The following guidelines are offered to help graduate students meet the Library's requirements for a thesis, dissertation or project (thereafter referred to as thesis).

Deadlines for deposit of theses at the Library (as stated in AUB Catalogue) are:

• November 10 for students graduating in October
• March 10 for students graduating in February
• June 20 for students graduating in June

Depositing a copy of the thesis is a prerequisite for graduation. There upon the student receives a receipt to submit to the Registrar. This receipt is different from the clearance form.

Students are welcome to visit the Archives and Special Collections Department, Jafet Library, with the first draft of preliminary pages, a chapter, and bibliography to be checked, any time, during the semester.

Thesis/Dissertation or project templates are available for downloading in Appendices section of the Thesis Manual.

To get the appropriate format do not use the template directly from the Web page. It should be saved as a Microsoft-Word file (right-mouse click on Thesis/Dissertation template, or Project template and choose "Save target as").

Number of Copies Required

The Jafet Memorial Library requires 1 copy of the master's thesis, project and doctoral dissertation from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Suliman S. Olayan School of Business students. The student should also provide the library with a digital copy of the thesis saved as one Microsoft-Word file and one PDF (Portable Document Format) file on a CD-ROM.

Size

The size of the thesis should be A4. Oversized materials such as maps and tables etc. that are larger than the standard page size are only accepted after discussion with the Archives Librarian.

Paper

Durable paper such as Fabriano 80 gr. weight and size A4 should be used.

Ink

Ink must be black. Thesis must be laser printed.

Typeface

The Times New Roman typeface for English and the Simplified Arabic typefaces for Arabic should be used.

The text font size should be 12 for English and 15 for Arabic. While the capital font size, in preliminary pages and major title headings should be 16 for English and 22 for Arabic.

Do not use bold face in preliminary pages and major headings such as chapters, appendices, and bibliography.

Style and Form

For all matters not discussed in the present Thesis Manual, theses must follow the form and style described in the latest edition of K.L. Turabian Manual for writers of term papers, theses and dissertations (University of Chicago Press), (available in the Reference Dept. of Jafet Library) or any other form specified by your Department or Program such as AAA, APA, MLA, using Microsoft-Word or Latex, and others; provided it conforms to this Thesis Manual, especially in the preliminary pages, paper, ink, typefaces, margins, size of page numbers.

A Citation manager, RefWorks, to organize references, bibliography, footnotes and in-text documentation is available at the University Libraries. For more information contact Information Services Librarian x 2629.

Organization of the Thesis

The thesis includes three parts: Preliminary pages, body or text, end pages include appendices, endnotes, if any, and references or bibliography.

Each of these parts may be subdivided into sections and subsections. These should appear clearly in the table of contents.

Preliminary Pages

Preliminary pages have the following order:

• Blank page [Not numbered. Considered i]. Mandatory.
  The first and last page of the thesis are blank.



• Title page [Not numbered. Considered ii]. Mandatory.
  It includes University Name, full thesis title, full student's name, a statement "A Thesis …..", place and
  date.

  N.B. Students' name should include the first name, the father's name (for married female students their maiden name instead of the father's name).

• Thesis approval page [Not numbered. Considered iii]. Mandatory.(sample of a Thesis/Dissertation approval page or a sample of a Project approval page
  The signatures should be original and in black on both copies.

• Thesis release form [Not numbered. Considered iv]. Mandatory.
  This form will be signed and dated when the thesis/project copies are deposited in the Library. It authorizes the Library to provide copies of the thesis to requesters. The non-authorization option prohibits photocopying of thesis for a period of two years starting with the date of the thesis deposit.
  
• Acknowledgments [Numbered v] If any. [Typing of the page numbers start with this page].

• Abstract. Mandatory.
  It should not exceed 350 words. It summarizes the thesis' contents.
  
• Preface. Optional.
  
• Table of contents. Mandatory. (click for a sample of Table of Content A or a sample of Table of Content B)
  
• List of illustrations.If any.
  
• List of tables.If any.
  
• List of abbreviations.If any.
  
• Glossary.If any.
  
• Dedication [Not numbered and not counted in the pagination of the preliminary pages]. Optional and placed before chapter 1 and without the word "dedicated".

Numbering of Pages, Figures and Tables

The preliminary pages are numbered in lowercase Roman numerals centered at the bottom of pages. The first numbered page will be the "ACKNOWLEDGMENTS" numbered "v", or the first page which appears after the release form and continues through all the preliminary pages.

Throughout the rest of the thesis, all pages must be numbered with Arabic numerals placed in the center, at the bottom of the page.

All page numbers are placed 2 cm from the bottom edges of the paper.

