# SCUT_thesis is a LaTeX thesis template wired to the GB7714-2015 citation standard

> SCUT_thesis is a LaTeX template for master's and doctoral theses at South China University of Technology, derived from two earlier templates and shipped with four documented ways to compile it. It suits a student writing at that university, and its BibLaTeX with Biber change means a .bst file from another template will not work.

**mengchaoheng/SCUT_thesis** — 华南理工大学硕博士学位论文模板(LaTeX)。Latex templates for the thesis of South China University of Technology

- Repository: https://github.com/mengchaoheng/SCUT_thesis
- Stars: 590 · Forks: 97
- Language: TeX
- License: GPL-3.0
- Published: 2026-10-22 · Updated: 2026-10-22 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/mengchaoheng-scut-thesis

## A class file for one university, derived from two others

SCUT_thesis is a LaTeX template for master's and doctoral theses at South China University of Technology, and its own documentation is candid about its lineage. The template was modified from the scutthesis template by alwintsui and the scut-thesis template by yecfly, and the author says plainly that because it grew out of other templates there is inevitably a lot of redundant code, while noting that this does not affect use and that several cohorts of students have already proved it works. The artefact at the top of the tree is a class file, scutthesis.cls, with a main file scutthesis.tex, which is the shape of a LaTeX template rather than a collection of snippets. The documentation also explains the motivation in a way that is worth reading before you install anything. LaTeX and an office suite are different tools for writing a thesis and for writing slides, and the comparison given is to two kitchen knives, where which one is sharper does not matter, only which one feels comfortable in your hand. That is a fair framing for a template, since the friction of a template is often the friction of the toolchain it forces on you.

## Four compile routes, each for a different kind of user

The template documents four ways to compile scutthesis.tex into scutthesis.pdf, and the interesting part is that each is aimed at a different reader. The VS Code route is described as the method added in 2022 and recommended for students with a programming background who want efficiency. You install the LaTeX Workshop extension, copy the values from settings_files/settings.json into your own settings.json, compile with the xelatexmk chain from the Build LaTeX project menu, and view the result with View LaTeX PDF. The documentation insists on one detail that causes real confusion: you must first click into the .tex file you want to compile so it is active, because the build will not pick it up otherwise. The TeXstudio route is the original editor, recommended for students who prefer local editing, do not move between machines much, program less and want stability, with the default compiler set to XeLaTeX and the default bibliography tool set to Biber. The all.bat script route is Windows only, requires you to close the generated PDF before double clicking it, and comes with a clean.bat for removing temporary files, though the documentation notes it has not been maintained for many years and should be easy to fix in a text editor. The fourth is Overleaf, recommended for students with no programming background who do not want to use GitHub and are happy to edit online.

## The prerequisite you cannot skip: a local TeX distribution

Three of the four routes share a prerequisite, and the documentation is explicit that you need texlive installed for your system, Linux, Windows or macOS, with macOS covered by MacTeX. Overleaf is the exception because it provides a remote compilation environment, so nothing is installed locally. The documentation also gives you a way to check that the environment is right, by running a version command in a terminal, and it notes that the same commands work the same way on Windows, macOS and Linux. That last point is the one to take seriously, because the reason the four routes differ at all is where the command gets typed. The VS Code route needs a configuration file because the editor does not know the build recipe, TeXstudio has a graphical interface so the settings are picked from menus, the batch script hard codes the commands, and Overleaf has the environment already deployed. The other three routes are the same commands behind different interfaces, and the documentation says so directly.

## Why the bibliography section is the real change

The most important modification the template makes to the underlying LaTeX workflow is its bibliography handling, and it deserves more attention than the cover page. The template's main change is to use the BibLaTeX package with Biber rather than the original BibTeX, keeping the .bib file format but not the old program, which means no .bst file is needed. The documentation explains the reason this matters for the output: after the change, the reference section format complies with the national standard gb7714-2015, and it acknowledges that some settings need to be adjusted because the university's own writing rules do not require every piece of information to be displayed in the reference list. It also pre-empts a common question, noting that students ask every year why the displayed references differ slightly from the university's published writing norms, and that the current defaults are usable and have been in use for several cohorts. The template's topics list names biber, biblatex, zotero and mactex, so the bibliography toolchain is a first class concern in the project rather than an afterthought.

## The .bib file format, with a worked entry

The documentation explains the bibliography workflow in two stages, manual and tooled, and it shows exactly what a well formed entry looks like inside a .bib file. The example entry is stored in the template's biblibrary/MyLibrary.bib file, and one article from it is shown in full.

```
@article{Vasile_2020,
  title = {Reactive Sampling-Based Path Planning with Temporal Logic Specifications},
  author = {Vasile, Cristian Ioan and Li, Xiao and Belta, Calin},
  date = {2020-07-01},
  journaltitle = {The International Journal of Robotics Research},
  volume = {39},
  number = {8},
  pages = {1002--1028},
  publisher = {{SAGE Publications Ltd STM}},
  issn = {0278-3649},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/0278364920918919},
  urldate = {2021-10-08},
  langid = {english}
}
```

Several field names in that entry differ from what a legacy BibTeX file would contain, and that is the practical point for anyone migrating. The date field replaces the year and month fields, journaltitle replaces journal, and langid carries the language. The entry key, Vasile_2020, is the handle used to cite the work in the document, and the documentation stresses that it must be unique within the file. The manual route is to download a BibTeX file from a publisher or a search result, paste its contents into a shared .bib file with a blank line between entries, and delete redundant fields such as the abstract if they were included.

