How to remove blank page before my new report chapter?

Question

This problem started after I added the following code in the preamble to set the default chapter title font ("INTRODUCTION" in the following code), which was big, bold and brash that I did not like, into default regular text font.

\usepackage[rm,tiny]{titlesec} %added this to change the chapter title's font as default regular text font.
\titleformat{\chapter}{\normalfont\centering}{}{0pt}{}
\titlelabel{}
\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{-20pt}{4pt}

What happened is, I could change the font of my chapter, but a blank page (with page no. 1 on the header) appeared before the "Introduction" page. The introduction page now has page no. 2 on the footer rather than the header that I formatted it to appear. All other page numbers are in the header.

This trend continues whenever I format the other chapters (literature review, methodology, etc.) with the \chapter{} command. A blank page is created and the new section gets pushed one page down, with the page number on the footer rather than on the header.

Here is the more complete code:

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage[left=1.5in, right=1in, top=1in, bottom=1.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{lscape}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{calc}
\newlength{\depthofsumsign}
\setlength{\depthofsumsign}{\depthof{$\sum$}}
\newlength{\totalheightofsumsign}
\newlength{\heightanddepthofargument}

\usepackage[rm,tiny]{titlesec} %added this to change the chapter title's font as default regular text font.

\usepackage{pdflscape,booktabs}
\usepackage[flushleft]{threeparttable}
\renewcommand\TPTtagStyle{\textit} 
\usepackage[font=it,skip=0.5\baselineskip]{caption}

%to put page numbers in the header
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[C]{\thepage}
\pagestyle{fancy}

\titleformat{\chapter}{\normalfont\centering}{}{0pt}{}
\titlelabel{}
\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{-20pt}{4pt}

\begin{document}
\setlength{\headheight}{50pt} %to note where the header lies.
\setlength{\headsep}{15pt} %to set the distance between header and the first line after it.

\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
\doublespacing
\thispagestyle{empty}
\begin{center}
\vspace*{0.2in}
MY TITLE\\
\vspace*{0.4in}
by\\
My name\\\

\vspace*{1.4in}
\singlespacing
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment\\
of the requirements for the degree\\
\doublespacing
of\\
My degree\\
in\\
My discipline\\\

\vspace*{1in}
MY UNIVERSITY\\
University, Location\\
\vspace*{0.2in}
April 2019
\end{center}
\pagebreak

\pagenumbering{gobble}
\begin{center}
\vspace*{1in}
\textcopyright COPYRIGHT\\
by\\
My name\\
2019\\
All Rights Reserved
\end{center}
\pagebreak

\pagenumbering{arabic}
\setcounter{page}{1}
\begin{center}
\chapter{INTRODUCTION}
\end{center}

My introduction section's first paragraph...

\end{document}

The first two pages are fine (first page being the cover page with thesis name etc., and the second page being the copyright section). These pages are without page number (and thus the \pagenumbering{gobble} code on the second page).

Edit: I have dealt with the problem of the blank page by removing the \begin{center} ... \end{center} code, but the page number for the page with the chapter is still appearing in the footer rather than the header. All other pages have numbers in the header. Any way to fix this?

Answer 1

The chapter pages use page style plain by default. If you want to adjust both styles plain and fancy use pagestyle fancyplain instead fancy. If the content should differ in some of the header and/or footer fields use \fancyplain{<content for plain style>}{<content for fancy style>}.

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage[left=1.5in, right=1in, top=1in, bottom=1.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{lscape}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{calc}
\newlength{\depthofsumsign}
\setlength{\depthofsumsign}{\depthof{$\sum$}}
\newlength{\totalheightofsumsign}
\newlength{\heightanddepthofargument}

\usepackage[rm,tiny]{titlesec} %added this to change the chapter title's font as default regular text font.

\usepackage{pdflscape,booktabs}
\usepackage[flushleft]{threeparttable}
\renewcommand\TPTtagStyle{\textit} 
\usepackage[font=it,skip=0.5\baselineskip]{caption}

%to put page numbers in the header
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[C]{\thepage}
%\fancyfoot[C]{\fancyplain{plain style}{fancy style}}% <- to show the usage of \fancyplain
\pagestyle{fancyplain}% <- changed

\titleformat{\chapter}{\normalfont\centering}{}{0pt}{}
\titlelabel{}
\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{-20pt}{4pt}

\setlength{\headheight}{50pt} %to note where the header lies.
\setlength{\headsep}{15pt} %to set the distance between header and the first line after it.

