Thesis presentation guidelines

The Master's or Doctoral thesis must include the following sections in the order presented here:

1. Title page
2. Master's or Doctoral thesis abstracts
3. Table of contents
4. Lists (figures, illustrations, abbreviations, etc.)
5. Dedications and epigraphs, if any
6. Acknowledgements
7. Preface (for all types of Master's or Doctoral theses, starting January 12, 2026)
8. Body of the Master's or Doctoral thesis:
   - Introduction (the introduction must not be identified as a chapter)
   - Chapters (must be numbered: chapter 1 + title, chapter 2 + title, etc.)
   - Conclusion (the conclusion must not be identified as a chapter)
9. Comprehensive bibliography (must include all the references in the manuscript)
10. Appendices (depending on the discipline, appendices may be placed before the bibliography)

Each section of the dissertation must begin on a new page.

Avoid inserting blank pages between sections in order to facilitate on-screen reading.

North American letter is the authorized page size.

The international A4 size is accepted in the case of a doctoral cotutelle.

• Justified text
• Top and bottom: 25 mm
• Left and right: 30 mm

Tables, graphs and images must also respect the margins.

• Body text: 1.5
• Between paragraphs: double spacing
• Table of contents: 1.0
• List of figures: 1.0
• List of illustrations: 1.0
• List of tables: 1.0
• Chapter summaries: 1.0
• Enumerations: 1.0
• Footnotes: 1.0
• Bibliography or list of works cited: 1.0
• Appendices: 1.0
• Index: 1.0

Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice

• Arial
• Arial Narrow
• Arial Unicode MS
• Bookman Old Style
• Garamond (Microsoft Word only)
• Overpass
• Times New Roman
• Verdana

LaTeX

• Computer Modern
• Latin Modern
• CM-Super
• PostScript font: Helvetica, Times and Palatino (available in the PSNFSS package)

If the use of another font is required, you must obtain permission from the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

• Regular text: 10 to 12 points
• Footnotes: minimum 8 points

Short quotes

• In French quotation marks «»

Long quotes (more than 5 lines)

• Separate paragraph
• Line spacing 1.0
• 10 mm indentation on the left and right
• No quotation marks or italics

Page number location:

• Bottom centre, 10 mm from bottom edge of page

All pages must be included in the page count and paginated in the designated format.

Front matter

The introductory pages must be paginated in Roman numerals:

• The title page must not be paginated
• The summary corresponds to page ii

Pages from the body of the Master's or Doctoral thesis (introduction, chapters, conclusion)

The pages of the body of the Master's or Doctoral thesis must be paginated in Arabic numerals:

• The introduction must correspond to page 1
• Continuous pagination in Arabic numerals is mandatory, including for articles incorporated into the manuscript
• Continuous pagination in Arabic numerals continue after the conclusion (bibliography, appendices, etc.)

The preface includes a first section presenting the mandatory disclosure of the use of generative AI (see the general rules above).

A second part must be added in the case of a master's or doctoral thesis article-based, combined, or porfolio format doctoral thesis. It contains only information concerning the articles included in the master's or doctoral thesis or the elements in the portfolio format thesis:

• The status of preparation of the manuscript of the included article, or its date of submission, acceptance, or publication. See the Types of theses page for more details.
• Its date of submission, acceptance, or publication
• The status of preparation, production, or publication of the document(s) in the portfolio format thesis
• The changes between the integrated version of the article or piece of the portfolio format thesis and its published version
• Your author status (first author or co-first author or, exceptionally, co-author)
• Your exact role in the preparation of each article or piece of the organized file
• The co-authors of each article or piece of the organized file

Each article included must be presented as a separate chapter.

The chapter must include:

• The original title of the article
• An abstract in French
• An abstract in the language the article is written in, if not in French The abstracts must be listed in the table of contents in the same way as the other sections of the chapter in question.

The format of the article must match the overall format of the thesis or dissertation.

The introduction and conclusion should tie the articles together in a coherent manner.

Do you have everything?

• Checklist for combined and article-based manuscripts (PDF)

An abstract in French of a maximum of 150 words must accompany each article written in a language other than French.

For ease of reading, you should also include an abstract of the article in the language in which the thesis or dissertation is written.

• Given that the portfolio format thesis is a compilation of various elements arranged coherently and not in a juxtaposed manner, the physical presentation must comply with Université Laval’s thesis presentation rules.
• The writing template for compilation and article-based theses will be used, to which any audio, video, or artifact documents can be attached, in accordance with the current standards.
• Please note that when the thesis incorporates digital elements such as a webpage or website, the final version submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (FESP) is  saved for preservation purpose by the Library. This means that, it will no longer be possible to update the webpage or website after the final submission even if its content evolves over time.