Program Overview

Program Overview

The Professional Doctorate in Information Science (DInfSci) is a doctoral degree programme designed for experienced information professionals. It allows individuals to research issues arising from the practice of Information Science, increasing their knowledge, developing new research findings, and improving their professional competence.

Research Opportunities

The DInfSci programme offers a flexible and supportive method of study, enabling students to continue working while pursuing their research. The programme can be completed remotely, making it suitable for international applicants. Research areas include:

• Data Science and Machine Learning
• Information Behaviour
• Interactive Information Retrieval
• Cultural Heritage

Data Science & Machine Learning

This research area focuses on putting machine learning into practice to develop systems that tailor content delivery to end-users, optimizing their experience. The group specializes in helping companies build infrastructure for developing data-driven solutions, employing state-of-the-art algorithms for document classification, content ranking and recommendation, user behavior analysis, and performance measurement.

Information Behaviour

Information Behaviour studies how people interact with information, including finding, creating, using, sharing, disseminating, and avoiding information. Research is conducted in various contexts, such as education, health, cultural heritage, and work, with a focus on marginalized groups to understand barriers and how to overcome them.

Interactive Information Retrieval

This area specializes in understanding how people search for information and developing interactive search tools to support information seeking and retrieval tasks. The group takes a holistic approach to studying users and their search behaviors, developing tools and interfaces for effective and efficient access to heterogeneous, unstructured multimedia collections of information.

Cultural Heritage

Research in this area relates to the preservation, access, and management of cultural heritage, including topics such as cultural heritage and well-being, visitor experience, metadata management and sharing, and access to information and objects within libraries and museums. New directions in cultural heritage, such as AI and decarbonization, are also explored.

Why Strathclyde

The University of Strathclyde is ranked 4th in the UK and 22nd in the world for Information & Library Studies by QS 2023. The university has been a leading school of information and library science in the UK for over 70 years and is a member of the prestigious iSchools organization.

Course Content

The DInfSci programme starts with a tailored research preparation programme consisting of three stages:

1. Literature & Scholarship: Creating a solid academic foundation for the research programme through individual supervisory meetings and supporting materials.
2. Directed Study: Defining the area of professional practice to be researched, involving analysis, scoping projects, and stakeholder interactions.
3. Research Methods: Acquiring the necessary research skills, including understanding research paradigms, methods, and instruments, and planning a research project.

Fees & Funding

Tuition fees for the DInfSci programme are as follows:

• Scotland: £4,786 (2024/25), £5,006 (2025/26)
• England, Wales & Northern Ireland: £4,786 (2024/25), £5,006 (2025/26)
• Republic of Ireland: Same as England, Wales & Northern Ireland
• International: £22,400 (2024/25), £24,650 (2025/26) Additional costs may include accommodation, graduation robes, and photographs.

Supervisors

The programme has several supervisors with expertise in various areas, including:

• Dr. Leif Azzopardi: Information intensive applications and agents, recommender systems, information retrieval systems, language modelling, deep learning, and machine learning.
• Professor Gobinda Chowdhury: Digital libraries and information services.
• Dr. Martin Halvey: Multimodal interaction, interactive search, and machine learning.
• Dr. Perla Innocenti: Digital cultural heritage, intangible heritage traditions, digital preservation, and museum studies.
• Dr. Yashar Moshfeghi: Content-based and collaborative filtering and recommender systems, user-centric information retrieval, adaptive information retrieval, and affective and sentiment information retrieval systems.
• Dr. Dmitri Roussinov: Machine learning, information systems, information retrieval, natural language processing, search engines, and security informatics.
• Professor Ian Ruthven: Interactive searching, information seeking and information behaviour, interactive systems evaluation, and qualitative research.

Support & Development

The programme includes the Postgraduate Certificate in Researcher Professional Development (PgCert RPD), which enhances the research experience and recognizes the skills and activities developed as a research student. The certificate covers knowledge and intellectual abilities, personal qualities, understanding of professional standards, and the ability to collaborate and communicate research impact.

Entry Requirements

Applicants must hold a UK Honours degree or overseas equivalent at a minimum 2:1 level or a Master's degree in a relevant discipline from a recognized academic institution. Additionally, applicants should have a minimum of five years of management experience within the information professions.

Application Process

Applicants are strongly advised to contact the programme lead, Professor Ian Ruthven, before making an application to discuss their application and determine if the DInfSci is the right course of study for them. The application process involves submitting a brief account of career history, details of the proposed project, and why the applicant is considering a DInfSci. Applications can be made for full-time or part-time study, with start dates between October 2024 and September 2027.