Communication & Information Sciences (CIS), PhD

Admission without a master's degree into the C&IS PhD program allows highly qualified students to be admitted into the PhD program after they complete an undergraduate degree. These applicants must: 

• Submit a statement of purpose (for the master’s and doctoral program) indicating interest and commitment to graduate work through the doctoral level
• Concurrently apply to a specific College of Communication & Information Sciences master's program

Transfer Credit

The university Graduate School-wide policies related to transfer credit are applicable to the doctoral program in communication and information science, with a notable exception that students in the program are eligible to have no more than 12 hours of graduate coursework completed prior to enrollment in the program count toward the requirement that students complete 48 hours of coursework exclusive of dissertation research hours.

Doctoral Plan of Study Requirement

It is recommended that students in the doctoral program in communication and information sciences file an advisor-approved Plan of Study in their first semester in the program. It is strongly recommended students do this no later than the semester during which they will complete 12 hours of university course credit that they plan to count toward their degree requirements. It is required that students do this no later than the semester during which they will complete 30 hours of university and/or transfer course credit. By the time each doctoral student has completed 30 graduate semester hours of university and/or transfer credit, the student must have a doctoral Plan of Study approved by the Director of the PhD Program and the Office for Graduate Studies. Failure to obtain approval of the Plan of Study by the completion of 30 hours may result in the student’s having a hold placed on future registrations.

Students admitted to the doctoral program may be required to complete additional coursework to be prepared for doctoral-level (600-level) study and research in communication and information sciences, at the discretion of the student's advisor/program advisory committee or the Office for Graduate Studies.

Comprehensive Preliminary Examination

I. PURPOSE 
The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Communication & Information Sciences is regarded as the researcher's degree. Program requirements include the acquisition of skills for conducting and presenting scholarly research that is methodologically rigorous and theoretically sound. 

The degree is granted based on scholarly proficiency, distinctive achievement, and capacity for independent, collaborative, and original investigation. PhD students demonstrate these criteria through coursework, professional preparation, and a comprehensive preliminary examination — with written and oral components — taken before beginning dissertation work. The purpose of the comprehensive preliminary examination in the PhD Program in C&IS is to evaluate a doctoral student’s depth and breadth of knowledge in the field, their capacity to synthesize and critically engage with complex theoretical and methodological frameworks, and to assess their readiness to undertake original research through the work of a dissertation.

To satisfy the purposes of the examination, the examination must be completed 1) at least nine months before the degree is to be awarded, 2) after any foreign language/research skill requirements are met, and 3) after the student has completed all non-dissertation (non-699) related coursework. With advisor permission in writing to the Director of the C&IS PhD Program, students may pursue comprehensive examinations when they are in their last nine credits of their non-dissertation (non-699) related coursework.

II. EXAMINATION COMMITTEE
A preliminary examination committee for the C&IS PhD should be comprised of three (3) total members, with one member serving as the Chair. 

The committee must be formally established via a process initiated by the student and requiring the consent of each committee member, followed by review and approval by the Director of the PhD Program. Students initiate this process via their Graduate Student Portal. Students must have all members of their examination committee submitted into Slate no later than three months (twelve weeks) before their intended examination date.

All members of a doctoral preliminary examination committee must hold Graduate Faculty status at The University of Alabama. The Chair of the committee must be a full-time employee at the University of Alabama and hold Full Graduate Faculty status in C&IS; other committee members may be Full, Associate, or Affiliate members of the Graduate Faculty in C&IS. One member of the committee may hold graduate faculty status in a unit outside of C&IS. No committee members should be appointed from outside the University of Alabama.

Any request for an exception to these membership requirements must be submitted in writing to the Director of the PhD Program, including a rationale and supporting documentation (e.g., CV, description of relevant expertise). The Director will forward the request to the PhD Committee for review, which will occur during the next scheduled meeting or via electronic vote. Approval requires a majority decision of the PhD Committee and final approval by the Director of the PhD Program. All decisions will be communicated in writing to the student and committee chair and recorded in the student’s program file.

