M.Phil. in Materials Modelling: Thesis Guidelines

H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia

Preparation of Thesis

The ability to write a clear, concise and informative report on your work is a very important skill. A good report highlights the essential points and conclusions and is sufficiently detailed and clear to get across a lot of information, whilst being readable and interesting. It should be logically arranged into sections, each section having its own well organised substructure. Avoid ambiguity, repetition or vagueness, as well as lengthy discursive discussion. Look at a few publications in scientific journals and decide which are well presented, what makes them good, and what makes others bad.

Discuss the format for your report with your supervisor, although the exact structure is up to you, and different projects may be best presented in different ways. However, aim to incorporate the following:

Abstract

Nomenclature

Introduction

Experimental Details

You may wish to make raw data available. Summarise the results and/or present them graphically in the body of the report to illustrate trends, but repetition should be avoided. Pay attention to errors in your data.

Discussion

Conclusions

References

• square brackets [1], or
• superscripts ¹, or
• authors' names and year in brackets, e.g. Smith (1999), or Smith & Jones (1999), or Smith et al. (1999) where there are more than two authors.
• In the reference list you need to give the author’s (or authors’) name(s), the book or journal title, volume number ( boldor underlined), page numbers, year of publication and, for books, the publisher’s name and location, for papers, the paper title. Look at reference lists in other papers to see which look clearest.

Notes

• The supervisor will read only one draft.

• A careful and COMPLETE first draft will lead to rapid progress. You should get someone to proof read your work before submission to the supervisor. It is difficult for the supervisor to concentrate on the science if there are too many ordinary mistakes.

• Drafts should be submitted in double line spacing so that comments can be written with ease.

• Style and presentation are important but the contents really matter. Do not waste a disproportionate amount of time on word processing and graphics.

• All computer programs should be presented in the MAPformat for new subroutines.

Common Mistakes

1. There is no excuse for spelling mistakes - use SPELLCHECK .
2. Inconsistency of notation. Different papers may use differring terminology but when these are discussed in the thesis they must share a common terminology. Difficulties can be avoided by using a master nomenclature list.
3. There should be a gap after a full stop or a comma.
4. There are no spaces after an opening bracket or before a closing bracket
5. Try and include titles in the reference list.
6. Inadequate referencing.
7. Left quotation marks are not the same as right quotation in TeX.
8. There is a thin-space between numerals and units (e.g. 45 MPa). The units themselves are in roman font. Use strict SI convention. For example, there is a gap between MN and mm when writing MN mm. Use exponents: MN mm ^-1rather than MN/mm
9. Incorrect or unspecified units of concentration: Fe-10Ni % is not good enough. e.g., use Fe-10Ni wt%.
10. Experiments are reported in the past tense. For example:

    Length changes are analysed	WRONG
    Length changes were analysed	CORRECT

11. Abbreviations must be explained when first introduced (HAZ, TTT ?!).
12. Fig. 4.2 not Fig.4.2; Table 5.1 not Table.5.1
13. Terms like "Fig. 4.2" should be on the same line
14. "Compared with" rather than "Compared to".
15. Plural of Datum is Data. These data are excellent....
16. PROGRAMME of work as opposed to computer PROGRAM
17. The names of chemical elements do not begin with capitals unless at the beginning of a sentence.
18. All equations, tables, figures must be numbered.
19. Figures must not be excessively large, and should be included in the text rather than at the end of chapters. The font on scales and legends should be at least size 15 (Geneva) when the figure size is 1/3 of the page length.
20. It is wrong to write a volume fraction as 20%. The latter is a volume percent.
21. Diagrams and tables should be included in the text rather than at the end of a chapter.
22. Mathematical notation is in italics whether it occurs in the text or in equations. Note that terms such as log, exp, sin are nevertheless in roman font even when in equations.
23. When presenting the results of computer programs, it is important to specify completely the list of inputs used to generate the outputs. For example, it is dangerous to present a calculated phase diagram without specifying all the phases and components accounted for in the analysis.

Figures and Tables

The notation on figures must correspond to that used in the text. There must not be information on figures which is not discussed in the text. Units on diagrams must be SI. Old diagrams with non-SI units must be redrawn. Any diagrams obtained from the literature must be acknowledged even though they may have been redrawn, especially if the intellectual content of the diagram is not significantly modified.

Columns in tables should not be separated by vertical lines. The recommended practice is to omit such lines for clarity.

Hints

1. Appropriate use of references:
   • Use the Havard system to refer to articles in the text, as used in Progress in Materials Science article, 1985, vol. 29, pp. 321-386.
   • Try and put the reference at the end of the sentence in order to avoid breaking continuity.
   • Include article titles in your reference list.
   • Do not abbreviate Journal titles, unless using the international standard set of abbreviations (found in the Scientific Periodicals Library).
   • In the reference list, quote the page range (e.g., 321-386).
2. Ensure that all the work you have done is included in your thesis; negative results are also useful.
3. Do your writing as you progress, rather than leaving it to the last minute.
4. Micron markers should be placed on the micrographs, rather than on the page in the vicinity of the micrograph.
5. Avoid the use of jargon. Your work should be comprehensible to others in the Department. Examples of jargon: "recrystallisation region", "TMCP", "HAZ".