Information Science, PhD

Degree Requirements

Core Courses

Four graduate-level courses, one in each of the following areas. Students, who have taken two or more of these courses (in any cluster described below) as part of a degree at the University of Pittsburgh, may take additional courses from the remaining areas.

Prerequisites for the core courses are not counted as part of the PhD course requirements.

• Research methods
  • INFSCI 2040  - RESEARCH DESIGN
  • INFSCI 2160  - DATA MINING
  • INFSCI 2591  - ALGORITHM DESIGN 
• Foundations
  • INFSCI 2125  - NETWORK SCIENCE AND ANALYSIS 
  • INFSCI 2150  - INFORMATION SECURITY AND PRIVACY
  • INFSCI 2410  - INTRODUCTION TO NEURAL NETWORKS
  • INFSCI 2170  - CRYPTOGRAPHY
  • TELCOM 2321  - WIDE AREA NETWORKS
• Design
  •  INFSCI 2430  - SOCIAL COMPUTING
  •  INFSCI 2460  - SPATIAL REASONING FOR GIS
  •  INFSCI 2470  - INTERACTIVE SYSTEM DESIGN
  •  INFSCI 2620  - DEVELOPING SECURE SYSTEMS
• Information
  • INFSCI 2140  - INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
  • INFSCI 2415  - INFORMATION VISUALIZATION
  • INFSCI 2711  - ADVANCED TOPICS IN DATABASE MANAGEMENT
  • INFSCI 2801  - GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS 

Independent Research

Six credits of independent study focused on a research project are required. This research will normally be supervised by the student’s advisor over two terms, but any IS faculty member who is a member of the graduate faculty may supervise the student. The student may opt to have different faculty supervise different parts of the independent study.

The result of this research will be an original, publishable quality research paper, which will serve as the basis of the preliminary exam (see below). Previously published work may not be used to fulfill this requirement, although the independent research project might build upon previous work done by the student.

Doctoral Seminars

Three doctoral seminars (9 credits), including a required INFSCI 3005  - INTRODUCTION TO THE DOCTORAL PROGRAM, are required. INFSCI 3005  is offered every fall and should be taken during the first year of study. This course will cover the scope of research in Information Science. Advanced doctoral seminars will be focused on single research themes.

Eligibility and Preparation

Students must complete the 6 credits of Independent Research Study and INFSCI 3005 before taking the preliminary examination. While the preliminary examination can be taken before the completion of the core courses and doctoral seminar, the preliminary examination requirement will not be considered satisfied until all core courses and doctoral seminars are completed. 

Content and Format

Research Project and Paper 

During the first year of doctoral study, under the direction of your advisor (or another full or adjunct member of the department graduate faculty), students will design and complete a research project. The project should reflect only those activities undertaken during the first year of study. A previous master’s thesis or other work completed prior to the start of doctoral study may not be submitted for this requirement. While much research involves working in a larger team, the student’s role in the project and in writing the paper should be significant. The student must be the primary author, and ideally will be the sole author. The student should seek a project or a part of a project in which they take the lead in conducting the research and writing up the results under the direction of your advisor. However, unlike a dissertation or thesis, the research paper submitted for the preliminary evaluation may include co-authors. In this case, the role of each co-author should be clearly stated in writing by the student and submitted along with the research paper. Furthermore, the paper may be integrated with other work and later submitted for publication with a longer list of authors.

Research Paper Components 

Research papers take many forms, and some venues require particular nomenclature or forms. The paper submitted to the faculty to meet this requirement should include the following components:

1. a clear statement of the problem 
2. an innovative idea that addresses the problem 
3. a survey of the relevant research literature 
4. an explication and implementation of a methodology for addressing the problem 
5. evidence that the described idea achieves its goal 
6. analysis and evaluation 
7. discussion of the research, including but not limited to shortcomings of the work and directions for future work. 
8. a list of references 

While it is possible to deviate from this structure, this should only be done with the support of the student’s advisor.

Timing and Completion of Milestone

Submission and presentation of your paper must be made no later than in March following your second fall semester in the program. The due date for submission of the paper is usually the Friday before Spring break. On the Friday following Spring break, papers will be presented orally to the DINS graduate faculty in a public forum.