No changes are permitted to an examination committee after final approval except in extraordinary circumstances (e.g., incapacitation or departure of a committee member from the university). In those rare cases, changes must be reviewed and approved by a majority of the PhD Committee and the Director of the PhD Program.

Any request for a change to an examination committee must be submitted in writing to the Director of the PhD Program, including a rationale. The Director will forward the request to the PhD Committee for review, which will occur during the next scheduled meeting or via electronic vote. Approval requires a majority decision of the PhD Committee and final approval by the Director of the PhD Committee. All decisions will be communicated in writing to the student and committee chair and recorded in the student’s program file.

III. EXAMINATION FORMAT
The examination consists of two components: a written portion and an oral defense. Together, these components comprise the examination; they assess the student’s ability to understand, synthesize, and apply theoretical and methodological approaches fundamental to the study of communication and information. Students must demonstrate a strong command of the relevant literature, contemporary issues, and recent developments within their primary research area or area of specialization.

The written examination is structured around three core areas including 1) a theory core, 2) a research methodology core, and 3) an area of specialization or focused research area. Each area forms the basis for one independent examination question, with a different committee member responsible for developing a question and leading the evaluation of the associated area.

Written Examination Format
Students are expected to draw upon relevant theories, research methodologies, and scholarly literature to address field-specific, integrative questions. The written portion of the examination challenges students to demonstrate mastery of content by mobilizing knowledge in meaningful, applied ways—crafting evidence-based arguments, engaging with multiple perspectives, and articulating how theory meets practice.

It is expressly forbidden for students to 1) receive finalized questions for their written examinations in advance of their examination date and/or 2) prepare finalized or completed answers to written questions in advance of their examinations. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) software or generative tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Grammarly, or similar programs) is strictly prohibited during comprehensive examinations, unless specifically allowed in the question. Comprehensive examinations are designed to assess the student’s ability to synthesize and apply knowledge using their own original reasoning and expression. Evidence of AI use in comprehensive exam responses will be treated as academic misconduct and may result in failure of the examination, referral to the Graduate School for disciplinary action, and/or recommendation to the Graduate School of dismissal from the program.

Written examination questions must be completed and submitted to the Director of the PhD Program two weeks in advance of the student beginning written examinations. All written examinations will be scheduled during a no more than 16-day period each academic semester determined by the Office for Graduate Studies (one period in the fall, one period in the spring, one period in summer). 

Oral Examination Format
The oral component of the examination serves as a critical complement to the written examination. The oral examination offers an opportunity to engage dynamically with a committee, demonstrating intellectual agility, depth of understanding, and scholarly readiness in real-time discourse. The oral examination allows the student to demonstrate the analysis of their written examination responses in greater depth, clarify nuanced interpretations, and evaluate the student’s ability to synthesize and communicate complex ideas in a responsive, scholarly dialogue.

All oral preliminary examination defenses will be scheduled during a two-week period each academic semester determined by the Office for Graduate Studies (one period in the fall, one period in the spring, one period in summer). 

Virtual Oral Examination Requirements
All members of a student’s examination committee, as well as the student, are expected to attend and participate, in person, in any oral examination as part of a C&IS student’s PhD program. Traditionally, oral examinations are conducted with the student meeting their committee while gathered in one physical location on campus. However, the need occasionally arises for virtual participation in the oral examination.

In cases where virtual participation is utilized in PhD preliminary examination defense, from one virtual member to a fully virtual event, those defenses must adhere to the following requirements:
1. Prior to any oral exam, the student and Committee Chair coordinate with other committee members regarding the protocol for the exam.
2. All participants must join using university-adopted videoconferencing tools that allow for fully interactive audio and video communications along with screen-sharing capabilities, which must be maintained throughout the examination and any related discussion.
3. The use of audio-only communications is not permitted.
4. Participation merely by viewing a recording of the oral component of the examination is specifically prohibited.
5. All members of the committee, on- or off-site, must participate in the final evaluation of the examination or defense; provisions must be made to record their votes, offer feedback, and register their feedback in the written evaluation process.
6. The Committee Chair, or another non-student designee, shall be the host of the virtual meeting. A co-host may be assigned so that the event will not be interrupted by technical difficulties. The host should mute all participants (or ask participants to mute themselves) and ask the student to share their screen, if a presentation is involved, to make the presentation visible to all attendees. The host must also ensure that appropriate security precautions are taken to prevent the interruption of the event.
7. Once the committee has completed the examination of the student, the host shall place the student into the waiting room (or have the committee members use a breakout room) so the committee can conduct their deliberations in private.

