Services

At the Statistical Consulting Center, we provide a variety of services for investigators which we generally categorize into one of four types. We encourage all those interested in working with the StCC are encouraged to review our policies.

Quick Help

Some questions can be answered in brief (15 – 30 minute) meetings: What software is best for my project?  What is the most efficient way to design my study?  Is repeated measures ANOVA the right procedure for my data?  How can I interpret this output from this procedure?  For “quick” questions such as these, we encourage investigators to visit our free consulting clinic, which meets every Friday from 10AM-12PM in the School of Public Health and Information Science building.

Consultation

A consultation is a short term engagement between an investigator and one of our consultants in which a StCC consultant provides a service for an investigator.  Most consultations involve the statistical analysis of an investigator-provided data set, but other services such as power and sample size calculation, database creation, report writing, manuscript preparation can be offered as well.  Consulting engagements are short term – a StCC consultant assess the request, provides a cost estimate for the services, does the work, turns over results, and discusses and reanalyzes as needed.  Upon completion of the work, the consulting relationship ceases.  Nearly all consulting arrangements are billed hourly according to our fee schedule.

Collaboration

Collaborative arrangements are much like consulting arrangements, but imply a longer term relationship due to the scope of a project and/or the number of individual projects the arrangement covers.  The services provided in a collaborative arrangement are generally the same as in a consulting arrangement.  Like consulting arrangements, collaborations are generally billed hourly unless a special agreement such as a contract or retainer has been negotiated between the investigator and the StCC.

Grant Work

StCC consultants are available to provide full support for grant applications as well as to be included as personnel on the grant.  We encourage those interested in including StCC consultants as grant personnel to contact us well in advance of the due date of the application (1-2 months).  The arrangement we recommend is for investigators to include a StCC consultant as key personnel or investigators on the grant application for a percentage of the consultant’s salary and equivalent percentage of research infrastructure funds (RIF) for RIF-paying grants.  Under this arrangement, all of the preparatory work for the grant – study design, power and sample size calculation, support letters, analysis plan writing – is done pro bono.

An alternative arrangement – one we do not recommend, but often proves necessary – includes a line-item in the grant’s budget for statistical consultation, with the StCC named as the entity providing the consultation.  Under this arrangement, a StCC consultant provides an estimate for services to be included in the budget as well as a letter of acknowledgment of the StCC’s awareness of the application and willingness to assist.  Any up-front work under this arrangement is billed at the hourly rate defined in the fee schedule.

What We Don’t Do

While we aim to assist investigators in every way possible, there are things we do not do:

  • Software demonstrations or tutorials
  • Tutoring or other coursework
  • Serve as a guide while an investigator conducts a data analysis
  • Analyses that have been pre-defined by an investigator
  • Officially respond to critiques of work we have not done
  • Negotiate costs

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