OSU thesis

This repo holds a template for Oregon State University graduate theses written using LaTeX. (NRG members should only be using LaTeX.) This may be helpful for others at Oregon State for writing theses as well; it should satisfy Oregon State University Graduate School requirements. Please let us know if it does not! A copy of the latest formatting guide is in the beavtex directory.

The main document is thesis.tex, and individual representative chapters are in separate *.tex files. Feel free to keep or change these as appropriate for you, or add new files. Note that they are currently set up to be included using the subfiles package, which makes it easier to work and compile on a particular chapter at a time by itself. The thesis-header.tex file contains most of the preamble and LaTeX packages, and you should not need to edit it unless you want to customize the thesis format.

If you have a manuscript-style thesis, see the instructions below.

Initial items to check/change in thesis.tex:

• Replace the placeholders YOUR NAME and THESIS TITLE
• Check the degree type specified by \degree{}, and change to "Master of Science" if you are pursuing an MS.
• Update the \submitdate{} and \commencementyear{} fields.
• If you aren't an NRG member, you may need to update the \department{}, \major{}, and \advisor{} fields.
• Put your abstract in the \abstract{} environment.
• Add your acknowledgements.
• You can include a short dedication line using the \dedication{} command; remove if not used.
• You can include a quote as a preface, if you want, based on the example using the \epigraph{} command. Otherwise remove this section.

Beyond that, add content to the existing chapter or replace with other chapters as appropriate for you. The %!TEX root = thesis.tex bit at the top of the files tells most LaTeX editors to automatically compile the main document, even when you are working on an individual subfile.

The references are contained in refs.bib, though this can be replaced with a different file by changing the \addbibresource{} command in thesis-header.tex. You can also use multiple BibTeX files by adding additional \addbibresource{} commands. Note that biber and biblatex are used to process references in this template, rather than the older bibtex.

In the chapters, you can include a quotation that appears right before the chapter title using the \epigraphhead{} command, following the example in the Introduction chapter.

Lastly, the \graphicspath{} command in thesis.tex specifies a figures directory for all figures, telling LaTeX to look there when you include an image.

Instructions for manuscript theses/dissertations

Frequently students follow the manuscript thesis format, where their thesis or dissertation is made up of multiple individually complete manuscripts. This is perfectly fine (and actually what we typically recommend, particularly for PhD students), but the Graduate School requests the following format:

1. Pretext pages
2. Chapter 1: Overall Introduction
3. Chapter 2: First Manuscript
4. Chapter 3: Second Manuscript
5. Chapter 4+: Additional Manuscripts
6. Chapter n: Overall Conclusions
7. References (manuscripts may have their own reference sections too)
8. Appendices, if applicable

Also, each manuscript chapter must be preceded by a title page with some information about the manuscript. See the example manuscript1.tex file for an example of how to structure these chapters.

Acknowledgements

This thesis template uses the beavtex.cls class; though the provenance of this document isn't totally clear, its authors include Neville Mehta, Deling Ren, and John Metta.