This document describes how to use the puthesis (Purdue University thesis) LaTeX typesetting system documentclass to format Purdue University master's bypass reports, master's theses, PhD dissertations, and PhD preliminary reports. All the needed software is free.
A new puthesis.cls file was released today that makes the leader dots in the table of contents and other places extend farther to the right. I'm working on a new version of puthesis for the new specifications. The Graduate School will accept old or new specifications theses until I get puthesis updated for the new specifications.
I used to make changes to puthesis based on what a graduate student wrote about what their school or department's Graduate Office told them. The process is now more formal—a faculty or staff member from that school or department's Graduate Office or the Purdue Graduate School needs to contact me directly to request changes that will affect more than one person.
The Graduate School and I recommend you use Overleaf. I answer puthesis questions about LaTeX and how to use the Overleaf interface to LaTeX. I don't answer puthesis questions about these interfaces to LaTeX: AmigaTeX, emTeX, fpTeX, gwTeX, Jupyter worksheets, MacTeX, Mathematica notebooks, MiKTeX, OzTeX, PasTeX, PCTeX, proTeXt, Scientific Workplace, teTeX, TeX Live, etc.
See Can I add inline or margin comments to the pdf? for how to use LaTeX commands to make inline or marginal notes to communicate with your major professor(s).
See Rich commenting is here! ... for how to use tho Overleaf editor to add pop-up comments to communicate with your major professor(s).
If you are not at Purdue's West Lafayette campus check with your school/department/program to get help locally—they'll be more familiar with any special rules.
I support puthesis for all schools/departments/programs at Purdue University's West Lafayette Campus except for the Purdue Polytechnic Institute—they use their own version of puthesis. If you are a Purdue Polytechnic student see the Purdue Polytechnic Thesis and Dissertation Formatting web page.
There is no combination of options that will automatically give proper headings, tables, and figures according to Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, sixth edition, fifth printing, January 2011. (Informally this is known as the APA format—I call it APA6.) APA6 specifications are geared toward short papers and journal articles. It does not specify the format for the table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, etc. It does not specify the numbering that should be used for chapters, sections, subsections, subsubsections, equations, etc. From page 5 of the manual (thanks to John S. Hansen, Reference Librarian, University if Wisconsin-Stout for providing the citation):
The Publication Manual presents explicit style requirements but acknowledges that alternatives are sometimes necessary; authors should balance the rules of the Publication Manual with good judgement. Because the written language of psychology changes more slowly than psychology itself, the Publication Manual does not offer solutions for all stylistic problems. In that sense, it is a transitional document: Its style requirements are based on the existing scientific literature rather than imposed on the literature. (American Psychologgical Association, 1994, p. xxiii)I am lobbying that schools and departments that prescribe APA format to allow the use of the (in my opinion, and I have almost thirty years of typesetting experience) better default puthesis behaviour for headings, tables, figures, etc. Based on the questions I'm getting, I think some schools and departments have switched to using the puthesis defaults or people have figured out how to get what their schools and departments want without my help. APA6 style text citations and bibliographies can continue to be used, contact me if you have any problems.
The puthesis template
is the graduate schools' official template,
so all formatting
(unless there is some sort of error)
should be correct.
—Ashlee Messersmith, Thesis/Dissertation Assistant, Thesis and Dissertation Office, West Lafayette campus, Purdue University
See Dissertation Advice by Olin Shivers. and How To Write A Dissertation by Douglas E. Comer for advice regarding the content of a dissertation.
Puthesis stands for “Purdue University thesis” (pronounced “pew thesis”). It is a LaTeX typesetting system documentclass used to format Purdue master's bypass reports, master's theses, PhD dissertations, and PhD preliminary reports. The software is free and is available for Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Unix, and the web ((Free Overleaf accounts). The Graduate School announced it is sponsoring free Overleaf Pro accounts in January, 2016. Please inform me if you notice any differences between the Graduate School's or your school or department's specifications and what puthesis does.
The Thesis/Dissertation Office recommends using puthesis.
Thousands of people have graduated using it. You won't need to “reinvent the wheel.”
All formatting details are done automatically, you can concentrate on the content of your thesis instead of worrying about margins, typefaces, etc.
It is especially convenient for typesetting mathematics.
Many people think it produces more attractive output than other systems.
All the software needed is free and is available for a wide variety of operating systems. Purdue has an (Overleaf) license so you can use LaTeX on the web.
Some (especially engineering, mathematics, and science) journals use LaTeX. You may be able to cut large chunks out of your thesis, change a few lines at the top of the resulting file, and send that to a journal.
