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Imperial College London

Ph.D. Thesis & M.Phil. Thesis Formatting Guidelines

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

Governing Body: Registry (Assessment Records Team) & Graduate School (London, UK)

Degree Scope:🎓 Ph.D. / Doctoralℹī¸ Master's / M.Tech. format requires departmental / DPGC confirmation unless a central handbook is cited
Official Handbook:
Theses for Imperial College Research Degrees: Guidance and notes on the submission, format and requirements of theses
View Official Handbook ↗
Paper Dimensions
A4 (210 mm × 297 mm)
Binding Margins
30 mm Left / 30 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: 30 mm
[Header]Page 1
[Front matter]
Right: 30 mm
Bottom: 25 mm
Left (Binding Gutter)
30mm
Right Margin
30mm
Top Margin
25mm
Bottom Margin
25mm
Margin Specification: Page content should be centred, so that margins are equal distant from the edge of page (Clause 4.3). Double or 1.5 line spacing.

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 RomanArialCalibriComputer Modern
Spacing Exceptions: Single spacing for indented quotations, footnotes, tables, and bibliography.

3. Technical & Archival Compliance

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

Institute ETD / library deposit
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: arabic counted
  2. 2
    Statement of OriginalityMandatory
    Pagination: arabic counted
    Requirement: Must declare work is author's own and disclose any GenAI tools or external collaboration.
  3. 3
    Copyright DeclarationMandatory
    Pagination: arabic counted
  4. 4
    AbstractMandatory
    Pagination: arabic counted
  5. 5
    AcknowledgmentsOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: arabic counted
  6. 6
    Table of ContentsMandatory
    Pagination: arabic counted
  7. 7
    List of FiguresOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: arabic counted
  8. 8
    List of TablesOptional / If Applicable
    Pagination: arabic counted

6. Academic Integrity, Similarity & AI Policy

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

Policy & Disclosure
Generative AI Policy
Disclosure Statement Required

Imperial College guidelines require transparent citation and disclosure of any generative AI assistance in the Statement of Originality.

Chapter Opening & Print Setup

Chapter start placement, top margin drops, single vs double-sided print, and paper weight

Layout
Printing Format
Single or Double-Sided

8. Institutional & Departmental Policies

Copyright Declaration:

Mandatory copyright declaration statement following the Statement of Originality.

Repository Deposit:

Final thesis deposit in Spiral repository in PDF/A format.

Institutional Policy: Continuous pagination in Arabic numerals from the title page through the entire thesis is standard at Imperial College.

Notice a discrepancy in this 2025 handbook?

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*ScholarSpec is a pre-submission formatting assistant. Output is calibrated to official university graduate handbooks.
Editorial Tutorials & Standards

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  • Clause 4.3: Page content centered with equal margins (30 mm left/right, 25 mm top/bottom).
  • Clause 4.4: Pages numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3...) starting from title page.
  • Final thesis submitted electronically via My Imperial / Spiral in PDF/A format.
  • Verified 2026-10-13 against primary sources: Imperial College London Registry Thesis Submission Checklist and Guidelines. Page content centered with equal margins (30 mm left/right, 25 mm top/bottom). Header/footer margins 12.5 mm. Continuous Arabic numerals from title page as page 1. Mandatory Statement of Originality and GenAI declaration.