PhD Thesis template

This is a template for a PhD thesis with a separate title page. This template aims at setting up all the necessary packages and create the base outline of a thesis.

A list of theses using this template (and its earlier versions) is available at the end of the README.

How to compile

To use the template, a LaTeX distribution must be installed on your system. When using TexLive, a version more recent that TexLive2019 is required.

From command line

A makefile is provided to use this template. First, the title page must be compiled using the command

$ make titlepage

Then, the document is compiled using the

$ make main

The resulting documents is stored in pdfs/PhD_thesis.pdf. Both the titlepage and the thesis can be compiled in one go using the command

$ make titlepage main

From VSCode

To use the template with VSCode, the extension LaTeX Workshop must be installed. Once the installation is finished, open the root of the repository as a directory/folder in VSCode. Then open the file PhD_Thesis.tex by double-clicking on it. To compile the template, click on the green "play" button. The PDF file can also be open by right-clicking on it in the tree on the left and clicking on "Open to the side".

The settings for the compilation are stored in the file .vscode/settings.json.

From TeXstudio (in english)

It is possible to create a button in TeXstudio to compile the document. Here are the different steps:

• In the top menus go to "Options" --> "Configure TeXstudio ..."
• Go to the "Build" tab
• Enter the following command in "User compilations".
  • Command name (first box): CompilePhD:CompilePhD (you can put whatever you want)
  • Command (second box): make titlepage main | txs:///view-pdf-internal --embedded pdfs/PhD_Thesis.pdf This command first compiles the title page, then the content, and finally it displays the pdf with the TeXstudio PDF reader.

At this point, the compilation is accessible from the interface by going to "Tools" --> "User" --> "1: CompilePhD" or by using the shortcut "Alt+Shift+F1". To make it more simple, it is also possible to add a button in the interface:

• In the top menus, go to "Options" --> "Configure TeXStudio ..."
• You have to check "Show advanced options" at the bottom left
• Go to the "Toolbar" tab
• On the left, you have to choose in which toolbar you want to put the shortcut with the drop-down menu. The best is to choose "Tools".
• On the right, you need to find the compilation command: in the drop-down menu, choose "All menus". Then choose "Tools" --> "User" -> "1: CompilePhD".
• After selecting the command, you should transfer it to the left with the arrows.
• (Optional) By right-clicking there is an option to change the icon that will be displayed.
• After validating with the "OK" button, there will be a button to the right of the buttons for compiling, displaying the pdf, etc. When you click on it, it is supposed to execute the command. It is also possible to change the shortcut in the "Keyboard shortcuts" tab of the "Configure TeXstudio" window.

From TeXstudio (en français)

C'est possible de créer un bouton dans TeXstudio pour compiler le template. Voici les étapes:

• Dans les menus en haut, il faut aller dans "Options" --> "Configurer TeXstudio ..."
• Aller dans l'onglet "Production"
• Il faut rentrer la commande suivante dans "Compilations Utilisateur"
  • Nom de la commande (première boîte): CompilePhD:CompilePhD (vous pouvez mettre ce que vous voulez comme nom je pense)
  • Commande (deuxième boîte):make titlepage main | txs:///view-pdf-internal --embedded pdfs/PhD_Thesis.pdf Cette commande compile d'abord la page de titre, puis le contenu et enfin elle affiche le pdf avec le lecteur de PDF de TeXstudio.

À ce point, la compilation est accessible depuis l'interface en allant dans "Outils" --> "Utilisateur" -> "1: CompilePhD" ou en utilisant le raccourci "Alt+Shift+F1". Il est aussi possible de rajouter un bouton dans l'interface en suivant ces étapes:

• "Options" --> "Configurer TeXStudio ..."
• Il faut cocher "Afficher les options avancées" en bas à gauche
• Aller dans l'onglet "Barre d'outils"
• À gauche, il faut choisir dans quelle barre d'outil on veut mettre le raccourci avec le menu déroulant. Le mieux est de choisir "Outils".
• À droite, il faut aller chercher la commde de compilation: dans le menu déroulant, il faut choisir "Tous les menus". En dessous, il faut alors choisir "Outils" --> "Utilisateur" -> "1: CompilePhD".
• Après avoir sélectionner la commande, il faut la transférer à gauche avec les flèches.
• (Optionnel) En faisant un clique droit, il y a une option pour changer l'icône qui sera affichée.
• Après avoir validé avec le bouton "OK", il y aura un bouton à droite des boutons de compilations, affichage du pdf, etc. Quand on clique dessus, c'est sensé exécuter la commande.

