Welcome to the LaTeX Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) template for the College of Sciences at Old Dominion University. This template is designed to assist students in formatting their theses and dissertations according to the guidelines provided by the university. Those using this template must still abide by the guidelines and formatting requirements found in the ODU Guide for Preparation of Theses and Dissertations (PDF, last updated March 2024).

Note that using this template removes the requirement that you submit a "journal model" with your thesis or dissertation, as noted on the College of Sciences Check-in Sheet. You just need to check the box on the form that you have used the LaTeX template.

• Please refrain from altering the spacing on any of the pages, as it is specified according to the guidelines provided by the College of Science.
• You may add any packages that you require for your ETD, but the base template may encounter issues when adding conflicting packages. Keep an eye out for errors and warnings that may arise during each compilation, especially when introducing new packages or implementing significant modifications.

The template repository contains the following files and directories:

• odusci.sty: Style file for the College of Sciences Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD)
• main.tex: Main LaTeX document file, demonstrating various cases
• main.pdf: PDF generated with main.tex
• minimal.tex: LaTeX document file containing the minimal working example
• minimal.pdf: PDF generated with minimal.tex
• ref.bib: BibTeX bibliography file
• Chapters/: Folder containing .tex files for individual chapters
• Figures/: Folder for storing figures
• README.md: This README file providing instructions for using the template.

This template is also hosted on Overleaf, an online LaTeX editor.

You can view both the source and generated PDF of the ETD LaTeX template on Overleaf at https://www.overleaf.com/read/srctgbpbygzp#51ddaa

See "Copying a project" at Overleaf for instructions on how to copy the project into your own space.

Most of the customization you need to make is isolated to main.tex. Do not edit odusci.sty unless absolutely necessary.

• The font size throughout the document is set to 12 points, as required by the College of Sciences.
• The document class used is ‘report’, suitable for longer documents like dissertations.
• The margin is set uniformly to 1 inch around the document

• For a Master's thesis, you can use the thesis option
  \usepackage[thesis]{odusci}

• For PhD dissertations, you can use the diss option
  \usepackage[diss]{odusci}

• Ensure that your bibliography file, ref.bib, contains all the necessary references for your document.

• If you want to use a different filename for your references, you must change the file referenced in \addbibresource{ref.bib} in main.tex.

• The style file uses the biblatex Package for formatting references. See "Bibliography management with biblatex" for more information. Here are a few other references for biblatex:

  • The biblatex Package - in particular, see "3.9 Citation Commands" (pg 110)
  • A very quick introduction to managing citations in LaTeX

• The College of Sciences is allowing 3 different options for bibliography styles (see "Biblatex bibliography styles" for examples of each of these):

  • IEEE - commonly used by Computer Science, Physics, Math
  • APA - commonly used by Psychology
  • Science - commonly used by other sciences

• Select the appropriate bibliography style for your field by uncommenting one of the following lines in main.tex:

  % \usepackage[style=ieee, sorting=nyt, maxnames=10, minnames=10]{biblatex}
% \usepackage[style=apa, sorting=nyt, maxnames=10, minnames=10]{biblatex}
% \usepackage[style=science, sorting=nyt, maxnames=10, minnames=10]{biblatex}

• If you want your references to be listed in the order they are cited in your text rather than alphabetically by first author's last name, change sorting=nyt to sorting=none in the biblatex options line.

• Add the title, author name, prior degrees, department, submit date, and committee, starting on line 39 in main.tex

• If the prior degrees are outside of the US, use the following format. (University and country must be on the same line.)

  \degrees{B.S. July 2017, University of Oxford, United Kingdom \\
  M.S. July 2020, University of Oxford, United Kingdom}
  

• The submit date must use either "May", "August", or "December" for the month:

  \submitdate{May 2024} - Submit date for May (Spring) graduates
  \submitdate{August 2024} - Submit date for August (Summer) graduates
  \submitdate{December 2024} - Submit date for December (Fall) graduates
  

• If you have co-advisers, you must make adjustments in both main.tex and odusci.sty

  • In main.tex, comment out lines 64-67 and uncomment lines 70-74:

  \coadvisers{Director Name}
  \coadvisers{Director Name}
  \member{Member Name}
  \member{Member Name}
  \member{Member Name}
  

  • In odusci.sty, comment out \onedirectortrue (line 82) and uncomment \onedirectorfalse (line 83)

• In main.tex, insert your abstract starting on line 81, ensuring it does not exceed a maximum of 350 words.
• The upper sections of the page, including the title, author, university, and director information, will be automatically generated based on the input provided on the title page. You do not need to make any modifications to the template regarding this section.