The Committee Chair must have a secondary videoconferencing system available as a backup in the case of technical difficulties. Cancellation of the examination based on technical difficulties should only occur in the case where both the primary and secondary backup systems fail. If an examination must be rescheduled, it will be done without prejudice to the student. Since committee deliberations are an essential aspect of the examination, completing the examination and final discussion via email or other non-audiovisual means is prohibited. If the student or any committee member(s) have a disability that will be impacted by virtual participation, accommodations for participation must be provided.

IV. EXAMINATION PROCESS
The goal of the full examination process is to provide students with an appropriate setting to demonstrate their expertise, complemented by timely faculty evaluation and unambiguous communication of examination results.

To allow students to demonstrate the deep intellectual engagement, critical synthesis, and original analysis expected of communication and information researchers, written preliminary exams will be administered in a “take-home” format. These exams are open book— students may work from any location and may refer to any available reference materials. Each written examination question is assigned 5 days (no more, no less) for completion. The total time for completion of all examination questions will not exceed 16 calendar days from the beginning date of the first question (with some allowance for university holidays and university office closures). 

The oral examination is structured as a formal academic dialogue between the student and the committee. In preparation for the oral examination, students are provided access to their questions and written examination responses by the chair of the committee. They may not make additional notes on the responses they take into their oral examination. Students may refer to their responses during the oral examination. The chair of the committee must ensure students have access to their answers for the oral examination. All members of the examination committee, as well as the student, must attend and participate in the oral examination in real-time. 

Examination Evaluation
Committee deliberation is required and includes evaluation of both the written and oral components of the comprehensive preliminary examination together. Immediately following the oral examination, the student will exit the defense location to allow the committee to discuss, deliberate, and vote.

All committee members are responsible for reading all written examination questions/answers in preparation for the oral component of the examination. 

During the oral component of the examination, the committee member who authored each question will guide the committee’s assessment conversations determining the committee’s feedback and vote of “Pass” or “Fail” for that question (e.g., the author of the theory question will guide the assessment conversation for the theory question). 

Each committee member will cast a vote on each of the three examination questions, taking both the written and oral components of the examination into full account, selecting either Pass or Fail. Revisions or rewrites of either the written or oral components are not permitted.

• A Pass indicates that the student’s performance meets the PhD program’s standards of rigor and demonstrates readiness to begin dissertation research.
• A Fail indicates that the student has not met the program’s expectations and is not yet prepared for dissertation work. 

Examination Outcomes
At the conclusion of oral defense, deliberation, and assessment, the committee will inform the student of the outcome for each question. At the conclusion of the examination process before leaving the oral defense location, the committee will provide written feedback on each question via a form provided by the Director of the PhD Program. At a time after the defense, the Director of the PhD Program will provide this feedback to the student. 

If any one question receives a Fail from the majority of the committee (two of three members), the student may attempt the comprehensive examination a second time. If a student chooses not to attempt the examination a second time, they will receive an unqualified recommendation of dismissal from the doctoral degree program in C&IS to the Graduate School.

A student may take the preliminary examination only twice. Any question(s) failed may be retested after one month from the initial Fail decision but before three months have elapsed. Questions passed on the first attempt need not be retaken. Failing any question twice results in an unqualified recommendation of dismissal from the doctoral degree program in C&IS to the Graduate School. In cases of a second examination, both rewriting of failed questions as well as a second oral examination are required. 

Admission to Candidacy Requirements

A student is certified by the dean of the UA Graduate School for admission to candidacy for the PhD in Communication & Information Sciences after the student has completed of all required coursework, exclusive of dissertation hours, as listed on the student's approved program of study.

