study.
The discussion shall logically lead to inferences and conclusions as well as scope for
possible further future work
Summary and Conclusions
This will be the final chapter of the thesis. A brief report of the work carried out shall
form the first part of the Chapter. Conclusions derived from the logical analysis presented
in the Results and Discussions Chapter shall be presented and clearly enumerated, each
point stated separately. Scope for future work should be stated lucidly in the last part of
the Chapter.
Appendix
Detailed information, lengthy derivations, raw experimental observations etc. are to be
presented in the separate appendices, which shall be numbered in Roman Capitals (e.g.
“Appendix IV”). Since reference can be drawn to published/unpublished literature in the
appendices these should precede the “Literature Cited” section.
Literature Cited
The candidates shall follow the style of citation and style of listing in one of the
standard journals in the subject area consistently throughout his/her thesis
the names of all the authors along with their initials and the full title of the
article/monogram/book etc. have to be given; in addition to the journals/publisher,
volume, number, page(s) and year of publication
Publications by the Candidate
Articles, technical notes etc. on the topic of the thesis published by the candidate may be
separately listed after the literature cited. This may also be included in the Contents. The
candidates may also include reprints of his/ her publications after the literature citation.
Paper
The thesis shall be printed or Xeroxed on white bond paper, whiteness 95% or
above, weight 70 gram or more per square meter.
The size of the paper shall be standard A 4; height 297 mm, width 210 mm.
The text shall be printed employing LaserJet or Inkjet printer, the text having been
processed using a standard text processor. The standard font shall be Times New
Roman of 12 pts with 1.5 line spacing.
Page Format
The printed sheets shall have the following writing area and margins:
Top margin 15 mm
Head height 3 mm
Head separation 12 mm
Bottom margin 22 mm
Footer 3 mm
Foot separation 10 mm
Text height 245 mm
Text width 160 mm
When header is not used the top margin shall be 30 mm.
Left and Right margins
The candidates shall have the options of single or double-sided printing.
Single sided/ Odd number page (in double sided printing)
Left margin 30 mm
Right margin 20 mm
Double sided – even numbered page
Left margin 20 mm
Right margin 30 mm
Pagination
Hindu-Arabic numerals at the center of the footer
When header style is chosen the first page of each chapter will not have the
header and the page number shall be printed at the center of the footer.
Page number”1” for the first page of the Introduction chapter shall not appear in
print, only the second page will bear the number “2”.
When header style is chosen the first page of each chapter will not have the
header and the page number shall be printed at the center of the footer.
Pagination for pages before the Introduction chapter shall be in lower case Roman
numerals, e.g., “iv”.
Header
When the header style is chosen, the header can have the Chapter number and Section
number (e.g., Chapter 2, Section 3) on even number pages headers and Chapter title or
Section title on the odd number page header.
Paragraph format
Vertical space between paragraphs shall be about 2.5 line spacing.
The first line of each paragraph should normally be indented by five characters or
12 mm. A candidate may, however, choose not to indent if (s) he has provided
sufficient paragraph separation.
A paragraph should normally comprise more than one line. A single line of a
paragraph shall not be left at the top or bottom of a page (that is, no windows or
orphans should be left).
The word at the right end of the first line of a page or paragraph should, as far as
possible, not be hyphenated.
Chapter and Section format
Chapter
Sections and Sub- sections
Table / Figure Format
Chapter
Each chapter shall begin on a fresh page (odd number page in case of double sided
printing) with an additional top margin of about 75 mm. Chapter number (in Hindu-
Arabic) and title shall be printed at the center of the line in 6 mm font size (18 pt) in bold
face using both upper and lower case (all capitals or small capitals shall not be used). A
vertical gap of about 25 mm shall be left between the Chapter # and chapter title lines and
between chapter title line and the first paragraph.
Sections and Sub- sections
The Sections and Sub-sections titles along with their numbers in 5 and 4mm (16
and 14 pt) fonts, respectively, in bold face shall be flushed to the left ( not
centered) with 15 mm space above and below these lines.
In further subdivisions character size of 3 and 3.5 with bold face, small caps, all
caps and italics may be sued for the titles flushed left or centered. These shall not
feature in the contents.
Table / Figure Format
As far as possible tables and figures should be presented in portrait style. Small
size table and figures (less than half of writing area of a page) should be
incorporated within the text, while larger ones may be presented in separate pages
Table and figures shall be numbered chapter –wise. For example, the fourth figure
in Chapter 5 will bear the number Figure 5.4 or Fig.5.4
Table number and title will be placed above the table while the figure number and
caption will be located below the figure
AUXILIARY FORMAT
Binding
Front Covers
Lettering
Bound back
Blank sheets
Title sheet
Dedication sheet
Approval sheet
Course work sheet
Abstract
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Abbreviation Notation and Nomenclature
Front Covers
The front cover shall contain the following details :
Full title of thesis in 6 mm 22 point’s size font properly centered and positioned
at the top.
Full name of the candidate in 4.5 mm 15 point’s size font properly centered at the
middle of the page.
A 40 mm dia replica of the Institute emblem followed by the name of the
Department, name of the Institute and the year of submission, each in a separate
line and properly centered and located at the bottom of the page.
All lettering shall be embossed in gold.
The degree, the name of the candidate and the year of submission shall also be
embossed on the bound (side) in gold.
Blank sheets
In addition to the white sheets (binding requirement) two white shall be put at the
beginning and end of the thesis.
Title sheet
This shall be the first printed page of the thesis and shall contain the submission
statement: the Thesis / Dissertation / Project Report submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of the Degree, Ph.D./M.Tech. , the name and Roll No. Of the candidate,
name (s) of the supervisor and co-supervisor (s) (if any), Department, Institute and year
of submission (sample enclosed).
Dedication sheet
If the candidate so desires (s) he may dedicate his/her thesis, which statement shall follow
the title page. If included, this shall form the page 1 of the auxiliary sheets but shall not
have page number.
Approval sheet
In the absence of a dedication sheet this will form the first page and in that case shall not
have a page number. Otherwise this will bear the number two in Roman lower case “ ii ”
at the center of the footer. The top line shall be Thesis Approval for Ph.D., Dissertation
Approval for M.Tech. as the case may be.
Course work sheet
As the quantum of courses taken by a candidate is different for different postgraduate
degrees, a statement of the courses taken with assigned credits is to be included after the
approval sheet. This shall not be required in the case of B.Tech or M.Sc. Project Reports.
Abstract
The 500 word abstract shall highlight he important features of the thesis and shall
correspond to the electronic version to be submitted to the Library for inclusive in the
website. The Abstract in the thesis, however, shall have two more parts, namely, the
layout of the thesis giving a brief chapter –wise description of the work and the key
words.
Contents
The contents shall follow the Abstract and shall enlist the titles of the chapters, section
and sub-section using decimal notation, as in the text, with corresponding page number
against them, flushed to the right.
List of Figures and Tables
Two separate lists of Figure caption and Table titles along with their numbers and
corresponding page numbers against them shall follow the Contents.
Abbreviation Notation and Nomenclature
A complete and comprehensive list of all abbreviations, notations and
nomenclature including Greek alphabets with subscripts and superscripts shall be
provided after the list of tables’ figures. (As far as possible generally accepted
symbols and notation should be used.)
Auxiliary page from dedication (if any) to abbreviations shall be numbered using
Roman numerals in lower case, while the text starting from the Introduction shall
be in Hindu-Arabic. (The first pages in both the cases shall not bear a page
number).
