Thesis layout and formatting guidelines

Published 21.12.2024 | Updated 21.12.2024

In this context, written work refers to a written part of the demonstration of proficiency, such as (artistic) theses and (research-oriented) dissertations, here they are called “thesis”.
The instructions are recommendations and mainly concern the layout – only a very few instructions concern the content of the text. The approval and grading of a thesis are ultimately determined by its content. However, the appearance of a thesis must meet certain criteria: it must be clearly structured, easy to read and consistent. It must also demonstrate a knowledge of academic practices. The following instructions are based on long-standing academic traditions and have been refined through years of consistent application.
The appearance of a written thesis should not endeavour to express the author’s personality; on the contrary, the appearance must demonstrate the author’s ability to comply with the rules and practices of the community in question.
If the language of a thesis is other than Finnish, the spelling and formatting rules of that language shall apply. Whether the practices concerning academic texts in a foreign country are to be observed must be decided separately.

Opening pages of a thesis

First title page

The first page must only show the title of the book. The title of a thesis must be accurate and short. An explanatory subtitle may also be used.
Blank page (Back of the first title page)
The first title page and extra blank page behind it are not necessary, but they do add a stylish touch to the work.

Title page

-Author
-Name of the book (title)
-Publication series and publication series number
-Publisher, year

Release notes (back of the title page)

• Supervisor(s)
• Pre-examiner(s)
• Chair (Custos) of the examination
• Opponent(s) OR: examiner(s) of an artistic thesis
• Publisher Information
• Description of the type of work (academic doctoral dissertation, artistic thesis etc.)
• Series information
• Cover design
• Cover image
• Printed by
• ISSN number (PDF)
• ISSN number (print)
• ISBN number (PDF)
• ISBN number (print)
• Place and year

Abstract

The abstract is a brief, roughly one-page summary of a doctoral thesis and is written in Finnish/Swedish and English. The abstract provides the reader with the bibliographical information of the thesis and gives a general picture of its content. The library uses the abstract when entering information about the thesis into data systems. So, keep in mind that the keywords in the abstract are used to search only for information contained in the abstract. You should therefore include all of the key terminology and core concepts of your thesis in your abstract.
The abstract should be comprehensible on its own and straightforward (no bullet points!) and it should contain only things stated in the written work. It should not refer to the actual text and it should not include unconventional abbreviations, underlining, or spacing.

I Bibliographical information

• Author name
• Title of the thesis
• Place of study/degree or other context in which the work is included
• Year of publication
• Number of pages (possibly the actual text separately + appendices)
  II Information concerning content (as applicable)
• Main idea(s) of the research
• Research topic
• Research method
• Research results
• Conclusions, significance of research
  III Keywords
• Keywords describing the content of your thesis (1–7 core concepts). These do not have to be indexing terms that comply with library standards – you may add your own.
• Please note that future citers of your thesis may find your thesis based on these keywords, the (standard) indexing terms provided by the library, and the text in the abstract.

Foreword

A foreword is not necessary. In a foreword, you can shed light on the background of the thesis, but in such a way that the information necessary for understanding the work is not given until the introduction.
In a foreword, you may also thank individuals who have helped you outside their regular duties or have been exceptionally active contributors. (The actual supervisor acting within their academic position is not such a person, although they are often also thanked.)
The foreword is often signed as in a letter (place, date, name).

Content pages

Table of contents

The content hierarchy must be clearly defined in the table of contents. The hierarchy (chapters, subsections, etc.) can an be shown by changing the font size or type and using indents of different widths (the lower the level in the hierarchy, the wider the indent) or, most commonly, by using Arabic numerals. You should avoid inconsistencies when choosing font sizes, bolding, and line spacing in the table of contents and the body text.

• If you number the chapters, do not add a full stop after the number (e.g. 2 is Chapter two, 4.3 is Chapter four point three).
• If there is only one block of text in a subsection, there is no need to number the subsection.
• Number only the body text, not the bibliography or appendices.
• The page number at the beginning of a chapter is placed on the right-hand side of the table of contents without a full stop. A dash or similar can be added between the chapter heading and the page number to make it easier to read. Practices vary.
• Appendices are also titled, but not numbered. If there are multiple appendices, they can be assigned letters (i.e. unlike the chapters).
• The abstract is not mentioned in the table of contents.

