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RICE

Rice University

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

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

Governing Body: Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies (GPS) (TX, US)

Degree Scope:🎓 Ph.D. / Doctoralℹī¸ Master's / M.Tech. format requires departmental / DPGC confirmation unless a central handbook is cited
Official Handbook:
Rice GPS Guidelines for Thesis Preparation
View Official Handbook ↗
Paper Dimensions
Letter (8.5 in × 11.0 in)
Binding Margins
1.5 in Left / 1 in Right
Standard Typography
Times New Roman (12pt)
Line Spacing
Double Spaced (2.0x)

1. Page Setup & Geometry

Page dimensions, binding margins, and print/digital alignments

Letter
Top: 1 in
Binding: 1.5 in
[Header]Page 1
[Front matter]
Right: 1 in
Bottom: 1 in
Left (Binding Gutter)
1.5in(3.81 cm)
Right Margin
1in(2.54 cm)
Top Margin
1in(2.54 cm)
Bottom Margin
1in(2.54 cm)
Margin Specification: Left margin 1.5 in recommended for binding (1.0 in minimum); top, bottom, and right margins 1.0 in.

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
Double Spaced (2.0x)
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
    Table of ContentsMandatory
    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

Rice GPS thesis guidelines require student attribution and disclosure of AI tools in methodology or acknowledgments.

Chapter Opening & Print Setup

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

Layout
Printing Format
Single-Sided

8. Institutional & Departmental Policies

Submission via thesis.rice.edu portal
Online Thesis Submission Form required for final approval
Signed Title Page and Original Approval of Candidacy form must be uploaded
Doctoral students must complete Survey of Earned Doctorates
Defense announcement required 14 days (Doctoral) or 7 days (Masters) prior to defense
Final submission within 6 months of defense
Institutional Policy: Deadlines for degree conferral (e.g., May 2026, August 2026) must be met.
Institutional Policy: Thesis must be in final form before Title Page is signed and submitted.
Institutional Policy: PDF format required for all thesis and administrative files.

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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  • Verified 2026-10-13 against primary sources: Rice University Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Thesis Format Guidelines mandate 1.5 in left margin, 1.0 in other margins, double or 1.5x spacing, and abstract max 350 words.