Bharathidasan University PhD thesis format

Which documents set the Bharathidasan thesis format?

Three documents on bdu.ac.in govern the format. You need all three:

• Ph.D. Regulations 2026. Clauses 9 and 10 cover the synopsis, the page limit, the number of copies, the language and the certificates. Clause 8.5 covers the publications you need first.
• Annexure III, Guidelines to Prepare Doctoral Thesis. This is the layout specification: structure, paper, margins, fonts, headings, tables, figures, equations and references.
• Annexures IV to VII (revised). Specimens of the title sheet, the Supervisor’s Certificate, the Candidate’s Declaration and the Plagiarism Certificate.

The rules are the same in university departments and in affiliated colleges and research institutes, except for the title sheet. Clause 10.1 also makes your supervisor responsible for a thesis “free from any sort of errors including language errors”, so expect a close reading before they sign.

What order do the pages go in?

Annexure III gives a “prescribed order” for the thesis. Follow it exactly, because the Research Section checks the certificates in sequence.

How the chapters should be organised

Annexure III is unusually direct about chapter structure. Chapter 1 is the Introduction and the last chapter is the Conclusions. The chapters in between present your results, “preferably each core objective” in its own chapter with a title that describes it. The guidelines tell you to avoid a chapter called “Analysis & Discussion”, because that caption describes a procedure rather than a theme. Put lengthy derivations, extended data and raw experimental observations in separate appendices.

In commerce, management and the social sciences, many supervisors still expect separate literature review and methodology chapters. The guidelines don’t forbid them. Agree the chapter plan with your supervisor, and tie each results chapter to one objective from your synopsis.

What goes on the title page and certificates?

Annexure IV (title sheet) has two versions. Both start with the thesis title, then “A thesis submitted to Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in [Subject]”, then your name, your reference number, and your supervisor’s name and designation.

• University departments: the university emblem comes below the supervisor’s details, followed by the department or school name, “Bharathidasan University”, the NAAC accreditation line, “Tiruchirappalli – 620 024, Tamil Nadu, India”, and the month and year.
• Colleges and institutes: the university emblem sits under the title, and your college or institute logo sits above the name and address of the college. There is no Bharathidasan address line.

Annexure V (Supervisor’s Certificate) is on the supervisor’s letterhead block, with an “applicable logo”. It certifies that the thesis is based on your work under their guidance, has not been submitted elsewhere, and that UGC and BDU academic-integrity principles have been followed.

Annexure VI (Candidate’s Declaration) is longer than most. You declare that the ideas and words of others are cited, that you have not “misrepresented or fabricated or falsified any idea/data/fact/source/image”, and that a violation is cause for disciplinary action. Read it before you sign it. It is a real undertaking.

Annexure VII (Certificate of Plagiarism Check) records the similarity percentage, the software used and the date of verification. You, your supervisor and the University Designated Authority sign it.

Copy the wording from the current annexure file, not from a senior’s thesis. The certificate and declaration texts were revised in late 2022, and older theses carry the earlier wording.

What are the margins, font and spacing?

Annexure III fixes most of the layout. The one setting it doesn’t fix is line spacing for tables, references and block quotations. Most scholars single-space those, but check with your supervisor.

A few things catch people out:

• Mirrored margins. Because the thesis is double-sided, the wider 30 mm margin swaps sides: left on odd pages, right on even pages. In Word, use Layout → Margins → Mirrored, with “Inside” 30 mm and “Outside” 20 mm. Set different odd and even headers as well.
• Odd-page chapter starts. Use “Odd page” section breaks in Word, or \cleardoublepage in LaTeX. Otherwise a chapter can open on a left-hand page and throw the headers out.
• Page numbers from the second page of each chapter. The first page of a chapter is counted but carries no printed number.
• 300 pages is a hard limit. It includes appendix, tables and figures. At 1.5 spacing and 12 pt that is enough for most theses, but long questionnaires and raw data tables add up. Move bulky data to the CD only if your supervisor and the Research Section agree.

How should tables, figures and references be formatted?

Annexure III sets these rules for tables, figures and equations:

• Place each table and figure immediately after it is first mentioned. Large ones can go on a separate page.
• Table number and title go above the table. Figure number and caption go below the figure.
• Number everything by chapter: Figure 1.3, Table 2.5, equation (3.1).
• Set equations with 6 pt spacing before and after.

References are less clear. Annexure III says in-text references are numbered, as [1], [2-5] or [1, 6]. It then says you may use “anyone of the standard styles” (APA, MLA, Harvard, Oxford, CSE, ACS or AIP) as long as you adhere to it strictly. APA, MLA and Harvard are author–date styles, so they don’t sit comfortably with numbered brackets. The guidelines also allow references at the end of each chapter or as a separate chapter.

Our reading is that the university cares most about consistency. Pick one style that your field’s journals use, agree it with your supervisor at the start, and don’t mix. Sciences usually go numbered (ACS, AIP or IEEE-like). Commerce and management usually go APA. If you are unsure how the styles differ, our citation styles comparison sets them side by side.