Pagination

All pages are included in the pagination of the thesis – even if all numbers are not visible. Appendices also have page numbers. There are two ways to add page numbers to a thesis:

1. Only Arabic numerals are used in pagination, but they are not shown until after the publication information page.
2. Anglo-American practices, which is, however, usually only used in English-language publications: Pages before the Introduction are numbered using lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii etc.). However, numbering only starts after the publication information page (=v). New pagination with Arabic numerals (=1) starts on the Introduction page. In some cases, pagination is not shown until the second page of the Introduction (=2).
   
3. In MS Word, pagination in the above-mentioned ways requires dividing the text into different sections (section breaks) to break the links between these sections.

Body text

The following outline is suitable for traditional research. Other solutions may be used depending on the content and approach – in some cases, this is even recommended.
Chapter headings must reflect the actual content of the chapter. For example, if your chapter title is “Cat and dog”, each of these must appear in the body text of the chapter and in roughly equal measure.

• Introduction
• Research question or assignment
• Data and methods
• The actual analysis, in which questions posed in the research assignment are answered within the framework of the data and methods described earlier, usually by means of some specific example cases. This section is often the most extensive part of the thesis.
• Results (reported in order of questions/assignments)
• Conclusions or discussion, which answers the following questions (as applicable):
• How has the research succeeded in answering the questions?
• What limitations did the research data or method have and how should the selection of data or method possibly be changed or developed in further research?
• Has the research increased knowledge in the research area?
• Can the results be utilised? How?
• What topics for further research are inspired by the work?

Cite references in a consistent manner (e.g. author, year, page number). No page number is usually given for articles, as the reader can easily find the cited item without it. (Whereas the page numbers of a full article are given in the bibliography, also in the case of anthologies or compilations.)
Use italics, bolding and, in particular, parentheses sparingly and systematically. For example, foreign words are usually italicised as are the specific titles of musical works (e.g. although Finlandia should be italicised, Symphony No. 7 should not). The overuse of footnotes should also be avoided in order to make the text more readable, unless this is a general practice in a discipline where scholarly knowledge is demonstrated in the footnotes.
Make a distinction between a hyphen (used in hyphenation, compound words, and fixed phrases: -) and an en or em-dash (– or —). There must be a space between the words on both sides of a dash, but not, for example, when using a hyphen between years (1865-1957). Please note that Word inserts a dash in compound words by default. This needs to be edited manually if you are using AutoCorrect.

Bibliography

If there are numerous references of different types, they can be grouped in different ways, such as Research literature, Regulations, Archive sources, Sheet music and Recordings. There are different practices for grouping; refer to some example texts.

• If the work is historical or empirical, it is customary to distinguish the data from the references. The data is the material being researched, whereas the references (literature) are the materials being used as background for the research and (in part) its arguments.
• For example, historical (researched) data typically contains relics and literary data: memoirs, diaries, etc. Empirical data may consist of interviews, questionnaires, images, sheet music, etc. It is customary to list the data before the references.

The bibliography lists only the references that have been used. You may use, for example, the bibliography instructions of the Musiikki journal (cf. the latest issue or Elektra). However, the most important thing is the internal consistency of the bibliography and that the reader can use the bibliography to find the reference used. If the research includes separate research data, this is also referred to according to the practice explained in the research. Unlike other chapters, the bibliography is not numbered.
Appendices
• Appendices are lettered or numbered differently than the actual content.
• Each appendix must be given a heading (appendix caption).
• Appendices are listed in the table of contents.

Appendices

• Appendices are lettered or numbered differently than the actual content.
• Each appendix must be given a heading (appendix caption).
• Appendices are listed in the table of contents.