Using LaTeX and BibTeX is very common in the scientific community. Sooner or later you may need to learn it anyway.
Many candidates have made favorable comments about puthesis when depositing their theses.
We strongly recommend candidates consider learning puthesis prior to the writing process.
Using puthesis cuts formatting discrepancies to almost zero,
drastically reduces the possibility of revision requests, and helps ensure stress-free deposits!
—Mark D. Jaeger, Manager, Thesis/Dissertation Office
The puthesis class file for LaTeX has helped hundreds of ECE graduate students meet the requirements for format approval.
Using it allows them to focus on the content of their thesis without concern for the myriad of formatting details
that it automatically handles.
The Graduate School's Thesis/Dissertation Office also recommends the use of puthesis and LaTeX.
—Andy Hughes, ECE Thesis Format Advisor
Complete list of testimonials.
Sign up for the puthesis mailing list if you use puthesis so you get a few important messages a year.
| Package | What Happens |
|---|---|
| caption | captions are wrong |
| float | (I forget the exact problem that causes) |
| pdfsync | first line of text doesn't always start in right place |
| subfiles | page numbering is wrong |
The document necessary to get a Purdue PhD is a “dissertation”. For historical reasons, to use the same nomenclature as other Purdue departments, and be able to lump instructions describing master's bypass reports, master's theses, PhD dissertations, and PhD preliminary reports together the word “thesis” will be used to refer to any of these. “Dissertation” will be used to refer to things that are dissertation-specific only.
Puthesis requires LaTeX and BibTeX. See LaTeX for more information. Puthesis is designed to run on, and I only answer LaTeX questions when you are using
I recommend saving any old puthesis files in your thesis directory with other names and then get any newer puthesis files below.
| File | Version | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| puthesis.cls | 2017-04-15 | production Purdue University thesis documentclass (change history) |
| xputhesis.cls | 2008-04-21 | experimental Purdue University thesis documentclass (change history and instructions) |
| cheputhesis.cls | 2008-04-21 | a special version of xputhesis for Chemical Engineering |
| notoccite.sty | Jul 20, 2000 | don't increment bibliography citation numbers in table of contents |
| pulongtable.sty | 2006-09-14 | used for multiple page tables |
The template files below are meant for you to save and modify as necessary for your thesis. In each file search for “CHANGE” and change things as necessary. I recommend putting “%%” before any existing lines that need to be changed and adding any new line(s) immediately below the existing lines.
If you are on a Linux or Unix computer you may be able to use the following procedure to simplify getting the files:
This procedure will create a “template” subdirectory if one doesn't already exist. The all.bib through vita.tex files listed below will get overwritten in the template directory. Be careful!Get this template.tar.gz file and then type
gunzip template.tarto save the trouble of getting each file individually. If that doesn't work, get each file separately.
tar xf template.tar
If you are using Windows computer you may be able to use the following procedure to simplify getting the files:
This procedure will create a “template” subdirectory if one doesn't already exist. The all.bib through vita.tex files listed below will get overwritten in the template directory. Be careful!Get this template.zip file and then type
unzip template.zipto save the trouble of getting each file individually. If that doesn't work, get each file separately.
If you weren't able to get all the template files using the instructions above you can get them one at a time here:
File Version Comment all.bib 2007-02-06 a simple BibTeX database file bibliography.tex 2010-06-21 the bibliography demo-citations.tex 2007-02-06 demonstrate citations demo-figures.tex 2007-02-06 demonstrate figures demo-mathematics.tex 2007-02-12 demonstrate mathematics demo-multicols.tex 2004-04-23 demonstrate multicols demo-tables.tex 2014-08-08 demonstrate tables demo-text.tex 2007-07-17 demonstrate text front.tex 2017-01-08 front matter: statement of approval, dedication, acknowledgments, preface, table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, symbols, abbreviations, nomenclature, glossary, abstract introduction.tex 2007-02-06 “Introduction” chapter mydefs.tex 2007-02-06 my command definitions plot.eps 2004-10-14 plot used by Figures chapter recommendations.tex 2007-02-06 “Recommendations” chapter summary.tex 2007-02-06 “Summary” chapter thesis.tex 2014-08-08 this is the main file vita.tex 2007-02-06 a vita is required only in a doctoral dissertation
Depending on your installation of LaTeX you may need to put copies of the puthesis.cls and pulongtable.sty files in the template directory to be able to do a latex thesis command there.