What binding and cover colour does Bharathidasan require?

The thesis is soft-bound, never hard-bound. Clause 10.1 of the 2026 Regulations asks for four copies “(soft binding)”. Annexure III says the cover must be white, with all lettering embossed in your faculty’s colour:

• Faculty of Arts: blue
• Faculty of Commerce: brown
• Faculty of Language: green
• Faculty of Management: grey
• Faculty of Science: maroon

The spine (“the bound side”) is coloured in the same faculty colour and embossed with the university emblem, your name, and the month and year of submission. Give your binder the faculty colour in writing.

What do you submit, and when?

Before the synopsis

Clause 8.5 requires at least two first-author research articles with your supervisor’s name, relevant to your research. The rules differ by faculty:

• Science, Engineering and Technology: both in Web of Science or Scopus.
• Arts, Languages, Commerce and Management: at least one in Web of Science, Scopus, DOAJ, ERIC or ABDC. The second can be in a peer-reviewed journal that meets the UGC suggestive parameters (Annexure I of the Regulations).
• Tamil, Sanskrit, Hindi, French and Arabic: two in peer-reviewed journals with at least ten years of archives and continuous publication.

Papers from affiliated colleges must carry the line “Affiliated to Bharathidasan University”. The journal must still be actively indexed when the Research Section verifies it. You need the Certificate for Research Publications from the Research Section before you submit the synopsis.

Pre-thesis presentation and synopsis

You give a pre-thesis submission presentation before the Doctoral Committee, faculty and research scholars, and fold their comments into the draft. For advice on the talk itself, read our guide to the pre-submission seminar. Within 15 days, submit a synopsis of 7 to 10 pages covering the title, the state of the art, the problem and objectives, results and discussion, and conclusion. Submit two copies with a PDF on CD, copies of your articles, and your supervisor’s sealed panel of examiners.

The thesis

• Submit within six months of the synopsis. After that, you redo the synopsis seminar and resubmit within a year, or your registration lapses.
• Submit four soft-bound copies in person, with one virus-free PDF of 20 MB or less on a CD. The print and PDF must be identical.
• Your supervisor (and co-supervisor, if any) signs the thesis, and the head of the department or institution forwards the submission form.
• Attach the Tamil Virtual Academy certificate. Send Tamil and English versions of your abstract and an index of key terms (கலைச்சொற்கள்) to the Tamil Virtual Academy on the Anna University campus, Chennai (tamilvu.org). A thesis written in Tamil needs only the Tamil version. Start this early, because it involves another office and its own turnaround time.

Similarity check

The Central Library checks the thesis on DrillBit. Clause 10.3 allows up to 10% similarity, excluding your own publications and the list of references. The Librarian certifies the result. That 10% line comes from the UGC’s 2018 regulations, which our plagiarism limits guide walks through.

Where the documents disagree

• Language. Clause 10.2 says the thesis is in English, and that Tamil needs a Departmental Research Committee recommendation at registration, “particularly in the discipline of History”. Clause 7.2.6 lets the Doctoral Committee recommend Tamil in any non-language subject, with the Vice-Chancellor’s approval. If you want to write in Tamil, raise it at registration and get the approval in writing.
• The submission form. The thesis submission form on the website is dated 2022. It mentions Turnitin evidence and a one-page abstract in English (plus Tamil for Tamil-language students). The 2026 Regulations name DrillBit. Where they differ, follow the Regulations and ask the Research Section.

Bharathidasan thesis checklist before submission

Go through this with your supervisor a week before you go to the binder. Most of these can’t be fixed once four copies are bound.

• The title sheet follows the right Annexure IV version: university department, or college/institute (which carries both the university emblem and your college logo).
• The pages run in the Annexure III order, from title sheet to Publications with Reprints.
• The thesis is printed double-sided on A4, 70 GSM white bond paper, with mirrored margins (30 mm on the binding side).
• Body text is Times New Roman 12 pt at 1.5 spacing. Chapter titles are 18 pt bold, sections 16 pt and sub-sections 14 pt.
• Every chapter starts on an odd page. Headers show the chapter number on even pages and the title on odd pages.
• The total is 300 pages or fewer, including appendix, tables and figures.
• The white soft-bound cover is embossed in your faculty colour, and the spine carries the emblem, your name, and the month and year.
• The DrillBit similarity is 10% or less (excluding your own publications and the reference list), and the Annexure VII certificate is signed by the Central Library.
• The Tamil Virtual Academy has approved your abstract and key-terms index, and its certificate is bound in.
• You have four soft-bound copies and one PDF of no more than 20 MB on CD, identical to the print copy.
• You are within six months of synopsis submission.

If you want someone else to set up the mirrored margins, headers and odd-page breaks in your file, our thesis formatting service works to the Annexure III specification. It changes layout only, not your content.