wbkboyer / uvicthesis

A cleaned-up LaTeX class and template based on my M.Sc. thesis at UVic

uvicthesis

The uvicthesis project provides a template from which graduate students at the University of Victoria can start writing their thesis or dissertation. The LaTeX class file uvicthesis.cls sets your document to follow the UVic Library's style requirements, so you can focus on writing up your research instead of fiddling with formatting.

Before you submit your thesis, please make sure to double-check all style requirements on the UVic Graduate Studies website. There are several standards that LaTeX cannot automatically arrange for you, and you are ultimately responsible for making sure that your thesis conforms to the regulations set out by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, UVicSpace, and your academic department.

System requirements

To use the UVic LaTeX thesis class, you will need a relatively recent LaTeX distribution. (For information on how to install one, see the LaTeX Project website.) In particular, it depends on the following (standard) packages:

• etoolbox for class options
• fancyhdr to put page numbers in the header
• geometry to set margins
• lmodern and fontenc for extended fonts
• setspace for line spacing
• titlesec for fixing the spacing of chapter titles
• tocloft to make the ToC nicer

If you do not already have these installed, you can easily get them using the package manager that came with your distribution (tlmgr in TeX Live or its GUI frontend TeX Live Utility on OS X; mpm on Windows MikTeX installations).

Installation

1. Download the project files to your computer.

2. Rename template.tex to something more suitable, like thesis.tex. Delete the placeholder information and replace it with your own.

3. You may copy uvicthesis.cls to any folder in your TEXPATH. If you don't know what this means, make sure that uvicthesis.cls stays in the same folder as your thesis's main file.

4. Compile your main thesis file with your favourite LaTeX editor or from the command line using latexmk:

latexmk -pdf thesis.tex

Class options

The UVic Library has moved to digital-only thesis submission and no longer requires print copies of theses be submitted. However, if you do want to print your thesis, you can use the bound or twoside options to set margins for book binding.

Contributing

The uvicthesis class is written such that it should not be necessary to edit uvicthesis.cls itself. If you find you have to do so in order to make your thesis compile or to fix a display bug, please let me know by:

• emailing [e-mail], or
• filing an issue if you have a GitHub account, or
• issuing a pull request if you have a GitHub account and a bugfix.