Rules of presentation
Master's or Doctoral theses must be written in accordance with FESP presentation rules (Academic Regulations, art. 1.5 a) Some of these rules are derived from online publication and digital document storage requirements.
Failure to follow the rules may result in corrections being requested that delay evaluation.
Ask your supervisor if there are specific presentation guidelines (including bibliographic style) for your field of study.
The rules of presentation may vary depending on the type of thesis.
Order of the sections
The Master's or Doctoral thesis must include the following sections in the order presented here:
- Title page
- Master's or Doctoral thesis abstracts
- Table of contents
- Lists (figures, illustrations, abbreviations, etc.)
- Dedications and epigraphs, if any
- Acknowledgements
- Preface (for compilation and article-based theses only)
- 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) - Bibliography
- Appendices (depending on the discipline, appendices may be placed before the bibliography)
Transition between sections
Each section of the dissertation or thesis must begin on a new page.
Avoid inserting blank pages between sections in order to facilitate on-screen reading.
Page size
North American letter is the authorized page size.
The international A4 size is accepted in the case of a doctoral cotutelle.
Margins
- Justified text
- Top and bottom: 25 mm
- Left and right: 30 mm
Tables, graphs and images must also respect the margins.
Line spacing
- 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
Fonts
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.
Quotes
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
Pagination
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, and should continue after the conclusion (bibliography, appendices, etc.)