RMIT University
Ph.D. Thesis Formatting Guidelines
Official layout specifications, binding margins, and document formatting requirements.
Governing Body: School of Graduate Research (SGR) (VIC, AU)
1. Page Setup & Geometry
Page dimensions, binding margins, and print/digital alignments
2. Typography & Spacing Hierarchy
Font selections, heading styles, line spacing, and paragraph indentation
3. Technical & Archival Compliance
ETD ProQuest repository requirements, table spanning, and vector DPI rules
Table captions: above.
Figure captions: below. Colour photography minimum 300 DPI.
Right-aligned equation numbers (chapter.seq). Preserves native MathML and Word equation blocks.
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
- 1Title PageMandatoryPagination:
suppressed counted - 2Candidate DeclarationMandatoryPagination:
suppressed counted - 3AcknowledgementsOptional / If ApplicablePagination:
roman visible - 4AbstractMandatoryPagination:
roman visible - 5Table of ContentsMandatoryPagination:
roman visible - 6List of FiguresOptional / If ApplicablePagination:
roman visible - 7List of TablesOptional / If ApplicablePagination:
roman visible
6. Academic Integrity, Similarity & AI Policy
Plagiarism threshold, similarity checking software, and Generative AI disclosure rules
Any use of Generative AI tools in research or thesis preparation must be explicitly declared and described within the mandatory candidate declaration in compliance with RMIT HDR policy.
8. Institutional & Departmental Policies
Mandatory Candidate Declaration certifying originality, ethics approval, and transparency regarding AI usage and third-party editing.
Official RMIT Title Page template format must be adhered to without altered branding.
Deposit in RMIT Research Repository.
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* Provisional ScholarSpec layout used where the cited handbook does not specify this value. Confirm with your thesis office before submission.
- Standard A4 paper layout. Margins: 25 mm on all sides (30 mm left margin recommended if printed).
- Body font must be clearly readable and no smaller than 10 pt (recommended 12 pt Times New Roman or 11 pt Arial).
- Generative AI usage must be transparently disclosed in the mandatory Candidate Declaration.
- Corrected 2026-10-13 against primary sources: Dead URLs replaced: formatting-your-thesis -> modes-of-submission-and-formatting; academic-integrity/generative-ai -> research-students/ai-research (HTTP 200: https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/my-course/research-students/ai-research). RMIT's HDR page states no margins, paper size, spacing or typeface; those values in our rule are unsupported (null them). The prescribed Word title-page template (DOC) was not inspected and may carry layout detail. Section order: title page, declaration, acknowledgements, statement of impact (candidates starting after 1 Jan 2023), TOC/lists, summary (<=1,000 words), main text, references, appendices.
- 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.