Continuous Enrollment Policy

Students should be aware of university policy related to continuous enrollment in Dissertation Research, as specified in the university Graduate Catalog. Students in the C&IS doctoral program are required to complete 18 hours in dissertation research through enrollment in CIS 699 Dissertation Research.

Students are able to initiate enrollment in CIS 699 no earlier than the semester following admission to candidacy. In other words, students must be admitted to candidacy before they are permitted to initiate enrollment in CIS 699. Students cannot initiate enrollment in CIS 699 in the same semester in they will have completed all coursework listed on the approved program of study; students must be admitted to candidacy prior to initiating enrollment in CIS 699.

Students register for CIS 699 with their dissertation advisor as the instructor. If a student does not yet have an approved dissertation committee, the student may enroll in CIS 699 with an intended dissertation advisor if the intended advisor approves of this arrangement, so long as the intended advisor is a member of the C&IS faculty who is eligible to chair or co-chair dissertation committees under university and program guidelines for the dissertation committee. If the student has not yet identified an intended dissertation advisor, the student may initiate CIS 699 enrollment with the chair of the student’s approved program advisory committee serving as instructor in CIS 699 if the program committee chair approves of this arrangement.

Students who plan to initiate enrollment in CIS 699 but who do not yet have an approved dissertation committee should contact the associate dean for graduate studies to report that an intended dissertation advisor or their approved program committee chair has agreed to serve as instructor of CIS 699 in the initial semester of registration. The associate dean for graduate studies will verify the intended dissertation advisor or approved program committee chair has agreed to serve as the instructor of CIS 699 in the initial semester of registration. Having verified this, the associate dean for graduate studies will issue a permit for the student to register for CIS 699 with this instructor.

Students unable to secure an instructor for CIS 699 should contact the Director of the PhD Program to develop a plan to secure an instructor.

Students who initiate enrollment in CIS 699 with an instructor who is the student’s intended but not yet approved dissertation advisor or the student’s program committee chair must in the next semester register for CIS 699 with the approved dissertation advisor as the instructor. In other words, students who initiate 699 enrollment with an instructor who is not the approved dissertation advisor must have a dissertation committee approved before they will be permitted to register for second semester in CIS 699. Only students with approved dissertation committees will be permitted to register for a second semester in  CIS 699.

Students who may be uncertain that a dissertation committee can be approved before a second semester in CIS 699 begins should not initiate 699 enrollment. Such students should consider registering for coursework other than CIS 699, coursework that can help prepare the student for pursuing dissertation research continuously, under the direction of an approved dissertation advisor, when CIS 699 enrollment is initiated.

Dissertation Requirements

A dissertation showing the ability to conduct independent research and skill in organization, writing, and presentation must be prepared on a topic in the major fields within Communication and Information Sciences. It must constitute an original contribution to knowledge. The dissertation must be based upon original research completed while the student is enrolled at The University of Alabama.

The subject of the dissertation must be approved by the student's dissertation committee and by the Dean of the Graduate School. The final dissertation may take the form of a traditional, chapter-based document or a series of at least three full-length publication-ready manuscripts which are part of a larger, cohesive body of work. The format (monograph vs. article-style) must be approved by the student’s dissertation committee in consultation with the Director of PhD Program, by the conclusion of a proposal defense.

DISSERTATION COMMITTEES
The dissertation committee should be formed and approved early in the dissertation research process, before significant progress is made on the dissertation. The committee must be formally established via a process initiated by the student and requiring the consent of each committee member, followed by review by the Director of the PhD Program and a Graduate School review for compliance with College & University regulations. Students initiate this process via their Graduate Student Portal. 

PhD committees must consist of five members. Requests for additional members must be reviewed and approved by the Director of the PhD Program. At least one of the committee members must be from outside the College of Communication & Information Sciences. These external members may be from another academic unit at the University of Alabama, from other universities, or from industry or the professional field. In all cases, these members external to the program must be appointed to the University of Alabama’s Graduate Faculty by the Dean of the Graduate School and must have significant professional qualifications that directly contribute to the depth and rigor of the dissertation. Requests for graduate faculty status for outside faculty members to dissertation committees should be sent to the Associate Dean for Faculty in C&IS.