## Zotero, and why the manual route stops scaling

The documentation is frank that the manual method is primitive, and that as a thesis grows and the number of references increases, hand maintaining one .bib file becomes too complex, with plenty of redundant metadata that has to be trimmed by hand each time. That is what creates the space for reference management software, with Zotero and EndNote named as the common options, capable of exporting a .bib file automatically and of handling citation, reading, classification, sharing and multi device synchronisation. The recommendation is to use the open source Zotero, though EndNote works too, and the point that matters for this template is the export to .bib. If you would rather not install anything, you can create a file with a .bib extension yourself and paste the BibTeX data from each literature page into it by hand, then reference that file from scutthesis.tex. Either way the outcome is the same artefact, a .bib file that the template's Biber setup consumes, and the tool choice changes the effort rather than the result.

## The cover file, the year in the logo, and the update strategy

Three operational notes in the documentation are worth planning around. The first is that the cover has to be opened in Microsoft Word and saved as PDF, and that WPS cannot be used, with the reason for the error not yet known. The second is a recommendation to download the newest cover each time, replacing the contents of the cover_file directory, because the school changes its emblem as the years since founding pass, and the author notes with some surprise that the founding year is also editable. The third is the update philosophy, and it is the most useful thing in the repository for anyone planning to live inside the template for a year or two. The template will keep being updated, and the author tries to use a conservative strategy, with larger changes left in the file as comments for people to opt into, to avoid breaking things. The recommended upgrade path is deliberately blunt: download the new template and replace your own chapter files with it, continuing your thesis in the new folder. The author also explains why the tidier git approach, forking the template, cloning locally, branching, and pulling the upstream repository, is not recommended, because file moves make git see deletions and additions and the merge becomes painful to resolve.

## Conclusion

Adopt SCUT_thesis if you are writing a master's or doctoral thesis at South China University of Technology and want the university's formatting and the GB7714-2015 reference list without assembling a class file yourself. Do not adopt it if you are at another institution, since the formatting rules are institution specific, and do not expect the template to be maintained for new LaTeX releases, since the author describes a conservative update strategy and comments out large changes rather than shipping them. Verify two things before you commit weeks to it: that your bibliography tooling exports clean BibLaTeX rather than legacy BibTeX fields, because the template's main change was moving from BibTeX to BibLaTeX with Biber, and that the compilation route you choose actually works for a thesis of your size, since the documentation warns that the free Overleaf tier may not compile a large thesis. The practical first step is to read the compiled scutthesis.pdf usage notes that ship with the template, then pick one of the four compile routes and confirm a PDF appears.

## FAQ

### What is SCUT_thesis?

It is a LaTeX template for writing master's and doctoral theses at South China University of Technology, derived from the scutthesis template by alwintsui and the scut-thesis template by yecfly, with a scutthesis.cls class file and a scutthesis.tex main file.

### How do I compile the SCUT_thesis template?

The documentation lists four routes: VS Code with the LaTeX Workshop extension and the xelatexmk chain, TeXstudio with the default compiler set to XeLaTeX and the default bibliography tool set to Biber, the all.bat script on Windows, or Overleaf with the compilation method set to XeLaTeX. The first three require a local TeX Live installation, with MacTeX on macOS.

### Why does SCUT_thesis use Biber instead of BibTeX?

The template's main change is to use the BibLaTeX package with Biber rather than BibTeX, so the .bib file format is still used but the old program is not, and no .bst file is needed. After that change the reference section format complies with the gb7714-2015 national standard.

### Which reference management tool should I use with SCUT_thesis?

The documentation recommends the open source Zotero, noting that other tools such as EndNote work too, and that the important part is exporting a .bib file. You can also maintain the .bib file by hand if you prefer not to install anything.

### How do I update the template when a new version is released?

The author recommends a direct approach: download the new template and replace your own chapter files with it, continuing in the new folder. A git fork and merge workflow is explicitly discouraged because moved files make git see deletions and additions, which makes the merge hard to resolve.

## Sources

- [Issues](https://github.com/mengchaoheng/SCUT_thesis/issues)
- [License: GPL-3.0](https://github.com/mengchaoheng/SCUT_thesis/blob/master/LICENSE)
- [mengchaoheng/SCUT_thesis on GitHub](https://github.com/mengchaoheng/SCUT_thesis)
- [README](https://github.com/mengchaoheng/SCUT_thesis/blob/master/README.md)

---

Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/mengchaoheng-scut-thesis