Formatting Requirements & Templates

The UFIT Help Desk’s Thesis & Dissertation Support Center maintains templates for MS Word and LaTeX which you must use to format your thesis or dissertation to make adherence to our formatting requirements easier.

• Thesis & Dissertation Templates

• Margins: One inch (1") all around (top, right, bottom, left) on all pages
• Font: 12-point Times New Roman or Arial throughout, including tables and figures
• Alignment: Left-aligned text with ragged right-hand margin — do not justify text
• Page Numbering: Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, and so on) centered at bottom of each page
• Page Order: 
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication (if any)
  • Acknowledgements
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Tables (if any)
  • List of Figures (if any)
  • List of Objects (if any)
  • List of Abbreviations (if any)
  • Abstract
  • Chapters
  • Appendices
  • List of References
  • Biographical Sketch
• Spacing: Double-space paragraph text. Indent the first line of each paragraph. Single-space headings, table titles, and figure captions. The reference list is single-spaced with one blank line in between the references.
• Text Flow: Text must be continuous throughout the chapter. It’s best to place all tables and figures at the end of their chapter. Avoid inserting them into the chapter’s text unless you can do so without leaving blank gaps at the bottom of text pages.
• Headings:
  • All major division headings are in uppercase (capital) letters, not in bold: preliminary pages, chapters, appendices, reference list; and biographical sketch.
  • All subheadings and paragraph headings are bold.
  • First-level subheadings are centered and in title case.
  • Second-level subheadings are flush-left and in title case.
  • Third-level subheading are flush-left and in sentence case.
  • Paragraph subheadings are indented and in sentence case.
  • Paragraph headings end with a period or colon. Start the text on the same line as the paragraph heading.
  • Paragraph headings can also be used with bulleted lists.

You are allowed to use full journal articles as chapters of your thesis or dissertation, provided that you secure permission from the journal’s publisher and any co-authors. When you include an article, the first page of that chapter must carry an unnumbered footnote that gives the full citation exactly as it appears in your reference list. For example:

This chapter is reprinted with permission from Gator, A (2025). The alligator’s echo: Standards as a leading tone in aquatic habitat management, Journal of Reptile Acoustic Ecology, 12(3), 213-230.

Key Guidelines

• The document must contain at least three chapters, including an introductory chapter, one or more article chapters (starting with Chapter 2), and a concluding chapter.
• All chapters must be woven into a single, unified study with a single Table of Contents, Abstract, List of References, and so on.
• The document must follow Graduate School formatting rules — not the journal’s style.
• You must obtain all copyright permissions. You and your supervisory committee are jointly responsible for this.
• If material is co-authored, it must be cited properly and used only with the co-authors’ written consent.
• The text of each chapter ought to reflect your own contribution. Direct duplication of another’s work is prohibited.
• Chapter tiles should not duplicate subheadings elsewhere in the thesis or dissertation (for example, use INTRODUCTION only once for the introductory chapter).

Adhering to these practices guarantees that your thesis or dissertation meets the Graduate School’s requirements while respecting the intellectual property of published works.

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Abstract
• Table
• Figure
• Equation
• Block Quote
• Short Bulleted List
• Long Bulleted List
• Biographical Sketch