Ph.D. Programs
Information Systems
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Health IT Fellowships ⎟ Meet Our Graduates ⎟ FAQs and Courses ⎟ Meet Your Faculty
Robinson’s Ph.D. program in information systems seeks to attract the very best students, train them to become excellent researchers and teachers, and place them in top research institutions.
Designed to help young scholars gain the tools and training they need to compete for faculty positions at research-oriented universities, it is recognized as one of the leading programs in the world in the field. Through a combination of faculty mentoring, hands-on research opportunities and coursework, our program grooms students to become productive scholars. The program also provides an opportunity to develop teaching skills and gain the type of classroom experience necessary to be competitive in that dimension.
Journals Where Our Faculty Appear
- Management Information Systems Quarterly
- Information Systems Research
- Journal of Management Information Systems
- European Journal of Information Systems
- Information Systems Journal
- Journal of the Association for Information Systems
Contact Us
Dr. Likoebe Maruping
lmaruping@gsu.edu
404-413-7363
Health IT Fellowships
The Department of Computer Information Systems is seeking to fill multiple Ph.D. fellowship positions in health information technology (HIT) for 2018. This fellowship program is specifically designated to attract and fund young scholars who want to focus their research on HIT. The funding for these fellowships is provided by the university and is guaranteed for the duration of four years of a student’s program. Georgia State University has made research in HIT a funding priority as part of its Second Century Initiative and has agreed to provide $498,000 per year to fund faculty salaries and doctoral fellowships.
If you would like to be considered for an HIT fellowship opportunity, please let us know in the essay you submit as part of your application to the Ph.D. program.
About the Fellowship Program
The Department of Computer Information Systems and the Institute of Health Administration in the Robinson College of Business, along with the Georgia Health Policy Center in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, are undertaking research around the theme of health information technology. This initiative builds upon the existing strengths of the nationally ranked information systems and health administration programs — and the new health information technology specialization at the doctoral level — and the extensive funded research of the Health Policy Center. This multi-disciplinary initiative is a funding priority of Georgia State University.
The unique problems of the healthcare sector provide tremendous opportunities to conduct cross-discipline, collaborative HIT research. Many scholars have attributed the healthcare sector problems of costs, quality, and access to the lack of effective use of IT among doctors, nurses, patients, laboratories, and insurance companies. This interdisciplinary research initiative provides unparalleled opportunities to transform healthcare. Atlanta recently has been recognized as the HIT capital of the world by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, making Georgia State and the city of Atlanta the ideal place to advance research in the HIT area.
Meet Some of Our Graduates
Learn about the Ph.D. in information systems program from some of our successful graduates.
Rajiv Kishore
associate professor, Management Science and Systems Department, SUNY Buffalo
View his CV »
Xinlin Tang
associate professor, Department of Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Information Systems, Florida State University College of Business
View her CV »
FAQs
Those who want to prepare themselves for a career in academia and have a passion for research and teaching. Applicants should have a strong interest and background in information systems. Preference is given to those with a master’s degree in information systems or a related area (e.g., computer science or business administration). Work experience in information systems is not required but is beneficial. We base admissions on a variety of factors including GMAT or GRE scores, academic background, academic and professional experience and achievement, essays, and letters of recommendation. We do not pre-screen applicants or provide preliminary indications of the likelihood that a student will be accepted into the program.
While we do occasionally admit students without a master’s degree, preference is given to applicants who have a master’s degree.
Typically not. If our admissions committee wants to schedule an interview, we will contact you by email or phone to set up a Skype interview with one or more members of the admissions committee. We do sometimes invite promising applicants who are local or able to travel to Atlanta to visit and get to know us better as part of the admissions process.
The Center for Process Innovation (CEPRIN) is a college-level research unit within the J. Mack Robinson College of Business. CEPRIN was founded in January 2004 in collaboration between the college and the Georgia Research Alliance. CEPRIN focuses on “end-to-end business process innovation” enabled by information technology.