Il est aussi possible de changer le raccourci dans l'onglet "Raccourcis clavier" de la fenêtre "Configurer TeXstudio".

Cleaning

If for any reasons, the temporary and cache files become you can delete the entire build directory.

Features

The different features of this documents listed below.

• Flavors
• Organisation of the file;
• Styling of the document;
• Styling of the bibliography;
• Notation file;
• Tikz externalization

Flavors

You can customize the template by enabling or disabling various options in lmpsthesis.cls. All customizations are marked with the keyword FLAVOR, making them easy to find by searching for this term within the file.

The available customizations include:

• Accent color: Modify the color used for accents throughout the document.
• Chapter title number font: Change the font style used for the numbers in chapter titles.
• Centering of numberless chapter titles: Control whether chapter titles without numbers are centered or aligned differently.
• Minitoc rules: Enable or disable rules (horizontal lines) around mini tables of contents.

If you have suggestions for additional customizations or improvements, they might be added as a new flavor or even become part of the default style.

Organisation of the files

The file structure of the template is the following.

├── .latexmkrc
├── .vscode/
│   └── settings.json
├── biblio.bib
├── build
│   ├── PhD_Thesis.aux
│   └── ...
├── chapters
│   ├── 0_frontmatter.tex
│   ├── 1_introduction.tex
│   ├── N_conclusion.tex
│   └── titlepage
│       ├── Charte_graphique_ups.png
│       ├── Frame-ups.pdf
│       ├── logo2.PNG
│       ├── Logo_ups.png
│       ├── logo_ups_SMEMAG.png
│       ├── Official_Template_PhD_Universit__Paris_Saclay.pdf
│       └── titlepage.tex
├── custom-apa.bbx
├── figures
│   └── figure.pdf
│   └── ...
├── makefile
├── notations.tex
├── pdfs
│   ├── PhD_Thesis.pdf
│   └── titlepage.pdf
├── PhD_Thesis.tex
└── README.md

The different files are listed below.

• PhD_Thesis.tex is the main file. It contains the user preamble and inputs the title page, the chapters ...
• lmpsthesis.cls is the class file for the lmpsthesis custom class. It contains most of the default package and styling in the document.
• .latexmkrc is a configuration file for latexmk (which is used to compile the document).
• biblio.bib contains the bibliography in the biblatex format.
• build directory contains all files generated during the compilation of the document.
• chapter is the directory containing the chapters files and the title page directory.
• titlepage is the directory containing the title page.
• custom-apa.bbx is a custom bibliography style based on the APA style.
• figures is the directory to store the figures.
• makefile is the file containing the compilation rules.
• notations.tex is the notations file.
• pdfs contains the compiled title page and thesis.
• README.md is this file !

Title page

The title page of the Univsersité Paris-Saclay is stored in the folder chapters/titlepage. For more information on the official requirements by the univsersity, you should consult Le guide de la soutenane du doctorat. The document Official_Template_PhD_Universit__Paris_Saclay.pdf contains the rules and recommendations for the thesis. In particular, it explains how the title page must be completed. The title page is stored in the file Modele_These_UParisSaclay_2022.tex and is compiled by running make titlepage from the root of the template (see the section "How to run" for other methods).

The titlepage is often updated by the University. You must use the up to date version available on the official website.

Options of the lmpsthesis class

The lmpsthesis document class has different options:

• french: Load babel package with the french options.
• emptypage: Make the pages with no content empty (remove headers, footers, page numbers).
• tikz: Load Tikz and PGFPlots. It also enables externalization. It is highly recommended naming each tikzpicture using the command \tikzsetnextfilename (avoid recompiling all tikzpictures when adding new tikzpicture before existing ones). Note that this option is activated in the default PhD_Thesis.tex file and should be disabled if you don't want to use Tikz or PGFPlots.
• All others options are passed to the book document class.