\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}

\begin{document}
\doublespacing
\thispagestyle{empty}
\begin{center}
\vspace*{0.2in}
MY TITLE\\
\vspace*{0.4in}
by\\
My name\\\

\vspace*{1.4in}
\singlespacing
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment\\
of the requirements for the degree\\
\doublespacing
of\\
My degree\\
in\\
My discipline\\\

\vspace*{1in}
MY UNIVERSITY\\
University, Location\\
\vspace*{0.2in}
April 2019
\end{center}
\clearpage

\thispagestyle{empty}
\begin{center}
\vspace*{1in}
\textcopyright COPYRIGHT\\
by\\
My name\\
2019\\
All Rights Reserved
\end{center}
\cleardoublepage

\pagenumbering{arabic}
\setcounter{page}{1}

\chapter{INTRODUCTION}
\lipsum

\end{document}

Result

Answer 2

Here is a fix by using a code that redefines \chapter command and adds \thispagestyle{fancy} to each call of (every version of) chapter command:

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage[left=1.5in, right=1in, top=1in, bottom=1.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{lscape}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{calc}
\newlength{\depthofsumsign}
\setlength{\depthofsumsign}{\depthof{$\sum$}}
\newlength{\totalheightofsumsign}
\newlength{\heightanddepthofargument}

\usepackage[rm,tiny]{titlesec} %added this to change the chapter title's font as default regular text font.
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{pdflscape,booktabs}
\usepackage[flushleft]{threeparttable}
\renewcommand\TPTtagStyle{\textit} 
\usepackage[font=it,skip=0.5\baselineskip]{caption}

%to put page numbers in the header
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[C]{\thepage}
\fancyfoot{}
\pagestyle{fancy}

\titleformat{\chapter}{\normalfont\centering}{}{0pt}{}
\titlelabel{}
\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{-20pt}{4pt}


%koleygr: Redefining chapter to include \thispagestyle{fancy}
\let\oldchapter\chapter
\makeatletter
\def\chapter{%
\@ifstar{\@Starred}{\@nonStarred}%
}
\def\@Starred{%
\@ifnextchar[%
{\GenericWarning{}{Warning: A starred section can not have parameters. I am going to ignore them!}\@StarredWith}%
{\@StarredWithout}%
}      
\def\@StarredWith[#1]#2{%
\oldchapter*{#2}%
\thispagestyle{fancy}
}
\def\@StarredWithout#1{
\oldchapter*{#1}%
\thispagestyle{fancy}
}
\def\@nonStarred{%
\@ifnextchar[%
{\@nonStarredWith}%
{\@nonStarredWithout}%
}
\def\@nonStarredWith[#1]#2{%
\oldchapter[#1]{#2}%
\thispagestyle{fancy}
}
\def\@nonStarredWithout#1{%
\oldchapter{#1}%
\thispagestyle{fancy}
}
\makeatother


\begin{document}
\setlength{\headheight}{50pt} %to note where the header lies.
\setlength{\headsep}{15pt} %to set the distance between header and the first line after it.

\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
\doublespacing
\thispagestyle{empty}
\begin{center}
\vspace*{0.2in}
MY TITLE\\
\vspace*{0.4in}
by\\
My name\\\

\vspace*{1.4in}
\singlespacing
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment\\
of the requirements for the degree\\
\doublespacing
of\\
My degree\\
in\\
My discipline\\\

\vspace*{1in}
MY UNIVERSITY\\
University, Location\\
\vspace*{0.2in}
April 2019
\end{center}
\pagebreak

\pagenumbering{gobble}
\begin{center}
\vspace*{1in}
\textcopyright COPYRIGHT\\
by\\
My name\\
2019\\
All Rights Reserved
\end{center}
\pagebreak

\pagenumbering{arabic}
\setcounter{page}{1}
%\begin{center}

\chapter{INTRODUCTION}
%\end{center}

My introduction section's first paragraph...
\lipsum[1-5]

\chapter{Another Chapter}
\lipsum[1-5]
\end{document}

PS: I used my old answer from here to redefine chapter command, but you could use the answer of @GonzaloMedina from here instead if you don't like my code...