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Dalhousie University

Ph.D. Thesis & Master's Thesis Formatting Guidelines

Official layout specifications, binding margins, and document formatting requirements.

Governing Body: Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) (NS, CA)

Degree Scope:🎓 Ph.D. / Doctoralℹī¸ Master's / M.Tech. format requires departmental / DPGC confirmation unless a central handbook is cited
Official Handbook:
Dalhousie Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) Thesis Format Guidelines
View Official Handbook ↗
Paper Dimensions
A4 (210 mm × 297 mm)*
Binding Margins
25 mm Left / 25 mm Right*
Standard Typography
Times New Roman (12pt)*
Line Spacing
1.5x*

1. Page Setup & Geometry

Page dimensions, binding margins, and print/digital alignments

A4*
Top: 25 mm*
Binding: 25 mm*
[Header]Page 1
[Front matter]
Right: 25 mm*
Bottom: 25 mm*
Left (Binding Gutter)
25mm*
Right Margin
25mm*
Top Margin
25mm*
Bottom Margin
25mm*

2. Typography & Spacing Hierarchy

Font selections, heading styles, line spacing, and paragraph indentation

Times New Roman*
Body Font
Times New Roman*
Font Size
12pt*
Line Spacing
1.5x*
Paragraph Indent
0.5 in*
Approved Typefaces:Times New RomanArialCalibri
Spacing Exceptions: Single-space block quotes, footnotes, tables, and bibliography items.

3. Technical & Archival Compliance

ETD ProQuest repository requirements, table spanning, and vector DPI rules

ETD / ProQuest Ready
Tables Layout

Table captions: above.

Figures & Graphics

Figure captions: below. Colour photography minimum 300 DPI.

Math & Formulae

Right-aligned equation numbers (chapter.seq). Preserves native MathML and Word equation blocks.

Archival Preservation

Library ETD guideline: PDF/A-1b (Note: ScholarSpec formats submission-ready Word .docx documents; export to PDF/A upon final committee approval).

4. Preliminary Pages Checklist & Order

Strict graduate school ordering, title page numbering suppression, and Roman pagination

Mandatory Sequence
  1. 1
    Title PageMandatory
    Pagination: suppressed counted
  2. 2
    AbstractMandatory
    Pagination: roman visible
  3. 3
    AcknowledgementsOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: roman visible
  4. 4
    Table of ContentsMandatory
    Pagination: roman visible
  5. 5
    List of TablesOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: roman visible
  6. 6
    List of FiguresOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: roman visible

6. Academic Integrity, Similarity & AI Policy

Plagiarism threshold, similarity checking software, and Generative AI disclosure rules

Policy & Disclosure
Generative AI Policy
Disclosure Statement Required

Dalhousie Statement on Intellectual Honesty and Faculty of Graduate Studies integrity guidelines.

8. Institutional & Departmental Policies

Dalhousie Faculty of Graduate Studies requires approximately 1.5-inch left margin for potential physical binding.
Electronic thesis submission to DalSpace requires Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Non-Exclusive License and Dalhousie Theses Licence agreement.

Notice a discrepancy in this 2026 handbook?

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*ScholarSpec is a pre-submission formatting assistant. Output is calibrated to official university graduate handbooks.
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* Provisional ScholarSpec layout used where the cited handbook does not specify this value. Confirm with your thesis office before submission.

  • FGS thesis regulations require approximately 1.5 in left margin for binding allowance, with 1.0 in on top, bottom, and right.
  • Any generative AI tool usage must be declared and documented in front matter (preface/acknowledgements) in accordance with Dalhousie intellectual honesty guidelines.
  • Downgraded to partial 2026-10-13: the public official sources cited here state no paper size, margins, spacing or typeface (the formal guide is behind a login or set by faculty/school). Geometry is left null rather than guessed.