Doctoral Program
The program leading to the Doctor of Philosophy is a research degree, providing a foundation for careers in teaching, research, operations, and administration. The purpose of the degree is to develop research and critical thinking skills, while imparting deep knowledge within one of two specializations, or tracks. The degree has a strong pragmatic tradition, reflected in the applied nature of the college's research products over a quarter century.The Ph.D. is awarded in recognition of a high level of scholarly achievement in supervised and independent study and research. The degree requires 60 credits beyond the master's, or 90 credits beyond the bachelor's if no applicable master's is held. A residency requirement of one academic year (three consecutive terms) must be met.
Tracks of Study
- Computer Information Systems
- Information and Library Science
With the concurrence of a Program Advisor, the student may elect to take courses from both tracks, since there are many linkages between them, but one track must be chosen for program planning and examinations.
Both tracks require (1) "domain" coursework that provides research-level background and competence in your areas of interest and (2) coursework in the Research Methodology Sequence of the program. As a rule, post-master's students will take 52 credits of formal coursework and 8 or more of thesis credits. The coursework prepares the student for the preliminary examinations and development and execution of the thesis.
Only graduate courses are allowable for doctoral credit. Core courses within IST may not be taken for doctoral credit. Doctoral students enrolled in master's courses in IST are expected to undertake alternative or additional assignments suitable to doctoral study and to achieve a higher level of performance.
Formal course work is followed by the written preliminary examinations, preparation and defense of a research proposal, execution of the research, writing the research thesis, and defending the thesis.
This track is intended for those who want to apply systems analysis techniques and advanced technologies to the design and evaluation of computer-based information systems. The focus is on processes of devising systems that meet users' information needs and the characteristics of systems so devised. Processes include identification and negotiation of design trade-offs, problem-solving, iteration, and risk management, while characteristics include cost-effectiveness, user satisfaction, learnability, operability, and maintainability. The evaluation of existing, and the design and evaluation of new, systems are major concerns. Basic theory is drawn from such fields as cognitive engineering, software engineering, process and data modeling, and simulation. The student is expected to have relevant coursework in an area such as computer science or human factors engineering.
This track is primarily concerned with problems in representing the content of information storage and retrieval systems to people, and the interests of people to these resource systems. The principal focus is how to answer people's questions from large stores of recorded knowledge, such as literatures or electronic databases. Three required areas of study are 1) information retrieval, which deals with linguistic and psychological models by which informational records are organized and sought; 2) scholarly and professional communication, which deals with patterns of written and oral exchange among persons who depend on recorded knowledge in scientific, technical, and other professional specialities; and 3) information services design and evaluation, which deals with the creation and assessment of services that answer specific kinds of questions.
