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 the 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:
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.1 However, not all results may be sufficiently or properly written for inclusion in the eventual dissertation. For some types of research, the results are written up as the research progresses. However, for other types of research, the experiments are performed and the research data are gathered before any results can be written up.
It is hoped after the research review that the substance and quality of the research will be sufficiently evident so that there is little question of the research being ``doctoral research''. However, this does not guarantee that the student will pass the oral examination. Advisory Committee members have the responsibility to raise questions about the research whenever they discover problems or concerns. However, since a primary focus of the research review is to anticipate potential difficulties, the Advisory Committee should make every effort to identify any potential problems at the research review. Of course, if and when an Advisory Committee member does discover a problem, s/he should mention this to the student as soon as possible.
Further, 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 during the research review discuss the dissertation format and how the research will be presented in the dissertation. It should, of course, be mentioned that the research itself is more important than its presentation, but the presentation is important. In fact, the understanding of the research and its significance are affected by the presentation.
Questions of the dissertation format are important ones. The traditional format of a dissertation presenting background and new results in a 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.