thesis paper size in cm

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Formatting Requirements

Page layout, margins and numbering, workday student support.

Graduate students can find "how to" guides and support information on our Workday support page .

Your scholarly approach may call for a different presentational method. These are the requirements and recommendations for text-based theses.

For a text-based thesis, or the text portions of a thesis, the page size must be 8.5" x 11", and the text must be in a single, page-wide column. Do not use two or more columns in your thesis.

The text of the thesis is written in paragraph form.

• the first line of each paragraph should be indented, OR
• there should be a larger space between paragraphs than there is between lines.

Each chapter should generally start at the top of a new page.

Left: 1.25 inches (32 mm) is recommended if you intend to bind copies of your thesis; 1 inch minimum.

Right, top, and bottom: 1 inch recommended; 0.75 inches (19 mm) minimum

Page Numbering

Preliminary pages:.

• must be numbered in lower case Roman numerals (ii, iii, iv, etc.)
• the title page is "i" but this number must not appear on the page
• numbering begins at "ii" on the committee page
• the first page of the abstract is page iii

Body of thesis:

• must be numbered in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.)
• the first page of the text is "1"
• subsequent pages are numbered continuously throughout, including pages with tables and figures, bibliographies, appendices, and index

Whole thesis:

• every page except the title page must have a number on it
• there must be no blank pages in the thesis.

Page numberS:

• must be placed at least .5 inches (12 mm) from the edge of the page
• may be either in the lower centre or on the top or lower right of the page, when the page is viewed in portrait view. Lower right is preferred.

Landscape Pages

Landscape pages must be orientated in your PDF so that they are readable without rotation. You do not need to change the location or orientation of the page number, but may if you wish.

Facing Pages

Facing pages are not acceptable; you must use one-sided layout and pagination. If the caption for a figure, table, etc., cannot appear on the same page as its accompanying illustration, place the illustration on a separate page after the caption.

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Thesis and Dissertation Guide

• « Thesis & Dissertation Resources
• The Graduate School Home

• Introduction
• Copyright Page
• Dedication, Acknowledgements, Preface (optional)
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Symbols

Non-Traditional Formats

Font type and size, spacing and indentation, tables, figures, and illustrations, formatting previously published work.

• Internet Distribution
• Open Access
• Registering Copyright
• Using Copyrighted Materials
• Use of Your Own Previously Published Materials
• Submission Steps
• Submission Checklist
• Sample Pages

II. Formatting Guidelines

All copies of a thesis or dissertation must have the following uniform margins throughout the entire document:

• Left: 1″ (or 1 1/4" to ensure sufficient room for binding the work if desired)
• Right: 1″
• Bottom: 1″ (with allowances for page numbers; see section on Pagination )
• Top: 1″

Exceptions : The first page of each chapter (including the introduction, if any) begins 2″ from the top of the page. Also, the headings on the title page, abstract, first page of the dedication/ acknowledgements/preface (if any), and first page of the table of contents begin 2″ from the top of the page.

Non-traditional theses or dissertations such as whole works comprised of digital, artistic, video, or performance materials (i.e., no written text, chapters, or articles) are acceptable if approved by your committee and graduate program. A PDF document with a title page, copyright page, and abstract at minimum are required to be submitted along with any relevant supplemental files.

Fonts must be 10, 11, or 12 points in size. Superscripts and subscripts (e.g., formulas, or footnote or endnote numbers) should be no more than 2 points smaller than the font size used for the body of the text.

Space and indent your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• The text must appear in a single column on each page and be double-spaced throughout the document. Do not arrange chapter text in multiple columns.
• New paragraphs must be indicated by a consistent tab indentation throughout the entire document.
• The document text must be left-justified, not centered or right-justified.
• For blocked quotations, indent the entire text of the quotation consistently from the left margin.
• Ensure headings are not left hanging alone on the bottom of a prior page. The text following should be moved up or the heading should be moved down. This is something to check near the end of formatting, as other adjustments to text and spacing may change where headings appear on the page.

Exceptions : Blocked quotations, notes, captions, legends, and long headings must be single-spaced throughout the document and double-spaced between items.

