Thesis data analysis in Chennai

Anna University: how tables and figures are numbered and placed

Anna University R2025 regulations has an annexure on thesis format with strict rules for tables and figures. There a “Table” means numerical data in tabular form. Charts, graphs, maps, photographs and diagrams are all “Figures”. Keep this in mind with SPSS output. A bar chart of your Likert responses is counted as a figure and goes in the list of figures.

Numbering goes by chapter. In Chapter 3 the fourth figure is 3.4, and tables follow the same way. A figure in the appendix is written as Figure A 2.3. Some tables run past one page. Then on next page you repeat the same table number and write “(continued)” near it. Each table or figure comes within the margins, on the page after the one where you first mention it. A short one, taking up to half a page only, can stay with the text, with triple spacing above and below.

Captions have their own rule. The list of tables must use the same captions written above the tables. Figure captions go below the figure, and the list of figures copies them exactly. Long tables are single-spaced. In synopsis also you are allowed one or two tables or figures. Decide early which results you want to show there.

IIT Madras: titles, notes and sideways tables

The IIT Madras guidelines are equally detailed. A table title is written as “Table”, then the chapter number and serial number, and then the title, for example “Table 2.1”. Keep the title 10 to 15 mm above the top line of the table. It is centred, single-spaced and in the same font as the body text. If you are adding notes to explain the table, leave one space after the table and write them there. When a table runs beyond one page, the number is repeated on the next page with “(contd.)”.

If a table has to be turned sideways on the page, its top edge should be towards the binding side. Figures are drawn in black with sharp lines. Suppose your graph has three or four lines on it. Examiner must see at one look which line is which group. This rule affects SPSS and R charts quite a lot. Their default colours are many times very pale, and in a black and white print those lines almost disappear. So before the chart goes into thesis, we redraw it with shades of grey and different line styles.

M.G.R. Medical University: results and analysis have their own chapter

The M.G.R. Medical University regulations list out the thesis chapters in 32.4. Data is reported in two of them, “Materials and methods” (or “Patients and methods”) and “Results and analysis”. Discussion comes after them as a chapter by itself. Many scholars are writing the meaning of findings inside results chapter itself, and examiners mark it. Give each result with the test used and its figure, and keep the interpretation for discussion chapter.

As per 32.6, charts and annexures are not numbered along with the text. Without them, the text must stay below 250 foolscap pages. A clinical thesis usually carries many tables of patient data. Shift the long tables to the annexures and keep only the summary tables inside the chapter. Reader can follow the chapter more easily that way, and your page count shows the real text only.

Madras ethics, and Anna PG project reviews

At the University of Madras, clause 8.3 of the regulations asks that the data you collect, the experiments you do and the findings you publish all follow the ethics rules that apply. So mention in methodology chapter where you got the data from, and give the approval you had for it. If you write the abstract in Tamil, an index of key terms has to come with it. Fix early with your guide how statistical words like “regression” and “reliability” will be written in Tamil.

M.E. and M.Tech students of Anna affiliated colleges come under the Regulations 2021. There the project is assessed in three reviews before the viva. If your review marks are below half, you cannot submit the project report. So try to have the analysis ready by the second review itself, and don’t keep it pending for the third. For the test selection part, you can read our note on choosing a statistical test before the meeting with guide.

How it works from Chennai

To start, send us your objectives, the questionnaire or data sheet, the data file and the name of your university. If a Doctoral Committee meeting, RAC review or project review is already fixed, tell us that date also.

First we prepare an analysis plan that matches each objective with a test, and your guide can approve it. After that we clean the data and run the tests. We number the tables and figures chapter-wise as your university wants. For Anna the table caption sits on top and figure caption at bottom, and for other places we check their rule. For a long table we add “(continued)” on the next page. Then we go through each result with you on video calls, till you can explain it without notes.

We keep the data as it was collected. Once in a while somebody is asking, can you put ten more responses or delete the odd cases. We say no to that. We also won’t run the test again and again hoping the p value will change. Sometimes a hypothesis is not supported. That is also a finding of your study, and we will help you report it honestly.