DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

DECCAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

GUIDELINES FOR PREPARATION OF DISSERTATION RE-

PORT

Prepared by M. A. Azeem, Asst. Professor

The following standard format shall be followed in preparation of the disser-
tation reports for submission at the Osmania University. The same format
shall also be used for softcopies to be submitted to the library.

1 Dissertation Format
1.1 Paper and size

The dissertation shall be printed on white bond paper, weight 70 GSM gram
or more per square meter. The size of the paper shall be standard A4; height
297mm, width 210mm.

1.2 Font and Page Fomat

The standard font shall be Times New Roman of 12 pts with 1.5 line spacing.
Single sided printing must be done. The page margins should be as follows:

Left margin 1.5

Right margin 1
Top margin 1
Top margin 1

1.3 Pagination

Page numbering in the dissertation shall be Hindu-Arabic numerals at the

center of the footer. The first page of Introduction chapter shall be given the
page number 1. The subsequent chapters should begin on a fresh page.

Pagination for pages before the Introduction chapter shall be in lower case
Roman numerals, e.g., iv

1.4 Paragraph Format

The first line of each paragraph may be indented by five characters or 12mm.
A candidate may, however, choose not to indent if (s)he has provided sufficient
paragraph separation. A paragraph should normally comprise more than one
line. All the paragraphs should be justified, i.e., text should be distributed
evenly between the margins.

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1.5 Chapter and Section format
1.5.1 Chapter

Each chapter shall begin on a fresh page. Chapter number (in Hindu-Arabic)
and title shall be printed at the center of the line in 6mm font size (18pt) in
bold face using both upper and lower case (all capitals should not be used). A
vertical gap of about 24pt shall be left between the chapter title and the first
paragraph.

1.5.2 Sections and Sub-sections

A chapter can be subdivided into sections and sub-sections so as to present

the content discretely. Sub-sub sections should not be used. For example, in
Chapter 2, Sections may start with 2.3, sub-sections may be numbered 2.3.1
but the sub-sub sections 2.3.1.1 should not be used. The section and sub-
section along with their numbers in 14pt and 12pt fonts, in bold face shall be
used.

To make a section after sub-sub section, the title of the section shall be writ-
ten in 12pt, bold, italics, and a colon (:) at the end. (E.g., Analysis Types:)

1.5.3 Table/Figure Format

The tables and figures should be numbered chapter-wise. For example, the
seventh figure in chapter 4 will bear the number Figure 4.7 or Fig 4.7.

Table number and title must be placed above the table while the figure num-
ber and caption will be located below the figure.

2 Structure of the Dissertation

2.1 Title Page

This shall be the first printed page of the thesis and shall contain the submis-
sion statement: The Dissertation Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements of the Degree, M.E/M.Tech., the name and Roll No. of the can-
didate, name of the Supervisor, Department, Institute and year of submission.

2.2 Certificate

This shall consist of the certification from the institution duly signed by the
Supervisor and Head of the Department.

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2.3 Evaluation sheet

This page should consist of the Dissertation Evaluation sheet as given by the
university.

2.4 Declaration

A declaration of academic honesty and integrity should be included next. The

declaration should start with the words I do hereby declare that.

2.5 Acknowledgements

This page should include all the persons to whom a candidate likes to
acknowledge.

*** All the above pages should NOT be numbered.

2.6 Abstract

A 500 word abstract shall highlight the important features of the dissertation.
It should be written in three paragraphs, the first one being introduction, fol-
lowed by the methodology and concluding with results and recommendations.
At the end, 3-4 keywords should be given. The abstract page should be num-
bered with roman numeral i.

2.7 List of Contents

The contents shall follow the Abstract and shall enlist the titles of the chap-
ters, section and subsection using decimal notation, as in the text, with cor-
responding page number against them, flushed to the right.

2.8 List of Figures and Tables

Two separate lists, first List of Figures, then List of Tables along with their
numbers and corresponding page numbers against them shall follow the con-
tents.

2.9 Abbreviations Notations and Nomenclature

A complete and comprehensive list of all abbreviations, notations and nomen-

clature including Greek alphabets with subscripts and superscripts shall be
provided after the list of tables and figures.

The pages from abstract to abbreviations shall be numbered using Roman

numerals, while the text starting from Introduction shall be Hindu-Arabic.

