PRESENTATION OF THESIS (PLEASE CONSULT BRITISH STANDARD 4821:1990 FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION). These requirements are based on "Recommendations for the presentation of theses (BS 4821:1990)" published by the British Standards Institution. Copies of the full text are available in the University Library at the Main Enquiry Centre, and enquiry desks on floors 1,2,3,6. 1. Theses should be typed or printed in a permanent and legible form - normal character size not less than 2mm. (See appendix A on character form). 2. Good quality paper (range 70g/m2>100g/m2) or A4 size should be used. Margins should be not less than 15mm and 40mm at binding edge. At least one-and-a-half spacing is desirable in typescript. 3. Pages should be numbered in a single sequence through the thesis, in single and multivolume works. 4. The title page should give the full title of the thesis, the full name of the author, the degree for which the thesis is submitted, the organisation to which it is submitted, the University faculty or department in which the research was conducted, the month and year of submission. The volume number should also be given if the thesis is in more than one volume. 5. The abstract should be placed at the beginning of the thesis, following the title page, on a separate page. 6. A table of contents should be provided, plus separate lists of tables and illustrations and accompanying material if any. End matter may include appendices, glossary, list of references, bibliography, indices. 7. Citations in the text should be linked to the list of references following either the style of the Vancouver system with numbers referring to a full list arranged in the same order, or by the Harvard system, with references by the author's name and date in the text and the list A-Z order. 8. Any abbreviation should be those in normal use; where necessary a key should be provided. 9. The thesis should be firmly sewn and securely attached to its boards to ensure sufficient rigidity to support the weight of the work when standing on a shelf. The boards should be of dark coloured cloth. The author's name and title of the thesis should appear on the front cover; and the author's name and the title of the thesis should appear on the front cover; and the author's name (including initials), the degree for which submitted and the year of submission should appear on the spine, lettered from top to bottom. The volume number (if any) should also be given on the spine. 10. Illustrations of all kinds should normally be bound in with the thesis. Any material which cannot conveniently be bound should be packaged so that it can be kept with the thesis, and should be labelled in similar way.
LAYOUT OF REFERENCES There are three commonly-used methods of citing references in the text. The Faculty of Medicine strongly recommends the Vancouver system where journal titles are abbreviated according to an agreed formula. Students may however opt for the Harvard system, in which the authors' names are all spelt out in the initial reference but only the first author plus "et al" in subsequent references to the same paper when there are more than two authors (but if there are more than three authors then "et al" is used at the first citation) - the date is always included; or the use of superscript numbers, which is certainly preferred in review articles with hundreds of references. In the latter case, there are two variations: the numbers may run seriatim through the article or be keyed to the list of references which is arranged in alphabetical order. The latter method is more difficult for the author, but sometimes is more useful to the reader. The Vancouver System If you decide to use this system, you are strongly advised to consult the paper cited below. The following is the extract from "Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals" (British Medical Journal, 1979, Vol.1. 532-535) which deals with the layout of references. The standard abbreviations for the names of frequently-cited Journals may also be found in this article. "References" Number references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by arabic numerals (in parentheses). References cited only in tables or in legends to figures should be numbered in accordance with a sequel established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or illustration. Use the form of references adopted by the US National Library of Medicine and used in "Index Medicus". Use the style of the examples cited at the end of this section, which have been approved by the National Library of Medicine. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the syle used in "Index Medicus". A list of abbreviated names of frequently-cited journals is given in Appendix 2; for others, consult the "List of Journals Indexed", printed annually in the January issue of "Index Medicus" Try to avoid using abstracts as references; "unpublished observations" and "personal communications" may not be used as references, although references to written, not verbal, communications may be inserted (in parentheses) in the text. Include among the references manuscripts accepted but not yet published; designate the journal followed by "in press" (in parentheses). Information from manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted should be cited in the text as "unpublished observations" (in parenthesis). The references must be verified by the author(s) against the original documents. Examples of correct forms of references are given as follows:
Journal 1. Standard Journal Article - (list of all authors when six or less; when seven or more, list only first three and add et al). Soter NA, Wasserman SI, Austen KF. Cold urticaria: release into the circulation of histamine and eosinophil chemotactic factor of anaphylaxis during cold challenge. N Engl J Med 1976; 294: 687-90. 2. Corporate Author The Committee on Enzymes of the Scandinavian Society for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Physiology. Recommended method for the determination of gammaglutamyltransforase in blood. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 1976;36:119-25. Anonymous. Epidemiology for primary health care. Int J Epidemiol 1976;5:224-5. Books and other Monographs 3. Personal Author(s) Osler AG. Complement: mechanisms and functions. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1976. 4. Corporate Author American Medical Association Department of Drugs. AMA drug evaluations. 3rd ed. Littleton: Publishing Sciences Group 1977. 5. Editor, Compilor, Chairman as Author Rhodes AJ, Van Rooyen CE, comps. Textbook of virology: for students and practitioners of medicine and the other health sciences. 5th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1968. 6. Chapter in Book Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading micro-organisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, editors. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1974:457-72. 7. Agency Publication National Center for Health Statistics. Acute conditions: incidence and associated disability, United States July 1968 - June 1969. Rockville MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 1972 (Vital and health statistics. Series 10; Data from National Health Survey, No 69) (DHEW publication No HSM 72-1036).
Other Articles 8. Newspaper Articles Shaffer RA. Advances in chemistry are starting to unlock mysteries of the brain: discoveries could help cure alcoholism and insomnia, explain mental illness. How the messengers work. Wall Steet Journal 1977 Aug 12;1(col 1), 10 col 1). 9. Magazine Article Roueche B. Annals of Medicine: the Santa Claus culture. The New Yorker 1971 Sep 4;66-81. The Harvard System 1. The arrangement of the references should be alphabetical. 2. The order of the items in each reference should be (a) (b) for journal references: name(s) of author(s), year, title of paper, title of journal, volume number, page number. for book references: name(s) of author(s), year, title of book, edition, volume, chapter and/or page number, town of publication, publisher. 3. Authors' names should be in roman letters arranged thus: Smith, A.B., Jones D.E. & Robinson, F.C. Note the use of the ampersand and omission of comma before it. Authors' names when repeated in the next reference are always spelt out in full. 4. The year of publication should be surrounded by parenthesis: (1967). 5. The title of the paper should be included, without quotation marks: Oestrogen responses in rats neonatally sterilised with steroids. 6. The journal title should be unabbreviated, written in italics (single underlining in typescript) and be followed by volume number in bold type (wavy underlining in typescript) and page number (an increasing number of journals put first and last page numbers). It should read like this: Biochemical Journal, 149, 621-646.
Examples The rules are longwinded: the examples below are simple to follow: Smith, A.B. & Jones, D.E. (1964) The effect of something on something else. Biochemical Journal, 149, 621-646. Smith, A.B. Jones, D.E. & Robinson, F.C. (1965) The response of something to something. Biochemical Journal, 151, 1049-1053. or, for book references: Dacie, J.V. & Worlledge, Sheila, M. (1968) in Clinical Aspects of Immunology, ed. Gell, P.G.H. & Coombs, R.R.A. Ch.29, pp 812-815. Oxford: Blackwell Harris, G.W. (1955) Neural Control of the Pituitary Gland. London: Arnold. Sloper, J.C. (1966) The experimental and cyto-patholgical investigation of neurosecretion in the hypothalamus and pituitary. In The Pituitary Gland, ed. Harris, G.W. & Donovan, B.T. Vol.3. Ch.7 London: Butterworth. c:\phd\hdregs January 1992 (revised June 1997) Last updated: July 2002