TAXONOMY OF FIELDS

Revised 7/28/06

Respondents will be asked to assign each doctoral program to the fields below.

The definition of a program is a unit that satisfies at least three out of the following four criteria:
1) enrolls students,
2) has a designated faculty,
3) develops a curriculum for doctoral study, and
4) recommends students for the award of a doctoral degree.
Do not split or combine existing doctoral programs. To be listed, a program must have produced 5 Ph.D.s during the period 2001/2 to 2005/6.

Emerging Fields. Some fields are listed in this category because they are sometimes offered through stand-alone programs or are sometimes programs that are included as part of another larger field. Institutions are requested to report programs in emerging fields regardless of whether or not they are included in another program. If it is a separate program, respondents will be asked to indicate whether it is a stand-alone program or not. Other fields are listed because they have been experiencing significant growth, although they do not yet meet the size criterion for inclusion in the study. Institutions will also be asked to list the number of doctoral faculty members associated with the program and the number of students enrolled in it. Emerging fields will not be included in the ratings process.

Note: Field names are provided so that the study may group doctoral programs that are comparable to one another. Doctoral programs should be assigned to fields. A field may contain more than one program within the same institution. If a program has research strength outside its field (e.g. astrophysics in a physics program) or is interdisciplinary in nature, there will be an opportunity to select multiple fields for a program on the program questionnaire. In the case of “umbrella” programs in the biosciences, a doctoral program should be assigned to the field in which it awards a degree, not the program which admits doctoral students.

If you have questions about the taxonomy, please send them to: resdoctax@nas.edu

LIFE SCIENCES
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology
Cell and Developmental Biology
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Public Health
Genetics and Genomics
Immunology and Infectious Disease
Biology/Integrated Biology/Integrated Biomedical Sciences (Note: Use this field only if the degree field is not specialized.)
Kinesiology
Microbiology
Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Nursing
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
Physiology
Animal Sciences
Entomology
Food Science
Forestry and Forest Sciences
Nutrition
Plant Sciences

Emerging Fields:
 

PHYSICAL SCIENCES & MATHEMATICS 
Applied Mathematics
Astrophysics and Astronomy
Chemistry
Computer Sciences
Earth Sciences
Mathematics
Oceanography, Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Physics
Statistics and Probability

ENGINEERING
Aerospace Engineering
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Chemical Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Computer Engineering
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Engineering Science and Materials (not elsewhere classified)
Materials Science and Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

Emerging Fields:
 

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Agricultural and Resource Economics
Anthropology
Communication
Economics
Geography
Linguistics
Political Science
Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
Psychology
Sociology

Emerging Fields:
 

ARTS AND HUMANITIES
American Studies
Classics
Comparative Literature
English Language and Literature
French and Francophone Language and Literature
German Language and Literature
Language, Societies, and Cultures
History
History of Art, Architecture and Archaeology
Music (except performance)
Philosophy
Religion
Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature
Theatre and Performance Studies

Emerging Fields: