PhD Prospectus and Thesis/Dissertation Preparation

This page describes the process of getting a PhD in Cognitive Science.  In brief, the process works like this: 

• By the end of the first year, coursework is completed (with the exception the Pro seminar, if it wasn’t offered your first year)
• By the end of the second year, the methodology rotations are completed and the thesis topic is selected in consultation with the supervisor; work begins on the prospectus document 
• By the end of the third year, the prospectus is defended in a formal meeting with the supervisor and two additional committee members
• By the end of the sith year, the research is completed, culminating in a thesis document and an oral defense. The final version of the thesis is uploaded.

This page goes over these steps, focusing on the thesis component.  Information on the course work component is here <insert link>

Your Supervisor

PhD students are mentored by a supervisor. Supervisors are assigned upon acceptance to the program, but can be changed later. Graduate Studies has developed guidelines for supervision. Minimally, the supervisor must have the expertise on the student’s research topic.  Supervisors are expected to meet with students on a regular basis and to be available for consultation even when they are away for extended periods.  Students should have the opportunity to present and discuss their work in small group settings (lab meetings or informal groups), in departmental colloquia, and/or at conferences.

Your Responsibilities

Similarly, Graduate Studies specifies the responsibilities of the student. Students are expected to communicate with their supervisors, to participate in jointly-agreed upon research activities, to carry through on research assistantship duties, and in general, to participate in the scholarly activity of the department more generally (e.g., attend colloquia, serve on departmental committees, provide support for other students through knowledge sharing etc.). Students also need to balance course work requirements with research activities.

Determining the Subject of Your Research

A PhD dissertation involves original research that identifies an important gap(s) in the field and uses rigorous research methods to fill that gap. The student and supervisor should meet regularly to discuss potential research topics; the final topic must align with the supervisor’s expertise.

Doctoral Prospectus – 1st Steps

Before beginning work on your prospectus, please read the Policies regarding the Doctoral Dissertation. As well, you should be familiar with the Graduate Studies Thesis Examination Policy from Graduate Studies and the new Electronic Thesis

Deposit System for formatting requirements for both your prospectus and your thesis.

Doctoral Prospectus Defense

The Prospectus Defense is an official meeting consisting of yourself, your graduate supervisor(s) and your two additional committee members. The Department assigns a Cognitive Science Graduate Committee Faculty Member to act as a chair for your defense. This should take place prior to the bulk of the research being completed. 

Steps required in scheduling your Prospectus Defense

1. Write the Prospectus Document. This is a substantial amount of work requiring (1) synthesizing the relevant literature (~70+ references); (2) identifying the gaps and research questions for your thesis; (3) identifying the proposed methods for answering the questions. The document needs to be 50+ pages before references. More details on this document are here <insert link>. Plan on multiple iterations with your supervisor on this document before sharing it with your committee (see below, step 4).
2. In consultation with your supervisor(s) and committee members, decide on a date and time for the Prospectus Defense.
3. Fill out the PhD Prospectus Defense Examination Schedule and submit it at least four weeks in advance of your planned Prospectus Defense. 
4. Three weeks in advance of the Prospectus Defense, forward to the committee and the graduate administrator (GA) a copy of your Prospectus Document. 

After the Prospectus Defense, the student does the research and writes the dissertation. It is highly recommended to have at least one committee meeting before the final defense.

Dissertation Document

All dissertations need to conform to the guidelines presented by Graduate Studies. Note that all Carleton University theses are available for viewing online through the library. It is helpful for students to look at a few to see how they are typically organized.

The Two Types of Dissertations

The department accepts two types of dissertations, which are referred to as the traditional model and the integrated articles model.

Traditional Model. The traditional model consists of a series of chapters (Chapter 1, 2, … to Chapter X). Each Chapter follows sequentially from the one before and constitutes a major section, such as Introduction, Literature Review, Experiment 1, .. General Discussion, and so on (or other titles as appropriate). The traditional model in the humanities might resemble a book; in the social sciences the dissertation may resemble a multi-experiment journal article (though with different headings). Most of the theses in the Department are in this format.

