Format of HKU ETDs
In preparing their printed theses and dissertations, students should follow the guidelines and manuals as specified by the HKU Graduate School, and/or the student's own faculty or department. Please refer to the manual prepared by the HKU Graduate School, Preparing and submitting your thesis: a guide for MPhil and PhD students. Students will in all likelihood use a word processor to produce a printed copy of their theses. The computer file used for this, can then be converted to an ETD. This conversion process is discussed under How to Create an ETD.
Adobe PDF Format
Students should submit ONE file in text-embedded searchable Adobe PDF (portable document format) holding the entire thesis. If students have reason to submit more than one file, please check with the HKU Libraries at libetd@hku.hk. PDF files can be created from different software packages, such as:
- MS Word version 2000 or later (Windows)
- MS Word version 2001 or later (Mac)
- Pages (Mac)
- Tex/LaTeX
Searchable PDF files enable fulltext indexing which facilitates web retrieval. PDF format has been chosen because of its wide acceptance worldwide, its ease of creation and use, and its 'portability' or compatibility with different platforms, such as Windows, Mac and Unix. Please note that scanned copy of a thesis is not acceptable, as such image files even upon conversion to PDF are not searchable.
Accompanying multi-media files
Besides the text-embedded PDF file, students may embed multi-media files in their theses. Acceptable file types are listed below. If embedding in the PDF is not possible, links from within the PDF to these outside objects can be done.
| Images | Video | Audio |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Files in un-acceptable or corrupted formats will have to be re-submitted. To check with the Libraries, please contact libetd@hku.hk.