Format your thesis

You must adhere to the thesis word count set by your school/department. For more information, please see your departmental PGR handbook.

You must abide by the Policy on Transparency of Authorship in PGR Programmes, including generative AI, proofreading and translation.

Further guidance on the use, and potential misuse, of generative AI is available. 

The title page of every volume should only include the following information in the order listed, and on separate lines:

• the full title of the thesis and any subtitle
• the total number of volumes, if more than one, and the number of the particular volume
• the full name of the author, followed, if desired, by any qualifications and distinctions
• the qualification for which the thesis is being deposited (for example PhD or MA by Research)
• the name of the University
• the name of the School, Department or Centre in which the research was conducted. You must refer to the list of approved names on the submit your thesis web page
• the month and year the thesis was first submitted for examination.

The title page should not have a coloured or patterned background. To see how this may look with the required information, see our example title page (PDF , 58kb)

If there is a cover page included in advance of, and in addition, to the title page, this may be a single colour with clearly visible text in a contrasting colour. The cover should have the same information as the title page, as listed above.

If you are submitting for an aegrotat award you need to indicate this on the title page by adding Aegrotat in front of the intended award. 

The abstract should follow the title page. It should provide a synopsis of the thesis, stating the nature and scope of work undertaken and the contribution made to knowledge in the subject area. It should appear on its own on a single page and should not exceed 300 words in length. The abstract of the thesis will be published in WREO , and the copyright of the abstract shall be deemed to be vested in the University.

In this section you must confirm that your thesis meets the requirements of the 'Nature of the Thesis' section Policy on Research Degrees, and in particular that it:

• is your own original work (or if work has been done in collaboration with others, full disclosure of the names of your colleagues and the contribution they have made)
• has not been previously submitted for any degree or other qualification at this University or elsewhere (unless an internal resubmission).

You must also state whether any material in the thesis has been presented for publication (including if under review) with full references.

The minimum required is as follows:

I declare that this thesis is a presentation of original work and I am the sole author. This work has not previously been presented for a degree or other qualification at this University or elsewhere. All sources are acknowledged as references.

For further guidance on the inclusion of published material and authorship, see the University requirements on journal-style theses.

The following is the recommended sequence of material within a monograph thesis (if you are submitting a journal-style thesis or practice-based thesis please see the specific guidance). Requirements may vary slightly between schools/departments but starred (*) items must appear in every thesis.

To see how this may look with the required information, see our Example thesis layout Nov 2022 (PDF , 68kb). 

• Title and subtitle*
• Abstract*
• List of contents*
  The List of Contents should reference the starting page number for ALL the relevant sections in your thesis. The sections to include, where present, are listed below:

1. 1. Abstract
   2. List of Contents
   3. List of Tables (if any)
   4. List of Figures (if any)
   5. List of Illustrations (if any)
   6. List of Accompanying Material (if any)
   7. Preface (if any)
   8. Acknowledgements (if any)
   9. Declaration
   10. all relevant sub-divisions of the thesis, including the titles of chapters, sections and subsections;
   11. Appendices (if any)
   12. Abbreviations and/or Glossary (if any)
   13. Reference List and/or Bibliography
   14. Index (if any)
       If a thesis consists of more than one volume, the contents of the whole thesis should be shown in the first volume and the contents of subsequent volumes in a separate contents list in the following volumes.

• List of tables, list of figures, list of illustrations, etc
• List of accompanying material
  This is anything not included in the thesis document.
• Preface
  An introduction to the thesis as a whole - not to be confused with Chapter 1.
• Acknowledgements
  You may wish to acknowledge the help and support of colleagues, friends and family. This should not be confused with your author’s declaration.
• Author's declaration*
• Text*
  This is the main body of your thesis, divided into chapters, sections, etc.
• Appendices
  Appendices may consist of material of considerable length or of lists, documents, commentaries, tables or other evidence that, if included in the main text, would interrupt its flow. The presentation of appendices, including character size, should be consistent with the style of the main text.
• Glossary and/or Abbreviations
  Terms that require explanation should be defined in a glossary, which should include a key to any abbreviations used. For an abbreviation not in common use, the term shall be given in full at the first instance followed by the abbreviation in brackets.
• Reference List and/or Bibliography*
  A bibliography is a list of all of the sources you have used (whether referenced or not) in the process of researching your thesis. A reference list comprises only items actually cited in your thesis. You may include both combined in one, or address them separately.
• Index
  If an index has been produced, insert it as the final section of your thesis.

A bibliographical reference must be provided for every work, published or unpublished, cited in your thesis.

Citations should be in a consistent and approved format as specified by your school, department or centre. References should be collated in a reference list or a combined reference list/bibliography.

Please refer to referencing guidance issued by your school, department or centre and the University's guidelines for further information.

Theses need to be presented in such a way that they can be easily read in electronic form and printed without issue (eg if this is required by the examiners or by your funder). 

