Degree Requirements for IST's Ph.D. Program
The doctor of philosophy degree in Information Sciences and Technology (IST) offers advanced graduate education for students contemplating careers in academic teaching and research, or research in a non-academic setting. The program is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in nature and expects scholarship at the highest levels exhibiting depth of competency in at least one of the core areas of the Information Sciences and Technology.
The curriculum consists of a core requirement and four tracks:
- Computational Informatics: Research in Computational Informatics aims to create innovative algorithms and cyberinfrastructure for storing, accessing, processing, interpreting, mining, and synthesizing large-scale information from data, texts, images, video, and social networks.
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): Research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) improves our understanding about interactions among people, information, and technology, and leads to innovative theories and the design of collaborative tools for supporting these interactions for individuals, groups, and communities in the cyber space.
- Social and Enterprise Informatics: Research in Social and Enterprise Informatics improves our understanding about the social and organizational context of technological actions, and study the co-evolution of technologies, enterprises, organizations, and society.
- Security Informatics: Research in Security Informatics improves the cybersecurity of individuals and enterprise by innovating solutions for detecting cyber attacks, for mitigating the effects of attacks, for enhancing privacy, ensuring trust, and for reducing and managing risks.
The core requirement provides a common theoretical foundation for all Ph.D. students in IST. The tracks provide guidance for them to develop competency and an appropriate depth of understanding in a concentration area related to the research problems addressed by the dissertation. Students will be expected to complete a minimum of 33 course credits plus additional dissertation credits. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the program, many elective courses of the track are offered by other colleges.
Graduate Courses
The core of the IST Ph.D. program is composed of four courses and four required colloquiums: IST 501 or 503; 511 or 512; 521 or 522; 531 or 532; and 590. These courses integrate the three central constructs of the field of information sciences and technology: information, people, and technology. From these courses, students will gain a rich and broad understanding of the field.
Please click on the course numbers below for a description of each course. For a complete listing of all IST course descriptions, see the University Bulletin.
CORE COURSES:
RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY AND STATISTICS COURSES
All candidates must develop a broad understanding of the scientific and research process and in-depth competency in the research methods of the primary field. Each candidate’s doctoral committee shall specify a minimum of four graduate-level courses (12 credits) to support the primary field research methods. This component of the program is designed to prepare students to be able to critically assess existing and proposed research and to conduct independent research in their specialty area. Students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in both quantitative and qualitative methods. It also is expected that students will pursue additional courses that reflect design, analytic skill, or both, particular to their research program.
SUPPORTING FIELD(S) REQUIREMENT
A candidate is expected to choose one or more supporting fields customized to support the primary field requirement. These supporting fields could be in business, education, engineering, the liberal arts, or science. Examples include instructional systems, computer science, psychology, and geography. The support area is intended to build the student’s understanding of an area that supports his or her specific IST research program.
LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION REQUIREMENT
All candidates must be competent in the English language and must have demonstrated skills in the communication of ideas both orally and in writing commensurate with the requirement of scholarly and professional work. (The candidacy examination will be used as an occasion to assess English proficiency and plan for any necessary remediation including additional courses, mentoring, or experiences for all students. A short essay will be included as part of the assessment process.)
Please click on the course numbers below for a description of each course. For a complete listing of all IST course descriptions, see the University Bulletin.
CORE COURSES:
- IST 501: Integrative Theories and Methods of the Information Science and Technology
- IST 503: Foundations of IST Research
- IST 511: Information Management: Information and Technology
- IST 512: Information Processing Architecture and Technology
- IST 521: Human-Computer Interaction: The User and Technology
- IST 522: Models and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction
- IST 531: Human Information Behavior: Information and the User
- IST 532: Organizational Informatics
- IST 590: Colloquium
- IST 515: Information Security and Assurance
- IST 516: Web and Internet Information Retrieval
- IST 525: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
- IST 526: Development Tools and Visualizations for Human-Computer Interaction
- IST 535: Information Technology Valuation, Markets and Innovation
- IST 536: Public and Community Informatics
- IST 541: Qualitative Research in Information Sciences and Technology
- IST 552: Data and Knowledge Management
- IST 554: Network Management and Security
- IST 555: Intelligent Agents and Distributed Decision Making
- IST 557/STAT 557: Data Mining I
- IST 562: Theoretical Foundations of Information Science
- IST 564: Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management
- IST 571/MIS 571: Information Technology Strategy
- IST 597B: Theory of Information
- IST 597C: Network Management
- IST 885: Introduction to Multisensor Data Fusion
RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY AND STATISTICS COURSES
All candidates must develop a broad understanding of the scientific and research process and in-depth competency in the research methods of the primary field. Each candidate’s doctoral committee shall specify a minimum of four graduate-level courses (12 credits) to support the primary field research methods. This component of the program is designed to prepare students to be able to critically assess existing and proposed research and to conduct independent research in their specialty area. Students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in both quantitative and qualitative methods. It also is expected that students will pursue additional courses that reflect design, analytic skill, or both, particular to their research program.
