Library & Cultural Services: Overleaf for LaTeX Theses & Dissertations: Home

How to sign up

If you already have an account you can link this with the subscription or you can create a new account.

Overleaf is a collaborative, online LaTeX editor and scientific writing and publishing tool. It's features include real-time track changes, unlimited collaborators, and full document history. It is designed to make the process of writing, editing and producing your research papers and project reports much quicker. Overleaf can also be linked to other services to best fit into your workflow.

Managing References

BibTeX is a file format used for lists of references for LaTeX documents. Many citation management tools support the ability to export and import lists of references in .bib format. Some reference management tools can generate BibTeX files of your library or folders for use in your LaTeX documents.

LaTeX on Wikibooks has a Bibliography Management page.

Find list of BibTeX styles available on Overleaf here

View a video tutorial on how to include a bibliography using BibTeX here

Collaborate with Overleaf

Collaboration tools

One version of your project accessible to collaborators via a shared link or email invitation
Easily select the level of access for collaborators (view, edit, or owner access)
Real-time commenting speeds up the review process
Tracked changes and full history view help to see contributions from collaborators
Labels help to organize and compare different versions
Chat in real time with collaborators right within the project

Getting started with your thesis or dissertation

How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard thesis template from the Overleaf Gallery.

You can upload your own thesis template to the Overleaf Gallery if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files or you may find your university's thesis template already in the Overleaf Gallery.

This video assumes you've used LaTeX before and are familiar with the standard commands (see our other tutorial videos if not), and focuses on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.