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ETD 2008 . THE USE OF TEMPLATES TO CREATE STRUCTURED ELECTRONIC DISSERTATIONS IN THE BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES FIELD. INTRODUCTION.
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ETD 2008 THE USE OF TEMPLATES TO CREATE STRUCTURED ELECTRONIC DISSERTATIONS IN THE BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES FIELD
INTRODUCTION • The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UTMB offers a curriculum that trains Ph.D. level graduate students to become expert and accomplished scientists who are fully competitive for a wide variety of careers. • The curriculum emphasizes critical analysis and creativity through advanced course work and seminars. • This allows students to participate in research of extraordinary diversity and strength in the areas of Biomedical Sciences.
PROGRAMS Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Experimental Pathology Cell Biology Microbiology Preventive Medicine Pharmacology and Toxicology Medical Humanities Nursing
FACTS AND FIGURES • Total Number of students enrolled = 377 • Total Number of Theses and Dissertations received per year =80 • Total Number of students who used the provided templates in 2007 = 74 • Total Number of students who did not use the provided templates in 2007 = 6
ABOUT TEMPLATES • A set of word processing files designed to assist students in writing their dissertations. • Divided into ‘Front Matter’, ‘Chapter’ and ‘Back Matter’ templates. • Contains formatting, style, boilerplate text, headers, footers, macros, preset margins, autotext entries, toolbars etc • Contains embedded instructions within templates.
WHY TEMPLATES? • We deal with students in the specialized field of Biomedical Sciences. • Over the years, it has been noted that everyone ends up writing dissertations in a uniform format. • No one seemed to have gotten creative despite being nudged to do so. • Students want to know exactly how to format their dissertations. • Easy solution: offer them templates so they can worry about content and leave formatting up to the templates
BENEFITS • Saves students significant amount of time in writing their dissertations. • Allows students to focus on the content of their dissertation rather than worry about the formatting. • Is compatible with bibliographical software like ‘Reference Manager’ and ‘EndNote’ so they do not have to manually cite references.
BENEFITS • Converts effortlessly to PDF • Converts hyperlinks within Table of Contents, List of Figures, List of Tables to PDF bookmarks and makes ETD easy to read electronically. • The embedded instructions within the template makes it easy for students to learn tips and tricks to use the templates effectively.
TEMPLATE FEATURES • Templates have predefined styles. Eg: • Chapter Title: Major Section (if any, Heading 1,h1 style: TOC 1) • Heading 3: Heading 3,h3 style: TOC 3 • Heading 4: Heading 4,h4 style: TOC 4 • Heading 5: Heading 5,h5 style: TOC 5 • Heading 7: Figure 2: Schematic of AngII production and its actions. • Heading 8: Table 1: Listing of various causes of ARDS 5. • Heading 9: Illustration 3: Replication of C6/36-Adapted cloned DENV-2 in Vero cells. (a) C6/36 - adapted sylvatic P8-1407 DENV-2. (b) C6/36 - adapted endemic IQT- 1950 DENV-2.
TEMPLATE FEATURES • Builds ‘Table of Contents’ with hyperlinked page numbers for entire dissertation from predefined styles. This can be done in less than 30 seconds. • Builds ‘List of Figures’, ‘List of Tables’ and ‘List of Illustrations’ from predefined heading (7,8,9) styles. This can be done in less than 20 seconds. • Includes section/continuous breaks that makes page number formatting effortless (eg: roman numerals where needed and Arabic where needed).
TEMPLATE FEATURES • Preset margins, line spacing and paragraph alignment. • Communicates with Bibliographical software like EndNote and Reference Manager for citation of references. • Contains macro to effortless convert file to PDF (required format of final submission)
SUPPORT • Provide students with a set of guidelines with step by step instructions on how to use the templates. • Provide direct assistance to anyone having template issues. • Conduct technical workshop to demonstrate use of templates.
FUTURE PLANS • Provide students with a set of templates in LaTeX. • LaTeX – powerful typesetting system used for producing scientific and mathematical documents of high typographic quality. • Improve current templates. • Conduct technical workshops more often.