2024-2025 Graduate Course Catalog
Information Management, DPS
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 Return to: Academic Offerings
Contact:
Dr. John Jordan
Program Director
(315)443-2911
Website:
https://ischool.syr.edu/academics/doctor-of-professional-studies-in-information-management/
Overview:
The Doctorate of Professional Studies in Information Management (DPS-IM) is a 51-credit, part-time degree program for working professionals who are interested in the applied aspects of research in the information field. This 36-month degree program serves mid-career information professionals and prepares them to be a catalyst for positive change within their organizations. This program will be of particular interest to those who consume, create, supervise, or evaluate research as part of larger problem solving or information management.
Our practice-focused curriculum will prepare students for advanced placement opportunities in senior information management positions in the public, private, defense, academic, and non-profit sectors. Whether the goal is enhancing one’s contributions and advancement within an organization, or pursuing a shift in specialization within the information professions, a doctoral degree can open a world of new possibilities for a thriving career in a rapidly changing profession.
Distinctive Features
Limited residency, distance-learning format
The combination of online and brief residency course formats provides flexibility for remote learners while encouraging opportunities for interaction among students and with faculty. Two required one-week residencies per year bring cohorts together, typically in May and September.
Applied focus
The program enriches students’ understanding of the role of information in the economy and teaches how to apply this expertise to enhance the effectiveness of information-based organizations in the public and private sectors. Students add to their breadth and depth of conceptualization, build a solid foundation for advanced levels of information research, and develop competencies, data interpretation and domain-specific problem solving.
Doctoral level research
Because most students will enter with one or more relevant masters’ degrees in hand, the program’s emphasis is on the development of the research that underlies the writing of the thesis. This document is focused on the application of existing scholarly and professional literature to management and leadership in information industries, the military and public sector, or librarianship. A distinctive feature of this program is that the cohort of students pursue common deadlines. For each cohort, the research question and motivation, the review of literature, the method(s) of inquiry, the thesis proposal, and the thesis defense are pursued in a structured thesis-writing class, relying on each other for encouragement and practical support. All theses in the cohort model will likely follow a similar architecture across students’ diverse topics in contrast to the individualized approaches that reflect the iSchool PhD program’s mentor-apprentice model.
Customizable areas of study
Concentrations and fields of research can focus on many of the Information School’s disciplines, including inquiries that connect information studies to business, engineering, communications, or policy studies.
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Student Learning Outcomes
Successful students in the DPS-IM program will be able to:
- Develop research questions
- Read and synthesize relevant literature
- Select theories for use in thesis
- Select and apply the appropriate research method(s) to test the theory
- Complete data collection and synthesize data
- Develop skill in scholarly writing
- Application to changing or impacting practice
Curriculum:
The Doctorate of Professional Studies in Information Management is a 51-credit program completed over 36 months. The curriculum involves coursework in methods and theory, a thesis proposal, and thesis research and writing.
Thesis: 39 credits
Students will devote 39 credits to the thesis, IST 997, the culminating and critical component of the DPS program. Specific semesters cover: topic selection, literature review, methods chapter, data collection/analysis, thesis proposal defense, thesis proposal public presentations, findings/implications chapter, Introduction, and thesis defense.
Methods and Theory: 9 Credits
Two methods courses, IST 776 and IST 777, and one theory course, IST 790, are required in the first two semesters of the program.
Residency: 3 credits
Students will be required to complete a 3 credit in-person residency at the beginning of the summer semester for the year in which the student is admitted. Intensive Seminars: 0 credits, required
Students are required to complete IST 880 in-person, five times for zero credits. The seminars take place in semesters 2, 4, 5, 7, & 8.
Program Sequence
The DPS degree program begins with IST 801, an intensive residential introduction to doctoral study at the beginning of the summer semester, usually in May, for the year in which a student is admitted. During the first residential seminar, students will become more familiar with the program’s coursework, faculty, technology, and each other. This opening residency leads into the summer online course introducing theories of information, IST 790.
Students will return to campus in early fall for their second residential Intensive Seminar and have the opportunity to interact with their course faculty, program staff, and fellow doctoral students. The fall online courses address research methods in IST 776 and quantitative aspects of research in IST 777.
Course work in the Spring semester of year one and going forward will be focused on the sequence of thesis-writing deadlines. Students begin the thesis writing sequence in semester three with thesis topic selection.
The second summer of the program of study begins with the third residential Intensive Seminar, followed by a semester of thesis work that culminates in a draft literature review.
In the fall semester of the second year of study, students will return to campus for their fourth residential Intensive Seminar, continuing their face-to-face interaction with program faculty, staff, and students across cohorts. The residential Intensive Seminar is again followed by thesis work that continues through the Spring semester, at which time students enter doctoral candidacy after successfully defending a thesis proposal.
The third summer semester begins with the fifth residential Intensive Seminar in which the students present their thesis proposals in a public forum. During the final year of the program, students complete their final residential Intensive Seminar in the fall, as well as the remainder of their thesis credits. Theses will be defended in the spring semester, with the objective of having a cohort graduate together in May.
Year One:
Semester 1: Summer
- IST 801 Introduction to Doctoral Studies
- IST 790 Theories of Information
Semester 2: Fall
- IST 880 Intensive Seminar (residency)
- IST 776 Research Methods in IST
- IST 777 Statistical Methods in IST
Semester 3: Spring
- IST 997 Thesis (topic selection)
Year Two:
Semester 4: Summer
- IST 880 Intensive Seminar (residency)
- IST 997 Thesis (Literature review)
Semester 5: Fall
- IST 880 Intensive Seminar (residency)
- IST 997 Thesis (methods chapter)
Semester 6: Spring
- IST 997 Thesis (data collection/analysis, thesis proposal defense)
Year Three:
Semester 7: Summer
- IST 880 Intensive Seminar (residency)
- IST 997 Thesis (findings/implications chapter)
Semester 8: Fall
- IST 880 Intensive Seminar (residency)
- IST 997 Thesis (Introduction chapter)
Semester 9: Spring
- IST 997 Thesis (thesis defense)
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