Upon successful completion of the qualifying examination, and admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree, the responsibilities of the advisory committee have been discharged, and that committee is technically disbanded.

 A new committee—the research committee—must be appointed for the purpose of guiding the candidate's dissertation research. In many instances the members of the advisory committee become members of the research committee. However, the actual makeup of the research committee will be determined by the nature of the research to be pursued and the interests and qualifications of faculty.

Stipulations of Research Committee membership:

• The Ph.D. research committee must have at least four (4) members who are current members of Graduate Faculty at Indiana University.
• All members must have Indiana University graduate faculty status.
•  The committee chair (and when applicable, co-chair) must be endorsed to chair dissertation committees in the student's major department. At least one other member of the research committee must also be endorsed to chair graduate student committees.
•  All dissertation research committees must include at least three (3) members from the student’s major department, and one (1) member to represent the doctoral minor.
•  Faculty members from universities outside of IU are permitted to serve on the research committee, but the composition of the committee must also have four (4) members from IU as stated above. The outside faculty member’s current Curriculum Vitae (CV) must be attached to the Nomination of Research Committee eDoc.
•  Information regarding the eligibility of faculty to serve on the dissertation research committee may be found on the University Graduate School’s website at  https://graduate.indiana.edu/faculty-staff/membership.html.
•  Students are eligible to defend their final dissertation defense no earlier than six (6) months after the approval of the Nomination of Research Committee eDoc.

Nomination of Research Committee eDoc:

Following official admission to candidacy, the doctoral candidate completes the Nomination of Research Committee eDoc with the University Graduate School (UGS) at https://one.iu.edu/task/iupui/phd-nomination-of-research-committee.

•  A summary of the proposed dissertation (as a prospectus) must be attached to the eDoc prior to submitting it.
• IRB approval (if the research involves human or animal subjects) should be attached if it has already been obtained at the time of turning in this eDoc as well.
• Here is a link to IUB’s Research Compliance information: https://research.iu.edu/compliance/human- subjects/index.html
• It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that their research is in compliance with IU’s Research Compliance requirements, and research must not begin until compliance is verified by the IRB.