All members of the dissertation committee must hold Graduate Faculty status at The University of Alabama. The chair of the committee must be currently employed full time with the University of Alabama and hold Full Graduate Faculty status in the College of Communication & Information Sciences; other members may be Full, Associate, or Affiliate members of the Graduate Faculty. A majority of the Dissertation Committee members must be full-time regular University of Alabama faculty in C&IS.

No changes are permitted to a dissertation committee, at any point after the prospectus defense, except in extraordinary circumstances (e.g., incapacitation or departure of a committee member from the university). In those rare cases, changes must be reviewed and approved by both the PhD Committee and the Director of the PhD Program. They also must be approved by the Graduate School.

Any request for a change to an examination committee after a prospectus defense (except in extraordinary circumstances noted above) must be submitted in writing to the Director of the PhD Program, including a rationale. The Director will forward the request to the PhD Committee for review, which will occur during the next scheduled meeting or via electronic vote. Approval requires a majority decision of the PhD Committee and final approval by the Director of the PhD Program. The case will then be forwarded to the Graduate School for review and approval. All of these decisions will be communicated in writing to the student and committee chair and recorded in the student’s program file.

DISSERTATION PROPOSALS
For all dissertations, a dissertation proposal is required. The proposal aims to show the appropriateness, manageability, and significance of the projected research. The student formally presents the written proposal to the dissertation committee and orally defends it in a required meeting with the committee. The proposal includes a written document that provides an overview and states the significance of the proposed research, review of the literature, and proposed methodology. Once the student has developed a proposal with the guidance of their committee chair, and the Director of PhD Program and the Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Alabama have approved the dissertation committee, the student schedules the dissertation proposal. That meeting will include all dissertation committee members. The student must submit the proposal to the committee at least 14 days prior to the proposal defense. The student cannot propose a dissertation and have its final defense in the same semester. Upon their conclusion, dissertation proposal defenses will be recorded, by date, by the Director of the PhD Program/the Office of Graduate Studies and included in a student’s record.

DISSERTATION FORMATS
For article-style dissertations, the document must contain at least three articles, in addition to introductory and concluding chapters. A single abstract must accompany all dissertations completed in C&IS (traditional and article-style dissertations). For article-style dissertations, there must be an introduction presenting the unifying framework that supports the research and the document must include a concluding section that summarizes the importance of the work, integrates the major findings, and discusses the implications for the overall body of work.

All articles included in an article style dissertation in C&IS must follow the guidelines below:
1) All included articles must be original works (never before published) or they must be pre-press versions of published articles. This means if they have been previously published, the versions included in the dissertation must be the versions of the work produced before publication and peer review. 
2) For the purposes of avoiding real or perceived conflict of interest matters, in cases where faculty have been co-authors on any of the articles included in the article style dissertation, 1) the dissertating student must have been first/lead author on the work (here first/lead author means that the dissertating student should be the primary contributor to the work of the article, using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) system, https://credit.niso.org) and 2) the faculty co-author may not serve as the dissertation committee chair for the purposes of the dissertation examination, either in the proposal defense or the final defense of the work. In addition, in cases where a faculty member on the committee has been identified as a co-author in either pre-press or published version of the work, that faculty member should inform all members of the dissertation committee and the Director of the PhD Program. The Director will in turn inform the PhD Committee of the case.

As a rule, students who are considering the submission of dissertation chapters/articles for publication prior to their dissertation defense – especially when these pieces of research involve faculty co-authorships and copyright – should consult with their advisor, co-authors, and current and potential publication outlets, before submitting any dissertation-related manuscript for publication.

DISSERTATION DEFENSES
The final dissertation defense constitutes the Final Examination of the PhD program. Since this is the culminating experience of the degree program, all members of the dissertation committee will attend and participate in real-time. Once the dissertation is deemed ready for the final oral defense by the dissertation chair in consultation with the dissertation committee members, the student and committee members will set a defense date with the Director of the PhD Program. All doctoral candidates must provide the completed dissertation to the dissertation committee a minimum of 14 days before the defense date. The dissertation must comply with the formatting regulations set forth on the Graduate School website.