Each student will give a 20-minute long oral presentation of his/her paper to the faculty, followed by a 20-minute discussion. All presentations will be made on a single day. Faculty will meet the same day to grade the written and oral performance. The result of the exam will be: (a) pass, (b) fail with one more chance to re-take the exam the following year, or (c) fail with no chance to re-take the exam. While the submission and presentation of your paper may be made before the completion of the core courses and doctoral seminar, the preliminary evaluation will not be considered satisfied until all core courses and doctoral seminars are completed.

A student whose performance on the preliminary examination is judged to be inadequate may be subject to Academic Dismissal  at the end of the term.

Eligibility and Preparation

Students will have successfully completed the preliminary examination. In preparation for the comprehensive exam, it is expected that the student will complete 3 credits of advanced statistics. To be allowed to participate in the comprehensive examination a student must have:

• successfully completed the preliminary examination; and,
• completed the 1-term residency requirement.

The student will propose three areas of concentration. These areas must be approved by the examining committee, which will consist of the advisor who will chair the examining committee, and two other full-time graduate faculty members from DINS selected by the student with the approval of the advisor. To gain this approval, the student should complete and send the “Comprehensive Areas of Concentration Approval” form to all committee members for their signatures. In exceptional cases, where the student’s focus requires outside expertise, one committee member may come from outside the DINS graduate faculty body if recommended by the advisor and approved by the chair of the PhD Program.

The student must meet with the members of the committee to discuss the topics and foci. The student, with the consent of the committee, is free to select areas within information science that are not on the list of topics on the areas of concentration form, so long as the committee is unanimous in approving the topics.

As soon as the student plans for the comprehensive exam, they should notify the Chair of the PhD Committee and the Graduate Support Administrator witht he exam committee members and areas of concentration. The notification should be sent with the appropriate department forms signed by the full committee. These items must be submitted at least four weeks before the requested exam date.

Content and Format

Once the committee and the topic areas are selected, the student will prepare an activity and reading list with the advice and approval of the committee members. The student will then proceed with the review of literature, based on the reading list. When the student is ready, they will inform the advisor who will ask each member of the committee to submit one or more questions to the advisor. The advisor will be responsible for coordinating the exam with appropriate balance over the three topic areas. The student will be given the questions and allowed one week to prepare written answers to the questions.

After review of the written answers, two-hour oral examination will be scheduled and open to the public. The final reading list, questions and answers should be published and available to the SCI community on the School’s website. As soon as finalized, forward this information with “Comprehensive Exam Submission Approval for Web Publishing” form to the staff, with copies sent to the PhD Chair and all comprehensive committee members. The oral examination will normally be within a week of the completion of the written exam, but in all cases no later than within three weeks. The student will make a 10-minute presentation on the key points. The oral questions will cover the answers on the written examination, and more broadly, about knowledge of the material in the three areas of concentration. The result of the comprehensive examination will be a pass or fail. If a student fails, they may retake the exam one more time.

All required forms are available through the Graduate Support Administrator.

Timing and Completion of Milestone

The result of the comprehensive examination will be a pass or fail. If a student fails, they may retake the exam one more time. The student’s committee advisor is responsible for notifying the Graduate Support Administrator of the examination’s outcome. The Graduate Support Administrator will report the outcome to the Dean’s Office.

Dissertation Advisor and Committee

Dissertation Advisor 

Students must gain the agreement of a member of the DINS graduate faculty to chair the dissertation committee that will advise on the area of research and the design of the dissertation study. The advisor’s agreement is recorded in the student’s file. Any request to change the dissertation advisor must be submitted in writing to the Chair of the IS PhD Program Approval for the change and the selection of another dissertation advisor is placed in the student’s file.

The student’s dissertation advisor together with the student:

• assists in choosing the dissertation committee and in confirming the eligibility of all members selected;
• arranges with the staff to schedule the dissertation proposal presentation;
• reviews progress toward completion of the research;
• arranges with support staff to schedule the dissertation defense;
• chairs the dissertation defense;
• secures appropriate signatures from dissertation committee members and assures that all required paperwork is submitted in accordance with School and University procedures.

Dissertation Committee 

The dissertation committee composition is dictated by SCI regulations; see the Doctoral Committee section of the SCI Catalog for details. The dissertation committee is responsible for monitoring the research, conducting and evaluating the oral defense of the dissertation, and approving the final written presentation of the dissertation. The dissertation advisor directs the dissertation research and writing, but all committee members have the responsibility to assist the student as consultants.