Layout of a written work

Positioning

• Note that, if you are laying out your work, an A4 file will be scaled down to B5 (176 x 250 mm – approx. 84%) by the printer. A4 is used only in certain exceptions if the work contains a lot of sheet music.
• Leave sufficient space for the top and bottom margins – approximately 2 cm at the top and a bit more at the bottom. The outer margin for a B5 file must be at least 2 cm and the outer margin for an A4 file at least 2.5 cm. The inside margin must be large enough so that the publication binding does not need to be pulled open when reading (the inner margin must be 0.5-1 cm wider than the outer margin of the book).
• Note that the pages are asymmetrical: the binding margin is on the left on odd pages and the right on even pages. Also note the asymmetrical positioning of pagination on the right and left side of the page. There is a separate function in MS Word for this (Header and Footer tab > Different Odd & Even Pages).
• A stylish placement of the main chapter is, for example, in the top margin: the title of the book can be placed on even pages and the main chapter on odd pages (this is not required; requires some expertise in MS Word).
• Positioning must be adapted to the font type and size (also the book size): a small font size requires a narrower column than a large one.

Line spacing and indents

• The line spacing must be adapted to the type and size of the font: small fonts allow for smaller line spacing, large fonts requires larger spacing. A good line spacing is, for example, 1.3 pt, i.e. something between 1 and 1.5 and preferably closer to 1; if the line spacing is too large, it will make the book look more like a thesis paper. For example, in an A4 file, use a 12 pt font and a max. spacing. of 1.5 pt. In a B5 file, use an 11 pt font and a min. line spacing of 1.3 pt.
• Citations that are longer than three lines are to be indented. You can also use slightly smaller line spacing. Citation indents are larger than paragraph indents. No quotation marks are to be used when indenting.
• The beginning of a paragraph is indented, but not immediately under the heading. (In such cases, there is no blank space between paragraphs.) The indent should be clearly visible, but moderate in size (up to ten letters, depending on positioning, line spacing and font size). In this model, blank lines may be sparingly used to separate sections that are longer than paragraphs, in which case the text begins with a left alignment after the blank line and without indentation.
• Paragraphs may also be left-aligned: paragraphs are separated from each other by a blank line. (This is a newer formatting practice. The disadvantage of this is that authors often have a tendency to write paragraphs that are too long. Also, when doing this, longer sections of the text cannot be separated using blank lines. The reader may also give too much weight to the blank line between paragraphs, making the reading experience fragmentary.)
• The table of contents and bibliography have the same line spacing as the body text.
• No widow and orphan lines (a lone line at the end or beginning of a page).
• If you use lists, they are written either: (1) without punctuation and capitalising the first letter; (2) as full sentences with full stops at the end (as in this chapter); or (3) as a single sentence, with a full stop at the end of the list (see e.g. “Using Microsoft Word to Create a Layout”). However, it is a good idea to use numbers in parentheses (as above) or letters within the body text. Please note that the Language Office offers additional listing alternatives:-)

Headings

• Headings can be written differently from body text (uppercase letters, bolding, etc.), but you should do so with careful consideration and sparingly.
  o One good practice is to make the heading sans serif (grotesque; without stroke extensions, i.e. “serifs”) and the body text serif (Antiqua; with stroke extensions, i.e. ‘serifs’) – or vice versa.
  o Another method: write the title of the thesis and the main heading in bold uppercase letters; separate it from the following text by two blank lines. Lower-level headings in uppercase letters, one blank line (i.e. two blank lines before the heading, one blank line after it)
• Headings are left-aligned and, if desired, may include index numbers showing different levels of the hierarchy (2, 3.4, and 2.4.1).
• Do not put a full stop after the heading and index number.
• Main chapters start on a new page.
• When doing layout in MS Office, you could use styles or fields for headings to define the fonts and indexing of headings on different levels in the hierarchy as well as the spaces above and below them (without adding blank lines before or after headings).
• The following is one good way to check the match between heading and content: When the heading is, for example, “Cat and dog”, both animals should be written about in approximately equal measure.

Tables, sheet music examples, figures, images

Tables, sheet music examples, figures, images are numbered in Arabic numerals, each in its own series. Note – each table, figure etc. must be referred to in text (cf. sheet music example 774). Figures, tables, sheet music examples, etc. are separately numbered in order from the beginning of the text to the end (FIGURE 1, FIGURE 2 etc.), not (usually) according to the chapters of the text. The Language Office currently recommends that a figure caption and its numbers should be written in the text starting with a lowercase letter (see Figure 1).
The captions of figures are placed under the figure – since the idea is that the image speaks for itself. The captions of tables and sheet music examples are positioned above them. Captions are carefully written so that the figure and table can be read as they are, without requiring the reader to refer to the body text. If necessary, a source is included in the caption. The words FIGURE and TABLE are usually written in capital letters, italics, or bold in the caption. The recommended table width is the same as the text width.
Captions should clearly indicate the subject and the medium (e.g. photograph, drawing) of the image. The caption includes the name of the author, the year, the holder of the right (e.g. a museum).
Images and sample notes of a sufficiently high resolution must be submitted for printing (images – 600 dpi, sheet music and diagrams – 1200dpi, or vector graphics).

