Captions

All figures and tables must be captioned and numbered. As a rule, tables have headings, while figures or diagrams are provided with captions. These captions must be self-explanatory, i.e., each figure must be understandable from its caption without having to read the surrounding text. Reference all figures and tables in the text. Figures and tables without references in the text must not occur. Make sure that the caption is on the same page as the figure.

Ensure that the font size of the text in the figure resp. in the table is sufficiently large. For the figure itself, the principle applies: Often less is more – the essential content should be shown large and clearly. Therefore, crop figures appropriately if necessary.

Typical mistakes

• Low-quality mobile phone photos and poor scans are used. Instead, create clean, simple figures.
• Figure captions are missing or not self-explanatory.
• A large figure shows an important detail that is hardly visible. Rather crop the image and scale the essential detail larger. Always make sure that the figure quality is sufficient so that it does not become pixelated.

Frequently asked questions

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Printing, Binding, and Submitting Your Thesis

Look for a print shop or copy shop in good time. Pay attention to possible bindings. Clarify the required format and in what form you can bring the file (e.g. USB stick). Find out how long the printing will take and when the print shop is open. Check whether, and if so, how a title …

• paper
• print
• submission
• thesis

Faculties: AC, AMP, AR, BI, BW, D, EFI, IN, MB/VS, SOH, SW, VT, WT

• Citing & Layout
,
• Organization & Motivation

Contributors: Autorengruppe Leitfaden efi, Maria Noll, Schreibzentrum, Dzifa Vode, Dennis Christoph Wolff

Citing Scientific Articles

Using scientific articles Scientific articles are published in academic journals. Therefore, they have a minimum level of verified quality, e.g. through double peer-review procedures. So-called review articles offer a good introduction and overview of a thesis topic, and original articles present specific research findings on a topic. Scientific articles are particularly suitable for finding and …

• citation
• journals
• Literature
• source
• topic

Faculties: AC, AMP, AR, BI, BW, D, EFI, IN, MB/VS, SOH, SW, VT, WT

• Citing & Layout

Contributors: Lehmann, Günter (2022): Publizieren - aber wie? Verfassen und Veröffentlichen von Fachartikeln und wissenschaftlichen Ergebnissen. 3. überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Tübingen: UTB (UTB, 5978); Maria Noll, Schreibzentrum, Dzifa Vode

This article was published in September 2025 and last updated in November 2024.