Page size

The text and, wherever possible, all the material of the thesis (including illustrations), should be based on A4 page size (297mm x 210mm).

Typographic design

Text and its setting (font, size, line spacing, margins) must be chosen to ensure legibility.

Text, in general, should be black, sans serif and should not be embellished (ie no general use of coloured text or fancy fonts, no section separators, etc).

For ease of reading, the size of character used in the main text should be no less than 11pt.
Text should normally be set with even or proportionate spacing between words. Word division at the ends of lines should be avoided, if possible.

It is recommended that 1.5 line spacing or equivalent is used, although lines that contain mathematical formulae, diacritical marks or strings of capital letters may need additional space.

It should be clear when a new paragraph is starting and where matter in the text is being quoted.

Page headers

Page headers may be used but, for ease of reading, it is recommended that the font used is smaller than the main body of the text and that no underline is used. Headers should not include personal information, such as your name or student number.

Headings

Headings should be used to indicate the hierarchical structure of the text. There should normally be not more than four levels, including the chapter headings as the first level. It is recommended that each level is distinguished from the others by position or typography, or both, and that the space that precedes and follows a heading is not less than the space between paragraphs. Headings should not normally be centred (except, possibly, for chapter and part headings).

Numbering

When using numbers in your thesis, the following format is recommended:

• Arabic numerals should normally be used for numbering all sequences within a thesis.
• For ease of reading, it is recommended that page numbers are visibly clear of the text. 
• The pages of the thesis should be numbered in a single sequence. The title page of the thesis should be page 1, but the numbering should be hidden. The abstract should be page 2 and so on sequentially throughout the thesis, including pages that carry tables, illustrations, appendices, etc.
• For theses comprising more than one volume, the numbering should be continuous across all volumes (again, the title page of the second volume should be counted but hidden).
• The use of blank pages should be avoided, if possible. 
• Chapters should be numbered from the start to the finish of the thesis, continuing across volumes if necessary. Appendices should be numbered in a separate sequence from that used for chapters.
• Illustrations should be numbered consecutively in a single sequence, generally without distinguishing between different kinds of illustration. 
• Tables or figures within the text should be numbered consecutively in a single sequence, each separate from illustrations.

Illustrations

An illustration should normally appear near the first reference made to it in the text. The desirability of grouping illustrations at the back of a volume or in a separate volume should be considered if they:

• need to be compared with one another
• are referred to frequently in the text
• need to be separate because of their nature, eg their size or method of production.

Illustrations should be of a technical quality that reproduces well.

Every illustration, including appendices, should be included in the list of illustrations with page numbers or other identification. It is recommended that any label within an illustration is positioned so that the part it applies to cannot be confused with any other, or linked to the part by a thin line; the lettering should be large and clear enough to be legible if reproduced. A short legend should appear beneath each illustration.

Your electronic thesis (e-thesis) needs to be an accessible document, meaning that it should be easy for anyone to read or reformat, and can be accessed by people using assistive technology (such as screen readers).

There are some simple steps you will need to take to ensure that your e-thesis meets accessibility standards.

1. Use the headings function within your chosen software package to produce a structured document.
2. Add alternative text to images/videos/graphs/tables etc.
3. Always use the number/bullet point function within your software package when creating a list.
4. Use meaningful hyperlinks.
5. Use tables sparingly and format them with a header row and, where appropriate, a header column.

For further details, please see the guidance on making your e-thesis accessible.

Your main thesis text must be submitted as a PDF document.

If your thesis will include any other file formats in addition to PDF (eg audio files, data spreadsheets), you should refer to our e-thesis file format guidance.

If your submission will include one or more creative components (eg, a novel, music scores) and you wish to apply for a creative work embargo you should divide your work into a separate critical component and creative component(s) prior to submission. 

After the deposit of your examined thesis in WREO, and before you leave the University, you should ensure that your research data is either disposed of securely or is archived and shared in an appropriate data repository. Decisions for the disposal or archiving of research data at the end of the programme should consider legal, ethical or funder requirements, and be documented in a data management plan.

For guidance see archiving and sharing data, or contact the Open Research team for further information: lib-open-research@york.ac.uk. 

If you are enrolled on a joint/double/dual programme, ie you will receive an award from another university in addition to York, you must indicate this on the title page, see our example joint/double/dual title page. You should also reference the arrangement at the start of the author’s declaration, for example ‘This thesis is submitted for a joint/double PhD of the University of York and the University of XXX’.

You may be required to include an additional abstract in the language of the partner institution and additional frontpages to include required declarations of the partner institution.

You should aim to fulfil the requirements of both institutions in terms of the format of the thesis (ie in terms of structure, presentation etc.) but if the requirements conflict and cannot be resolved, those of the home institution should normally prevail. If you are having difficulties, please ask your supervisor for advice and/or contact pgr-examinations@york.ac.uk.