Copyright issues

Copyrights must be respected, and the author of the material borrowed and the (original) source (including the photographer) must always be mentioned. Protected material may also be used free of charge and without separate permission in an academic non-commercial text within the framework of the right of quotation: e.g. a suitable, published excerpt of music (not too long and not too short), an image published by a museum or otherwise found on the Internet, a translated poem, if such material is addressed in the text (i.e. they are appropriately connected to the work of the citing person). This means that the example being used is “incorporated in the text”, i.e. images used for their own sake may not be used without compensation. In principle, all author and publisher information must always be mentioned in citations, unless finding this information proves impossible.
Exceptions to this include museum and archive materials that are in the possession of the museum and that the author has received when concluding an access agreement with the museum: these materials may not be used without permission or without the requested compensation. On the other hand, images available on the Internet, such as those published by museums on their own websites, may generally be used within the scope of the right of quotation. The cited image must be legally available to the public: it is published e.g. by the museum itself and is not a pirated version.
The figures and other sources and/or copyright holders can also be included on a separate list, not in the captions. This is the most common practice with images.
More information is available on the Art Universities Copyright Advice and the Uniarts Helsinki Publication Guide.

Using Microsoft Word in layout

MS Word and its wide range of functions makes layout easier, allowing you to use numerous automatic functions in your text. These include headings in the bottom or top margins, automatic page numbering, indexes, table of contents, and inserting images and table lists. However, this requires a significantly more advanced level of Word know-how as compared to normal word processing, particularly in style or field settings when creating various lists and indexes.
Images and sheet music should be attached to the text in a PDF format to maintain an optimal printable resolution. Please note that the resolution of the original (non-PDF) image must be high enough in relation to the size of the final printed image. You may use Word’s own spreadsheet tool or Excel to create tables (if you use Excel, the table can be edited in Excel).
Indeed, you can very well teach yourself how to use Word. There are plenty of instructions available online, including video tutorials, and the software itself comes with good instructions. The first things that you should learn—starting with the first pages of text—are:

• stop using a tabulator (use indents instead);
• use automatic hyphenation (or, even better, remove hyphenation, as in this document);
• use indents instead of spaces or tabulators/the tab key; and
• stop using line breaks.
  Instead of extra line breaks, you should use styles (or fields): create separate styles and define the spacing above and below (define the fields) for body text, the different levels of headings, indented citations, tables, and other texts. When using styles, a single line break is always added to the beginning of any heading or new paragraph.
  If desired, you can practice using styles once you already have so much text that processing it without a table of contents (generated by the prorgam) is difficult. However, please note that using a table of contents helps you and your supervisor outline the thesis as a whole right from the beginning. Learning how to use styles should begin with defining a style for the highest level of headings, since these headings are usually ready before subheadings, whose styles can be defined later.
  When working with a word processor, remember to back your work up at least once a day, preferably even more often than this. Remember to also save your file constantly (ctrl+S), because Word may crash as the file size increases. This sometimes makes it necessary to divide the text into more than one file.
  Ready-made templates are available on, for example, the websites of universities and their faculties. However, templates are usually handy only when the text has been created using them from the start. In any case, using a layout template requires Word skills that are just as good—including styles, section breaks, lists, etc.—as for doing manual layouts.
  The thesis is submitted for printing as a PDF file, whose accessibility can be viewed in the program settings (Tools, Accessibility).

PDF accessibility

• The PDF file contains tags in all elements (e.g. headings, paragraphs, images, etc.).
• A long publication contains bookmarks (table of contents).
• The mechanical reading order of the content is logical.
• Images have text equivalents (essential content of images as alt text).
• The main language of the document is specified.
• The title of the document is defined in the document properties.
• There is sufficient tonal contrast between the text and the background.
  Read more about PDF accessibility (link in Finnish).