1. Statistics or Discrete Math (e.g., IS 2060 Statistics or IS 2020 Mathematical Foundations)
2. Cognitive Psychology (e.g., IS 2300 Human Info Processing or IS 2350 Human Factors)
3. Systems Analysis and Design (e.g., IS 2510 Information Systems)
4. Data Structures (e.g., IS 2610 Data Structures)
5. Database Management (e.g., IS 2710 Database Management)

If petitions are made, it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide full syllabi and supporting documentation for any courses taken at other institutions that they view as equivalent. Prerequisite courses, and any coursework required to prepare for prerequisite courses, are not considered in the 60 credits required for the PhD program.

• Core Courses: Four graduate-level courses, one in each of the following areas. Students with previous coursework covering two courses in an area may complete the requirement of four core courses by taking additional courses from the remaining areas. Prerequisite courses that need to be taken in order to take these courses are not counted as part of the PhD course requirements. Students may not petition to substitute equivalent courses for these core courses.
  
  Research methods cluster:
  
  • INFSCI 2100 RESEARCH DESIGN
  • INFSCI 2160 DATA MINING
  • INFSCI 2611 ALGORITHM DESIGN
  
  Foundations cluster:
  
  • INFSCI 2120 INFORMATION AND CODING THEORY
  • INFSCI 2130 DECISION ANAL AND DECISION SUP SYSTEMS
  • ISSP 2170/CS 2750 MACHINE LEARNING
  • INFSCI 2906/ISSP 2190 KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION
  • INFSCI 2140 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
  
  Design cluster:
  
  • INFSCI 2470 INTERACTIVE SYSTEM DESIGN
  • INFSCI 2511 INFO SYSTEMS ANALYSIS, DESIGN, AND EVAL
  • INFSCI 2550 CLIENT-SERVER & WORKSTATION SYSTEMS
  • INFSCI 2570 DEVELOPING SECURE SYSTEMS
  
  Information cluster:
  
  • INFSCI 2711 DATABASE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
  • INFSCI 2720 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
  • INFSCI 2870 WEB TECHNOLOGIES AND STANDARDS
  
  
• 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 Introduction to Doctoral Research (IS 3005 and IS 3006), are required. IS3005/IS3006 is offered every fall/spring and should be taken during the first year of study. All graduate faculty will be invited to IS 3005/6 to present current research interests. Advanced doctoral seminars will be focused on single research themes.

The goal of the preliminary evaluation is to assess your breadth of knowledge and ability to conduct research in information science. The evidence of your breath of knowledge is your performance in the core courses and seminars. The evidence of your ability to conduct research is provided by authorship, presentation and public defense of a publishable quality research paper that:

1. presents work you have done under the direction of a graduate faculty member in the department
2. demonstrates your ability to conduct research and to write about the field and your work
3. shows your mastery of the subject matter, both in the written literature review and your ability to answer questions during the oral defense

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 activities undertaken during the first year. 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, your role in the project and in writing the paper should be significant. You must be the primary author, and ideally you will be the sole author. You should seek a project or a part of a project in which you 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 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 your advisor.

Submission and presentation of your paper must be made not later than in January following your second fall semester in the program. Students must complete the 6 credits of Independent Research Study and IS 3005/6 before taking the preliminary examination. The due date for submission of the paper is the second Friday of January. On the fourth Friday of January, papers will be presented orally to the IS 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.

Example preliminary examination papers can be found here: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005

Students will normally complete the four core courses, three seminars, and two independent studies before the preliminary exam. In preparation for the comprehensive exam, it is expected that the student will complete 3 credits of advanced statistics and a minimum of 12 additional credits in elective courses. Any graduate level course inside or outside the department can count as an elective, if approved by the student's advisor as consistent with and contributory to his or her program of studies. Students who are ready to take the comprehensive exam without the 12 additional credits may do so and petition to take additional dissertation credits to replace the elective credits.

The comprehensive examination requires successful completion of the preliminary exam. The student will propose three areas of concentration.  These areas must be approved by the examining committee, which will consist of the adviser who will chair the examining committee, and two other full time graduate faculty members from GIST selected by the student with the consent of the adviser.  In exceptional cases, where the student's focus requires outside expertise, one committee member may come from outside the GIST graduate faculty body if recommended by the adviser and approved by the chair of the PhD Committee. An area of concentration may be any of the following:

• Security
• Geographic Information Systems
• Cryptography
• Information Retrieval
• Distributed Computing
• Object Oriented Analysis and Design
• Programming Languages
• Operating Systems
• Expert Systems
• Coding Theory
• CSCW
• Software Engineering
• Augmentation
• Spatial Information Theory
• Natural Language Processing
• Adaptive Systems
• Database Systems
• Document Systems
• Wireless Communications
• Local Area Networking
• Interactive Systems
• Data Mining
• Standards and the Standardization Process
• Visualization
• Virtual Information Spaces

The student is advised to 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, so long as the committee is unanimous in approving the topics. 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 conduct whatever preparation is necessary. When the student is ready, he/she will inform the advisor who will ask each member of the committee will submit one or more questions to the advisor. The advisor will be responsible for constructing 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, an oral examination will be scheduled. It will normally be within a week of the completion of the written exam, but in all cases within three weeks. 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.

Doctoral students who have completed all credit requirements for the Ph.D. degree, including minimum dissertation credit requirements, and are working full time on their dissertations, are encouraged to register for "Full-time Dissertation Study," with a fixed-fee registration per term, currently $500 plus fees, for both Pennsylvania residents and nonresidents. Enrollment in this course provides a student full-time status and fulfills the University requirements for registration in the term of graduation (*/Regulations/*, p. 22).

Once the comprehensive examination is successfully completed, the student can propose and defend a dissertation topic.

The dissertation committee, selected by the student and dissertation advisor, and approved by the Program Chair and Dean, shall consist of at least five members, including the dissertation advisor, with the majority being from the GIST graduate faculty (See http://www.ir.pitt.edu/gradfac/homepg.htm for current graduate faculty roster).  One of the members must hold a primary faculty appointment outside the School of Information Sciences.  Upon the recommendation of the dissertation advisor, a member, or members, may be appointed from outside the University.  The expenses involved in the attendance of the outside person at meetings are not the responsibility of the school.

All students will complete:

• Required coursework (30 credits)
  • Four core courses (12 credits)
  • One introductory doctoral seminar (3 credits)
  • Two topical doctoral seminars (6 credits)
  • Two independent research studies (6 credits)
  • One advanced statistics (3 credits)
• Elective coursework (12 credits)
  • Four electives, independent study, doctoral seminars, or coursework in other departments (12 credits)
• Dissertation work (18 credits)
  • A minimum of 18 credits of dissertation study

This represents a total of 60 credits. Students with adequate preparation can petition to replace any or all of 12 additional credits with dissertation credits.

Last revision: Dec 8, 2004