1. the Dissertation proposal
Keep moving toward your goal.
CIS 720: April 4, 2016
Source:
CIS policies: Section 5.0: Preparation and Defense of Dissertation Proposal

2. What’s in a dissertation proposal?
Most proposals contain:
Introduction to problem being studied
Review of relevant literature
Description of methodology to be used
This usually corresponds to first three chapters of the dissertation
If a pilot study or other preliminary investigations have been conducted, these should also be reported
Know your style
Grad Division Style Policy – required info
CIS style policy?
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3. Who should be on your committee?
At least five members, including:
Committee chair: regular CIS faculty member (can’t be from cooperating or affiliate CIS faculty)
University Representative: member of UHM graduate faculty who’s not regular/cooperating/affiliate CIS faculty
At least one inside member from outside chair’s program/department
Remaining inside members can be regular/ cooperating/affiliate CIS faculty
Also possible to include emeritus, non-graduate and outside faculty members on committee. See Office of Graduate Education site for details.

4. Who should be on your committee?
Need help finding members?
To find out who’s actually on the CIS faculty and who’s not, search online: ntent/select-committee-member

5. When do you defend your proposal?
Proposal defense must be completed by the end of four years. BUT …
This period can be extended by petition to CIS Executive Board, subject to a seven-year limit.
So you’re ready to start thinking about your dissertation proposal defense.
Now what?!
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6. What’s required before you schedule?
Finish CIS 701, 702, 703 and research methods or data analysis course
Pass all area exams
Finish research paper
Complete Form I: Doctorate – Pre-Candidacy Progress and send to CIS Program Office to document that these requirements have been met
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7. What’s required before you schedule?
Find your dissertation committee chair, then assemble your committee
Seek approval of proposed committee from CIS chair, who will clear with CIS executive board
At least three weeks before you plan to defend, send proposal title, abstract and draft to CIS chair, including:
References
Proposed committee
Justification of the appropriateness of each committee member
Schedule defense meeting at a time that the dissertation committee and the CIS chair can attend and arrange a room

8. (At least) Two weeks before defense
Complete Form II: Doctorate – Advance to Candidacy and give to dissertation committee chair
Send announcement of time and place of your proposal defense to all CIS faculty members and students, and invite them to attend. Include proposal title and abstract.
Send a copy of your proposal to each member of your committee and CIS chair

9. Day of your proposal defense
You’re ready to present and defend your proposal in a public meeting!
Each committee member will assess the proposal document via this form
At this point, you should have received at least one round of feedback from all committee members and revised the proposal accordingly.

10. Day of your proposal defense
Your dissertation committee will decide whether your proposal is:
Accepted as written: committee signs Form II
Accepted with modifications: committee signs Form II and you make changes
Not accepted:
Committee may require additional courses or readings, or may not allow you to proceed with the proposed dissertation topic. 
You can submit another proposal. 
At this point, you should have received at least one round of feedback from all committee members and revised the proposal accordingly.
Congratulations, Chamil! March 30, 2016

11. But let’s just assume your proposal was accepted.
Congratulations!

12. What are the next steps?
If your research includes human subjects, you need approval from UHM’s Committee on Human Studies (aka IRB: Institutional Review Board).
Learn how to create an IRB research protocol
This can take some time, and you may have to complete some online training courses (do them now to be ready!)
Forward signed Form II and a copy of human subjects authorization to the Office of Graduate Education
This indicates you’ve successfully completed the OGE requirement for a comprehensive examination and have advanced to all but dissertation stage (ABD).
Yay you! You’re ABD! Now for the “D” …