If LaTeX complains about missing files when you do your thesis, then, and only then, get the appropriate files below. Email latex@ecn.purdue.edu to get any files not listed.
| File | Version | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| ama.bst | 3/27/02 | produce AMA (Amerian Medical Association) format bibliographies (only needed if you are using ama option) (See top of file after choosing link for more instructions) |
| apacite.* | 2007/09/03 | produce APA (Amerian Psychological Association) format bibliographies and citations (only needed if you are using apacite option) (See “Contents of the README file” on screen after choosing link for more instructions) |
| astron.sty | 1990 | produce citations in the `author-year' format, which is widely used among astronomical journals |
| cite.sty | 3.8 (Apr 1999) | change, for example, citations [1,2,3] to [1–3] |
| endnotes.sty | 09/14/94 | used to put footnotes at the end of a chapter instead of bottom of page |
| ifthen.sty | 2001/05/26 v1.1c | defines \ifthenelse and other commands |
| jfm.bst | 1.1 revised 12/2005 | The Journal of Fluid Dynamics bibliography style, you only need this if you use the jfm option. See the top of jfm.bst file for instructions. |
| jfm2.bst | v1.1 (SGLS,RJW) 12/97,02/07 | A modified Journal of Fluid Dynamics bibliography style, you only need this if you use the jfm2 option. See the top of jfm2.bst file for instructions. |
| lsalike.bst | 06-Jan-94 | Linguistics Society of America like bibliography style, you only need this if you use the ling option. |
| lsalike.sty | 06-Jan-94 version 1.0alpha | Linguistics Society of America like bibliography definitions, you only need this if you use the ling option. |
| natbib.sty | 2003/06/06 7.1 (PWD) | defines miscellanous bibliography-related commands/td> |
| pumeunsrt.bst | 2013-04-04 | you only need this if you are in Mechanical Engineering |
| rotating.sty | 1997/09/26, v2.13 | used to rotate text and figures |
| subfigure.sty | 2002/07/30 v2.1.4 | used to put footnotes at the end of a chapter instead of bottom of page |
If you need the files below (especially report.cls) your LaTeX may not be set up right.
| File | Version | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| graphicx.sty | 1999/02/16 v1.0f | used to include Encapsulated PostScript files |
| lscape.sty | 2000/10/22 v3.01 | prints across widest dimension of paper |
| report.cls | 2004/02/16 v1.4f | a documentclass that should come with latex to do reports |
All theses must follow the Purdue University Graduate School's A Manual for the Preparation of Graduate Theses. Individual departments and schools may have additional rules and regulations—they're listed immediately after the school or department in the table below.
The general form of the \documentclass command is
\documentclass[options]{puthesis}Separate multiple options with commas.
The “use ece now, option when available” messages below mean you can at least use the ece option to check that your LaTeX input is recognized by LaTeX. If you're lucky, using ece for your document or ece with some of the other options beginning with the endnote option below will do the formatting correctly for your thesis. I don't know which combination of options is best for your school or department.
| For | Use Option | Additional Rules and thesis format contact(s) (date info last checked) |
|---|---|---|
| Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering | aae | Jennifer LaGuire (2011-07-02) |
| Agricultural and Biological Engineering | use ece now, abe when available | none (2012-03-13) |
| Agricultural Economics | agecon | A Manual for the Preparation of Graduate Theses, |
| Department of Agricultural Economics, | ||
| Purdue University, 1999–2000. | ||
| Lou Ann Baugh (2012-03-13) | ||
| Agronomy | agry | Phyllis Graves and Jeff Volenec (2006-10-19) |
| American Studies | use ece now, amst when available | major professor and committee (2006-10-18) |
| Animal Sciences | use ece now, ansc when available | waiting to hear back from Alan Grant (2006-10-18) |
| Anthropology | use ece now, anth when available | Talin Lindsay (2012-03-29) |
| Art & Design | use ece now, ad when available | Jill Stickrod (2012-03-29) |
| Basic Medical Sciences | use ece now, bms when available | major professor and committee (2011-11-29) |
| Gloria Powell (2011-11-29) | ||
| Biological Sciences | use ece now, biol when available | Georgina Rupp (2012-03-29) |
| Biomedical Engineering | use ece now, bme when available | no school/dept/program additional formatting rules |
| Sandy May (2012-03-30) | ||
| Botany & Plant Pathology | use ece now, btny when available | Tyson McFall |
| Chemical Engineering | che | Thesis Format Check List (PDF file) |
