THE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
DEGREE
The Ph.D. is granted on the basis of evidence that you have achieved a high
level of scholarship and proficiency in research rather than solely on the
basis of successful completion of a prescribed amount of coursework. Your
competence and ability to work independently and to write creatively are
established by qualifying and comprehensive examinations and the quality
of a dissertation submitted as an account of your original research. Program of Study and Advisory Committee
The graduate committee of your department will assign an advisor and an advisory committee who must approve the proposed program of study for the degree. Graduate work completed at another university will be considered by the departmental graduate committee and your advisory committee in the development of your program of study.
Typically, when the dissertation proposal is nearing approval, the departmental graduate committee will forward to the office of the dean of the college in which you are enrolled a recommendation for appointment of a dean's representative, together with the names of other dissertation committee members and the title of your dissertation. The committee shall consist of at least three members representing the range of content in your program of study, in addition to the representative from the dean's office.
Comprehensive Examination
When coursework is virtually completed, and upon the recommendation of the advisory committee, you take a comprehensive examination, which is given to establish your mastery of the fields of specialization and readiness for advanced research. The results of the examination must be reported within one week to the office of the dean of the college in which you are enrolled, on a form provided by the dean's office.
A copy of this form should be sent to the Office of Graduate Student Services to be included in your official academic file.
Scholarly Discipline Requirement
The Ph.D. degree by definition is research-oriented, and each department shall determine the auxiliary research competencies needed by candidates for the Ph.D. degree. Competence will be determined by standards and methods established by the individual departments. If you expect to demonstrate proficiency in one of the scholarly disciplines in which examinations are arranged by your dean's office (e.g., statistics, computer science, foreign language, etc.), you must file an appropriate Intent Form. These forms are available from and should be filed with the office of the dean of the college in which you are enrolled. You must be registered for a minimum of two hours in the quarter in which you take the examination.
The French, German, Russian, and Spanish proficiency examinations of the Educational Testing Service are given at Ohio University several times during the year. Information and application forms may be obtained at the office of your dean, where you will pay a $5 nonrefundable registration fee.
Academic Residency Requirement
Normally, at least three academic quarters of the doctoral program shall be in continuous residence on the Athens campus of Ohio University in an institutional full-time status (registration for 15 graduate credits). If you receive Ohio University stipend support, you are considered to have instructional full-time status by registering for nine or more graduate credits. For some programs, the residency requirement can be fulfilled a third way: if you are not receiving stipend or scholarship support, you may be granted the option of completing residency requirements for the Ph.D. by enrolling in nine quarter hours of coursework per quarter for three consecutive quarters if concurrently employed in a full-time professional position, defined as one in which the experience contributes directly to your program. This option must be approved by your advisor, the department or school graduate committee, and the department chair or school director. A written justification of how the experience gained in the position is directly and educationally related to your professional goals and the goals of the program, and why this experience (alone or combined with other planned experiences) should be used to satisfy residency, is required.
You must submit the written justification to your advisor before the request will be considered. The continuous residence requirement applies to the period of graduate study following the completion of the master's degree or the completion of at least 45 graduate credits.
Admission to Candidacy
Admission to candidacy is achieved after you have completed the following steps: (1) formation of the dissertation committee (including the dean's representative), which may be the same as your advisory committee; (2) approval of the research proposal by this committee; (3) successful completion of the comprehensive examination; and (4) satisfaction of all required scholarly disciplines.
Forms for indicating completion of the above are available from and are filed in the office of the dean of the college in which you are enrolled. You will not be permitted to schedule the oral examination of the dissertation until you have met all requirements for admission to candidacy.
A copy of your admission-to-candidacy letter should be sent to the Office of Graduate Student Services for inclusion in your official file.
Dissertation
A dissertation, the scholarly account of research in the new area of knowledge, is submitted by each candidate.* Each department will prescribe the specific style manual to be followed by its students. A pamphlet, "Format for the Presentation of Theses and Dissertations," is available in the deans' offices. This booklet contains regulations regarding type, margins, quality of paper, abstract, and other aspects, as well as detailed directions for submitting the finished dissertation to the office of the dean of the college in which you are enrolled. You must obtain from your dean's office the current "Format" and the list of quarterly deadlines for graduation.
