Our Philosophy
Our goal is to gain a working knowledge of the science and logistics of your problem, while simultaneously giving you a working knowledge of the statistical theory and methods that we suggest. We believe that the most efficient and effective way to achieve this is to develop a collaborative relationship. This means that the statistical work will be performed either by you or together with the statistician. In particular, you should not expect the statistician to do the work for you.
Scope of Assistance Provided
We can provide assistance in all statistical aspects of research, including: project development, grant writing, experimental design, data analysis, software use (including SAS and R), interpretation of results, writing of reports, manuscripts and presentations, and addressing reviewer comments. In some cases, the nature of the collaboration may warrant formal acknowledgement or co-authorship for the statistician, and we believe that this can be agreed upon between you and the statistician in such situations.
Eligibility
Schools or Colleges, Departments or Centers, or individual labs can collaborate with us by setting up a fee agreement. These are generally longer term (at least one year) agreements for a flat fee. We do not offer hourly consulting.
Requesting a Meeting
If you are part of a current agreement, you can enter the waiting list to meet with one of our statisticians by filling out our online Signup Form. The description of your request is very important, as it will help our staff connect you to the statistician who is best able to meet your specific needs. We do not offer drop-in consulting.
If you are interested in collaborating with us, but are not part of a current agreement, or are not sure about your eligibility, please send a message to: statconsulting@stat.wisc.edu.
Process Time Frame
You will receive immediate confirmation of a successful request submission. Within 2-3 business days of submission, you will get confirmation from the staff that you have been assigned to a statistician. You should then be contacted by that statistician within another 2-3 business days to set up an initial appointment. Depending on the time of year, it may be up to 2-3 weeks from the time of submission to the first actual meeting with the statistician. Please plan ahead and contact us well in advance! In addition, be aware that even relatively simple questions can take at least 2-4 meetings spread over 1-2 months to completely and adequately address.
Fair Usage Practices
We ask that you work with only one statistician at a time on any given project. If you are working on several distinct projects, you may request a different statistician for each project, or the same statistician for any or all of them. If you feel that the help you are receiving is unsatisfactory, we suggest that you discuss the situation with your statistician first. If this does not resolve the problem, contact the director, Cecile Ane (cecile.ane@wisc.edu) or manager, Nick Keuler (nskeuler@wisc.edu). We ask that you not re-enter the waiting list in such a situation.