CEPRIN houses two professors (Arun Rai and Lars Mathiassen) who are actively involved in supervising Ph.D. students and who are also members of the Department of Computer Information Systems. Research at CEPRIN typically involves close collaboration with industry partners, faculty members from different departments at the Robinson College of Business and from other colleges at Georgia State University, and scholars at universities in other countries.
The Department of Computer Information Systems (CIS) offers undergraduate and M.S. programs as well as a Ph.D. program offering the opportunity to work with more than a dozen research-active faculty, while CEPRIN is a center dedicated to research that administers its own Ph.D. program. CIS and CEPRIN faculty work closely together on research projects. Both units are housed within the Robinson College of Business. The coordinators of the CIS program and the CEPRIN program work together to ensure that applications are considered by both programs when appropriate. Ph.D. students from the CIS department and the CEPRIN Ph.D. programs receive a Ph.D. in information systems from the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.
The Department of Computer Information Systems generally admits students every year, while CEPRIN typically admits students every other year. Students should decide in advance which program they would like to apply to. Prospective students are encouraged to review the CIS department’s Ph.D. faculty profiles in deciding which program to apply to. If a prospective student wants to work under the direction of a faculty member in CEPRIN, the student should apply directly to the CEPRIN Ph.D. program. Interested students should contact the CEPRIN Ph.D. coordinator, Dr. Arun Rai.
Some students complete the Ph.D. in information systems within 4 years while others take longer. Most students take about 5 years to complete the program. We have had students complete the program in as short as 3.5 years, and we have had students take as long as 7 years to complete the program. This really depends on the individual student, their level of preparation coming into the program, how focused they are, and the extent to which the student is willing to build a solid publication record before hitting the job market.
No. Your tuition will be completely covered if you are accepted into our program. For out-of-state graduate students, this represents a benefit of approximately $49,000 per year if you register for fall, spring and summer.
You will be responsible for paying the mandatory student fees set by the university. The university’s current fee structure is $1,064 per semester (fall and spring) and $846 if you register for summer. Historically, most of our Ph.D. students have not found the need to register for summer unless they are taking a directed readings course or are receiving a graduate research assistantship (GRA) or graduate teaching assistantship (GTA) for summer. Please note that you also will need to pay a student health insurance fee, or if you have health insurance from another source, you will need to apply for a student health insurance waiver. The current premium for student health insurance is $1,295 per year.
Yes. Our stipend for incoming students is competitive with what other schools offer (especially considering the relatively low cost of living in Atlanta), and it is guaranteed for 4 years. Duties include serving as a graduate research assistant (GRA) to one faculty member. While we encourage students to complete the program in 4 years if possible, there are support options, such as Ph.D. teaching fellowships (offered by the Robinson College of Business to students with an excellent teaching record), for those who take 5 years or longer to complete their degree.
Students are required to take a total of 42 credit hours, which typically translates into 14 semester-length courses. These courses fall into three areas: methods courses (which give you the skills to design research studies and to analyze research data), major courses (which give you the foundational knowledge of the information systems domain and related bodies of literature that information systems researchers often draw on), and electives (which allow you to round out your program of study).
At the Robinson College of Business and through the economics department at our neighboring college (the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies), we offer more than 25 methods-related courses on a regular basis. You are also free to take courses offered by other colleges and departments at Georgia State (for example, computer science, psychology, anthropology). Finally, you may cross register for courses at our neighboring institutions (Georgia Tech and Emory). Thus students have access to a tremendous selection of courses and can, with the help of their faculty adviser, customize a program of study that best meets their needs, including one-on-one directed readings courses with a faculty member.
Students must pass a comprehensive examination at the completion of coursework (before the fall semester of the third year). Students typically defend a dissertation proposal within one year of passing the comprehensive exams. In addition to coursework, we expect students to actively engage in research with faculty members. The Department of Computer Information Systems has an excellent history of co-authorship between faculty and Ph.D. students. Many students publish in top journals before the completion of their program as a result of their collaboration with the faculty.