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3 Organisation of Dissertation
The dissertation report shall be presented in a number of chapters, starting
with Introduction and ending with Summary and Conclusions. Each of the
chapters should have a precise title, it should reflect the contents of the chap-
ter. The first section in all the chapters except Summary and conclusions
shall be named as General. For example, in Chapter 3, section 3.1 should
be named as General.

1.1 Introduction

The title of Chapter 1 shall be Introduction, it shall justify and highlight the
problem posed, define the topic and explain the need for the study, objectives
and scope of work presented in the dissertation. The last section of this chap-
ter should be Outline of Dissertation.

1.2 Literature Review

This shall normally form Chapter 2 and shall consist of three sections,
namely General, Overview and Critical Appraisal. Overview should include
previous research summaries and Critical Appraisal should present a critical
appraisal of the previous work published in the literature pertaining to the
topic of the investigation. The extent and emphasis of the chapter shall de-
pend on the nature of the investigation.

1.3 Report on present investigation

The reporting on the investigation shall be presented in one or more chapters

with appropriate chapter titles.

Due importance shall be given to experimental setups, procedures

adopted, techniques developed, methodologies developed and adopted.
While important derivations/formulae should normally be presented in
the text of these chapters, extensive and long treatments, copious de-
tails and tedious information, detailed results in tabular and graphical
forms may be presented in Appendices. Representative data in table
and figures may, however, be included in appropriate chapters.
Figures and tables should be presented immediately following their first
mention in the text.
Equations should form separate lines with appropriate paragraph sep-
aration above and below the equation line, with equation numbers
flushed to the right. The equations shall also be numbered chapter wise.
Every chapter after Chapter 2 shall end with a section titled Closure
which gives the summary of the respective chapter.

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1.4 Results and Discussions

This Chapter shall include an evaluation of the investigation carried out and
bring out the contributions from the study. The discussion shall logically lead
to inferences and conclusions as well as scope for possible further future
work.

1.5 Summary and Conclusions

This will be the final chapter of the thesis. It shall consist of four sections in
the order shown below:

Summary It should be written in two paragraphs, the first one dis-

cussing the methodology and the second one discussing the results.
Conclusions The conclusions derived from the analysis presented in
the Results and Discussions chapter shall be presented and clearly
enumerated. The conclusions should be presented point-wise.
Limitations The limitations of the present study shall be discussed,
stating each point separately.
Scope for Future Work This section should discuss about the scope
for future work in a paragraph.
1.6 References

The referencing should be done as per ASCE format of referencing.

1.7 Appendix

Detailed information, lengthy derivations, calculations etc. are to be presented

in the separate appendices, which shall be numbered alphabetically (e.g., Ap-
pendix A)

1.8 Publications

The candidates may also include reprints of his/her publications (if any) in
this section.

***
Nowhere in the report, a candidate should use full capitalisation of fonts
except for Title Page

***
Only bullets should be used for point-wise descriptions anywhere in the
report.

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 ASCE Referencing Format

(ASCE Referencing format downloaded from ascelibrary.org. Copyright ASCE.)

ASCE uses the author-date method for in-text references, whereby the source
reads as the last names of the authors, then the year (e.g., Smith 2004 or
Smith and Jones 2004). A References section must be included that lists all
references alphabetically by last name of the first author. References must be
published works only. Exceptions to this rule are theses, dissertations, and
in press articles, all of which are allowed in the References list. References
cited in dissertation report should be present in the reference list. Likewise,
all references included in the References section must be cited in the text.

Examples of reference formatting are below.

Books If a whole book is used (or pages here and there throughout the
book), page numbers need not be given. If no author is listed, titles should be
alphabetized. If a specific chapter is being used, the chapter title and inclusive
page numbers should be included. Reports must include the full institution
name and location.
Evans, G. M., and Furlong, J. C. (2003). Environmental biotechnology:
Theory and applications, Wiley, Chichester, U.K.
Moodys municipal and government manual. (1988). Moodys Investors
Service, New York.
Building Codes and Provisions Building codes, provisions, and standards
should be listed alphabetically by the name of the promulgating institution. If
a title and code number are given, the title should be in quotes, and the code
number in italics; if only a title is given, the title should be in italics.
ACI (American Concrete Institute). (1989). Building code requirement
for reinforced concrete. ACI 318-89, Farmington Hills, MI.
Building Officials and Code Administrators International (BOCA).
(1993). The BOCA national building code, Country Club Hills, IL.
CEN (European Committee for Standardization). (1992). Design of steel
structures, part 1.1. Eurocode 3, Brussels.
Electronic Materials

CD-ROMThe section, chapter, and page numbers should be provided if avail-

able:
Liggett, J. A., and Caughey, D. A. (1998). Fluid statistics. Fluid me-
chanics (CD-ROM), ASCE, Reston, VA, Section , Chapter , pp.

