LaTeX – Tips & Tricks

This page list a set of tips and trick for creating a thesis (BSc, MSc, and PhD) in LaTeX. There are tons of resources for writing LaTex code “out there” and the chat bots are super useful in helping writing LaTeX code. So this page main list the typical issues that I’ve seen almost all of my students are having.

  • Always use ~ when citing, keep citations to the end of a sentence, and keep citations together:
    • The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 280 million people worldwide live with depression~\cite{who_2023,NSDUH_2021}.
    • Always put the punctuation after the citation.
  • Always use the acronym package or the glossaries package to keep track of acronyms in the text:
    • \usepackage[printonlyused,nohyperlinks]{acronym}
      ...
      \chapter{Acronyms}
      \begin{acronym}[CUMACF]
      \acro {arb} [ARB] {angiotensin receptor blockers}
      ...
      \end{acronym}
  • If you are using a figure from a paper or a textbook in your thesis, always add a reference in the caption of the picture:
    • \caption{The \ac{UX} Design Cycle. Taken from~\cite{ux_book_2021}.}
    • If you put a figure or table in your thesis, it should always be referenced and used in the main text. If you don’t use or explain a figure or table, remove it.
  • Use figures proactively, i.e., introduce a figure as the first thing in a paragraph, and then use the figure in the textual explanation.
  • When you reference figures, tables, sections, chapters, appendices, etc. in the thesis, always use a \ref{...} to do so. This will insert a link in the text to follow when reading on screen.
    • Use the cleveref package for even more “clever” reference style.
  • Be careful about “forward references“. If a section needs to reference forward in the thesis – for example if you in the Methods section say that the evaluation methods are explained in the Study chapter – this is normally a warning sign. You don’t want the reader to jump back and forth in the thesis; s/he should be able to read it from start to end (This clearly does not apply for the Introduction chapter, which of course will explain to the reader what to expect in the rest of the thesis).