Integrated Article Model. In contrast, the articles model consists of a series of papers – either published or submitted journal articles or papers published or submitted to conferences as proceedings papers. Graduate Studies has adopted a policy on how such theses should be organized and specified requirements for copyright permissions, and other issues. Please refer to section 12.4 of the Graduate Studies Thesis Preparation Guidelines. These dissertations will still be organized as Chapters, with Chapter 1 as the literature review, Chapter 2 as an overview of the methodology, separate chapters for each published article, and a concluding chapter. The formatting is the same

Other Integrated Article Considerations

1. For any articles that are already published, either in journals or in archival conference proceedings, permission may need to be obtained to reproduce the article in the thesis. The permission statement and the accurate citation to the publication should be included at the beginning of the relevant section (Chapter or Appendix) containing the article.
2. Because the content of a published paper cannot realistically be altered, theses that are presented in either of the Articles Formats may need to include commentaries or qualifications in some form. For example, a thesis might require additional data or analyses not included in a (usually shorter) published article. The student and supervisor should make it clear how such supplementary information is integrated into the rest of the document. Further, committee members, as part of the defense process, might require additional discussion (or other commentary) to be added. 
3. Typically, articles included in the dissertation will have the student as the first author (see Graduate Studiesʼs guidelines). In general, students are discouraged from including articles for which he or she was only a minor contributor. 
4. A prior Masterʼs thesis should not be included as an article in the PhD dissertation.

The Dissertation Examination Committee

The examination committee must consist of: 

• The supervisor or all co-supervisors
• Two additional members (typically from the Department of Cognitive Science)
• An internal examiner
• An external examiner
• A chair of the committee

The internal examiner is a Carleton professor who is not in Cognitive Science (not even a 0% faculty.) The student and the supervisor can discuss who this should be. 

The external examiner is a recognized expert in the subject of the dissertation. They must be “arms-length” from both the supervisor and the student and must be from another university. The supervisor picks this person and asks them to be on the committee. The student should have no contact with the external examiner before the defense.

Lead-Up to the Defense

8 weeks in advance of your Doctoral Defense Date: The supervisor should submit to the Department Chair the CV and contact info of the External Examiner.  

Six Weeks Before: The student submits the PhD Thesis Defense Examination Approval Form to the graduate administrator. This form should only be submitted after there has been confirmation from your supervisor that all the members of your committee including the External Examiner and the Internal Examiner have confirmed their availability for this date and time.  This form gives us information about the details of your defense and the committee members who will be attending. Once the information about your defense is entered into the system, you will get an email, prompting you to upload your examination copy.

Five Weeks Before: The student uploads the examination copy to Carleton Central in PDF-A form. See instructions. Please ensure you also email your dissertation document to the graduate administrator. The graduate administrator will submit it to Graduate Studies with the external examiner contact information. 

Once the examination copy is uploaded and approved by the supervisor, the student should start preparing their presentation slides for a 15-20 minute presentation at the defense.

One Week Before: Graduate Studies will manage the contact with the external examiner. The external examiner prepares a written report  no later than one week before the date set for the defense, specifying whether the defense can proceed. Each committee member also submits a form (which will come from the graduate administrator) specifying whether they agree that the thesis is ready for defense. The student and supervisor will be notified as to whether are not the defense can proceed.  

Doctoral Defense

Defenses are typically done in person, but the external often joins over Zoom. Guests, which we will call spectators, are allowed. The defense has these stages:

1. The chair (of the committee) describes what will happen. 
2. The chair excuses the candidate (the PhD student) and any guests from the room. 
3. The chair gets verbal confirmation from the committee that the defense can proceed.
4. If it can proceed, the spectators and student are brought back in. The student gives a 15 to 20 minute presentation, summarizing the research. After this point, spectators must leave. 
5. The chair facilitates two rounds of questioning. In the first round, each committee member gets roughly 15 minutes to question the candidate without interruption from other committee members. The student does not know what these questions

will be in advance. Each non-chair committee member gets to do this. The supervisor takes careful notes throughout both rounds of questioning. 

• The second round of questioning is more like a discussion, where others can jump in. 
• After questioning is done, the student is allowed to make an optional final statement. 
• The student is excused from the room again and the committee deliberates. 
• The student is brought in and told the outcome of the examination: Accept without revision, accept with minor revision, accept with major revision, or reject. 

The supervisor compiles the list of required changes and circulates the notes to all committee members within a day or two of the defense; once they are approved, they send them to the chair who uploads the list to Carleton Central.

After the Doctoral Defense

If the defense passed without revision (which is very rare!) the student might correct a few typos and then upload the final version of the dissertation. 

If minor or major revisions are required, the student works on these based on the revision list approved by the committee. If revisions are minor, only the supervisor has to confirm that the changes have been made. If revisions were major, some subset of the committee must review changes before final approval is made. After final approval, the student uploads the final version of the dissertation. Once the final copy has been uploaded, your supervisor has to approve it. Once approved it, you have completed your Program Requirements for the PhD in Cognitive Science.