The purpose of the qualifying paper is to provide students early experience in making an original contribution to the field of marketing. The qualifying paper should represent original work expressly prepared for purposes of meeting the qualifying paper requirement.

The procedure is as follows:

1. The student will form a three-person qualifying paper committee (hereafter referred to as “the committee”). The committee will be comprised of one member of the department’s doctoral program faculty selected by the student who will serve as the chair of the committee. The chair, with input from the student will choose two additional members so as to complement the student’s interests and needs. The committee will be responsible for approving a research question to be examined in the qualifying paper, providing developmental feedback, and evaluating the qualifying paper.

2. The student is required to register for MKTG 6296, “Special Topics: Progress Toward the Qualifying Paper," under the supervision of the advisor, during the second or third year in the program.

3. Drafts of the qualifying paper will be submitted to the committee according to the following timetable:

• The first draft of the qualifying paper will be submitted upon completion of the MKTG 6296 course. The committee will evaluate the paper on criteria such as, originality and importance of ideas, coverage of pertinent literature, logic and clarity in conceptualization, quality of the propositions or hypotheses, use of appropriate methods and measurements, and clear and concise presentation of results and conclusions. The committee may accept the first draft, reject it, or invite the student to revise and resubmit it. In all cases, the committee chair will provide the committee members’ written reviews to the student within 30 days of submission. If the paper is to be revised and resubmitted, the student is expected to submit the revised version within two months of receiving the reviews. A set of revision notes detailing the responses to the committee members' comments should accompany the revised paper.

• If the student receives a revise-and-resubmit decision for the first draft, the committee may accept the second draft, reject it, or invite the student to revise and resubmit it. Again, the major advisor will provide the committee members’ written reviews to the student within 30 days of submission. If the paper is to be revised and resubmitted, the student is expected to submit the revised version within two months of receiving the reviews. A set of revision notes detailing the responses to the committee members’ comments should accompany the revised paper. This revised version of the paper will be treated as a final submission, and the committee will make an accept or reject decision.

4. Should the committee vote to reject the qualifying paper, it will notify the department Ph.D. coordinator, who will then convene a meeting of the department Ph.D. Program Committee to review the case and make a final determination. Failure to pass the qualifying paper requirement will result in the student’s dismissal from the program.

5. The above procedure will be implemented for all marketing Ph.D. students entering the program in Fall 2007 and afterwards.