| Heading Examples (Word file) | ||
| Deb Bowman (2012-03-13) | ||
| Chemistry | chem | Chemistry Thesis Format Office |
| A Thesis/Dissertation Formatting Manual for the Purdue Univeristy Chemistry Department | ||
| Liz Hewitt and Cindy Salazar (assistant) (2012-03-30) | ||
| Civil Engineering | ce | The Basics for the Preparation of Graduate Thesis |
| Architectural, Geotechnical and Materials: Cathy Ralston (2011-06-30) Construction: Melissa Geiger (2011-06-30) Environmental and Hydraulics: Judy Haan (2011-06-30) Geomatics and Transportation: Dorothy Miller (2011-06-30) Structures: Molly Stetler (2011-06-30) | ||
| Communications | use ece now, com when available | major advisor (2012-04-12) |
| Comparitive Literature | use ece now, cmpl when available | Ronnie Wilbur (2011-08-25) |
| Comparitive Medicine | use ece now, svm-icmgp when available | major professor and committee (2011-08-25) |
| Comparitive Pathobiology | use ece now, cpb when available | major professor and committee (2011-11-29) |
| Barbara White (2011-11-29) | ||
| Computer Science | cs | William Gorman and Renate Mallus (2011-08-31) |
| Consumer Sciences & Retailing | use ece now, csr when available | Jeannie Navarre (2011-08-25) |
| Earth and Atmospheric Sciences | eas | student's major advisor (2006-10-11) |
| Education Curriculum and Instruction | edci | James Lehman (2006-10-19) |
| Electrical and Computer Engineering | ece | ECE Thesis Format/Deposit -checklist (see “Formatting Requirements” section) |
| Andy Hughes (2012-04-02) | ||
| Engineering Education | use ece now, ene when available | (unknown) (2011-08-25) |
| English | use ece now, engl when available | student's major professor (2011-08-25) |
| Entomology | use ece now, entm when available | student's major professor and committee (2011-08-25) |
| Food Science | use ece now, fs when available | none (2011-08-25) |
| Health Sciences | hsci | student's major professor (2012-04-02) |
| History | use ece now, hist when available | none (2011-08-25) |
| Horticulture | use ece now, hort when available | none (2011-08-25) |
| Industrial Engineering | ie | student's major professor and committee (2012-04-02) |
| Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences | use ece now, ibsc when available | major professor and committee (2011-11-29) |
| Sue Wood (2011-11-29) | ||
| Languages and Cultures | use ece now, lc when available | Thesis Format Advisor Web Site |
| Susan Clawson (2012-03-30) | ||
| Linguistics | use ece now, ling when available | Ronnie Wilbur (2011-08-23) |
| Sue Wood (2011-11-29) | ||
| Management | mgmt | Kelly Felty (2011-09-08) |
| Materials Engineering | mse | Thesis Format Guidelines, June 2001, School of Materials Engineering |
| Vicki Cline (2012-03-29) | ||
| Mathematics | math | Steven R. Bell (2011-09-06) |
| Mechanical Engineering | me | Ganesh Subbarayan |
| Nuclear Engineering | ne | Ashley Lauren Brooks (2011-08-23) |
| Nursing | use ece now, nur when available | none (2011-08-25) |
| Sue Wood (2011-11-29) | ||
| Pharmacy Practice | use ece now, phpr when available | major professor and committee (2011-08-25) |
| Sue Wood (2011-11-29) | ||
| Philosophy | use ece now, phil when available | (unknown) (2011-08-25) |
| Sue Wood (2011-11-29) | ||
| Physics | phys | Sandy Formica (2017-06-09) |
| Psychological Sciences | use ece now, psy when available | Departmental Guidelines for 2014.pdf |
| Julie Smith (2011-08-25) | ||
| Sociology | use ece now, soc when available | major professor and committee (2011-08-25) |
| Statistics | stat | Anna M. Hook (2016-02-29) |
| Theatre | use ece now, thtr when available | none (2011-08-25) |
| Veterinary Clinical Sciences | use ece now, vcs when available | major professor and committee (2011-11-29) |
| Jessica Sheely (2011-11-29) | ||
| Use option | For | |
| bypass | master's Bypass Report | |
| dissertation | PhD Dissertation | |
| prelim | PhD Preliminary Report | |
| thesis | master's Thesis | |
| Use option | For | |
| endnotes | Footnotes at end of chapter instead of bottom of page. | |
| Use option | For Bibliograhy Style | |
| abbrv | abbreviated author names | |
| abbrvnat | abbreviated natbib | |
| agsm | agsm | |
| aip | aip | |
| alpha | alpha | |
| ama | American Mathematical Association | |
| apacite | American Psychological Association | |
| (if apacite doesn't work try apalike) | ||
| apalike | American Psychological Association like | |
| astron | astron | |
| chicago | chicago | |
| ieee | ieee | |
| IEEEtran | IEEEtran | |
| jfm | Journal of Fluid Dynamics | |
| jfm2 | Journal of Fluid Dynamics modified | |
| kluwer | kluwer | |
| phaip | American Institute of Physics journals | |
| plain | plain | |
| plainnat | plain natbib | |
