A master’s thesis must be formatted in the following order:
- Title page
- Table of contents
- List of abbreviations (if applicable)
- Introduction
- Main body (content of the thesis, divided into chapters)
- Conclusion
- References
- Appendices
- Summary (in Russian and English)
Title Page:
The first page of the thesis must be formatted according to the prescribed template (an example is provided in the appendix).
Table of Contents:
All chapters, sub-chapters, and sections of the thesis structure must be listed, indicating the page numbers where each section begins.
Introduction:
The introduction should include the relevance of the topic, the purpose and objectives of the research, the object and methodology of the study, the novelty and practical significance of the research, the structure of the work, and information on its approbation.
Chapter I:
This chapter presents a literature review, analyzing theoretical, practical, and methodological aspects of the problem as reflected in the existing literature.
Chapter II:
This chapter should describe the object and methods of the research.
Subsequent Chapters:
These chapters focus on specific aspects of the identified problem, including analysis of the conducted research, comparative evaluations, substantiated discussions, and interpretations of results.
The main part of the thesis may consist of Chapters III–V depending on the topic.
Conclusion:
This section should summarize the discussions and analyses conducted in the thesis and provide a clear interpretation of specific results.
Recommendations and Suggestions:
May be included in the thesis, provided they offer a consistent and specific solution to the problem addressed.
References:
A list of all sources cited in the thesis should be compiled alphabetically, following the order: Azerbaijani, Turkish, Russian, English, French, Arabic, etc. They should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals and listed in their original language.
Appendices:
Supplementary materials that are not included in the main content but are relevant to the research. Appendices should not exceed 15% of the total volume of the thesis.
Summary:
A brief summary of the thesis. If the thesis is written in Azerbaijani, the summary must be provided in Russian (резюме) and English (summary). If written in Russian, the summary should be in Azerbaijani and English. If written in English, the summary should be in Azerbaijani (xülasə) and Russian, not exceeding one page per language.
Formatting Requirements:
The thesis should be typed on a computer using Az-Times Lat-14 or Times New Roman–14 for Azerbaijani; Times New Roman–14 for Russian and English. The paper size should be A4, printed on one side, with the following margins: left – 30 mm, right – 10 mm, top and bottom – 20 mm. Each line should contain at least 60–65 characters, and each page should have 29–31 lines. All fonts, characters, and symbols must be clear and consistent in darkness. The text density in the appendices should be similar to that of the main text. The volume of the thesis must be no less than 50 pages and no more than 75 pages.
Text Structure:
The main text must be divided into chapters, sub-chapters, and sections. Chapter titles should be centered and written in uppercase; sub-chapter titles should start from the paragraph and be written in title case (only the first word capitalized). Words in headings should not be hyphenated across lines, and no period should be placed at the end unless the title contains two sentences, in which case they should be separated by a period.
Headings like “TABLE OF CONTENTS”, “INTRODUCTION”, “CONCLUSION”, “REFERENCES”, “APPENDICES” must be used as structural section titles. A double line space should be maintained between chapters, sub-chapters, and the text that follows. Underlining of headings is not permitted. Each chapter must begin on a new page. Pages are numbered using Arabic numerals. The title page is included in the numbering but does not display a number. The next page should start with number “2”, and page numbers must appear at the top right corner of each page.
Chapters are numbered using Roman numerals (e.g., CHAPTER I). The Table of Contents, Introduction, and Conclusion are not numbered. Sub-chapters use a decimal numbering format (e.g., 3.2 for the second sub-chapter of Chapter III). Sections within sub-chapters are numbered sequentially (e.g., 3.2.1).
Illustrations (tables, drawings, diagrams, graphs) placed on separate pages should also be numbered as part of the thesis. Larger-than-A4 format materials (A3) count as one page and should be placed at the end of the thesis in the order they are referenced in the text. Tables and illustrations must be clearly labeled, and all explanatory notes must be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals.
Sources must be listed alphabetically and numbered consecutively. Priority should be given to literature from the last 5–10 years. Bibliographic descriptions should follow proper citation formats depending on the type of source. For books (monographs, textbooks), the author’s surname and initials are used if there are up to four authors. For more than four authors, the title of the work is used.
Articles:
The bibliographic citation of an article includes two parts: (1) article information and (2) publication details, separated by a double slash – “//” (with spacing before and after).
Conference proceedings and collections:
Bibliographic descriptions are in two parts separated by a single slash – “/” (also spaced before and after).
Dissertation References:
Should include the author’s surname, initials, title of the dissertation, followed by the academic degree pursued, city, year of publication, and page count. For abstracts, add the word “abstract”.
Footnotes:
Footnotes are not recommended in the text.
Tables and Figures:
Quantitative data should be presented in tables. Each table must have a title starting with “Table” in uppercase. Do not underline the title. Tables and figures can also be in A3 format. If more than one table or figure is used, they must be numbered according to the chapter (e.g., Table 3.2).
Thesis Abstract (Referat):
The student must prepare a 2-page abstract summarizing the content of the thesis to defend it. It should include the relevance, objectives, novelty, practical significance, chapter summaries, findings, structure, approbation, recommendations, and suggestions. The abstract should be in the same language as the thesis. In exceptional cases, it may be written in a language different from that of the thesis (e.g., English, German).