Research proposal approval

Within one year of admission to a PhD program, students must submit to the departmental committee a detailed doctoral research proposal. A letter by the advisor and by the departmental committee chair must be attached to the research proposal indicating that the research can feasibly be carried out in the department. Structure of the proposal is specified below.

Two options are available for research proposal review:

1. Review by sending the proposal to two reviewers – 

After submission of the proposal, the departmental committee will appoint two reviewers:

1. An internal reviewer, a faculty member from Bar-Ilan University at the rank of senior lecturer or higher in the standard track, and an external reviewer who is a faculty member from a higher education institution in Israel other than Bar-Ilan at the rank of senior lecturer or higher in the standard track.
2. In exceptional cases, the departmental committee may appoint two reviewers who are not faculty members of the Bar-Ilan University who meet the academic conditions detailed above. It is also possible to exceptionally appoint reviewers who are not in the rank and/or track as described above, or faculty members from academic institutions abroad.
3. The appointment of reviewers as specified in section 2 requires the approval of the School of Graduate Studies prior to the submission of the research proposal for evaluation. To obtain approval, a detailed request, along with CV and a list of publications of the proposed reviewers, should be submitted to the School of Graduate Studies.
4. The reviewers must be experts in the field of the proposed research. Appointment of reviewers who have co-authored an academic manuscript with the advisor or student in the five years that precede submission of the research proposal should be avoided. 

Both reviewers will provide the departmental committee a detailed evaluation stating whether the research proposal is worthy of approval and, when necessary, they may recommend corrections and/or revisions to the proposal which will be made under the supervisor's responsibility or will require repeated examination and approval by the reviewer(s).If the doctoral work requires approval by an ethics committee, the proposal should not be sent out for review until such approval is obtained.

• After receiving the evaluation of the reviewers, the department must send all of the following documents to the School of Graduate Studies: the “Proposal for PhD research work plan”  form, signed by all relevant parties, and a copy of the research proposal and reviewer evaluations. If revisions were required, a letter must be attached specifying the revisions made and advisor confirmation of those revisions and that the updated research proposal was submitted. If a reviewer requested considerable changes, the updated proposal must be submitted to the reviewer for approval; the second evaluation and approval of the updated proposal must be attached.
• Final approval of the research proposal is by the School of Graduate Studies. The School of Graduate Studies is authorized to require revisions to the research proposal or to that a new one be written  
• The School of Graduate Studies is authorized to require that a proposal be sent for further review by an additional reviewer.

1. Review by a research advisory committee as specified in the “Research advisory committee” section.