Recent graduates of the Ph.D. in information systems program have accepted faculty positions at universities such as Virginia Tech, University of British Columbia, Emory University, Penn State University, University of Georgia, Arizona State University, Brigham Young University, Drexel University, Florida State University, State University of New York at Buffalo, Clemson University, City University of New York (Baruch College), HEC Montreal, State University of New York at Binghamton, University of Cincinnati and University of Memphis.
International Student and Scholar Services provides extensive information on visa requirements, pre-arrival procedures and orientation information for international applicants. Some additional resources that may be useful are Study in the States and Education USA. These sites provide the latest international student-related information and resources in the form of news articles, interactive videos and blog posts.
The Atlanta metropolitan area has a population of 6.1 million people and is the ninth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, the city is integral to the Georgia State University educational experience. Students and faculty are a part of a living laboratory in the center of a modern city where the corporate headquarters of 16 Fortune 500 companies are located, affording numerous research opportunities. Atlanta is a city that has much to offer including a major international airport, world-class historical and cultural attractions, and a warm climate with mild winters.
Atlanta has a relatively low cost of living (i.e., your dollar stretches much further in Atlanta than in most other large metropolitan areas such as New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., etc.). Compared to other metropolitan areas, the price of groceries, housing, utilities, transportation, healthcare, etc. is much lower in Atlanta. The below chart will help in understanding the cost of living index across popular United States cities.
As an example, based on the cost of living index, living on a budget of $25,000 in Atlanta would require a budget of $56,668 in Manhattan, New York; a budget of $42,887 in San Francisco; and a budget of $36,000 in Washington, D.C.
Sample Course Listing
3 credit hours
The seminar is concerned with problems relating to teaching and research in business administration. Various teaching methods including lecture, case and incident methods, sociodrama techniques, and tutorial procedures are examined. The problems of particular subject fields, of different levels of classes of students, and of the function of the examination process are considered.
3 credit hours
Students understand how to develop theory and surface a theoretical contribution. They understand the distinction between identifying a business problem and a scientific problem, and the approaches to achieve rigor and relevance. They learn about the elements of a theory and the approaches to build theory. They understand the distinction between process and variance models, and the importance of achieving correspondence between theoretical arguments and model specification. They develop an understanding about how to leverage context and time in building theory, and about multi-dimensional constructs and multi-level models. Cumulatively, they develop the skills and understanding to formulate a research question, synthesize the literature, build a theory, and specify a model.
3 credit hours
This course helps develop knowledge and skills in the application and use of qualitative research techniques. The course provides a survey of the methodological literature on qualitative research methods paired with appropriate article-length exemplars in the disparate business disciplines. This course covers a variety of different research strategies including case study, ethnography, grounded theory, and action research. In addition, students acquire skills in developing a research design, and qualitative date collection and analysis techniques, and authoring research manuscripts.
3 credit hours
This course introduces students to the subject of managerial decision-making. Decision-making is obviously a very important part of what managers do. Research into managerial decision-making is highly relevant to a wide variety of business school disciplines including: accounting, marketing, managerial sciences, information systems, risk management and insurance, and real estate. Drawing on relevant theories and academic journal articles, the student is introduced to bounded rationality, cognitive biases, bounded awareness and ethicality, framing effects, escalation of commitment, whistle blowing, negotiator cognition, and emotional influences on decision making.
1.5 credit hours
The focus is on varied ways to develop and define theoretical constructs, diverse approaches for developing measures of constructs, statistical methods relevant to establishing construct validity. Current issues and topics related to academic publishing will be emphasized.
1.5 credit hours
The goal of the course is to gain familiarity in multi-level approaches, including data analysis, theoretical considerations, and study design. The course emphasizes conceptual, operational, and interpretational skill development, in all areas of inquiry where multi-level approaches can be valuable.
