ETthesis

ETthesis is a LaTeX class and template for academic theses and documents prepared at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at Paderborn University, Germany.

Contents

• etthesis.cls: Document class file, an extension to scrbook. Provides all structure, formatting and processing.
• thesis.tex: Main file of the exemplary document.
• custom.sty: Local package for user customization. Contents are suggestions, not required for the class to work.
• thesis.bib: Bibliography file. Multiple source files are supported.
• Files in frontmatter, mainmatter, and backmatter: Exemplary content with recommended formatting, e.g. for lists of symbols.

Features

• Support for different document types
  • Student theses (Bachelor's, Master's)
  • Doctoral theses
  • Student projects and similar ("Projektarbeit", "Studienarbeit")
  • Generic reports (non-thesis)
• English and German language variants
• Support for different document states, e.g. "Prüfexemplar" and "Belegexemplar" for doctoral theses
• Compliance with university, faculty and work group requirements (no guarantees though)
• Metadata (author name, thesis title etc.) centrally defined in main document
• Page layout, fonts etc. according to typographical standards
• Configurable document structure:
  • Title page
  • Problem statement (default for student theses)
  • Preface (default for accepted doctoral theses)
  • Abstract (german and/or english)
  • Table of Contents
  • List of figures
  • List of tables
  • List of abbreviations and symbols
  • (Main content)
  • Bibliography
  • Appendices (if any)
  • CV (for submission variant of doctoral theses)
  • Own publications (for submission variant of doctoral theses)
  • Affirmation of own independent work (default for student theses)
• Common packages already included, e.g.
  • babel
  • biblatex
  • booktabs
  • hyperref
  • longtable
  • microtype
  • minted (optional)
• Custom BibLaTeX entry type @norm for citing norms and standards.
  • Supported fields: type, number, title, year, publisher
  • See thesis.bib for an example

Class options

The ETthesis document class supports the following options, which can be given via:

 \documentclass[option1=value1, option2=value2]{etthesis}

• lang: Template language:
  • german: German version [default]
  • english: English version
• doctype: Document type:
  • bachelors: Bachelor's thesis [default]
  • dring: Doctoral thesis (Dr.-Ing.)
  • drrernat: Doctoral thesis (Dr. rer. nat.)
  • masters: Master's thesis (M.Sc.)
  • project: Student project ("Projektarbeit")
  • report: Generic report
  • sa: "Studienarbeit"
• docstate: Document publication state:
  • preliminary: Like submission, but without the official-looking title page.
  • submission: Typeset for submission / grading, e.g. with 1.5x line spacing by default. For doctoral theses, typeset "Prüfexemplar" (see above for details). [default]
  • accepted: Typeset for print / publication, e.g. with single line spacing. For doctoral theses, typeset "Belegexemplar" (see above for details).
• linespacing: When to use 1.5x line spacing in the document:
  • auto: Use 1.5x line spacing for all submission documents and single spacing for accepted documents.
  • single: Use single line spacing.
  • onehalf: Use 1.5x line spacing.
• paperformat: Which paper format to use:
  • a4: Use DIN A4 paper format with 12pt font size. [default]
  • a4onesided: Use DIN A4 paper format with 12pt font size, one-sided layout, and no binding correction. Suggested for digital submission.
  • a5: Use DIN A5 paper format with 10pt font size for a more compact layout.
• preface: Whether to display the preface:
  • auto: Include for accepted doctoral theses only. [default]
  • always: Enable preface.
  • never: Disable preface.
• problem: Whether to display the problem statement:
  • auto: Include for student theses only. [default]
  • always: Enable problem statement.
  • never: Disable problem statement.
• abstracts: Whether to display the abstract(s):
  • auto: Include german and english abstract for doctoral theses, none for reports and only an abstract in the document's language for all other document types. [default]
  • one: Enable only the abstract in the document's language.
  • both: Enable both the german and english abstract.
  • none: Disable abstracts.
• affirmation: Whether to display the affirmation:
  • auto: Include for student theses only. [default]
  • always: Enable affirmation.
  • never: Disable affirmation.
• singlecitelabel: Toggle cite label format for multi-author sources.
  • false: Use up to three author's initials in label. For Mustermann and Doe, set [MD18]. [default]
  • true: Always use only the first author's name in label. For Mustermann and Doe, set [Mus18].
• useminted: Toggle package usage for minted.
  • false: Do not include minted, e.g. when using listings instead. [default]
  • true: Automatically include minted package.

Using with Git

If you use git to track changes in your thesis (which you should!), the following workflow is recommended:

1. (Optional) Create remote repository

2. Clone or create local repository

   • When using a remote repository as per Step 1, create a local clone:

     git clone https://YOUR.GIT.SERVER/git/YOUR_NAME/YOUR_REPO.git
     

   • Otherwise, create a new repository:

     git init
     

3. Add the thesis template as an alternate remote:

   git remote add template https://github.com/ei-upb/ETthesis.git
   

4. Pull the template:

   git pull template master
   

Now, you can start with a fresh template, with the following behaviour:

• Adding commits will add them to your own master.
• Pushing your changes with git push will push them to your own remote (not the template).
• Calling git pull template master again will update the template.
• Updating the template will not overwrite your local changes.
• As long as you do not change core files like etthesis.cls, no merge conflicts should occur.