SUPPORTING FIELD(S) REQUIREMENT
A candidate is expected to choose one or more supporting fields customized to support the primary field requirement. These supporting fields could be in business, education, engineering, the liberal arts, or science. Examples include instructional systems, computer science, psychology, and geography. The support area is intended to build the student’s understanding of an area that supports his or her specific IST research program.
LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION REQUIREMENT
All candidates must be competent in the English language and must have demonstrated skills in the communication of ideas both orally and in writing commensurate with the requirement of scholarly and professional work. (The candidacy examination will be used as an occasion to assess English proficiency and plan for any necessary remediation including additional courses, mentoring, or experiences for all students. A short essay will be included as part of the assessment process.)
Examinations
CANDIDACY EXAMINATION
The candidacy examination is a University-mandated procedure to assess whether the student is capable of conducting doctoral-level research. Toward this goal, the candidacy examination of the College of Information Sciences and Technology is a critical literature review on a topic decided jointly by the student and his/her research adviser. The critical review should include a literature survey of related background, a discussion of issues and/or related theories, and hypotheses that demonstrate the level of depth of the student’s understanding of the research problem. The survey also should attempt to incorporate perspectives from the vantage point of information, technology, and people. The exam is used to assess the student’s critical thinking skills and his or her capability to integrate conceptualization of related ideas, concepts, theories, and frameworks in the literature for exploring a thesis topic.
The candidacy examination is administered by a committee assigned by the college. The adviser is a non-voting member of the committee. Voting members of the committee should be from more than one research area. Exemplar research areas are computational Informatics, human-computer interaction, and social/enterprise informatics. The candidacy exam consists of an oral component, in which the student presents the critical survey to his/her candidacy exam committee and answers related questions.
COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION
When a candidate for the Ph.D. degree has substantially completed all course work, a 12 to 18 months of passing the candidacy examination. The comprehensive examination is intended to evaluate the candidate’s mastery of the major (and if appropriate, minor) field.
The candidacy examination is a University-mandated procedure to assess whether the student is capable of conducting doctoral-level research. Toward this goal, the candidacy examination of the College of Information Sciences and Technology is a critical literature review on a topic decided jointly by the student and his/her research adviser. The critical review should include a literature survey of related background, a discussion of issues and/or related theories, and hypotheses that demonstrate the level of depth of the student’s understanding of the research problem. The survey also should attempt to incorporate perspectives from the vantage point of information, technology, and people. The exam is used to assess the student’s critical thinking skills and his or her capability to integrate conceptualization of related ideas, concepts, theories, and frameworks in the literature for exploring a thesis topic.
The candidacy examination is administered by a committee assigned by the college. The adviser is a non-voting member of the committee. Voting members of the committee should be from more than one research area. Exemplar research areas are computational Informatics, human-computer interaction, and social/enterprise informatics. The candidacy exam consists of an oral component, in which the student presents the critical survey to his/her candidacy exam committee and answers related questions.
COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION
When a candidate for the Ph.D. degree has substantially completed all course work, a 12 to 18 months of passing the candidacy examination. The comprehensive examination is intended to evaluate the candidate’s mastery of the major (and if appropriate, minor) field.
Research-Based Dissertation
DISSERTATION RESEARCH PROPOSAL (ORAL COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION)
The objective of the Dissertation Research Proposal (Oral Comprehensive Examination) is to assess the direction and the appropriateness of the research that will serve as the basis of a Ph.D. dissertation. The Ph.D. candidate must submit a dissertation research proposal to his or her doctoral committee, which will be presented and defended at a formal meeting of the student’s committee that is open to the University community.
DISSERTATION DEFENSE (FINAL ORAL EXAMINATION)
The objective of the Dissertation Defense (Final Oral Examination) is to assess a Ph.D. candidate’s research accomplishments based on the completion of a final draft of the candidate’s dissertation thesis. This is to be facilitated by the Ph.D. candidate submitting the final draft of the dissertation to the candidate’s Ph.D. committee and by presenting and defending the thesis at a formal meeting of his or her committee that is open to the University community.
The objective of the Dissertation Research Proposal (Oral Comprehensive Examination) is to assess the direction and the appropriateness of the research that will serve as the basis of a Ph.D. dissertation. The Ph.D. candidate must submit a dissertation research proposal to his or her doctoral committee, which will be presented and defended at a formal meeting of the student’s committee that is open to the University community.
DISSERTATION DEFENSE (FINAL ORAL EXAMINATION)
The objective of the Dissertation Defense (Final Oral Examination) is to assess a Ph.D. candidate’s research accomplishments based on the completion of a final draft of the candidate’s dissertation thesis. This is to be facilitated by the Ph.D. candidate submitting the final draft of the dissertation to the candidate’s Ph.D. committee and by presenting and defending the thesis at a formal meeting of his or her committee that is open to the University community.
