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Dissertations and Theses Services

Seton Hall University Basic Style Guidelines for Seton Hall Dissertations and Theses

All dissertations, theses, and final projects submitted to the Libraries must adhere to basic style guidelines. If your College, School, or Department do not have a dissertation handbook, please adhere to the following:

Citation Style

  • Use the citation style preferred by your discipline/department.

Font

  • 12-point Times New Roman is the preferred font.
  • Do not type your thesis/dissertation title in all caps (e.g., YOUR TITLE SHOULD NOT LOOK LIKE THIS). Further, do not type your title in sentence case (e.g., Your title should not look like this). Instead, type your title in title case (e.g., Your Title Should Look Like This).

Page Numbering

  • All pages before Chapter 1 (or equivalent) are numbered continuously using lower-case Roman numerals starting with Roman Numeral "ii" (not "i").
  • Roman numerals start on the copyright page; this is the first page after the title page.
  • These page numbers should be placed at the bottom-center of each page. 
    • Note the title page is not given a page number.
  • All pages including and after the first page of Chapter 1 (or equivalent), including the main body of the paper, references, and appendices are numbered continuously using Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3...), starting from the number "1".  
    • These page numbers should also be placed at the bottom-center of each page.

Page Formatting/Margins

  • All four margins of the page must be at least one inch.
  • All material, including figures, tables, footnotes/endnotes, and images, must appear within the margins of the manuscript.
    • If necessary, you can rotate page(s) into landscape to fit materials within the margins.
  • Text is double-spaced unless otherwise specified by your citation style when using blockquotes, writing notes for figures/tables, etc.

Guidance for the production of final copy should be centralized in each College or School and not detailed to staff or secretarial-level personnel. That central person should meet annually with designated Library personnel for updated information on processes, copyright issues (refer to the Provost’s copyright web pages), and guidance.