MS Thesis Checklist
Information Technology Department, FCIT, KAU
Thesis Title :
Candidate Name :
Supervisor :
Criteria YES/
NO Remarks
GENERAL
For academic affairs section, make sure to send the thesis as spiral bound or hard bound.
A Master thesis is expected around 80 to 100 pages.
Student name should appear as in the university records and National Identification Card or Passport.
Master thesis should be less than 50000 words.
PhD thesis should be less than 80000 words.
Thesis can be written in American or British English but should be consistent.
Thesis must be printed in Laser and not inkjet.
A4 paper 80 to 100 gram, white color, acid free and “non-erasable”
Correction Fluid is not allowed.
Thesis must be printed as single-sided.
Margins: 40mm for left and 25mm for others.
All information excluding page numbers must be within the text area.
All the text should be in 12 point Times New Roman. Exception can be for footnotes, subscripts and superscripts, and for tables, figures or illustrations imported from other sources.
Text should be Times New Roman 12, double-spaced and Justified. Spacing before and after the text should be zero.
Preliminary Pages include: Status of Thesis, Approval Page, Title Page, Declaration, Dedication (optional), Acknowledgements (optional), Abstract, Copyright Page, Table of Contents, List of Tables (if any), List of Figures (if
any), List of Plates (if any), List of Symbols, Abbreviations, Nomenclature (if any) Preliminary pages appear in this order: Albasmalla Page, Title Page, Approval Page,
Dedication, Acknowledgement, and Abstract pages.
Albasmalla Page: With or without Ayat / Hadeeth. No Page number and the page is not counted for page numbering.
Title Page: Title as in Approval page (same capitalization and punctuation); Author name should be as per records. No page number is shown. Page is counted as the 1st page in roman letter.
A thesis submitted for the requirements of the degree of Master of Science in Information Technology
Without Supervisor Name
College Name; University Name; City Name
Date of passing the thesis, in Hijri and Gregorian.
Approval Page: Exact title as in Title Page. No details of the examiners (i.e., the table with examiner details should not be there). No Page numbers.
Dedication Page: Optional. No page number is shown.
Acknowledgement Page: Optional.
Not more than one page
Title must not start earlier than 5cm from the top of the page
Leave 4 blank lines after the title, before the text.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT using Times New Roman 14-Bold
Lower-case roman numerals as page numbers. This is the first page with page numbers indicated. Can be iv or iii depends on the presence or absence of Dedication page.
Abstract: Single-spaced text, and must be double-spaced between paragraphs. Times New Roman 12.
State problem, motivation, methods investigated, results and conclusion.
One page long.
Only 300 words allowed for masters; 500 words for PhD.
References, tables, figures, equations, chemical notations are not allowed, unless it is necessary.
Acronyms can be used but make sure the first occurrence is defined.
Thesis title should be 2.5 cm from the top of the page and in the middle of the line. Title should be Times New Roman 14 Bold.
Your name should be after the thesis title with 2 blank lines.
Title (ABSTRACT) should be after 2 blank lines of your name and in the middle of the line. Title should be Times New Roman 14 Bold.
After the title, there should be two blank lines before the text.
Table of contents: Text and their respective page numbers should be in Times New Roman 12.
The title TABLE OF CONTENTS must be placed at 5 cm from the top center of the new page and capitalized with Times New Roman 14, Bold.
It also contains Examination Committee Approval as first one without page numbers If Dedication is present in TABLE OF CONTENTS, there should be no page number for it.
List of Figures: Text and their respective page numbers should be in Times New Roman 12.
The title LIST OF FIGURES must be placed at 5 cm from the top center of the new page and capitalized with Times New Roman 14, Bold.
List of Tables: Text and their respective page numbers should be in Times New Roman 12
The title LIST OF TABLES must be placed at 5 cm from the top center of the new page and capitalized with Times New Roman 14.
List of Symbols: Text and their respective page numbers should be in Times New Roman 12
The title LIST OF SYMBOLS must be placed at 5 cm from the top center of the new page and capitalized with Times New Roman 14.
Body Text: Introduction, Review of Literature, Method of Investigation (Methodology), Analysis of Data, Discussion of Results, Conclusions
Body of text: Third person voice and past tense; but active voice is allowed.
Starts with page number 1.
Chapter Title: Chapter number (given in Roman numbering i.e. Chapter I or Chapter II) is given 40mm from top of the page; Chapter title is given 70mm from page top;
Actual chapter contents start at 100mm from page top.
Both chapter number and chapter title should be (center, Times New Roman-14 Bold).
Sections names should be left-alignment and Times New Roman 14 Bold (i.e.
1.1 The Case of …
)Subsections names should be left-alignment and Times New Roman 13 Bold, and italic (i.e.
1.1.1 Water ) and sub-subsections should be Times New Roman 12 Bold and italic like ( 1.1.1.1 The case of..).
Sections should be numbered 2.1, 2.2, …
Each chapter starts with Chapter overview and ends with Chapter summary Sections can be 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.1.1. Further sublevels like 1.1.1.1.1 is not allowed.
