Motivation
I was one of the first batch of graduates from the CUHK SBS Biomedical Science program. Given the nature of my research, I have a lot of tables and formulas in my thesis, so using MS word or other simpler word editing softwares. Using latex just makes everything much easier, the sectioning, table adjustments, formulas etc. So I’d say even if you’re not using a lot of formulas, you’d still be hugely benefited by using Latex. I wanted to make this post because I’ve been there and I know the pain of preparing your thesis, you not only have to organize all your research work together, you also have to do all these formatting things. I hope my experience would make people’s life easier and you wouldn’t have to go through what I did.
Preparation
I will use the TexLive distribution, which is mainly for Linux or Unix OS, if you’re on Windows you’re recommended to use MikTex. If you want to know how to set up the editors and TexLive, you can read my post about the details of the set up. Here I will focus on type setting and the writing experience of using Latex.
SBS requirements
By now you have probably received the instructions of how to format your thesis.
Content (the thesis should contain the following parts in the order shown):
- Title page (template provided)
- Abstract (should not exceed 300 words)
- Acknowledgements
- Table of contents, pagniated
- A list of tables (if any)
- A list of graphs/histograms (if any)
- A list of figures (if any)
- A list of abbreviations (if any)
- Chapter One: Introduction
- Chapter Two: Materials and Methods
- Chapter Three: Results
- Chapter Four: Discussion
- References
Type setting requirements:
- Number of words at the end of the Discussion
- 12-point font size
- Times New Roman
- 1.5 line spacing
- A4 size
- Margin of 2.5 cm all round
- PNAS citation style
If you use my template, you wouldn’t have to worry about the details of these requirements, just focus on your research content! They have already provided you with a cover page, so you should just fill out that MS word and attach it to your thesis. It’s not the smartest to code it here :tongue: