Thesis acknowledgements, dedication and front matter

The front matter of a thesis is everything before chapter one: title page, declarations, copyright notice, abstract, dedication, acknowledgements, contents and lists. It is written last, and it is where a thesis most often breaks a rule nobody read, because every university orders and numbers these pages its own way.

This guide, published by EdCitation, sets out each part from six universities' own thesis regulations and formatting guides, read on 26 September 2026: University College London (UCL) and Edinburgh in the UK, Michigan in the US, Waterloo in Canada, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia and the University of Hong Kong (HKU). The abstract has guides of its own, the dissertation abstract and how to write an abstract, and the last-week checklist is in final checks before submitting a thesis.

EdCitation never writes any part of a thesis, acknowledgements included. What it does here is read your own regulations: paste the front-matter section into Check your paper and it comes back as a checklist, each rule beside the sentence it came from, free.

What goes in the front matter of a thesis, and in what order?

There is no single order: each university lists its own, and the six read here disagree on nearly every page. The title page comes first everywhere except HKU.

Where the abstract goes

Anywhere from first to last. The University of Hong Kong (n.d.) binds the abstract in front of the title page, under a set heading. UCL puts it after the declaration; Waterloo after the declaration and any statement of contributions; Edinburgh after the title page, beside a lay summary. The University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School (n.d.) puts it last, the page before chapter one. UNSW takes the abstract online at submission, not in the thesis.

Roman or Arabic page numbers

Michigan and Waterloo number the front matter in lower-case Roman numerals and start Arabic 1 at chapter one; Michigan counts nothing before its copyright page, while the University of Waterloo Library (n.d.) counts the title page as i without printing it. UCL instead runs one Arabic sequence from the title page, blank pages included (University College London Doctoral School, n.d.).

What must a thesis title page say?

Exactly what your university lists, in its layout. UCL asks for four things: the approved title, your registered name, "UCL" and the degree. Edinburgh puts the title and your name at the top, and the degree, the university and the year of presentation at the foot; a resubmitted thesis shows the year of resubmission (University of Edinburgh, 2023b). UNSW adds its logo, the faculty and school, and the month of submission.

Michigan is the most prescriptive: set wording with fixed line breaks, the year the degree is conferred rather than the year the work was finished, and the committee listed chair first (University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School, 2023).

What goes in a declaration of originality?

A statement that the work is yours, has not been submitted for another degree, and shows where others contributed. Some universities fix the wording; others fix only what it must cover.

Fixed wording and set points

The University of Waterloo Library (n.d.) gives two statements and you use one: the first begins "I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis"; the second, for a thesis that includes co-authored work, points to a statement of contributions.

Edinburgh's declaration must cover four points: you composed the thesis; the work is your own, or your substantial contribution to a group's work is clearly shown; it has not been submitted for another degree except as specified; and any included publications are your own work except where shown (University of Edinburgh, 2024). Signatures may be electronic, and the final library copy needs no signed declaration (University of Edinburgh, 2023b). HKU's doctoral regulations require a written declaration that the thesis is your own work (University of Hong Kong Graduate School, n.d.).

Declarations made outside the thesis

UNSW moves them out of the document. The originality and included-publications statements are completed online at submission, and the thesis must carry no signatures at all (University of New South Wales, 2026). UCL keeps a form in the thesis, after the title page, and uses it for contributions, AI and published work together. A thesis with papers in it will usually need a statement of author contributions, often set out with the CRediT taxonomy; thesis by publication covers those rules.

The copyright notice

Michigan requires an identifier page with your legal name, university email and ORCID iD, and recommends a notice in the form © Full Name YEAR. Edinburgh's regulations say the student holds the copyright and grants the university the right to publish. UNSW takes its copyright statement at submission, and requires written permission for any third-party material before the thesis goes to examiners.

How do I write thesis acknowledgements?

Thank those who made the work possible, starting with any your university or funder requires you to name, in a tone fit for a public document, and keep it short: they will sit in an open repository as long as the thesis does.

