UIowa Thesis Class

A modern LaTeX class file for typesetting a thesis at the University of Iowa. There is an overleaf template alternatively see the release page to download a working example to base your thesis on. If you have any questions the faq may contain the answer you are looking for.

The example thesis was looked over by the graduate college and appears to meet all the requirements. If when submitting your thesis there is something wrong feel free to open an issue (or even better submit a pull request) so we can fix the class for future students.

About

The goal of this package is to implement the bare minimum needed to typeset a thesis at the university of Iowa. In theory, you should be able to just \documentclass{uiowa-thesis} and carry on as if you were writing any other TeX document. We follow the requirements outlined here (archived link). It aims to be minimal in both features it supplies and code it takes to do so. To this end we build on the memoir document class: it is highly customizable, has a track record of being used to implement theses, and emulates many of the popular packages we would otherwise need to pull in to make this all work. On top of that we did need to import two other packages: etoolbox, to process lists for the committee, and biblatex as we need to hijack the definition of the bibliography to fix the spacing of the bibliography. (Because for some reason the bibliography is the only thing to be typeset single spaced) Other than that we do not pull in any packages.

If you wish to help out or just play with the codebase please see the development notes for what's what.

Other templates

There is at least one other thesis template maintained by the CS department here.

Implemented

We have not implemented all the optional pages. If you implement one for your thesis that feel free to open an issue or send a pull request, we would love to add it. For now here's a list of everything we have implemented:

• Page Numbering (Required)
  • [x] Preliminary page numbers begin with a lower-case Roman numeral ii on the first page following the Title Page, or the Copyright Page should you choose to include one. Center these page numbers in the footer, ½ to 1 inch above the bottom of the page.
  • [x] Manuscript text page numbers must be in Arabic with a 1 on the first page of your first chapter. They may be located in the upper or lower right-hand corner or the bottom center of the page and must be consistent throughout the manuscript.
• Title Page (Required)
  • [x] List your degree as it appears on MyUI. If you have an official sub-track, you may include it in parentheses after your degree.
  • [x] List the correct month and year of your graduation.
  • [x] List the names of your committee members. Your thesis supervisor should be listed first, followed by a comma and the phrase “Thesis Supervisor.”
  • [x] There is no page number on the Title Page
• Abstracts (Required)
  • [x] Text should be top-aligned, double-spaced, and with each paragraph indented.
  • [x] These pages require lower-case Roman numeral page numbers, at the bottom center of the page.
• Bibliography (Required)
  • [x] The References heading should be treated as a major heading and included in the Table of Contents.
  • [x] References should be single-spaced, and indenting conventions should be consistent.
  • [x] There may be a single- or double-space between entries.
  • [x] References may be placed at the end of each chapter or at the end of the manuscript.
  • [ ] Entries should not break across a page. Pretty sure this won't happen, but I haven't been able to confirm.
• Margins (Required)
  • [x] Margins must be a minimum of 1 inch on all sides and on all pages, including the Preliminary Pages.
  • [x] Margins should be consistent throughout the entire text.
• Line spacing (Required)
  • [x] Line spacing may be either 1.5 or double-spaced. Line spacing should be consistent throughout.
• Font Size (Required)
  • [x] Use 10–12-point font for the body of the manuscript. Font smaller than 8-point is not allowed.
  • [x] You may use 12-point font for major headings. Font larger than this may be used sparingly, if at all.
  • [x] A range of font styles is acceptable, but font styles and sizes should be professional in appearance.
• Copyright Page (Optional)
  • [x] The copyright date is the year of graduation. (Technically we do the year in which the document was prepared)
  • [x] There is no page number on the Copyright Page.
• Epigraph (Optional)
  • [x] Text should be single-spaced and centered on the page, both horizontally and vertically.
  • [x] This page requires a lower-case Roman numeral page number, at the bottom center of the page.
• Acknowledgments (Optional)
  • [x] Text should be top-aligned, double-spaced, and with each paragraph indented.
  • [x] This page requires a lower-case Roman numeral page number, at the bottom center of the page.
• Appendices (Optional)
  • [x] Treat Appendix headings (Appendix A, B, etc.) as major headings and include them in the Table of Contents.
  • [x] If more than one Appendix is included, identify them as Appendix A, Appendix B, and so on. Lettering is unnecessary when there is only one Appendix.

Development Notes

Some notes about how to work on this repository can be found here