First line indentation for the first paragraph should not be there
Pagination: at least 1 inch from the edge of the page at the bottom center of the page.
Content pages should be in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, …) Figures:
Number and caption of the figure in the bottom of the figure, centered with Times New Roman 12 Bold
Figures must be within the margins.
There should be one blank line between the figure and figure’s caption.
The first letter ONLY of figure’s caption should be capital letter (i.e. Figure 4.1 Variation of radial temperature profile in stream wise direction.)
Figures must be numbered in Arabic numerals (Figure 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, …) Tables:
Number and title of the table in the top of the table, centered with Times New Roman 12 Bold
Tables must be numbered in Arabic numerals (Table 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, …)
Table headers should be of Times New Roman 12 Bold
Wrap text, if needed.
Numbers inside the table should be aligned properly, to make it easy to differentiate with tens, hundreds and other units.
Use asterisks to put footnotes immediately under the table.
There should be one blank line between the table’s name and table.
The first letter of each main word in table caption should be capitalized (i.e.:
TABLE 1.2 Distribution of Program & Data Files into ROM.)
Quotations: If the cited text is more than 60 words continuous, then it should be written as a paragraph and start after 4 spaces indentation.
One and half-spacing
Use them within double-quote and put a colon before the start of the text.
If part of the cited text is to be removed without distorting the meaning, then use ellipsis (…)
Researcher can explain in the cited text using square brackets [abc] and refer to mistakes using underline within the square brackets.
To emphasis put them in normal brackets (abc).
Two line spaces below and above, the paragraph.
Photographs or Halftones:
Back and white, if possible.
Minimum of 300x300 dpi resolution.
No glue or tape of photographs allowed.
Photograph pages should also be numbered as regular pages Equations:
Only called equations are numbered.
Not indented.
Numbered consecutively within parenthesis at the end of the line
Give two spaces above and below
References consist of (in this order): References or Bibliography, Appendices (if any), Glossary, Endnotes, Index (optional)
References:
Number this reference pages consecutively with the preceding text.
Every quoted or cited reference must be included.
References must be ordered alphabetically or numerically.
If citation uses name/date, use name of the author followed by date between parentheses. In this case, the reference should be alphabetical, based on the last name, and sorted descending order by year.
If citation uses number using parenthesis within the text, then the reference should be numerically. If a citation has multiple references, then the citations should be sort in ascending order, with spaces between them.
Single-line spacing. First line starts from the margin and the other lines start after four spaces.
Double-line spacing between references.
A Single reference list for the whole thesis and not separately for individual chapters.
Appendix: Pages are numbered continuously with text.
Times New Roman 12, and 1.5 line spacing.
Appendix must be referred in the text; else, not included as appendix.
Big tables, large maps, questionnaire, printed computer outputs etc can be included in the Appendix.
Curriculum Vita: Optional
Notes: At the foot of page called “footnote” or end of chapter called “chapter notes”
or end of thesis called “end notes”.
There should be three cm length line between the text and the footnote.
In the footnote, the first line should start two spaces from the margin.
Times New Roman 12, and single line spacing and double spacing between entries.
Arabic section has three parts: Summary, Abstract and Title page. When reading from right to left page, their order will be Title page followed by Abstract and Summary pages.
Summary in Arabic language: Summary should be written in Arabic language. This is of three pages or so. This is to summarize each and every chapter in Arabic. Thesis title starts from 2.5cm from the top of the page and centered with Arabic
Transparent 20 BOLD. The name of the researcher is written in the next two lines. In the next two lines, the word صخلملا appears. Then the text starts after two blank lines. This page is numbered continuously with text.
Spiral bind this page on the right hand side of the text.
Abstract in Arabic language: Abstract should be written in Arabic language. Not more than 2000 words.Thesis title starts from 2.5cm from the top of the page and
centered with Arabic Transparent 20 BOLD. The name of the researcher is written in the next two lines. In the next two lines, the word صلختسملا appears. Then the text starts after two blank lines. This page is numbered continuously with text.
Spiral bind this page on the right hand side of the text.
The title page (in ARABIC) follows to the end of the thesis. This page does not have page number. The approval page is NOT required in ARABIC language.
Spiral bind this page on the right hand side of the text.
Others
Page Headers: Must have a line across the entire page to separate header from text Oversized Pages: Must be included as fold-outs, folded no more than eight inches. If places in pocket at the end of thesis, they must be referred in thesis as being in a pocket and listed in Table of Contents.
Overlays: Carefully aligned with underlying maps or charts.
Multi-volume thesis:
The Title Page, Approval Page and Abstract must be in the first volume
Each additional volume must contain a Table of Contents, a List of Tables, and a List of Figures, etc.
Page numbering of the body of the thesis must flow consecutively from one volume to the next.
When the appendices are bound in a separate volume, this volume must have a title page duplicating that of the main volume, but with the addition of the word
“Appendix” or “Appendices” just below the title of the thesis. The word
“Appendix” or “Appendices” as well as the short title must then appear on the spine. Numbering of the appendices must flow in sequence from the first volume.
Hardcover:
Dark blue for masters and black for PhD Any other comments:
Report from the department.
