Doctoral Consortium

1. Nominee Information Sheet

Students complete the information on this form and submit it along with the other two documents mentioned below.

2. Nomination Letter

Students must be nominated by an IS faculty member or academic. There can only be one nominee per university or institution unless different units of the institution each hold their own AIS membership. In that case, each unit of the university may nominate one student. Multiple nominations received from the same unit of a university or institution will be rejected.

The nomination should be in the form of a nomination letter from the nominating faculty member and should certify that:

• The candidate is the sole nominee from the university or institution, or from that unit, if the university has more than one unit with an AIS membership;
• The candidate meets the eligibility criteria mentioned above; and
• The nominating institution guarantees to provide the consortium participation fee and travel funds to the nominee should she or he be admitted to the Consortium.
• Ideally, the nominating faculty member should be the IS Doctoral Program Director or the IS Department’s Chairperson. If these individuals are not available, then the nominee’s Dissertation Advisor may nominate the student. However, if this is the case, then the dissertation advisor must be a faculty member at the nominee’s university or institution.

3. Candidate’s Dissertation Proposal Paper

The paper outlining the candidate’s research should be in the form of a short report summarizing the student’s dissertation/thesis proposal. This part of the paper should not exceed ten double-spaced pages, formatted as follows: Times New Roman or equivalent font, 11-point or 10-point font, double-spaced only (not 1.5), 2.54cm margins all around A4 paper (or 1-inch margins all around letter size, 8.5 x 11-inch paper).  Number all pages. Nominations not adhering to the proposal length limits will be rejected.

This paper should include the research question, a justification for why and to whom the research is important. It also should include a brief literature review, a presentation of the theoretical basis for the work, a research model and hypotheses (if applicable), and a description of the research design.

This ten-page limit does not include a title page (incl. abstract), tables, figures, or references. Tables and figures should not be embedded in the text but appended to follow the ten pages of text immediately. References should appear last.

Two appendices of no more than one page each should be included. (These appendices must also follow the formatting guidelines outlined above.) The first appendix summarizes any findings the student has at the time of nomination. The second appendix is an estimated timeline of the planned activities needed to complete the dissertation after May 29, 2021. We are requesting this information to gauge how far the nominee is in the dissertation process.

The complete document — including the title page, main text, tables, figures, references, and appendices — should not exceed 20 pages. This page limit will be strictly enforced, and the Consortium co-chairs reserve the right to reject any candidates whose research paper fails to conform to these parameters.

All three documents — including Nominee Information Sheet, Nomination Letter, and Dissertation Proposal Paper — are to be included in a single PDF submission in the above order.