The nature of the research is determined by the student in consultation with the student's supervisory committee. The project is an independent scholarly effort with faculty providing broad, informal guidance. The goal is to produce a paper publishable in a respected, academic journal. The resulting paper is due no later than the beginning of the Fall semester of the third year. The dissertation is research conducted by the student under the supervision of his or her supervisory committee.
Dissertations can be a single, unified project or a series of related projects.
All research must be original and may not be co-authored. Recent dissertations have been written in a variety of areas including accounting theory, corporate disclosure policy, audit judgment, and taxation. All students are required to serve as a graduate research assistant for a minimum of two semesters. Students will generally work on a research project under the direction of one faculty member. All s tudents are required to teach for at least two semesters.