Three Manuscript Thesis LaTeX Template

This repository provides a thesis template built on a custom class file, styles.cls. You compile Main.tex, edit the page and chapter files that Main.tex inputs, and keep the formatting rules in styles.cls.

Most of the template text includes placeholders in {brackets}. Replace those with your own content.

View the PDF version of the template

Quick start

Overleaf

1. Upload the project to Overleaf (zip the folder or import from Git).
2. Set the compiler to pdfLaTeX.
3. Set the bibliography tool to biber (the class uses BibLaTeX).

Compile Main.tex. The output is Main.pdf.

Local build (TeX Live)

Install TeX Live with biber available. TeX Live 2022+ works well.

Compile with latexmk:

latexmk -pdf -use-biber Main.tex

Or compile manually:

pdflatex Main
biber Main
pdflatex Main
pdflatex Main

Repository layout

Main.tex in this repository expects these folders and file names:

backmatter/
  Appendix.tex
  Vita.tex
chapters/
  Chapter_01_Introduction.tex
  Chapter_02_Significance.tex
  Chapter_03_First_Manuscript.tex
  Chapter_04_Second_Manuscript.tex
  Chapter_05_Third_Manuscript.tex
  Chapter_06_Conclusion.tex
frontmatter/
  Abstract.tex
  Acknowledge.tex
  Approval.tex
  Contents.tex
  Copyright.tex
  Dedication.tex
  TitlePage.tex
Citations.bib
Main.tex
styles.cls

If you rename folders, update the corresponding \input{...} paths in Main.tex.

How to use Main.tex

Main.tex is the entry point. It does three jobs.

1. Selects the class file and bibliography database
2. Inputs the front matter and sets page numbering
3. Inputs chapters, appendix, bibliography, and vita

The version in this repository begins like this:

\documentclass{styles}
\addbibresource{Citations.bib}

\begin{document}

\input{frontmatter/TitlePage}
\input{frontmatter/Copyright}
\input{frontmatter/Approval}

\cleardoublepage
\pagenumbering{roman}
\setcounter{page}{2}

\input{frontmatter/Dedication}
\input{frontmatter/Acknowledge}
\input{frontmatter/Contents}
% Add other front matter files here, for example:
% \input{frontmatter/Abstract}

% Switch to arabic numbering for the body where your program requires it:
% \cleardoublepage
% \pagenumbering{arabic}
% \tocChapterHeader

\input{chapters/Chapter_01_Introduction}
...
\printbibliography[heading=bibcenter]
\input{backmatter/Vita}

\end{document}

What you usually edit in Main.tex

• Add, remove, or reorder \input{...} lines for your chapters.
• Decide where roman numbering ends and where arabic numbering begins.
• Decide where the appendix and bibliography appear.

What you usually do not edit in Main.tex

• Margin rules, heading sizes, spacing, and list formatting. Those live in styles.cls.

How to use styles.cls

You load the class with \documentclass{styles}. The file styles.cls extends the standard report class and sets thesis formatting. It also loads a set of common packages so you do not need to repeat them in each chapter.

Key behaviors defined by the class

• Page layout uses geometry with 1.5 inch left margin and 1 inch top, right, and bottom margins for the main body.
• Front matter helper environments apply separate margins suited to title and approval pages.
• Double spacing is enabled automatically at the start of the document (\AtBeginDocument{\doublespacing}).
• Chapter and section headings use larger fonts via sectsty.
• Hyperlinks are enabled with hyperref and hidden link styling (hidelinks).
• Table of contents, list of tables, and list of figures formatting is handled through tocloft.
• BibLaTeX is configured for the biber backend and numeric citations. DOIs are suppressed (doi=false). URLs still print if they are present in your .bib entries. If you also want to suppress URLs, add url=false to the BibLaTeX options in styles.cls.

Front matter helper environments

These environments live in styles.cls and are meant to be used inside the files in frontmatter/.

• titlefrontpage for the title page (no page number, and it does not advance the counter)
• uncountedfrontpage for unnumbered pages that should not advance the page counter
• frontmatterpage for counted roman-numeral pages
• approvalpage for the approval page layout
• \sigline{Role or Name} for signature lines on the approval page

The key idea is that uncounted pages use \thispagestyle{empty} and also adjust the page counter so the next counted page gets the expected roman numeral.

Table of contents chapter header

The command \tocChapterHeader inserts a CHAPTER entry into the table of contents. Use it once, right before the first chapter, if you want all chapter entries to appear under that label.

Bibliography heading

The class defines a BibLaTeX heading named bibcenter. In Main.tex this is used as:

\printbibliography[heading=bibcenter]

It creates a centered “BIBLIOGRAPHY” heading and also adds a bibliography entry to the table of contents.

Editing the front matter files

Each file in frontmatter/ wraps the page content in one of the environments above. Edit the text inside the environment.

Examples

frontmatter/TitlePage.tex

Edit the title and name. The file should wrap its content in titlefrontpage.

{\Large \MakeUppercase{Thesis}\\[-0.2ex]\MakeUppercase{Title}\par}
{\Large \MakeUppercase{Your Name}\par}

frontmatter/Approval.tex

Use approvalpage and \sigline{...}.

\sigline{Dr. {Advisor Name}}
\sigline{Dr. {Committee Member 1}}

Chapters, figures, tables, and code

• Begin each chapter file with \chapter{...}.
• The class loads float, so the [H] float specifier is available.
• The class loads graphicx, so you can include images with \includegraphics.
• The class loads subcaption, so you can create subfigures with \begin{subfigure}....
• The class loads listings and provides a default \lstset{...} configuration.

Citations and bibliography

All references live in Citations.bib.

• Add entries keyed like smith2021method.
• Cite with \cite{smith2021method} (and \parencite{...} if you prefer).
• Compile with biber as shown above.

Troubleshooting

• If Overleaf times out during compilation, switch to draft mode by changing the first line of Main.tex to \documentclass[draft]{styles}. Compile once, then remove [draft] and compile again in normal mode.
• References show as question marks: rebuild with latexmk -C then latexmk -pdf -use-biber Main.tex.
• Bibliography is empty: confirm Citations.bib is in the project root and that you cite at least one entry.
• A chapter is missing from the table of contents: use \chapter{...} (not \chapter*{...}).

See also

Latex thesis templates provided by other Mizzou alum Alex Yang, John Hammond.