Comment numbers thesis

In our first year of data, 2008, the median length of a STEM thesis was 210 pages and 241 pages for non-STEM. However, since 2009, the median number of pages for a STEM thesis is below 200 pages and trending downwards towards 150 pages (in 2015 it was 159).

When it came to number of chapters, 604 theses had six, seven, or eight chapters; the seven-chapter thesis was the most common (n=229). There were 131 theses with five or fewer chapters (two chapters was the simplest thesis structure found) and 138 with ten or more chapters (20 chapters was the most complex).

Numbering. The first type of equation should be numbered consecutively (or chapter-based) through the whole thesis, whereas the second type can be either included in the running text if they are short and don’t break the flow of the sentence, or in a separate line without an equation number, if they are long and more complex.

Pages were counted from the first Arabic numeral to the final substantive chapter page and before the bibliography/reference list and any appendices. So our page count did not include the front sections (using Roman numerals) such as mandatory title page, abstract, table of contents, acknowledgements, preface, glossary etc.