Research Review

At least three months before the (planned) final oral defense or examination, the student and the Advisory Committee will meet for the research review. The research review is an opportunity for the student to present Ph.D. dissertation research to the committee. Though the student may very well obtain additional research results between the research review and the oral defense, research presented at the research review should be sufficient for a Ph.D. dissertation. The purposes of the research review are to:

• force the student to bring all the research together in a unified form,
• allow the Advisory Committee to see the research as a unified whole,
• give the Advisory Committee members the opportunity to make suggestions for good ways of organizing and presenting the results in the dissertation, and
• give the Advisory Committee the opportunity to raise any concerns they have regarding the research and proposed presentations in the dissertation.

In preparation for this review the student should prepare an outline of the research accomplishments. This outline should be given to all committee members at least one week prior to the research review. The primary focus of the research review is to anticipate potential difficulties, hence the Advisory Committee should make every effort to identify any potential problems at the research review.

The research review does not guarantee that the student will pass the oral examination, Since the passing or failing of the final examination may in part be determined by the presentation of the research, the student and Advisory Committee should discuss the dissertation format and how the research will be presented in the dissertation during the research review.

Questions of the dissertation format are important ones. The traditional format of a dissertation presenting background and new results in an unified whole is being replaced in some departments and in some cases by a collection of research papers with a unifying introduction. At least by the time of the research review questions of format need to be resolved. In fact, if a student or a major professor would prefer a dissertation consisting of a collection of papers, this decision should probably be addressed relatively early in the student's Ph.D. program, especially if it would be required that some of the papers be published or accepted for publication before the dissertation may be defended.

There is no passing or failing of the research review, but the student should try to ensure that each committee member is satisfied with the student's research. Any questions in the student's mind should be resolved with the appropriate committee member(s). Further, any committee questions concerning the research should be resolved with the student at this time. Questions from both the student's side and the committee members' sides should be resolved before the student prepares the final drafts of the dissertation. If there are questions, the best way to resolve them may be for the student to meet individually with the concerned committee members, or the Advisory Committee may feel that the research review should be repeated. This repeat of the research review could come after the student meets individually with some of the committee members.

In summary, it is expected that Advisory Committee members will raise research and/or presentation questions as much as possible in advance of the final defense. However, whenever questions are raised, the student has primary responsibility for resolving any issues or concerns.