Formatting Problems after inserting a title page into the BioMed Central Template

Question

I am working on a document using the Biomed Central Template: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/biomed-central-article-template/gcgcxphtpccx and copypasted the first basic title page from The Overleaf Instructions: https://de.overleaf.com/learn/latex/How_to_Write_a_Thesis_in_LaTeX_(Part_5)%3A_Customising_Your_Title_Page_and_Abstract and as a result the title section of the regular first page of the template is moved to the left, which makes the document unreadable.

This problem only appears the first page after the titlepage. Since the Template requires a submission as one big .tex-file i would be very thankful for any recommendations how to fix this.

Answer 1

This answer is to document a procedure for adding a title page to an existing document (although I doubt bmcart would be useful for writing a thesis).

Opcion 1 Assuming the submission is a single pdf file, as I don't think a thesis will fit in a single .tex file (as shown in Option 2): eg. figures need to be submitted separately.

You will need to create three files:

(1) The thesis itself formatted as you see fit. (file MyThesis.tex)

(2) The cover, often following the guidelines of the institution. (file TitlePage.tex)

(3) The main program to integrate the above documents in a book twoside format. (file main.tex)

For this example, put all three files in the same working directory.

(1) Compile and debug the cover and the thesis.

(2) As a final step, run main.tex to merge them in a single pdf.

This is the file TitlePage.tex

 %%File TitlePage.tex

\documentclass[12pt]{article} % 

\usepackage[left=1.00cm, right=1.00cm, top=1.00cm, bottom=1.00cm]{geometry}% narrow margins <<<<<
\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}
    \pagestyle{empty} % supress all headers <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
    
   \begin{center}
    \vspace*{5cm}
    
    \textbf{\Large Thesis Title}
    
    \vspace{0.5cm}
    Thesis Subtitle
    
    \vspace{1.5cm}
    
    \textbf{\large Author Name}
    
    \vfill
    
    A thesis presented for the degree of\\
    Doctor of Philosophy
    
    \vspace{1cm}
    
    \includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{example-grid-100x100pt}
    
    Department Name\\
    University Name\\
    Country\\
    Date
    
\end{center}

\end{document}

This is the file MyThesis.tex

%% File MyThesis.tex

\documentclass{bmcart}

\usepackage{lipsum} %dummy tex
    
\begin{document}    

\section{Chapter title}
\lipsum[1]
\subsection{Heading for section}
\lipsum[1-3]
\subsubsection{Heading for sub section}
\lipsum[1-10]

\end{document}

This is the file main.tex

%%% File main.tex

\documentclass[twoside]{book} 
\usepackage{pdfpages} % To include the cover and the tesis

\usepackage[left=0cm, right=0cm, top=0cm, bottom=0cm]{geometry}
\begin{document}    

\includepdf[pages=-,pagecommand={},width=\textwidth]{TitlePage.pdf}
\newpage\mbox{}\clearpage

\includepdf[pages=-,pagecommand={},width=\textwidth]{MyThesis.pdf}

\end{document}

Opcion 2 Single .tex file: file AllMyThesis.tex

%% File AllMyThesis.tex

\documentclass{bmcart}

\usepackage{lipsum} %dummy tex
    \usepackage{graphicx}
    
\begin{document}
%%%************************************************************ added
\titlepage % Output the title page
\begin{center}
    \pagestyle{empty}
        { % Title(s) and author(s)
            \sffamily % Font styling
            {\Huge\bfseries A very long Thesis Title\par} % Book title
            \vspace{16pt} % Vertical whitespace
            {\LARGE Subtitle \par} % Subtitle
            \vspace{44pt} % Vertical whitespace
            {\huge\bfseries  Author Name\par} % Author name
                \vfill              
            A thesis presented for the degree of\\
            Doctor of Philosophy
                \vfill
                \includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{example-grid-100x100pt}\par
                \vspace{24pt}
                    Department Name\\
                University Name\\
                Country\\
                Date
        }   
\end{center}    
\newpage \pagestyle{empty}\mbox{}\clearpage % blank page        
\setcounter{page}{1} % start thesis with page 1
%%%************************************************************ 

\pagestyle{bmcheadings}     
\section{Chapter title}
\lipsum[1]
\subsection{Heading for section}
\lipsum[1-3]
\subsubsection{Heading for sub section}
\lipsum[1-10]

\end{document}