Thesis and template

In this post, you can find my dissertation Exploring ecological and social interactions through the lens of complex systems and the LaTex files needed for generating the pdf.

Layout

The layout is based on the Harvard-thesis template. You can also download my own version:

https://github.com/violetavivi/Thesis/tree/main

The file to be compiled for my dissertation is thesis.tex.

Organization

A very important factor for successful thesis writing is the organization of the material. This template suggests a structure in folders as the following:

• chapters/ is where all the real content goes in separate files such as chp1.tex.
• frontmatter/ contains what surrounds the content, such as abstract, acknowledgments, dedication, etc. You also have a endmatter/.
• figures/ is where you put all the graphics you use in the thesis. I have organized them into subfolders since I had a lot.
• references.bib is the BibTEX database to organize all your references. Overleaf can directly synchronize your Zotero library. https://www.overleaf.com/learn/how-to/How_to_link_your_Overleaf_account_to_Mendeley_and_Zotero
• thesis.tex is the main file.
• Glossary.tex is a list with all your acronyms. Uncomment line 109 \printglossary[type=symbols,style=long,title={List of Symbols and Abreviations}] on the main tex file to make it appear in the final pdf.
• harvard-thesis.cls is your $\LaTeX$ class file where you can define new commands to keep the main tex tidy. For example:

  \newcommand{\abstractpage}{
    \newpage
    %\doublespace 
    \justifying
    \chapter*{Abstract}
    \input{frontmatter/abstract} 
    \chapter*{Resumen}
    \input{frontmatter/resumen}
  }
  

Customization

• Check the page size recommended by your University. I am using b5.
• In harvard-thesis.cls you can change, for example:
  • Set the colors of the hyperlinks (URLs, citations, etc) big number at the beginning of the chapters (@ line 29).
  • Define those colors with \definecolor{myblue}{rgb}{0, 0.125, 0.38}.
• I like the front page to have no numbering or roman numbering. You can change that in thesis.tex @ lines 110, 122-123 and 137 with commands like \pagenumbering{roman}.