3 credit hours
Information systems (IS) are known to affect individuals, teams, communities, business units, organizations and industries. Not surprisingly, a variety of research streams have developed that examine IS-related phenomena at each level of analysis. However, in reality these levels of analysis are not always independent of one another and, therefore, IS-related phenomena are not constrained to unfolding at a single level of analysis. The objective of this seminar is to provide an overview of research on collectives (this includes online communities, digitally-enabled teams, social networks) and the entities embedded within these collectives. Emphasis will be placed on conceptualization of collective-level constructs, operationalization of collective constructs, research that considers individuals as part of collectives, understanding core principles behind theorizing at, and across, multiple levels within these research domains. We will also spend some time understanding the analytical approaches to testing models that involve constructs at different levels of analysis.
3 credit hours
This course is intended primarily for doctoral students who seek an introduction to the extant literature in the emerging domain of health information systems. It will provide an overview of the major issues in the application and impact of information technology (IT) in the healthcare industry. We will draw upon the literature in information systems and economics to understand and analyze the key IT-related issues in the area of healthcare. This is a seminar not a lecture course, which means that active class interaction is essential. Students are expected to come to class fully prepared to discuss all the readings on a particular topic. Class participation grades will be allocated on the basis of both the quality and the quantity of contribution.
3 credit hours
Design-science research focuses on developing solutions to problems that are of a particularly complex nature. These solutions may be manifested in a variety of forms. All designers have to some extent a very common thread, which is the design process. From the centrality of knowledge production viewpoint, design-science research has a dual mandate: 1) the utilization and application of knowledge (and theory) for the creation of novel or innovative artifacts that engender change or improvement in existing situations or problem spaces; and 2) the generation of new knowledge. This is accomplished by the ability of design-science research to produce knowledge and change (Simon 1996).
Design-science research is iterative and incremental. Therefore, knowledge production and artifact generation, while concomitant, may not necessarily be synchronous. Different types of knowledge production may occur through reuse of past artifacts, creation of new ones, reflection about the design process or about the artifact, or even in design instruction (Cross 1982). The artifacts generated can take several forms, including constructs, models, methods and instantiations (March and Smith 1995; Hevner et al 2004), technological rules, design principles (Markus et al. 2002; Sein et al. 2011), organizational designs and management practices (Neiderman and March 2012) and design theories (Walls et al. 1992; Gregor and Jones 2007).
The course focuses on developing skills for implementing and evaluating the techniques and methods used in design science research. The defining characteristics of design science research are discussed and contrasted to other types of research. Research methods and techniques are presented. A number of examples of design science research are presented and analyzed. The exemplars are from a variety of information systems areas including software engineering, data base and knowledge base systems, and communication systems.
3 credit hours
This is a research seminar that focuses on research issues and methods in one or more areas having to do with the technology of information systems. Topics include software engineering, communication systems, and data-based/knowledge-based systems. The focus of the course is announced in advance and the course syllabus is made available for students to review.
3 credit hours
In this course, theories and models applicable to the analysis of systems structure and the processes of systems analysis and design are studied. Emphasis is on the applicability of the material covered to information systems in particular. The focus of the course is announced in advance and the course syllabus is made available for students to review.
3 credit hours
Action research offers unique opportunities to study business practices through projects that are planned, and often executed, in close collaboration with firms and stakeholders. Students critique exemplar action research studies across different business disciplines and they study the roots and contemporary foundation for designing and executing rigorous action research in business studies. The students learn how to organize and present action research projects including: area of concern, theoretical framing, practical problem solving, data collection and analysis, and research contributions. Also, they develop an understanding of how action research can be combined with other research methods and practical problem solving methods to conduct and present business studies.
3 credit hours
This course covers probability and statistical tools necessary for studying econometrics. Topics covered include basic techniques of probability theory, estimation, hypothesis testing, and maximum likelihood methods. Applications of these concepts to economic problems and illustrations from economics are emphasized.