Paginate your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• Use lower case Roman numerals (ii, iii, iv, etc.) on all pages preceding the first page of chapter one. The title page counts as page i, but the number does not appear. Therefore, the first page showing a number will be the copyright page with ii at the bottom.
• Arabic numerals (beginning with 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) start at chapter one or the introduction, if applicable. Arabic numbers must be included on all pages of the text, illustrations, notes, and any other materials that follow. Thus, the first page of chapter one will show an Arabic numeral 1, and numbering of all subsequent pages will follow in order.
• Do not use page numbers accompanied by letters, hyphens, periods, or parentheses (e.g., 1., 1-2, -1-, (1), or 1a).
• Center all page numbers at the bottom of the page, 1/2″ from the bottom edge.
• Pages must not contain running headers or footers, aside from page numbers.
• If your document contains landscape pages (pages in which the top of the page is the long side of a sheet of paper), make sure that your page numbers still appear in the same position and direction as they do on pages with standard portrait orientation for consistency. This likely means the page number will be centered on the short side of the paper and the number will be sideways relative to the landscape page text. See these additional instructions for assistance with pagination on landscape pages in Microsoft Word .

Format footnotes for your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• Footnotes must be placed at the bottom of the page separated from the text by a solid line one to two inches long.
• Begin at the left page margin, directly below the solid line.
• Single-space footnotes that are more than one line long.
• Include one double-spaced line between each note.
• Most software packages automatically space footnotes at the bottom of the page depending on their length. It is acceptable if the note breaks within a sentence and carries the remainder into the footnote area of the next page. Do not indicate the continuation of a footnote.
• Number all footnotes with Arabic numerals. You may number notes consecutively within each chapter starting over with number 1 for the first note in each chapter, or you may number notes consecutively throughout the entire document.
• Footnote numbers must precede the note and be placed slightly above the line (superscripted). Leave no space between the number and the note.
• While footnotes should be located at the bottom of the page, do not place footnotes in a running page footer, as they must remain within the page margins.

Endnotes are an acceptable alternative to footnotes. Format endnotes for your thesis or dissertation following these guidelines:

• Always begin endnotes on a separate page either immediately following the end of each chapter, or at the end of your entire document. If you place all endnotes at the end of the entire document, they must appear after the appendices and before the references.
• Include the heading “ENDNOTES” in all capital letters, and center it 1″ below the top of the first page of your endnotes section(s).
• Single-space endnotes that are more than one line long.
• Number all endnotes with Arabic numerals. You may number notes consecutively within each chapter starting over with number 1 for the first note in each chapter, or you may number notes consecutively throughout the entire document.
• Endnote numbers must precede the note and be placed slightly above the line (superscripted). Leave no space between the number and the note.

Tables, figures, and illustrations vary widely by discipline. Therefore, formatting of these components is largely at the discretion of the author.

For example, headings and captions may appear above or below each of these components.

These components may each be placed within the main text of the document or grouped together in a separate section.

Space permitting, headings and captions for the associated table, figure, or illustration must be on the same page.

The use of color is permitted as long as it is consistently applied as part of the finished component (e.g., a color-coded pie chart) and not extraneous or unprofessional (e.g., highlighting intended solely to draw a reader's attention to a key phrase). The use of color should be reserved primarily for tables, figures, illustrations, and active website or document links throughout your thesis or dissertation.

The format you choose for these components must be consistent throughout the thesis or dissertation.

Ensure each component complies with margin and pagination requirements.

Refer to the List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations section for additional information.

If your thesis or dissertation has appendices, they must be prepared following these guidelines:

• Appendices must appear at the end of the document (before references) and not the chapter to which they pertain.
• When there is more than one appendix, assign each appendix a number or a letter heading (e.g., “APPENDIX 1” or “APPENDIX A”) and a descriptive title. You may number consecutively throughout the entire work (e.g., 1, 2 or A, B), or you may assign a two-part Arabic numeral with the first number designating the chapter in which it appears, separated by a period, followed by a second number or letter to indicate its consecutive placement (e.g., “APPENDIX 3.2” is the second appendix referred to in Chapter Three).
• Include the chosen headings in all capital letters, and center them 1″ below the top of the page.
• All appendix headings and titles must be included in the table of contents.
• Page numbering must continue throughout your appendix or appendices. Ensure each appendix complies with margin and pagination requirements.

You are required to list all the references you consulted. For specific details on formatting your references, consult and follow a style manual or professional journal that is used for formatting publications and citations in your discipline.