After the dissertation has been approved by your dissertation committee, dissertation director, and dean, two copies are forwarded to Alden Library. In addition, one copy is retained in your department, and another is submitted to University Microfilms International for microfilming and entry into Dissertation Abstracts International. Upon the return of the copy from University Microfilms International, both copies are bound and cataloged, then one copy is placed in Archives and the other in the stacks. The dissertation is considered a public document and will be made available to the public in the same manner as any other document cataloged within the university library.
A copy of the dissertation abstract should be sent to the Office of Graduate Student Services for inclusion in your official file.
*See "Restricted Publications of Theses or Dissertations" in this catalog.
Copyright
Dissertations can be copyrighted at the time the manuscripts are sent to University Microfilms International. Arrangements can be made through the library for this service. Under current copyright procedures, microfilming by University Microfilms International constitutes publication. You may lose the ability to obtain a copyright if your dissertation is not copyrighted at the time of submission to your dean's office. For further information, contact the Office of the Director, Alden Library 512.
Oral Dissertation Examination
An oral dissertation examination is required of all candidates for the Ph.D. degree. The examining committee shall be composed of your entire dissertation committee (including the representative of the dean of the college in which you are enrolled), unless otherwise specified by the associate provost for Graduate and Research Programs. You must present final copies of the dissertation to members of the examining committee at least two weeks before the date of your oral examination to allow adequate time for review. The final arrangements for the examination shall be completed through the office of the dean of the college in which you are enrolled at least 10 days prior to the examination. Details of the examination, including time and place, will be sent by the dean's office to you and the examiners.
The Office of Graduate Student Services should be notified of the date that you passed the oral examination for inclusion in your official file.
Time Limit for Ph.D. Program
You must complete the doctoral program of study within seven calendar years of the date of its initiation as determined by the individual department and recorded in the Office of Graduate Student Services.
If you do not complete requirements for the degree within the given period, you may be permitted to continue in graduate study only if exceptional circumstances are associated with the delay in progress.
The dean of your college may grant a one-quarter, onetime extension. If circumstances require an extension beyond the one-quarter dean's extension, you must apply for readmission to the program. The application for readmission must be reviewed by the graduate committee of the program and the dean of the college. The criteria for readmission should be the currency of your (1) knowledge of the required work, (2) research literature, and (3) research methods and techniques. The program may require additional coursework, retaking the oral/written comprehensive examination, changing or updating the dissertation, or fulfilling any degree requirements that may have been added to the program since the initiation of your program. If you are approved for readmission, the specifications for readmission must be presented to you in writing with a copy of those specifications placed on file in the Office of Graduate Student Services.
Restricted Publication of
Theses or Dissertations
The university does not accept theses or dissertations containing material developed as part of a research project if the thesis or dissertation is restricted from publication. Publication, for this purpose, includes the cataloging and placement of the approved manuscript in the Ohio University Libraries and, for dissertations, microfilming by University Microfilms International. (NOTE: University Microfilms International allows authors to restrict the distribution of dissertations and theses.)
However, upon written request to your dean's office, you may delay publication up to a maximum of 12 months if, in the judgment of the office, the data upon which your thesis or dissertation is based are proprietary and not available in the public domain. You must submit the request for delay with the formal approval of your advisor at least one academic quarter before the normal date of publication of the thesis or dissertation.
The only times a thesis or dissertation completed at Ohio University will be withheld from the public will be if it has been approved for delayed publication following the procedures outlined above or if a question of plagiarism, libelous or abusive statements, or falsification or misrepresentation of data is raised. If a question regarding one of these issues is raised, then the manuscript will be withheld until the issue has been reviewed and resolved.
Return to 1995-1997 Graduate Catalog Table of Contents
University Publications and the Computer Services Center revised this file ( https://www.ohio.edu/~gcat/95-97/appadm/phd.html
) April 13, 1998.
Please e-mail comments or suggestions to " gcat@www.ohiou.edu ."