Show HN: University of Malta LaTeX dissertation template, easily adapted

Before embarking on this journey, I suggest you read my LaTeX and content tips.

Let us not waste any time, you have a project to write up! Here is a complete example (PDF format) of what this LaTeX template looks like. Or quicker...

A modern, highly configurable assignment/project/fyp/dissertation/thesis template for the University of Malta. (In reality, there is nothing specific to the University of Malta, and this LaTeX class may be used anywhere). This template is loosely based on my D.Phil. Thesis at the University of Oxford, which was loosely based on ... You get the drift.

This template was clearly needed, as I keep correcting/examining poorly and inconsistently formatted dissertations all the time. Updates to the template with examples (2-page landscape table anyone?) are greatly appreciated -- either through pull requests, github issues or emails (jean.p.ebejer@um.edu.mt).

The main file is dissertation_main.tex, and this will show you how to organise your dissertation. Basically replace all \blindtext commands with your content and you are there, ready to print. This is obviously a case of something more easily said than done.

I am also keen on keeping an FAQ with the most common LaTeX problems, which you are bound to face on the night before your submission deadline.

To build this template you will need latexmk, lualatex (a modern LaTeX engine), biber as a bibtex replacement, the beautiful Lato font for headings, and also algorithm typesetting from the science packages. The Lato sans font using in headings creates a pleasing contrast with the serif text. If you require Maltese, you will also need TeX Live 2024 (or later).

To build this template into a dissertation you can either use a GUI (like TexStudio) or the command line.

In the directory where dissertation_main.tex resides:

latexmk -lualatex

This generates a lot of clutter, but it is important to go through it as some warnings can give you valuable insight on stuff to fix for a perfect presentation. To clean all the LaTeX generated files:

latexmk -c

Note that this will leave the generated pdf file, as is desirable most of the cases.

To build using TexStudio (F5) you will need to set some options to use biber instead of BibTeX. Under Options -> Configure TeXstudio select Build and set the Default Bibliography Tool to Biber from the drop-down list as highlighted in red below.

Additionally, under Options -> Configure TeXstudio select Commands and set the Biber text field to biber % (highlighted in red below).

You should now be able to load the main TEX file (i.e.\ dissertation_main.tex) and select Tools -> Build & View (or press the F5 shortcut). Voilà (but do get in touch via the Issues page or email if you cannot sort this out).

Note that F5 does not build the index; see My index is missing, or page numbers and headers look wrong below.

The following are a few questions which have been asked about this template (sometimes multiple times).

You want multilingual documents (Arabic, Chinese, Maltese, etc.).

You need to use system fonts easily.

You want future-proof, modern LaTeX with scripting potential.

You care about high-quality typography.

This template will not work with pdfLaTeX.

A complete build needs several passes: lualatex, then biber (references), then makeindex (index), then lualatex again (sometimes more than once) until page numbers, cross-references and running headers stop changing. If a step is skipped the PDF looks almost right, which is why this is easy to miss: the index disappears, or a page number or header is out of date.

The easiest fix is to let latexmk do it all. In the directory where dissertation_main.tex resides:

latexmk -lualatex

latexmk works out which tools to run, in which order and how many times, and stops once everything has settled (running it again with nothing changed just reports that the PDF is up to date). To rebuild from scratch, run latexmk -C first (note the capital C: this also deletes the PDF).

TeXstudio's F5 (Build & View) runs LuaLaTeX and Biber, but not makeindex, so the index is left out. Either run Tools -> Index and press F5 again, or let F5 use latexmk:

University of Malta regulations specify a thesis only in case of PhD, and SThD degrees. In all other cases it is a dissertation.

Bet you didn't know this one bit of academic trivia! (Note: The answer is specific to the University of Malta, answer given by our dear registrar, Ms Veronica Grech).

No. The authenticity form is not part of the dissertation itself, and should not be bound, merged, stapled, spiritually attached, or otherwise smuggled into the document.

It is a separate administrative form which you submit alongside the dissertation, according to the current University of Malta submission instructions. In other words, your dissertation should look like a dissertation, not like it accidentally swallowed a form.

The latest version of the postgraduate authenticity form is available from the University of Malta website.

No. Ethics approval is not part of the dissertation document itself.

If your work required ethics approval, mention it clearly where appropriate, for example in the methodology section. The ethics approval number is also required in Section B of the postgraduate declaration/authenticity form (see link in above entry).

There is no single universal standard for this, so do check any Faculty, Department, or supervisor-specific requirements.

