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Thesis

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)

Writing a thesis

Writing a thesis is a requirement to obtain a degree of doctor or licentiate. It can be either a compilation thesis or a monograph thesis. It must be written in English, and must contain an English abstract and a Swedish summary. KTH's Guideline on Third-Cycle Studies  contains general quality requirements for doctoral theses and licentiate theses. Specific quality requirements are set out in the general syllabus for each third-cycle subject .

Templates and covers

It is recommended, but not mandatory, to use KTH's official templates (Word and LaTeX/Overleaf): Thesis templates

A thesis must exhibit a standardised appearance in line with KTH's Brand guidelines . The cover, title page and the following page with book information will be produced by the printing company US-AB.

To avoid common printing issues with LaTeX-generated PDFs:

  • Make sure the xcolor package is used to ensure proper black text: \usepackage[cmyk]{xcolor}
  • Do not use transparency or PNG format in any image.

If you are unsure which subject to state on the cover page, please contact doctoral-education-support@eecs.kth.se .

Guidance for the kappa in doctoral and licentiate theses

The following document contains guidance about the "kappa", the comprehensive summary in a compilation thesis and the framing sections (e.g., introduction, conclusions, and future work) of a monograph thesis.

EECS Kappa Guidance (pdf 60 kB)

Use of Generative AI

It is now required at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) to include a formal declaration on the use or non-use of Generative AI in the doctoral or licentiate thesis.

Generative AI tools are increasingly being used in academic practice, from scoping research areas, ideating on research questions, identifying new and valuable literature, generating data and materials, and, most commonly, supporting academic writing. Generative AI can help improve language, grammar, and flow in the text without changing the actual content, or to manage references. These tools provide a variety of support and capacity for research and can help a doctoral student fulfill the learning requirements of their PhD studies. However, they can also introduce new challenges and require additional skills to use responsibly and effectively, ensuring appropriate professional and ethical practice and integrity, including good citation practices, verification of evidence, quality management, and authorship of academic texts.

We strongly suggest that students who use or intend to use Generative AI tools in their PhD research discuss this with their supervisors and explore the guidelines and best practices within their discipline. The use of Generative AI should be discussed as early as possible in the PhD studies.

In order to ensure transparent use of Generative AI in the PhD research process, the EECS school and the doctoral programmes mandate that the use of Generative AI be declared in the thesis. Even if Generative AI is not used, a declaration should be included in the thesis. If AI-generated information is used, it should be declared in the thesis (before the reference list) specifying exactly how AI was used, e.g., to generate ideas to improve content, get feedback on text structure, or rewrite text, etc., and which specific AI tool was used.

Relevant Links

Completing a thesis

A completed thesis must be given an TRITA and ISBN number. This is requested when applying for a public defence of doctoral thesis  or a licentiate thesis seminar .

A completed thesis must be uploaded in DiVA and printed using the print office US-AB . This is generally done a few weeks after having applied for a defence or seminar. Make sure you follow the given checklists in the links above.

Printing a thesis

Printing is an integral part of the process for Public defense of a doctoral thesis  and Licentiate seminar .

Printing must be done by US-AB . The cover, title page and the following page with book information will be produced by the printing company US-AB. Read more about printing here . The principal supervisor's invoice reference are often used: EXAMPLE KTHEECS (replace EXAMPLE with his/her reference). Keep in mind that it may take a few days to receive a test print, and another few days to receive all printed copies, so maintain good communication with US-AB to meet the set deadline.