信息科学系致力于在一个信息对个人，组织，社会，政治，技术和经济进步至关重要的世界中，通过信息来扩大人类和技术能力。信息科学使人们了解通过信息技术收集的数据。信息科学系的课程着重于将数据转换为信息和知识，情报和应用程序，以及以能够传达其含义的方式存储和访问数据的技术和系统。从广度上讲，博士课程从定义上讲是深度上的。生物信息学博士学位要求完成生物信息学硕士学位。随后，学生几乎完全专注于他们的研究，并且必须完成至少34个额外的学时。尽管大部分学分将通过研究获得，但必须有两个额外的时间参与BINF 7193：生物
The Department of Information Science seeks to expand human and technical capabilities through information in a world where information is of central importance to personal, organizational, social, political, technical, and economic progress. Information Science makes sense of the data that people gather through information technology. The programs that reside in the Department of Information Science focus on the transformation of data to information and knowledge, to intelligence and application, and on the technologies and systems that store and access the data in ways that impart its meaning.While the MS degree program is breadth-focused, the PhD program, by definition, is depth-focused. The PhD in Bioinformatics requires completion of the MS in Bioinformatics. Subsequently, students concentrate almost exclusively upon their research and must complete a minimum of 34 additional credit hours. While most of these credit hours will be earned doing their research, two must be for additional participation in BINF 7193: Bioinformatics Graduate Seminar series. The student's advisory committee, however, may require the student to take additional advanced coursework if they feel that it is necessary for the student to effectively conduct his/her research.During the first eight months in the PhD program post-Master?s, students are required to prepare and submit a written grant request, for which s/he is the Principal Investigator to attempt to fund his/her dissertation research. The funding source may be internal (e.g., the UAMS CAGSRF grant program) or external (e.g., a fellowship request or an NIH or NSF doctoral dissertation research support grant). The submission of this proposal to the funding source and to the Program Director, the student?s oral presentation of the proposal, and the student?s oral examination by their committee constitute the typical PhD candidacy exam.