Your reference pages must be prepared following these guidelines:

• If you place references after each chapter, the references for the last chapter must be placed immediately following the chapter and before the appendices.
• If you place all references at the end of the thesis or dissertation, they must appear after the appendices as the final component in the document.
• Select an appropriate heading for this section based on the style manual you are using (e.g., “REFERENCES”, “BIBLIOGRAPHY”, or “WORKS CITED”).
• Include the chosen heading in all capital letters, and center it 1″ below the top of the page.
• References must be single-spaced within each entry.
• Include one double-spaced line between each reference.
• Page numbering must continue throughout your references section. Ensure references comply with margin and pagination requirements.

In some cases, students gain approval from their academic program to include in their thesis or dissertation previously published (or submitted, in press, or under review) journal articles or similar materials that they have authored. For more information about including previously published works in your thesis or dissertation, see the section on Use of Your Own Previously Published Materials and the section on Copyrighting.

If your academic program has approved inclusion of such materials, please note that these materials must match the formatting guidelines set forth in this Guide regardless of how the material was formatted for publication.

Some specific formatting guidelines to consider include:

• Fonts, margins, chapter headings, citations, and references must all match the formatting and placement used within the rest of the thesis or dissertation.
• If appropriate, published articles can be included as separate individual chapters within the thesis or dissertation.
• A separate abstract to each chapter should not be included.
• The citation for previously published work must be included as the first footnote (or endnote) on the first page of the chapter.
• Do not include typesetting notations often used when submitting manuscripts to a publisher (i.e., insert table x here).
• The date on the title page should be the year in which your committee approves the thesis or dissertation, regardless of the date of completion or publication of individual chapters.
• If you would like to include additional details about the previously published work, this information can be included in the preface for the thesis or dissertation.

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Formatting your thesis

This document is also available in a downloadable, printable format (Word - 48KB) .

Introduction

This is a guide to the presentation of a thesis required for the award of a research degree at the University of Birmingham.  It deals only with the practicalities of producing your thesis in a format that is acceptable for examination and deposit in the Library. It supplements Regulation 7.4.1 which covers thesis requirements and Regulation 7.4.2 which contains key information about language and word count. See the  regulations relevant to your cohort .

If your thesis will be presented as a series of published or publishable papers, please refer to the Alternative Format Thesis guidelines (Word - 24KB)  in addition to this document.

For aspects of thesis presentation not mentioned in the regulations or in this document, discuss with your supervisor what might be appropriate for your discipline.

Legal considerations

Whilst there may be valid reasons to restrict access to your thesis temporarily, an electronic copy of your thesis will become publicly available immediately or within a few years of your graduation. Just as would be required with a formal publication, it is your responsibility to ensure your thesis can be legally shared with a broad audience.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with copyright legislation when including third-party material (e.g. quotations, images). See  copyright for researchers .

Data Protection

Unless you have explicit permission, your thesis must not include commercially sensitive data or sensitive personal data relating to your research participants. Where it is essential to include such data, you should ensure it is fully anonymised.  See  Anonymisation: managing data protection risk code of practice from the Information Commissioner's Office (PDF - 1.84MB) .

Accessibility

There is a legal requirement to make theses available to those who would benefit from an accessible document, including those using screen-reading software. For more information, see LinkedIn Learning .

Elements of the thesis

A thesis normally consists of the following elements, in the order presented here:

• Dedication (optional)

Acknowledgements

Table of contents.

• List of illustrations (if appropriate)
• List of tables (if appropriate)
• List of definitions/abbreviations (if appropriate)

Main body text

References/bibliography, preliminaries.

The preliminary pages should not be included in the table of contents or the word count for the thesis. They should be numbered separately from the main body of the thesis, or left unnumbered. 

The title page gives the title, author, statement of the degree for which the thesis is submitted, department/school, university and month of submission. Give your full name on the title page to ensure it matches that on your student record.

For a thesis being deposited after minor or major corrections have been made and approved, the date on the title page should be the original date of submission. For a resubmitted thesis, the date should be the month of resubmission.

If your thesis consists of more than one volume, a title page should be included in each volume. In this case, the title page should additionally include the number of the particular volume and the total number of volumes of the thesis.

It should be laid out as in the following example:

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF SELECTION WITHIN AN INBREEDING PROGRAMME IN SUNFLOWERS

MARTIN TREVOR SMITH

A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of  DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Institute of Local Government Studies School of Government and Society College of Social Sciences University of Birmingham October 2020

The abstract should immediately follow the title page, and be no longer than 2 pages. The abstract will be used when the thesis is indexed in EThOS, Index to Theses and elsewhere.

You must include acknowledgement of any funding you have received. 