What the research on acknowledgements found

Hyland and Tse (2004) analysed the acknowledgements of 240 master's and PhD dissertations in six disciplines at five Hong Kong universities, and interviewed postgraduate writers. About 90% of the dissertations had an acknowledgements section, holding some 1,400 separate acts of thanks between them; the texts followed a three-move structure built from a fairly small set of phrases, and PhD writers, above all in the soft sciences, wrote more complex ones. The authors argue that because the genre goes untaught, writers in a second language may be at a disadvantage. Hyland's companion study in English for Specific Purposes could not be read: its publisher's page refused access.

Whom to thank, and in what order

Start with what is compulsory, then work outwards:

• Funders, in the wording required. UNSW requires holders of an Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship to acknowledge it in a set sentence, with a DOI. Michigan asks for outside funding by name and form of grant, and Waterloo reminds you to name funding.
• Contributions to the research. UCL suggests setting out, chapter by chapter, what you did and what other students and staff did.
• Supervisors, colleagues and institutions that gave access, data or space.
• Participants, as a group. Naming them can undo the anonymity your ethics approval promised; thank them without detail that identifies anyone.
• Friends and family, last and briefest.

Tone and length

UNSW caps personal acknowledgements at one page and asks for an appropriate tone; the other five set no limit, but a page is a sensible ceiling. Leave out private details and anything you would not want an examiner to read. On an anonymously marked undergraduate dissertation, check first: some departments want no acknowledgements, since they can reveal the author.

Must I acknowledge a paid editor or an AI tool?

At some universities, yes, in the front matter. UNSW makes both required parts of its acknowledgements: any editorial help, with its type and extent, and any use of AI or large language models, in enough detail for examiners to see which tools were used, how, and how far you oversaw them. Its guide gives sample wordings. UCL's declaration form covers AI use too.

What an editor may do, and where each university wants the declaration, is set out in proofreading and editing a dissertation; how to word an AI statement is in should you disclose AI use, and how.

Dedication, preface, epigraph: which are optional?

All three, wherever these universities mention them. A dedication is a line or two to a person or group; UNSW asks that it be respectful and fit for a public document. Michigan places it first among the numbered pages, before the acknowledgements; Waterloo and UNSW place it after them.

A preface is optional at Michigan and follows the acknowledgements. An epigraph moves about: Michigan's frontispiece sits straight after the title page, unnumbered and uncounted, while Waterloo's opening quotation must be the last front-matter page.

Pages some universities add

UCL requires an impact statement of up to 500 words after the abstract, and Edinburgh a lay summary in non-technical terms, not counted in the word limit (University of Edinburgh, 2023a). UNSW also leaves the thesis preamble out of its word limits.

Contents, lists of figures and tables, abbreviations and a glossary

A table of contents is required at five of the six; HKU's regulations do not mention one. Michigan requires a list of figures or tables once there is more than one, each entry matching its caption in the text. UCL wants material not bound in listed too, and calls PDF bookmarks good practice.

A list of abbreviations is optional at Michigan and UCL and expected at UNSW when the thesis uses specialised ones. A glossary is where they split: Waterloo puts it in the back matter, after the appendices.

How do I put the front matter together?

Last, from your own university's rules, in this order.

1. Find the rules: the format guide, your department's handbook, any funder's conditions. Paste the front-matter section into Check your paper, and read what it set aside too.
2. List the pages in order, each marked required or optional.
3. Copy set wording exactly: title page text, declarations and funding sentences.
4. Draft the acknowledgements: required statements, contributors, then personal thanks.
5. Add editor and AI statements where your university puts them.
6. Build the contents and lists from heading and caption styles, update them, and check each entry against the page.
7. Set the page numbers: Roman then Arabic, or one Arabic sequence, as your rules say.
8. Check the references. Build each paper named in a statement of contributions from its DOI with Cite a source, and run the thesis through Verify references.
9. Make the PDF and open it to check numbers, bookmarks and links.