3 credit hours
This course covers the econometric techniques for linear models. Subjects include the classical linear regression model, generalized least squares, instrumental variable methods, and generalized method of moments. An introduction to asymptotic distribution theory is provided. Emphasis is placed on inference and specification testing. Brief introductions to time series techniques and dichotomous choice models are included.
3 credit hours
The course deals with advanced econometric methods for the analyses of cross-section and panel data. Topics include generalized method of moments, semiparametric and nonparametric methods, and extensive coverage of panel data, discrete response, censored and selection models. Empirical implementation is an essential component of the course.
3 credit hours
This course is designed to provide students with the necessary theoretical and applied tools to conduct research involving time series data. The topics covered are stationary univariate (ARMA) and multivariate (VAR), and nonstationary univariate (unit roots) and multivariage (spurious regressions and cointegration) time series models; forecasting, estimation and asymptotic theory in the context of time series models; nonlinear models (ARCH/GARCH, regime shifts) and others.
3 credit hours
The primary objective of the seminar is to examine the conceptual foundations of culture and how culture affects organizational behavior in comparative and multicultural contexts. Conceptualizations of culture are studied from a number of different disciplinary perspectives. We examine how alternate conceptualizations of culture influence research design issues. Also addressed are critical methodological issues in implementing a cross cultural study, with a particular focus on psychometric considerations, as well as recent research on the ways in which cultures vary. We also investigate how national culture affects teams, leadership, conflict, and negotiation.
3 credit hours
This course is devoted to the investigation of significant topics in organizational behavior. It is intended primarily for advanced doctoral students. The course can be repeated when the topics vary; topics are announced in advance.
3 credit hours
This course presents a general outline of the mathematical theory of probability and statistics. Topics include random variables, discrete and continuous probability distributions, sampling distribution theory, estimation, and multivariate distributions.
3 credit hours
This course examines epistemologies and methods that lie at the heart of experimental research. It covers validation of experimental instruments, internal and external validity, and statistical conclusion validity derived through the family of ANOVA techniques, regression, and structural equation modeling. Students learn how to properly design an experiment and how to handle problems that come up in actually conducting experiments.
3 credit hours
The focus of the course is on regression as an inferential tool for conducting empirical research. As such, in-depth coverage is given to the topics of parameter estimation, hypothesis testing, and residual analysis. Multicollinearity diagnostics and remedies are discussed, and several special topics are covered.
3 credit hours
Multivariate data analysis is illustrated for data reduction, quasi-experimentation, and true experimentation. Critical assessment of published research is the key goal. Among various techniques covered are multivariate hypothesis testing, principal components analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, canonical analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and multivariate analysis of covariance.
Meet Your Faculty
Aaron Baird
abaird@gsu.edu
404-413-7639
Richard L. Baskerville
baskerville@acm.org
404-413-7362
J.J. Po-An Hsieh
jjhsieh@gsu.edu
404-413-7357
Wael Jabr
wjabr@gsu.edu
404-413-7446
Mark Keil
mkeil@gsu.edu
404-413-7365
Likoebe Maruping
lmaruping@gsu.edu
404-413-7363
Lars Mathiassen
lmathiassen@ceprin.org
404-413-7855
Ephraim McLean
emclean@gsu.edu
404-413-7448
Abhay Mishra
amishra@gsu.edu
404-413-7638
Jeong-ha (Cath) Oh
jhoh@gsu.edu
404-413-7364
Arun Rai
arunrai@gsu.edu
404-413-7857
Bala Ramesh
bramesh@gsu.edu
404-413-7372
William Robinson
wrobinson@gsu.edu
404-413-7374
Veda Storey
vstorey@gsu.edu
404-413-7377
Duane Truex
dtruex@gsu.edu
404-413-7380
Upkar Varshney
uvarshney@gsu.edu
404-413-7382
Ling Xue
lxue5@gsu.edu
404-413-7367
Dmitry Zhdanov
dzhdanov@gsu.edu
404-413-7368