LaTeX Template for Scientific Theses

This template is a general template for scientific theses.

Currently, it is the unofficial LaTeX template for Master, Bachelor, Diploma, and Student Theses.

See docs/ or http://latextemplates.github.io/scientific-thesis-template/ for a documentation of the template.

License

The license of this work is CC0, which corresponds to "public domain".

Exceptions

The images in logos are subject to other copyright from other parties:

Recommended setup of MiKTeX

• Install MiKTeX for: "Only for: username"
• Install MiKTeX to: C:\MiKTeX. This enabled browsing for documentation at `C:\MiKTeX29\doc\latex
• Install missing packages on the fly: Yes

Characteristics of the template

• UTF-8
• pdflatex
• latexmk
• biblatex+biber instead of plain bibtex

This template works on Windows using the current MiKTeX distribution. On Linux (TexLive full >= 2013) should work without any issues. Even though AuToLaTeX is more powerful than latexmk, it is not included in MiKTeX and therefore it is not used here.

Using with your own git repository

Initialization

This howto assumes that you have not a git repository for your thesis. If you have, just add https://github.com/latextemplates/uni-stuttgart-computer-science-template.git as upstream and merge the branch "template" into your "master" branch.

1. Open command line
2. Change to the directory where you want to have your main tex file.
3. Fetch the template from github: git clone https://github.com/ISTE-RSS/template-thesis.git.
4. Rename origin to github to enable adding your own origin repository: git remote rename origin github
5. Create a new branch master starting from the latest commit in the template-rss branch: git checkout -b master

Now, you are on the master branch, where you can write your thesis and push it to your (remote) origin repository, in case you have one.

Merging updates from the template

If you want to merge updates from github, do the following:

1. git fetch github
2. git merge github/template-rss

LaTeX compilation

The template is compiled using normal LaTeX commands. Your LaTeX environment (such as TeXStudio) should take care about the compilation transparently. When the "Package Installation" dialog pops up at TeXStudio, choose your username at "The package will be installed for:" and uncheck "Always show this dialog before installing packages." If you want to include .svg graphics, inkscape has to be in your path.

If you want to compile using the command line, you can use following tools.

Automatic compilation using latexmk

latexmk main-english

Continuous previewing using latexmk

latexmk -pvc main-english

This will open a Sumatra PDF and only works with the supplied configuration.

latexmk configuration

This repository ships a .latexmk which is read by latexmk. It is configured for Windows and especially sets Sumatra PDF as default PDF viewer. You can make this local configuration a global configuration, when you put it at the right place.

If you want to add more packages, configure it there. For instance, for support of makeglossaries see http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/1226/how-to-make-latexmk-use-makeglossaries.

Automatic compilation using make

For those, who have cygwin installed or run a linux machine, this template offers a simple LaTeX makefile. It is not so sophisticated as other projects, but does its job.

make

Make targets:

• pdf (default): Generates ausarbeitung.pdf
• aspell: Checks all files using aspell.
• clean: Removes all temporary files.
• mrproper: Cleans up and removes also editor backup files.
• stand: Creates a new PDF with the current status of the thesis.
• view: Opens the configured viewer
• 6: Generates a 3x2 postscriptfile using psnup.

Alternatives:

• https://github.com/akerbos/ltx2any
• https://github.com/shiblon/latex-makefile
• https://github.com/ransford/pdflatex-makefile
• https://github.com/brotchie/latex-rubber-makefile
• LaTeX-Mk
• See also http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1240037/recommended-build-system-for-latex and http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/40738/how-to-properly-make-a-latex-project

Tweaks

Define Title, Author, ..

The file main-english contains properties like title, author, thesis number, etc. Author and title can be set as commands to be able to reuse them (e.g., for the PDF properties).

• \newcommand{\docauthor}{Author's name}
• \newcommand{\doctitle}{Thesis title}

Change Appearance of Chapter Headings

Final version

• If you included some version control statements, please remove them. Currently, the template does not support any, but it used to support SVN.
• By using \largeparge and \shortpage, single lines at the bottom or at the top of the page can be manually fixed.
• Search the PDF for "TODO" or similar things. Remove \usepackage{todonotes} in preambel/packages_and_options.
• Ensure that you run pdflatex at least three times and that there no "undefined references".
• The margins are intended for a duplex printing. Do not change them (or do exactly know what you are doing).

Further Reading

See http://wiki.flupp.de/LaTeX

Contained Files and Directories

• main-english.tex
  • Main file
  • New chapters are added by using \input
• Makefile: The Makefile.
• README.md: This file.
• uni-stuttgart-cs-cover.sty: Verbatim copy of uni-stuttgart-cs-cover.sty available at https://github.com/latextemplates/uni-stuttgart-computer-science-cover
• bibliography.bib. Bibliography. biblatex format. Manage it with JabRef.
• content/: Place for the actual content
  • content/introduction.tex: First chapter: The introduction
  • content/foundation.tex: Second chapter: Foundations and Related work
  • content/chapter3.tex: Third chapter: Your own first chapter
  • content/validation: Validation chapter
  • content/conclusion.tex: Conclusion and future work.
• graphics/: Directory containing the figures. By using PDFLaTeX it is possible to use PDFs, JPGs, PNGs, ... We recommend to use PDFs to enable smooth scaling.
• commands.tex: File for macros.
  • commands.tex: Example macros