Candidates seeking a summer dissertation or dissertation prospectus defense date must obtain the approval of all their committee members and the Director of the PhD Program. No defenses will occur on university holidays.

The final dissertation defense is comprised of four parts.
1. Public Advance Notice. A minimum of two weeks prior to the scheduled defense date, the candidate must submit the Public Notice of a Dissertation Defense form. This form includes the name of the candidate, their C&IS affiliation, the title of the dissertation, an abstract of 200 words or less, and the date, time, and location of the dissertation defense. The candidate should consult with the Dissertation Chair prior to initiating this form. The form will be initiated by the candidate and signed by the Dissertation Chair, the Director of the PhD Program, and the Graduate School. Upon receipt of the completed form, the Director of the PhD Program/the Office of Graduate Studies will ensure the scheduled defense is disseminated within the program. 

2. Oral Presentation. A public oral presentation of the dissertation is required for all doctoral candidates. This presentation must include a designated question-and-answer session open to the public; however, this Q&A session is distinct from the formal oral defense examination, which is reserved for the dissertation committee. The format, content, and duration of the public presentation are determined by the Dissertation Committee Chair, in consultation with the Committee, and should be appropriate to the scope and nature of the dissertation project.

3. Oral Defense. This examination phase of the dissertation defense, conducted by the dissertation committee members only and involving the dissertating PhD candidate, is required and should be private. 

4. Committee Deliberation. Committee deliberation following the oral defense is mandatory and shall be conducted in a private session limited exclusively to official committee members. Immediately upon completion of the oral defense, all non-committee attendees must exit the defense location. The committee will then engage in a confidential discussion to evaluate the dissertation examination, encompassing both the written manuscript and the oral defense presentation.

Following deliberation, each committee member shall cast a formal vote selecting one of the following three outcomes:
1. Pass – The dissertation meets or exceeds the standards of rigor established by the C&IS PhD program, and the candidate has successfully defended the work. The dissertation is approved pending any minor editorial corrections (e.g., formatting or typographical edits).
2. Pass, Contingent on Revisions – The dissertation is determined to be close to meeting program standards, and the defense is deemed successful; however, minor revisions are required before the dissertation can be approved. The final revised manuscript must be reviewed and formally approved by the Chair or at least one committee member designated by the Chair before the degree can be conferred. All revisions to a dissertation must be completed and turned over to the committee chair within 60 calendar days in any case where a candidate receives a “Pass, Contingent on Revisions” outcome. If revisions are not completed within this timeframe, the defense outcome will convert to a “Fail.”
3. Fail – The dissertation and/or the defense do not meet the program’s standards of rigor. Major revisions are required, and a second defense must be scheduled upon recommendation of the committee.

The committee’s decision shall be documented in writing and communicated to the candidate by the Dissertation Chair immediately following deliberation. In the case of a contingent pass or failure, the committee will provide clear, written guidance specifying required revisions and expectations for re-examination, where applicable.

The dissertation examination is successful if a majority of the committee votes either “Pass” or “Pass, contingent on revisions.” If 50% or more of the committee (three members if a five person committee) votes “Fail,” then the candidate is deemed to have failed the dissertation examination. In such a case, if this is the first dissertation examination, the student may work with their Chair to revise the manuscript and schedule a second defense.

A student may attempt the dissertation examination twice. Failing the examination two times results in a recommendation for dismissal from the PhD program to the Graduate School by the Director of the PhD Program. If the student chooses not to sit for a second examination, this results in a recommendation for dismissal from the PhD program to the Graduate School by the Director of the C&IS PhD Program.

The final results of the dissertation examination must be reported to the Director of the PhD Program as well as recorded by the committee chair in the proper channels required by the Graduate School.

5. Final Manuscript Submission and Approval. The candidate must incorporate revisions that were agreed upon by the dissertation committee at the time of the defense. Dissertations will not be reviewed by the Graduate School for final formatting approval unless a completed Final Manuscript Approval form has been received from the committee chair.

The dissertation, in its final form, must be received in the Graduate School within 90 calendar days after the dissertation defense. If this deadline is not met, the student fails the Final Examination based on not having submitted an acceptable final manuscript by the deadline. 

