Latex Template for master/phd @ York University

York University, Toronto, Canada

This is a Latex class file that satisifies the organization and technical Requirements of a masters/phd thesis set out by Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University. This is not officially endorsed by York University or FGS. I will likely not be maintaining this when I graduate (October 2019). PRs are always welcome. Alternatively, fork it and make your own.

It should compile easily with minimal modifications. I find that some folks have trouble with the references part. I have addressed this below. Please read the instructions.

Instructions

Download

Download the .cls file in the same folder you are working in (or install it system-wide if you have the technical skills to do so). See the thesis.tex file for a minimal working example.

Before we begin, if you are running TexLive 2018 on Mac/Linux, make sure to update.

sudo tlmgr update --self followed by sudo tlmgr update --all. I did this and it fixed quite a few bugs for me. For Windows/MikTex, you can use the console (installed with your distribution) to update the packages.

Problems with bibliography and references.

I find that many people can't get the citations to work. This is likely because you are using the wrong bibliography engine. There are two engines to read and process bib files.

Biber/BibLatex: Newer engine and what this template uses i.e. I use the biber commands to print the bibliography, mainly the functions
```
\usepackage{biblatex}
\addbibresource{filename.bib}
\printbibliography
```
BibTex: This is the old engine. It uses the commands \bibliography and \bibliographystyle. Do not use \bibliography or \bibliographystyle as they belong to BibTeX.

When building the document, the chain of commands to properly compile should be: pdflatex -> biber -> pdflatex -> pdflatex. That is, run pdflatex first, run biber next, and run pdflatex again. Again, make sure that it is using biber in that middle step (look at the status bar/log of your program). The default chain of commands in many software is pdflatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex which will NOT work!

If your software is using bibtex instead of biber, you'll have to change the setting. This step is different based on the software you are using. In general, look for "build" options (for texmaker, see image below)

alt text

Settings

Information

\title{Your thesis title}       
\author{Your name}   % this is your name exactly as you want it to appear everywhere in your work.
\department{Mathematics and Statistics}   % this is the name of the programme in which you are attempting your degree
\masterof{Science}        % this is the type of Master's degree you are attempting. If the boolean masters is false, this has no effect.
\degreename{Doctor}       % put the actual name of the degree you are attempting {Doctor or Masters}
\date{September 2018}     % this is the month and year of defence

Front Matter Files Specify the path to your front matter files. Comment line if you don't need it.

\abstractfile{abstract.tex}
\dedicationfile{dedication.tex}
\acknowledgementsfile{acknowledgements.tex}
\prefacefile{preface.tex}
\abbreviationsfile{abbreviations.tex}

Figures and Tables

\setboolean{masters}{false}    % set true for a Master's thesis; % false for a PhD dissertation
\setboolean{hasfigures}{true}  % set true if you have figures
\setboolean{hastables}{true}   % set true of you have tables

Committee Members

\committeememberslist{
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item Member A
    \item Member B
    \item Member C
  \end{enumerate}
}

Options

The class file is inherited from the document class report. Any options/packages that work for report will work for this class. Two particular pre-set options are defined for you.

Option: draft (i.e. \documentclass[draft]{york-thesis-modified}) is equivalent to the report class with the options:

letterpaper,12pt,oneside,onecolumn,draft,openany

Option: final (i.e. \documentclass{york-thesis-modified} or \documentclass[final]{york-thesis-modified}) is equivalent to the report class with the options:

letterpaper,12pt,oneside,onecolumn,final,openany

These options are propagated through the rest of packages.

affans / yorkuthesis

readme