Dissertation Proposal

After successfully completing the comprehensive examination, the student, in consultation with the dissertation advisor, must prepare a dissertation proposal. The written proposal is presented to the dissertation committee and defended in a hearing before the dissertation committee. The dissertation proposal meeting is open to all DINS faculty and PhD students who wish to attend and others by invitation of the student.

Students must demonstrate their potential to complete a sound project of original research by presenting and defending the dissertation proposal to their dissertation committee. The dissertation committee must unanimously approve the dissertation topic and research plan before the student may be admitted to candidacy for the doctoral degree. Approval of the proposal does not imply either the acceptance of a dissertation prepared in accord with the proposal.

Originality may be reflected in a number of ways. For example, a candidate may pose an important new problem or formulate an existing problem in a novel and useful way. A candidate may investigate previously ignored material or develop new techniques for investigating issues. Extensions of previous investigations are acceptable provided they incorporate important new elements in the design or execution of the research.

The student should inform the PhD Chair and the Graduate Support Administrator no later than four weeks prior to the preferred date and time. This notification should include the dissertation proposal’s title and abstract, the requested defense date and time, and the Committee members. The student must submit the dissertation proposal to the committee at least two weeks prior to the scheduled hearing. Copies of the dissertation proposal are made by the student at their own expense.

Electronic notice of the student’s meeting with the dissertation committee to approve the proposal will be distributed to the DINS faculty at least two weeks ahead of time. The notice will contain the student’s name; the title of the proposal; the date, time, and place of the meeting; and a link to the electronic version of the dissertation proposal.

When the proposal has been successfully defended, the Chair of the student’s dissertation committee shall notify the Chair of the PhD Committee, the Chair of the Department, and the Dean that the student has achieved formal candidacy.

Timing and Completion of Milestone

The proposal may be done any time after the successful completion of the comprehensive examination. University rules require that the proposal be completed at least eight months prior to the final defense of the dissertation. The timing of the proposal depends heavily on the student’s dissertation project. The actual timing depends on the student’s ability to demonstrate the project’s feasibility to the committee. For some, this will occur early in the research cycle; for others, this will occur later. It is generally in the student’s interest to do this earlier rather than later, since it defines the scope of the completed dissertation. In any case, every student should aim at completion of their dissertation proposal within one year of passing the comprehensive exam.

After approval of the dissertation proposal, major changes may not be made without approval of the student and the dissertation committee. When the proposal has been successfully defended, the Chair of the student’s dissertation committee shall notify the Chair of the PhD Committee, the Chair of the Department, and the Dean that the student has achieved formal candidacy.

Eligibility and Preparation

For admission to candidacy for the PhD degree, a student must have: 

• passed the preliminary examination; 
• completed a minimum of 30 credits beyond the master’s degree with a GPA of 3.3 or higher; 
• passed the comprehensive examination; 
• successfully presented a dissertation proposal and received approval of the dissertation proposal by the dissertation committee. 

Registration Requirement 

Students completing their research work for the dissertation will be required to register for at least one credit in the term during which they expect either to complete degree requirements or have the oral defense. Students must submit an application for graduation early in or before the term in which they have planned the dissertation defense. The graduation application and related preparatory steps are available on the School’s Graduation Process & Expectations webpage.

If a student does complete all the work in a given term, including the dissertation oral examination and necessary corrections, and has been cleared for graduation too late to be included on the graduation list for that term, the student may apply to graduate the following term and need not enroll for any courses or any credits, subject to approval by the Dean’s office. If a student is unable to complete the work during the expected term of graduation due to some extenuating circumstances related to the School and University (beyond control of the student and attested to by the Dean’s office), the student will not be required to register for additional credits in the term of graduation.

All requests for exceptions to the policy stated above should be sent to the Chair of the Department of Informatics and Networked Systems from the advisor for clearance and recommendation and then to the Dean for approval consideration.

Defense of the Dissertation Eligibility & Preparation

To be eligible to defend the dissertation, a student must have: 

• completed the residency requirement; 
• at least six weeks before the date of the defense, requested the formal announcement of the defense in the University Times; 
• at least two weeks before the date of the defense, distributed copies of the dissertation to the dissertation committee and make it available to the School’s faculty. These copies are provided by the student at their own expense.