In this template, the appendices come before the references/bibliography. This is intentional: appendices may themselves contain material that needs to be cited, so the references/bibliography come at the very end and get to clean up after everyone.

The template uses the APA referencing style, although it is pretty easy to change to IEEE or Harvard (or anything else for that matter). The template uses the BibLaTeX package.

Many computational scientists are used to the IEEE referencing style with numbers, i.e. (42). But there is a reason why author year citations, or similar, are superior. Your examiners (and supervisors) will be well acquainted with the research area and will know which are the main papers you should have read (and cited). If you use numbered referencing, the examiner has to keep cross-referencing the References section. This is not the case when using the name of the author and year directly in the citation. Moreover, it is easier for the examiner to realise when you are mis-citing an author. Modern typesetting is moving in this direction.

By default the template uses one-sided printing settings as most submissions are electronic nowadays. If you want to change that, simply pass twoside as an option to the document class (as opposed to oneside) in dissertation_main.tex.

By default the cover page follows the University of Malta's official dissertation cover layout (centred, Lato, full University logo). It is built from the \title, \tagline, \author, \supervisor, \cosupervisor, \faculty, \department, \submissionDate, \doctype and \degreeName you fill in at the top of dissertation_main.tex; the tagline and co-supervisor are optional. Use \ in \title to choose where the (centred) title breaks.

If you prefer the template's original cover (red bar and crest), pass oldcover as an option to the document class, e.g. \documentclass[oneside,oldcover]{um}.

The default in books is for footnote numbers to restart at each chapter (like figures or equations). If you do not want this behaviour, and require continuous numbering for your footnotes add \counterwithout{footnote}{chapter} to the preamble in dissertation_main.tex.

You must, not should! You should view any written submission as a training opportunity for your final dissertation. Getting familiar with the template will help you out later in the course. Of course, some (very) minor changes to the template are required; as follows:

(Let me know if any more changes are required)

Blank pages are only generated with the twoside option. This is because typesetters don't start new chapters (and abstracts/acknowledgements/etc.) on the verso side (left in the western-world) when using both sides of the paper. Chapters start on the recto side (right), so an empty page is inserted if the chapter start falls on the verso side (left). The oneside option clearly has no empty pages (or has blank pages at the back of each paper, so every verso page is empty). Note that the page margins are different for the recto and verso sides in the twoside option, this is because of the spine (which is on the right for verso and left for recto). I hope this is clear, I am an amateur typesetter.

It is always counter-productive to not listen to your supervisor. This is a generic template, and your specific use-case may have different requirements. For example, in some departments it is common to have a "Methodology" section instead of the (more experimental) "Materials & Methods". Elsewhere, the "Evaluation" section is sometimes merged in the "Results and Discussion" chapter. Some faculties require a standard cover page (the template uses the official University of Malta cover by default, see above). This template is very flexible, and any changes are easy/trivial to make. The important thing is to use good judgement and that you follow your supervisor's advice.

In my opinion you don't want to do this because the document is going to become very long. The idea of having double line spacing is to let examiners/supervisors write between the lines. This is not required for the final submission and mostly superseded by more modern word-processing and reviewing tools. Also, the current one and a half line spacing gives enough space for this.

If you want to go ahead anyway with this, change \OnehalfSpacing to \DoubleSpacing in um.cls (in the Spacing settings).

Also required in ancient times to write notes in the margin (and again superseded by modern word-processing and reviewing tools).

Still, should be an easy one, just change the values (left and right margins) in this line in um.cls:

\setlrmarginsandblock{3.7cm}{2.5cm}{*} % page margins (one- and two-sided)

How do I write good LaTeX mathematical notation/formulae?

The Math on Quora is all you need. Any math notation you might need is available conveniently in the menu bar. All examples contain live code blocks so you can try out your math formulae directly in the web browser. Overleaf's guide to mathematical expressions is another good reference.

Some of the longer documents, such as doctoral dissertations, require a sub-grouping of chapters together. This may be easily achieved with \part{My First Part} in the main document file (e.g. dissertation_main.tex) right before the chapters which make up the part (see example).

The template uses the floatpag package. All you need to do is place a \thisfloatpagestyle{empty} inside the figure or table environment. Et voilà! There is an example of this in the Suppressing Page Numbers on a Float Page section of chap3/materials_and_methods_main.tex.

Yes, there is an Overleaf version available which you can access here.

However, you should keep two major caveats in mind before relying on it:

For a reliable and up-to-date workflow, it is strongly recommended to download or clone this repository and compile it locally using latexmk as described in How to build.