| unsrt | unsrt (default) | |
| unsrtnat | unsrt natbib | |
| Use option | To | |
| coversheets | Use Bibliography, Appendix, and Vita coversheets (default). | |
| nocoversheets | Don't use Bibliography, Appendix, and Vita cover sheets. | |
| Use option | To | |
| chapterblankpages | Start chapters on next odd-numbered page (default). | |
| nochapterblankpages | Start chapters on next page. | |
| Use option | To | |
| nonchapterblankpages | Start non-chapters on next odd-numbered page (default). | |
| nononchapterblankpages | Start non-chapters on next page. | |
| (The following are nonchapters: abstract, acknowledgments, | ||
| bibliography, list of figures, list of tables, preface, | ||
| table of contents, and vita.) | ||
| Use option | To | |
| miser | Save paper—same as nononchapterblankpages, | |
| nochapterblankpages, and nocoversheets. | ||
| nomiser | Not save paper—same as nonchapterblankpages, | |
| chapterblankpages, and coversheets. | ||
| Use option | For | |
| uglyheadings | Centered, underlined, upper and lower case sections. | |
| Centered, not underlined, upper and lower case subsections. | ||
| Left justified, underlined, upper and lower case subsubsections. |
\author{Alan A. Apple}This name should match the name the university uses for you.
\campus{West Lafayette}The following campuses are valid:
\majorprof{Alan A. Apple}
\majorprofs{Alan A. Apple and Bertrand B. Blueberry}
\majorprofs{Alan A. Apple, Bertrand B. Blueberry and Charles C. Cherry}
\pudegree{Doctor of Philosophy}{PhD}{May}{2015}
\title{An Example Thesis Done with LaTeX}Subscripts and superscripts are not allowed in the title.
In addition to the commands shown in the template files, puthesis also defines the following commands. As far as puthesis is concerned, these commands can be used anywhere. Double check comments in the template files to make sure it is ok to use then them there. For example, no subscripts or superscripts are allowed in the thesis title.
Right now the \num command just prints the number in math mode so any minus signs come out as minus signs and not hyphens. Later it will do what is described in the next paragraph.
The \num command, separates numbers of more than four digits into groups of three on either side of the decimal point, separated by a space. If the magnitude of a number is less than one, the decimal point should be preceded by a zero.
Use the International System of Units (SI Units). Refer to units listed in Appendix I of Thesis Format for information on prefered usage of units, conversion factors, etc.
Unit symbols should be used with measured quantites, e.g., 1mm, but unit names are used in text without quantities, e.g., “a few millimeters”.
If quantities must be expressed in English units, the SI equivalents should also be given in parentheses, i.e., “a distance of 4.7 in (12 cm)”.
Most acronyms and abbreviations should be defined the first time they are used in text. A list of acronyms and abbreviations, including a list of those that need not be defined, is given in Appendix II of Thesis Format.
If you would like to use the same commands in multiple documents, put them in a mydefs.tex file and use \input{mydefs} to read in those definitions.
For example,
if I used typed
$xfor 2014_n$
often in many different documents I might put
\newcommand{\xn}{$x_n$}in my mydefs.tex file.
Then, whenever I typed \xn it would be the same as typing $x_n$. This definition can be made more flexible by including ensuremath like this
\newcommand{\xn}{\ensuremath{x_n}}That way \xn can be used in text or math mode and LaTeX will go in and out of math mode if necessary.
I like to put thesis-specific command definitions after any \input{mydefs} command I use.
If I was writing a lot about different vectors with elements 1 to some upper limit, I could put the following in my root file
\let\en=ensuremathso I could type
\newcommand{\vec}[2]{\en{#1_1},~\en{#1_2},\ \ldots,~\en{#1_#2}}
\vec xyto get
x1, x2, ..., xy
I only support documents that use “\documentclass[options]{puthesis}” and use the latest puthesis.cls file available from this web page.
FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions
Can I run LaTeX on the web? Answer.
Converting LaTeX to Word? Answer.
How can I get Adobe Reader to read a new PDF file and update the screen? Answer.
\usepackage[letterpaper,left=1.5in,right=1in,top=1in,bottom=1.25in]{geometry}immediately before your
\begin{document}command in your thesis.tex file.
texconfig pdftex paper letterThanks to Eric Villasenor for this advice.
If you have any comments after reading the Frequently Asked Questions send them to mark@purdue.edu.
If you have any questions after reading the Frequently Asked Questions see How to Request puthesis Help.