Students and faculty must consult the Graduate School website for additional details of due dates and of the formatting and final submission process.

VIRTUAL DISSERTATION DEFENSES
All members of a student’s dissertation committee are expected to attend and participate, usually in person, in any oral examination as part of a student’s PhD program. Traditionally, oral examinations are conducted with the student meeting their committee while gathered in one physical location on campus. However, the need occasionally arises for virtual participation in the oral examination.

In cases where virtual participation is utilized in PhD dissertation defenses (proposals or final defenses), from one virtual member to a fully virtual event, those defenses must adhere to the following requirements:
1. Prior to any oral exam, the student and Committee Chair coordinate with other committee members regarding the protocol for the exam.
2. All participants must join using university-adopted videoconferencing tools that allow for fully interactive audio and video communications along with screen-sharing capabilities, which must be maintained throughout the examination and any related discussion.
3. The use of audio-only communications is not permitted.
4. Participation merely by viewing a recording of the oral examination is specifically prohibited.
5. All members of the committee, on- or off-site, must participate in the final evaluation of the examination or defense; provisions must be made to record their votes and collect their signatures as necessary using the digital signature system approved by the Graduate School.
6. The Committee Chair, or another non-student designee, shall be the host of the virtual meeting. A co-host may be assigned so that the event will not be interrupted by technical difficulties. The host should mute all participants (or ask participants to mute themselves) and ask the student to share their screen, if a presentation is involved, in order to make the presentation visible to all attendees. The host must also ensure that appropriate security precautions are taken to prevent the interruption of the event.
7. Following the public portion of the defense, the host shall ask all non-committee members to leave the meeting, or the host may manually remove them. 
8. Once the committee has completed the examination of the student, the host shall place the student into the waiting room (or have the committee members use a breakout room) so the committee can conduct their deliberations in private.

The committee chair must have a secondary videoconferencing system available as a backup in the case of technical difficulties. Cancellation of the examination based on technical difficulties should only occur in the case where both the primary and secondary backup systems fail. If an examination must be rescheduled, it will be done without prejudice to the student. Since committee deliberations are an essential aspect of the examination, completing the examination and final discussion via email or other non-audiovisual means is prohibited. If the student or any committee member(s) have a disability that will be impacted by virtual participation, accommodations for participation must be provided.

DISSERTATION FORMATTING GUIDELINES (To include "Electronic Submission of Theses and Dissertations" at the Graduate School)
All parts of the dissertation must conform to the formatting provisions set forth by the Graduate School, except when the circumstances of a specific project or discipline’s style manual require deviation. In the latter cases, a student and their dissertation committee must make the Graduate School aware of these deviations. Students should email the Graduate School before beginning their work if they have questions concerning specific problems or deviations from traditional procedures. See “Final Dissertation Submission and Approval” in the Graduate School catalogue for additional details.

Time Limits for Degree Completion

The doctoral program in communication and information sciences follows university Graduate School-wide policy regarding the time limits for degree completion. 

Academic Misconduct Information

The doctoral program in communication and information sciences follows university Graduate School-wide policy regarding academic misconduct. 

Withdrawals and Leave of Absence Information

The doctoral program in communication and information sciences follows university Graduate School-wide policy regarding withdrawals and leaves of absence. 

Academic Grievances Information

The doctoral program in communication and information sciences follows university Graduate School-wide policy regarding academic grievances. 

Grades and Academic Standing 

A student must maintain cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for graduate courses undertaken following admission to the doctoral program. A doctoral student whose grade point average falls below 3.0 at any time after 12 semester hours have been completed will be placed on academic warning by the Graduate School and the College of Communication & Information Sciences. A student on academic warning will not be permitted to apply for admission to candidacy and may not hold an assistantship. Students who are suspended from the program for failure to raise their GPA to 3.0 under academic warning status may petition the college for readmission. The college may in turn make a request to the dean of the university Graduate School for approval of the student's readmission.

University Graduate School-wide policies related to grades and academic standing.

Graduate School Deadlines Information

Information on Graduate School Deadlines. 

Application for Graduation Information

Information on the Application for Graduation.