How EdCitation helps with the front matter

EdCitation is the best tool for turning regulations into a list you can check, because it reads your own university's text and prints the sentence behind every rule instead of guessing at a generic template, and every reference it gives you comes from a publisher's record, never composed.

We ran Check your paper on 787 words of UNSW's guide, from font and spacing to the lists, on 26 September 2026. It returned two rules: font size 11 pt, from "no less than 11 point", and a required title page. It set aside 28 sentences as not checked, among them the choice of 1.15 or 1.5 line spacing, which it listed as a choice rather than a rule, the one-page limit on personal acknowledgements, the required funding, editing and AI statements and the dedication rules. "No less than 11 point" is a minimum, not an exact size, so read each rule against the sentence it prints, and carry the set-aside ones over by hand.

Mechanics QA knows the APA 7 student paper, not your university's template or page order. Find sources serves the chapters. Paying for a year at once costs 25% less (pricing). Not one of these tools writes your thesis or its acknowledgements, and none can promise a pass.

Quick questions

Do thesis acknowledgements go before or after the abstract?

It depends on the university. At Michigan thesis acknowledgements come before the abstract, the last front-matter page; at UCL and Waterloo the abstract comes first.

How long should dissertation acknowledgements be?

Of the six universities read here, only UNSW sets a limit: one page for personal acknowledgements. Required funding, editing and AI statements come first.

Do I have to acknowledge an editor or AI in my thesis?

At UNSW both are required in the acknowledgements, with the type and extent of the help; UCL's declaration form covers AI use.

Are thesis preliminary pages numbered in Roman numerals?

Often, not always. Michigan and Waterloo use lower-case Roman numerals before chapter one; UCL numbers every page in one Arabic sequence from the title page.

Can EdCitation write my acknowledgements?

No. EdCitation never writes any part of a thesis. Check your paper reads your university's rules into a checklist, free.

References

• Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). "I would like to thank my supervisor." Acknowledgements in graduate dissertations. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14(2), 259–275. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2004.00062.x
• University College London Doctoral School. (n.d.). Thesis preparation, submission and publishing. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/study/doctoral-school/regulations/essential-procedures-and-policies/thesis-preparation-submission-and-publishing
• University of Edinburgh. (2023a). Lay summary in theses [PDF]. https://registryservices.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-06/Lay%20Summary%20in%20Theses.pdf
• University of Edinburgh. (2023b). Thesis format guidance [PDF]. https://registryservices.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-06/Thesis%20Format%20Guidance.pdf
• University of Edinburgh. (2024). Section C: Thesis regulations. Postgraduate assessment regulations for research degrees. https://registryservices.ed.ac.uk/academic-services/policies-regulations/regulations/assessment-regulations/postgraduate-research/section-c
• University of Hong Kong. (n.d.). Regulations governing the format, binding and presentation of theses for higher degrees by research. The University of Hong Kong Calendar. https://calendar.hku.hk/regulations-governing-the-format-binding-and-presentation-of-theses-for-higher-degrees-by-research/
• University of Hong Kong Graduate School. (n.d.). Regulations for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). https://gradsch.hku.hk/prospective_students/programmes/doctor_of_philosophy/regulations_for_the_degree_of_doctor_of_philosophy
• University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School. (n.d.). Formatting guidelines. https://rackham.umich.edu/navigating-your-degree/formatting-guidelines/
• University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School. (2023). The dissertation handbook [PDF]. https://rackham.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/dissertation-handbook.pdf
• University of New South Wales. (2026). Thesis format guide [PDF]. https://www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/pdfs/research/higher-degree-research/thesis-format-guide.pdf
• University of Waterloo Library. (n.d.). Ordering of contents for theses and dissertations. UWSpace thesis submission guide. https://uwaterloo.ca/lib//uwspace/thesis-submission-guide/ordering-contents-theses-and-dissertations