Guidelines for writing thesis

The thesis (not to exceed 75 pages, exclusive of the title page, table of contents, and annexes) must present the research project developed over the course of the three-year PhD programme in a coherent and structured manner. Any amendments to the guidelines may be made based on guidance provided by the supervisor and/or other justifiable reasons of a scientific, procedural or administrative nature, as determined by the doctoral student or other relevant parties.

• Title page    (First page for report and thesis - Allegato 1) (1 page, see Appendix 1)
• Dedication   (Optional, max 1 page)
• Table of contents
• Summary  (maximum 250 words)
• Introduction¹
• Purpose of the work
• Materials and Methods²
• Results³
• Discussion⁴
• Bibliography⁵ (max 50 references)
• Acknowledgements  (Optional, max 2 pages)
• Attachments*

*Research articles, literature reviews or book chapters in which the PhD student is author/author; activities carried out during the PhD such as participation in courses, congresses, workshops, webinars, summer schools etc.

¹The introduction constitutes an indispensable component of the thesis. It is therefore crucial to include an introduction that provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge regarding the scientific problem being addressed. An effective introduction must be structured in a clear and concise manner. It is essential that the bibliographical references cited are as recent as possible and have been published in indexed scientific journals. These must be listed in the international 'Science Citation Index' as being relevant to medical, scientific and technological progress by a group of international experts.

²In the Materials and Methods section, the doctoral student is required to provide a detailed account of the methodologies employed while conducting the experiments. It is of particular importance to exercise caution when describing methods that diverge from previously published techniques or have been developed specifically for the experiment in question. In the case of standard methods, it is recommended that a brief description be provided, followed by a citation of a published work in which the method is described in greater detail. It is recommended that the text be divided into paragraphs, with each paragraph describing a different method.

³In the Results section, the doctoral candidate is required to present a detailed account of the scientific question, and the findings of the experiments conducted.

⁴The discussion section is intended to elucidate the significance of the findings and justify their relevance. Additionally, this section allows for explicit speculation about mechanisms that have not yet been empirically validated but are supported by the observed results and the existing literature.

⁵The bibliography must comply with the requirements set out by the journal Cancer Research. It is required that citations be included in the text as progressive numbers.

The following sources are examples of scientific articles: The bibliography should include the names of all authors, with the initials of any authors exceeding six in number, followed by the words "et al."; the complete title of the article; the abbreviated name of the journal in which it was published; the year of publication; the volume number; the initial page number and the final page number. The following example illustrates this point:

Warrell RP Jr, Frankel SR, Miller WH Jr, Scheinberg DA, Itri LM, Hittelman WN, et al. Differentiation therapy of acute promyelocytic 584 leukemia with tretinoin (all-trans-retinoic acid). N Engl J Med 1991;324:1385–93.

Book chapters: In the bibliography, the names of the chapter authors, the title of the book chapter, the title of the book, the name of the book's authors, the title of the book, the publishers, the year of publication and the first and last page should be detailed. Below is an example:

Yuspa SH, Hennings H, Roop D, Strickland J, Greenhalgh DA. Genes and mechanisms involved in malignant conversion. In: Harris CC, Liotta LA, editors. Genetic mechanisms in carcinogenesis and tumor progression. New York: Wiley-Liss; 1990. p.115–26.

Text formatting instructions:

• A4 sheet, side margins 20 mm, top 25 mm, bottom 20 mm;
• Line spacing 1.5 lines, justified text, font 12 (Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri);
• Footnotes Times New Roman 10, single spacing;
• Consecutively numbered pages (no number on first page);
• Figures and Tables numbered consecutively (Figure 1, etc..., Table 1, etc...) and inserted in the text near their citation. Under each figure insert the legend, which must be exhaustive and must contain the results of the statistical analysis of the data and the test used.