To use those options, you must specify them in the document class command \documentclass[12pt,a4paper,openright,...]{lmpsthesis} at the beginning of PhD_Thesis.tex.

Styling of the document

Font

The font is the utopia font.

Headers and footers

The header are footer are set with the package fancyhdr. The left page headers contain the chapter name and the right page headers contain the section name. The page numbers are set in the footer in the exterior side of the page.

Captions

For the caption, we use the package caption. The caption label is formatted in bold and the separator is a \quad. To have the same separator as D. Néron, you can replace

\captionsetup{labelsep=quad}

by

% \DeclareCaptionLabelSeparator{bullet}{~$\bullet$~}
% \captionsetup{labelsep=bullet}

Another interesting option is the hang option that can be activated like that

\RequirePackage[hang,labelfont=bf]{caption}

Bibliography

The bibliography is managed with the package biblatex using a custom .bbx file based on the APA style. The bibliography must be stored in a file named biblio.bib at the root of the template. To avoid any issues, it is recommended to export the bibliography from Zotero with

• biblatex format;
• disabled "Export notes" and "Export files";
• Unicode (utf-8) encoding.

Notations

The notations file (notations.tex) is split into two parts:

• the definition of new commands for notations,
• the definition of the command \listofnotations, which is composed of different long tables containing the notations and separated into different subsections. Other informations (e.g., units, abbreviations, etc.) can easily be introduced by adding new columns to the tables. The command \listofnotations is called is the frontmatter file (chapters/frontmatter.tex). I recommand to fill the notation table while defining the command.

Tikz externalization

It should be working out-of-the-box. By default, the figure are cached in files with a name based on tikzpicture number. By adding a new tikz figure at the beginning, it will shift the figure number and all figures will need to be compiled again. To avoid this, you can set the name of each figure manually using the following command (I recommend using the label of the figure)

\tikzsetnextfilename{name_of_the_figure}

Other tips can be found here: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/57738.

Use in french

In the case you want to use the template in french, you can activate the babel options french.

To change the different sections/chapters names that are defined in the template:

• "List of Symbols" in notations.tex (definition of the command \listnotationsname),
• "Acknowledgements" in frontmatter.tex,
• (optional) "Chapter summary" in PhD_Thesis.tex.

Known issues in french

• When using babel with the french option, the label names must not contains colon ":".

Theses using the template

This section lists the theses that have been created using this template. Note that earlier versions may not include the current styling. The theses are sorted in reverse chronological order.

• Wurtzer, F. (2024). Stratégie de couplage physiques/données pour la construction d'un jumeau numérique.
• Bagur, L. (2024). Modélisation des effets de l'injection de fluide sur une instabilité sismique en utilisant les méthodes d'éléments de frontière rapides.
• Rostagni, H. (2024). Modélisation objective de mécanismes de dissipation non-linéaires : application aux structures en maçonnerie.
• Ribeiro Nogueira, B. (2024). Non-local damage mechanics with evolving interactions for modeling quasi-brittle materials : anisotropic damage and gradient-enhanced Eikonal approach.
• Loiseau, F. (2023). Formulation of anisotropic damage in quasi-brittle materials and structures based on discrete element simulation. https://theses.hal.science/tel-04602381
• Ruda, A. (2023). Méthode de décomposition de domaine mixte pour la simulation magnétostatique de machines électriques. https://theses.hal.science/tel-04576886
• Daby-Seesaram, A. (2023). Towards an Optimal Multi-query Framework based on Model-order Reduction for Non-linear Dynamics. https://theses.hal.science/tel-04555791
• Caruel, M. (2023). Caractérisation et modélisation thermo-mécanique des alliages à mémoire de forme - application au 26at%Nb-Ti. https://theses.hal.science/tel-04636508
• Cherrière, T. (2023) Élaboration de méthodes et d'outils logiciels pour l'optimisation topologique magnéto-mécanique de machines électriques tournantes. https://theses.hal.science/tel-04636530

If you have used this template for your thesis, please contact us via the issue tracker (or by mail) to have your work added to this list.