When the text or illustrative matter is presented in landscape the number of the page should remain at the center of the bottom of the page.

Figure and table numbering must be either continuous throughout the thesis or by chapter that is 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2.

Margins

(Sample of text page with subheadings, bullets and dashes)

The margins in text pages should be:

• To the left side of the page : 3.5 cms.
• To the right side of the page : 2.5 cms.
• At the top of the page : 3 cms.
• At the bottom of the page : 3 cms.

Illustrative Materials, Tables, charts, graphs, etc., should not come closer than 2 cm from the top, right and bottom edges of the paper, and 2.5 cm from the left.

The text of the thesis should be left aligned, and not justified.

Spacing

(Sample of text page with subheadings, bullets, and dashes).

Text in title page, acknowledgments and abstract is single spaced. However, the thesis must be double-spaced throughout, except in footnotes, block quotations, tables, etc. These are single-spaced within each entry but double-spaced between entries.

Only one double-space is left between paragraphs.

Subheadings are preceded by two double-spaces (i.e. four spaces). They are double spaced (i.e. two spaces) only in case there is no text between them. Tables and illustrations should be preceded and followed by two double-spaces (i.e. four spaces).

Indention

All paragraphs should be indented 1.5 cm from the margin. Subheadings are not indented.

Major Headings and Subheadings

Major headings are the titles in the preliminary pages, "CHAPTER"s title, "NOTES", "REFERENCES" or "BIBLIOGRAPHY". They should be typed in capital letters, size 16, not bold and centered. If a chapter's title runs on more than one line it should be single spaced. The heading CHAPTER and its TITLE should be double-spaced.

Each subheading is preceded by its number as it appears in the Table of Contents of the thesis.

Each subheading has a higher attention value than the one which follows it. They are designated as first-, second-, third- and fourth-level subheadings, and are differentiated as follows:

• First-level subheadings are in bold, regular typefaces: eg.
  A. First-Level Subheading
• Second-level subheadings are in bold, italics typefaces: eg.
  1. Second-Level Subheading
• Third-level subheadings are in regular typefaces, underlined: eg.
  a. Third-Level Subheading
• Fourth-level subheadings are in regular typefaces, underlined with dashes: eg.

For listing of items, points or ideas, use bullets at beginning of line, after an indention of 1.5 cm as for paragraphs. You can further subdivide them with dashes.

Footnotes and Illustrative Matter

Footnotes are typed at the bottom of the page, separated from the text by a separator. They are indented (1.5 cm) and preceded by the number (size 12) or (size 10 superscript) assigned to each in the text above. They are single-spaced if they run on more than one line and double-spaced between two notes.

For the formatting of figures and tables and their titles check Turabian's Manual.

Separate maps, if any, should be numbered.

Bibliography

For your bibliography see Turabian Manual chapter 11, pages 187-213 or use RefWorks.

Thesis in more than One Volume

A multi-volume thesis should contain a title page in each volume. The volumes should be identified as Volume I, II, etc. Pagination is continued from first to the second volume. Title page in volume two will be identical to that in volume one with the word "Continuation" just below the title of the thesis.

Thesis in Arabic

(Sample of Titlte page in Arabic).

Thesis in Arabic follows the same requirements. An additional title page in English and the translation of the abstract into English should be included.

All specifications applied from left to right in English should be considered from right to left in Arabic (especially the margin for binding).

Use أ، ب، ج in theses in Arabic instead of the lowercase Roman numerals i, ii, iii, iv, ... Start with the letter أ, and not هـ.

Translation of headings for theses in Arabic:

• Acknowledgements = شكر
• Abstract = مستخلص
• Contents = المحتويات
• Preface = التصدير
• Dedication = الاهداء
• Introduction = مقدمة
• Appendix = ملحق
• Appendices = ملاحق
• Bibliography = ببليوغرافيا

Brief Checklist

1. Is the student's name as it will appear on the student's diploma?
2. Is the title of the thesis exactly the same everywhere it appears in the thesis?
3. Is the Name of Faculty/ Department/ Program/ or Center as listed in the year of graduation catalog?
4. Are the professors' ranks the same as listed in the current year AUB catalog?
5. Has the approval page been checked at the Archives Department prior to signing?
6. Are all chapter headings of Font 16, all caps and NOT BOLD?
7. Is the text, in the body of thesis, left aligned?
8. Do margins comply with Thesis manual?
9. Are the signatures on approval page in black ink?
10. Does each copy have front and back blank pages?
11. Are all pages properly numbered, arranged in large envelopes?
12. Is the digital copy of thesis saved as one Microsoft-word and one PDF file?