• This page will be automatically generated based on the input of the author's name on the title page. You do not need to make any modifications to the template regarding this section.

• In main.tex, include your dedication starting on line 84. Ensure that it does not exceed one page in length.
• This section is used to recognize those who have supported you during your graduate studies.

• In main.tex, include your acknowledgements starting on line 87
• This section is for recognition of individuals who contributed to your academic research should be provided here.
• Note that if you want multiple paragraphs, you must explicitly add newline and indent commands: \\ \indent

• These sections will be automatically generated based on the content of your document. You do not need to make any modifications to the template regarding these sections. LaTeX will handle the generation of the table of contents, list of tables, and list of figures for you.

If you need to add a Nomenclature list, you must made adjustments in both main.tex and odusci.sty

• In main.tex

  The nomenclature page provides a comprehensive list of symbols and abbreviations used throughout the document, along with their corresponding definitions or explanations. Add your nomenclature in the provided format in the template (lines 93-100). The inclusion of a nomenclature page is optional.

• In odusci.sty, comment out \nomenclaturefalse (line 75) and uncomment \nomenclaturetrue (line 76)

• It is recommended to put the contents of each chapter in a separate .tex file in the "Chapters" folder.
• Then use the \input command to insert the chapters into your main file, as shown in lines 112-119
• Start a new chapter with \chapter{Chapter Title}
• Sections and subsections can be created as normal with \section{Section Title} and \subsection{Section Title}.

• Figures, tables, and equations can be added as normal. There are several examples of these throughout the example document:

  • figure - 01_introduction.tex
  • subfigure - 02_background.tex
  • landscape figure - 02_background.tex
  • equation - 02_background.tex
  • table - 03_relatedwork.tex
  • long table - 06_concordia.tex

• To achieve an optimal fit for figures and tables in your LaTeX document, you can adjust their width using percentages of either \linewidth (or \textwidth)

  \begin{figure}[tbh]
  \centering
  % Adjust the width here by setting a percentage of \linewidth
  \includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth]{Figures/cos1.jpeg}
  \caption[The figure title goes here.]{The figure title goes here.}
  \label{fig:cos1}
  \end{figure} 
  

  In this example, width=0.5\linewidth scales the image to 50% of the current text width (\linewidth). You can change 0.5 to any decimal to adjust the image size relative to the line width (e.g., 0.3\linewidth for 30% or 0.8\linewidth for 80%).

You can display code in your LaTeX document using the listings package, which allows you to customize the appearance of your code. Below is an example of how to include Python code with specific syntax highlighting. The custom settings applied here ensure that certain parts of the code are highlighted in red.

\begin{lstlisting}[caption = Python Code Example]
def hello_world():
    @This part will be highlighted in red@
    print("Hello, world!")
hello_world()
\end{lstlisting}

In main.tex, you can customize the formatting of the code listings on \lstset as desired.

\lstset{
  basicstyle=\sffamily,        % Use a sans-serif font for the code
  columns=fullflexible,        % Make the code formatting more flexible
  frame=single,                % Add a frame around the code
  breaklines=true,             % Enable line wrapping
  moredelim=**[is][\color{red}]{@}{@}, % Highlight text between '@' symbols in red
  escapechar=\%                % Define '%' as an escape character for special formatting
}

To add URLs to your document, you can use the \url command provided by the url package in LaTeX. This command formats the URL in a typewriter font and enables line-breaking for long URLs that do not fit on a single line.

For more information, visit \url{https://github.com/oduwsdl/odusci-etd-template/blob/main/README.md}

To include equations in your LaTeX document, you can use the equation environment for numbered equations and the \ref command to reference them later in the text.

Equation \ref{eq:1} exemplifies a standard power series, demonstrating how to include equations in your document.

\begin{equation} \label{eq:1}
\sum_{i=0}^{\infty} a_i x^i
\end{equation}

• Chapters/98_appendices.tex contains an example of specifying the appendices. Each new appendix should begin with the line \achapter{Title of Appendix}.

• If your appendices are too long or require significant management, you can split them across multiple .tex files and then include them in main.tex.

\begin{Appendices}
\include{Chapters/98_appendices}           % First appendix file
\include{Chapters/98_appendices2}          % Second appendix file
% You can add more .tex files as needed
\end{Appendices}

• Chapters/99_vita.tex contains an example of specifying the vita page. All of the content must be placed inside the \vita{} command, and the last line should be \vitapage. It is important to note that the vita is limited to a maximum of 1 page.

• College of Sciences Guidelines for Submitting a Thesis/Dissertation for Review: https://www.odu.edu/sci/students/graduate/thesis

• Overleaf Documentation: https://www.overleaf.com/learn