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Doctor of Philosophy Degree

The doctor of philosophy degree is a research degree designed to produce the critical scholar. The degree is granted only to students who:

have mastered definite fields of knowledge so that they are familiar not only with what has been done in their specific fields but also with the potential and opportunity for further advances;
have demonstrated capacity to do original and independent scholarly investigation or creative work in their selected fields; and
have the ability to integrate their selected fields of specialization with the larger domains of knowledge and understanding" (Graduate Bulletin, p. 48).

The Ph.D. in Information Studies offered by the Florida State University College of Information is a research degree designed to produce astute and creative researchers for academic, corporate, nonprofit, or governmental settings. Doctoral students in the College of Information analyze, evaluate, and explain a variety of information phenomena and become familiar with and develop backgrounds in such areas as the social sciences, information science, and/or the humanities, as they relate to information phenomena. Doctoral students will also become aware of the multiplicity of problems in the information field to which these research techniques may be applied. To demonstrate this familiarity, they will perform original research, and report the results of their research in a clearly written dissertation.

Why FSU?

Collaborate in a dynamic environment. In collaboration with faculty and colleagues, doctoral students embrace the interdisciplinary nature of Library and Information Studies (LIS) by employing a wide range of research methods. A dynamic and collaborative atmosphere supports innovative and critical thinking. Faculty and students address cutting-edge research topics and develop funding and publishing opportunities together.

Study in a home of scholarship. The College is headquarters to Beta Phi Mu, the exclusive international LIS honor society.

Our students excel. CI students took first and second place, respectively, in the 2006 and 2005 Doctoral Research Poster Sessions of the Association for Library and Information Science Education.

Gain exposure to research journals. The College of Information is home to two journals—Library Quarterly and Government Information Quarterly. Since 1931, no publication has played a greater role in forging and reflecting the LIS research discourse than Library Quarterly. Government Information Quarterly is a highly regarded international journal of information technology management, policies, and practices.

Study with top people in the field.

Charles R. McClure and John Carlo Bertot rank as two of the most highly productive LIS faculty—#4 and #6 in journal publications, respectively, according to a recent paper in Library & Information Science Research (Adkins and Budd, 2006).
Eliza Dresang, national award-winning author of Radical Change, the impetus for three national conferences, and winner of many other awards and recognitions for her research.
Corinne Jörgensen, winner of four national awards for research in image indexing and retrieval and the impacts of technology on the library.
Wayne Wiegand, renowned library historian, and director of the First Annual Florida Book Awards.
Kathy Burnett, developer of Project Athena, a funded project to increase the quantity and quality of LIS PhDs.
Greg Riccardi, principal researcher on an NSF-funded project creating a database that manages taxonomic images in biology.

Well-rounded research. The faculty at the College are engaged in a broad range of interdisciplinary research. The College has exceeded $1 million in research funding for each of the past two years.

The Information Use Management & Policy Institute directed by Charles R. McClure has received some $4 million in awards supporting research in a range of library, information, and policy topics since 1999.
Project LEAD, a nationally recognized program for development of leadership in school media specialists, directed by Eliza Dresang and Nancy Everhart, recently received federal funding of $940,000 through 2009.
Three CI researchers, Drs. Corinne and Peter Jörgensen and Dr. Greg Riccardi, are working on an NSF-funded project to create “Morphbank,” an open access online repository of biological images to support research in a wide array of biological disciplines.

Profiles of the other outstanding faculty at the College of Information can be found at: http://ci.fsu.edu/faculty_staff/faculty_list

Program Requirements

A series of program components must be completed as you progress toward a Doctor of Philosophy Degree. Highlights of these activities are described below; follow these links to download a complete description of the program's guidelines in PDF and in HTML.

Hours Required to Complete the Degree. The CI program has a minimum of 36 hours of required coursework (doctoral seminars, minor coursework, research collaborations, etc.) that must be completed before taking the preliminary exam. The Florida State University has a residency requirement for doctoral students, during which you must earn 24 credit hours in no more than three (3) consecutive semesters. Students entering the program without a master’s degree must take 30 credit hours of graduate coursework before starting their doctoral coursework.
Supervisory Committee. Your program is planned in cooperation with your Supervisory Committee (SC) to ensure a mastery of the field before your preliminary examination. Your SC must be chaired by a major professor (MP) in the college with doctoral directive status. Together with your MP, you will decide on at least two additional faculty members to join the SC. The online profiles of the College's faculty can help you identify those scholars whose interests are compatible with your own.
Annual Review. Each year, you must accumulate a comprehensive portfolio of your work to be reviewed by your SC.
Required Courses. You are required to take at least 18 hours of doctoral seminars, 9 hours of minor coursework, 3 hours of statistics, and 6 hours of research collaborations.
Course Offerings. Course Descriptions for the doctoral program give you an overview of each course. Courses are offered on a rotating schedule, and all courses are not offered each semester.
Publishable Paper. You must write a publishable paper prior to graduation. This paper will demonstrate your ability to enter into the scholarly conversation. This paper may be co-authored with a faculty member. There are ample opportunities for research collaboration.
Preliminary Exam. The preliminary exam is written by members of your Supervisory Committee, and it demonstrates your mastery of the particular area you have chosen in the field. One of the exam questions generally deals with your minor. An oral component may, at the request of the committee, follow the written examination.
Dissertation. The dissertation is supervised by your Supervisory Committee, and includes two major activities. You first write and defend a research proposal, one that normally constitutes the first chapters of your dissertation. Having successfully defended the proposal, you then proceed to collect data, complete analysis, and write the final chapters of the dissertation, culminating in an oral defense of your dissertation.
Completion of the Degree. The Doctor of Philosophy degree must be completed within five (5) calendar years from the time you pass your preliminary examination.

Admission

Admission to the doctoral program is selective, based upon the assessment and balancing of a number of factors (including past performance) that, when taken together, provide evidence of superior scholastic ability and potential for success in a rigorous graduate program of research study. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the Ph.D. in Information Studies, applications from prospective students representing a wide range of fields are strongly encouraged.

All application materials must be submitted by February 1 for admission in the fall semester of that same year.

Contact

If you have questions about the CI doctoral program, contact Doctoral Program Co-Chairs Dr. Paul Marty, marty@ci.fsu.edu, or Dr. Charles McClure, cmcclure@ci.fsu.edu, or Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research, Dr. Corinne Jörgensen, cjorgensen@ci.fsu.edu.