The student must inform the PhD Chair and the Graduate Support Administrator no later than six weeks prior to the requested date and time for the dissertation defense (final oral exam). This notification should include the dissertation’s title and abstract, the requested data and time, and the Committee members. Dissertation defenses will be publicly announced by the School four weeks in advance. Dissertation defenses are open to the University community, but only the dissertation committee may vote. A student defends their dissertation successfully if the dissertation committee unanimously approves it. Although the dissertation defense is dedicated primarily to the field of the dissertation, other questions relating to information science may be considered at this time. The chair of the dissertation committee serves as the session moderator.

A student who successfully defends the dissertation with conditions to be completed must satisfy those conditions with the approval of the dissertation advisor within one year.

Dissertation Research Procedural Requirements

Admission to candidacy must be at least eight months before the defense of the dissertation in order to provide an opportunity for the members of the doctoral committee to review, criticize, and monitor the proposed research.

Meetings of the doctoral candidate and the dissertation committee must occur at least annually from the time the student gains admission to doctoral candidacy. During these meetings, the advisor should assess the student’s progress toward the degree, discuss objectives for the following year, and project a timetable for completing degree requirements.

The student should work with their advisor to ensure that their dissertation will be produced in an acceptable style and format. The student is also responsible for meeting University requirements when human subjects are used in research. These requirements are found in the Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects for Research. The school has a faculty representative on the Institutional Review Board who may be contacted with questions of procedure.

If University facilities and/or faculty time are being used in dissertation research and/or the writing of the dissertation, then students are required to register for at least 3 credits per term or such greater amount as the School or Program deems appropriate. Students who have completed all credit requirements for the PhD degree and are working full time on their dissertations, should register for fixed-fee full time dissertation credits. If the student is a doctoral candidate and off-campus, not using University facilities and/or faculty time, the candidate need only register for 1 credit per academic year to maintain active enrollment status.

Dissertation

After completing the investigation and preparing the dissertation, the candidate is advised to submit the first draft to the dissertation advisor early in the term in which they expect to receive the degree. This allows time for any necessary revisions and for preparation of the final copies in an acceptable style and format.

Any exceptions to the style manual approved for the School must have prior approval by the advisor. Final decisions concerning style and format rest with the student’s dissertation advisor. Note the dissertation can either follow the traditional book format model or a collection of published research articles. If the latter case, the published work must be logically connected and integrated into the dissertation in a coherent manner, and sufficient detail must be presented to satisfy the characteristics of a dissertation. If the published articles were co-authored, the contribution of the student must be clearly delineated in the introduction so the committee can ascertain that the student’s own work satisfies the requirements of a dissertation. Instructions on incorporating articles into the dissertation are provided in the Unviersity’s Format Guidelines for Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Preparation website.

Dissertation Defense

The purpose of the dissertation defense (the final oral exam) is to assess the student’s ability to present and defend the result(s) of their original research project. The student must be able to clearly communicate the problem, the method, the assumptions, and the results of the project. He or she must be able to clearly articulate and support all assumptions and decisions that were made toward the process of completing the project. While the student’s committee makes the final decision, the defense is public and questions are accepted from any attendee.

Completion of the Dissertation

The dissertation should be completed within the statute of limitations described below. If the statute of limitations is about to be exceeded and there is evidence of reasonable progress, the Department may recommend an extension to the statute by a specific period usually not exceeding one year. It is the student’s responsibility to present evidence of progress to their advisor along with a request for extension prior to the end of the statute of limitation period. All requests for extension must be approved Department; approved requests will be submitted to the Dean’s Office for final action. See details regarding the statute of limitations in the School’s Catalog page .

ETD Guidelines

Any dissertation may be published after the final defense provided that the dissertation submitted for publication is approved as to form and content by the dissertation advisor and also provided that due acknowledgment is made to the University. No form of publication, however, shall relieve the student of the responsibility for following the University’s Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) formatting for publication within the University’s digital repository. 

Graduation Procedures and Post-Processing

The graduation application and related preparatory responsibilities for students are available on the School’s Graduation Process & Expectations webpage. As well, the adminstrative processes related to graduation certification and the requirements for Master’s Thesis and Doctoral students are explained in the School’s Catalog page within the Graduation section.