Section Content

A Master's or Doctoral thesis contains several sections. This page contains information about each of them.

Master's or Doctoral thesis abstracts

Your Master's or Doctoral thesis must contain an abstract in French.

Master's thesis abstract: 300 words maximum
Doctoral thesis abstract: 700 words maximum

For greater visibility in international databases, it is recommended that you also include an English abstract.

Each abstract must be on a separate page.

The English abstract must follow the French one.

The table of contents should be generated automatically using your word processing software.

It must include:

The front matter (abstracts, dedications, acknowledgements, preface, etc.)
The titles of the body sections
The list of tables
The list of diagrams
The list of figures
The list of abbreviations and acronyms, etc.

Preface

Preface is optional for a traditional thesis. It can be used to comment on a research-creation Marceau, or to provide details about the appendices.

For theses that include articles or portfolio format, a preface is mandatory.

The preface must contain information on:

The publication status of included articles (dates of submission, acceptance, or publication)
Differences or changes between the article included in the thesis or dissertation and the published version
Your author status (first or not)
Your exact role in the preparation of each article
The coauthors of each article

Appendices

Appendices are supplementary materials that complement the main body of the thesis. These may include literature reviews, questionnaires and forms, long calculations, maps and other supplementary information. Appendices may be placed before or after the bibliography, depending on the usage in your discipline.

Audio, video and multimedia files, as well as large files, must be submitted as supplementary files to the main file. Consult the Authorized software and file formats page to learn more.

The description of each appendix file and its link to the thesis should be provided in the preface to the manuscript, or in an accompanying document.

Research data

Pay special attention to research data submitted as an appendix to your thesis. It is imperative that datasets be accompanied by a Readme file providing documentation of the data. Please refer to the Library's website for further information regarding the correct documentation of your data.

Grant-awarding agencies and publishers may have policies or guidelines that set out the conditions for the storage and sharing of research data in an appropriate data repository. Université Laval has a reserved space on Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse repository, which can be used for this purpose. If research data related to your thesis is to be found in such a repository, be sure to mention this in your preface.

For more information on best practices in research data management, consult resources offered by the Library (in French only).

Body of the thesis or dissertation

Each of the sections (introduction, chapter, conclusion) in the body of the Master's or Doctoral thesis must start on a new page.

Bibliography

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies does not have a prescribed bibliographic style. You should choose a style based on the standards in your field of study.

Included papers

There are certain special rules to follow when including papers.

See the presentation rules for including papers

Presentation guidelines

In the event of a discrepancy between the French and English texts, the French version prevails.