Where a third-party editor or generative AI has been used for editorial help, you must acknowledge this. For further information on what needs to be included in either of these cases, see the  full statement on editorial help (Word - 21KB) .

Inclusion of further acknowledgements is a matter for your own discretion, and they may be omitted if the above do not apply to you.

Contents listings

The table of contents should show chapter and section titles, demonstrating the relationship of the parts to each other by indentation and numbering. Chapters and sections should be referenced to their page numbers.

If your thesis consists of more than one volume, each volume should have its own table of contents as well as a complete table of contents. 

Other preliminary listings

You may also choose to include lists of illustrations, tables, definitions and/or abbreviations.

If your list of illustrations includes different types of illustrations, it can be subdivided into headed sections (e.g. figures, plates, maps, charts).  The title of each illustration should be referenced to its page number. If illustrations have been inserted without page numbers then the terms “Facing page” (for one illustration) or “Following page” (series of illustrations) should precede the appropriate page number.

Lists of definitions and/or abbreviations act as an aid to the reader, and do not replace full explanations in the main text when an abbreviation, symbol or new term is used for the first time.

The main body of the text follows the preliminaries and the sequence of page numbers begins here. This section must be included in your word count (less any exemptions such as footnotes, tables, diagrams and figures – see regulation 7.4.2). 

A referencing style appropriate to your discipline should be used consistently throughout your thesis. See our referencing guide .

A list of references must contain all of the sources which you have mentioned in the text, according to your chosen referencing style. This can be headed either “List of References” or “Bibliography” as appropriate to your discipline. 

Additionally, you may include a bibliography of sources which you have not cited in the text itself, but which you think readers might wish to go on to consult. This may be sub-divided into sections if that is likely to prove helpful.

Appendices contain information which is supportive but not critical for understanding of the main text. Copyright and appropriate handling of sensitive information also apply to the appendices as in the main text, and it is your responsibility to ensure that you comply. 

Where more than one appendix is included, assign each one a number.

Typesetting and word processing

The thesis must be clearly set out and easy to read. 

Page layout

The margin on the binding edge must be at least 3 cm.  It is desirable to have margins of 3 cm at the top and bottom of the page and 2 cm at the outer edge.

Document layout

It is recommended that you use the heading styles within your word processing software properly. This will facilitate creation of a table of contents, simplify navigation of your document, and increase the accessibility of your thesis to screen readers.

New chapters should always commence on a fresh page. Titles should be in capitals and centred. Sub-headings within chapters should be left justified.

Quotations not integrated in the text should be clearly distinguished from the main text. 

Equations and formulae should be indented from the margin and separated from the surrounding text by an extra space. They may be numbered.

Illustrations and tables should be positioned near the first reference made to them in the text, and a fully descriptive caption provided. Avoid using colour to convey meaning.

• See guidance on Canvas for using Microsoft Word to manage long documents . 

Recommended fonts include Arial, but any clear, standard sans serif typeface may be used. Font colour should be black, and font size 12 is recommended for general use. 

Use double line spacing throughout the body of your text. Single spacing is acceptable for quotations, footnotes, captions, and the bibliography.  Layout should be reasonably uniform regarding the length of lines and the number of lines per page.

Printing and binding for examination

You are not required to submit printed copies of your thesis in the first instance. However, if your examiners specifically request a printed copy, Research Student Administration will contact you and you will then be required to submit a printed copy. These guidelines should be followed in this case.

You should use white A4 paper, of good quality (minimum 80gsm if single-sided or minimum 100gsm if double-sided).  We encourage printing on both sides of the paper, provided the paper doesn’t allow printing to show through and affect legibility.

It is normal practice for copies of your thesis submitted for examination to be bound in a glued soft binding. This binding must be sufficiently secure to ensure that pages do not fall out during the examination process. 

Library deposit copy

After your work has been examined, your corrections (if applicable) have been approved, and you have received your letter of award, you must upload an electronic copy for permanent deposit in the eTheses Repository . See more information on depositing your thesis in the UBIRA eTheses repository . 

If your thesis has any supplementary media, this should be provided electronically.  Contact Scholarly Communications Services  in Libraries and Learning Resources for advice.

Further reading

Allison, B. & Race, P. (2004).  The student’s guide to preparing dissertations and theses .  2 nd ed.  London; New York: RoutledgeFalmer.  eBook via FindIt@Bham .

International Organization for Standardization (1986).  ISO 7144: Documentation – presentation of theses and similar documents .   FindIt@Bham .

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