6
WebsiteThe following elements should be included: authors name (if
known); year of publication or last revision (if available); full title of the docu-
ment, in quotation marks; title of the complete work (if applicable), in italics;
full web address, enclosed within angle brackets; and date of the visit (if ap-
plicable), in parentheses. If the Web page shows no year of publication, the
year of the visit may be used in its place.
Arizona Dept. of Commerce. (2005). Community profile: Hualapai In-
dian Reservation. http://www.azcommerce/com/doclib/com-
mune/hualapai.pdf (Mar. 17, 2014).

Acquisition reform network. (1998). Arnet, http://www.arnet.gov

(Jan. 21, 2010).
Journal Articles The standard format for a paper published in a U.S.
journal is as follows:
Beskos, D. E. (1987). Boundary element methods in dynamic analysis.
Appl. Mech. Rev., 40(1), 123.
ASCE Journals ASCE no longer uses page numbers and has adopted a
new format for its references (including those older papers that still contain
page numbers). Use the following style for citation to an ASCE journal:

Authors. (Year of initial publication). Title of paper. Journal abbr., DOI,

CID/page range.
Irish, J. L., and Resio, D. T. (2013). Method for estimating future hur-
ricane flood probabilities and associated uncertainty. J. Waterway,
Port, Coastal, Ocean Eng., 10.1061/(ASCE)WW.19435460.0000157,
04013015.
ASCE Committee/Technical Reports ASCE committees, task forces, etc.
publish reports, proposed codes and standards, commentaries on codes and
standards, and so on. The committee is the author.
ASCE Task Force on Friction Factors in Open Channels. (1963). Fric-
tion factors in open channels. J. Hydraul. Div., 89(2), 97143.
Foreign Journals Authors may want to give an English translation of a
non-English-language title. Some non-English-language journals also have
titles and abstracts in English, with the research papers being in the foreign
language.
Glock, D. (1977). berkritisches Verhalten eines starr ummautelten
Kreisrohres bei Wasserdruck von aussen und Temperaturdehnung
[Critical behavior of liners of rigid pipeline under external water pres-
sure and thermal expansion]. Der Stahlbau, 7, 212217 (in German).
The original title should not be included if the language uses an alphabet
other than Latin (Cyrillic, CJK, etc.).

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In-Press Articles Articles that are in press (i.e., those that have been
accepted but have not yet been published) may be included in the References
list. Include the year of acceptance, if possible, or the current year as follows:
Dasgupta, G. (2008). Stiffness matrix from isoparametric closed form
shape functions using exact integration. J. Aerosp. Eng., in press.
Maps The following style is used for maps:
Brown, R. J. E. (1967). Permafrost in Canada, Map 1246A, Geol. Surv.
of Can., Ottawa, ON.
Smith, R. L., Bailey, R. A., and Ross, C. A. (1970). Geologic map of the
Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, U.S. Geol. Surv. Misc. Invest. Map, I-571.
Newspaper Articles The article author (if known), year in parentheses,
title of the article in quotes, name of the newspaper in italics, and sec-
tion/page numbers (if applicable) should be included for article citations:
Mossberg, W. S. (1993). Word isnt perfect but new WordPerfect is too
much for words. Wall Street Journal., Dec. 2, B1.
Proceedings The location of a conference or symposium is required only if
it is part of the title or proceedings. The name and location of the publisher is
required. If there is no publisher, the name of the location of the sponsor
are required. The name of the sponsor is sometimes part of the title of a con-
ference proceeding. Editor name(s) and volume number should be included if
available.
Eshenaur, S. R., Kulicki, J. M., and Mertz, D. R. (1991). Retrofitting
distortion-induced fatigue cracking of noncomposite steel girder-floor-
beam-stringer bridges. Proc., 8th Annual Int. Bridge Conf., Engineers
Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, 380388.
Karam, G. N. (1991). Effect of fiber volume on the strength properties
of short fiber reinforced cements with application to bending strength
of WFRC. Proc., 6th Technical. Conf. of the American Society for Compo-
sites, A. Smith, ed., Vol. 1, Technomics, Lancaster, PA, 548557.