In a technical or scientific text, such as a PhD thesis, should headings for (sub)sections be complete and sometimes repeat information from the headings of the levels above, or is it sufficient to have a short heading, assuming that it is implied that section X.Y.Z
is still inside X.Y.
?
For example, in my PhD thesis, I have a sectioning structure like this:
2. Remote sensing
2.3. Specific technologies
2.3.1. Solar
2.3.2. Terrestrial
2.3.3. Active
My supervisor said that Solar, Terrestrial, Active, or even Specific technologies are not proper section titles, but that I should rather write something along the lines of
2.3. Specific observation technologies
2.3.1. Solar remote sensing
2.3.2. Terrestrial remote sensing
2.3.3. Active remote sensing
even though this repeats the heading for chapter 2. Browsing through some books on my desk, it appears that section and subsection titles often indeed do repeat information from higher level headings, but it makes the mathematician buried (somewhat deep) inside me cringe a little.
Are there any style guides or rules addressing this point explicitly?