Overview The SCC offers a variety of services. We offer a free initial one hour consultation for any UGA-affilliated client needing statistical assistance. This initial consultation will typically be a meeting between the client(s), one or two SCC consultants, and an SCC faculty supervisor. Meetings take place at the SCC Office in Brooks Hall or via Zoom, if the client prefers a virtual session. Subject to the time constraints of a one-hour session, we can provide general advice on study design, discuss statistical methods and software for analyzing data, and offer interpretation of statistical results including output from software packages. The client may then choose to work further with the SCC to receive additional advice, help with data analysis, and/or other services. Our goal is to facilitate research at UGA and to improve its quality. SCC services are appropriate for any sort of research being done on campus, including projects related to students’ MS theses or PhD dissertations, subject to the approval of their faculty advisor. The SCC is also keen to work with UGA faculty members and can provide statistical support for nearly all phases of a research project. In addition, we are happy to offer statistical consulting to off-campus researchers and commercial clients, as time permits. Two services that we do not offer are data entry and data collection, though we are happy to offer advice on how these tasks can be accomplished. For some projects, the initial one-hour consultation will be the only assistance required. In other cases, if clients want additional advice and/or data analysis, we will provide these services for an agreed upon fee. Our fees depend upon various factors, as explained in the Consulting Fees link of this webpage. We are a not-for-profit center, so we aim to keep our fees as low as possible while sustaining the center. Even so, we realize that the fees may not be affordable for some clients. Consequently, we also offer free in-depth consulting for clients willing to allow their data to be analyzed by graduate student consultants working in the SCC for course credit. These projects must meet certain guidelines in order to be considered for this type of consulting; if you are interested in this option, please contact the Director or the Associate Director of the SCC. Student Clients Many of the clients who consult with the SCC are UGA graduate students and we are happy to serve this population. However, our services are intended to support research projects, not coursework. We do not provide assistance with class assignments and do not offer tutoring. The SCC does not write or format thesis or dissertation chapters. For UGA graduate students and undergraduates engaged in research (e.g., through CURO), the SCC requires the knowledge and approval of a faculty advisor to provide assistance beyond the initial free one-hour consultation. For this reason, we require student clients to be accompanied by their major professor or research advisor for their initial meeting with SCC consultants (for an explanation of this policy, click here). UGA Faculty and Staff Engaged in Research The SCC is happy to serve UGA researchers at any stage of their projects. Many clients come to the SCC with data that they have already collected and we are happy to help them identify and implement statistical analyses that will help them meet their research goals. Statisticians can be most helpful, however, when they participate in the design and analysis of a study, so we strongly encourage clients to meet with us at the planning stage of their research. Regardless of the stage of the research, some projects require advice and implementation of standard (though not necessarily simple) methodologies. Other projects are more complex and require novel, creative or more in-depth statistical help. Those in the later category rise above statistical consulting and are better treated as statistical collaboration. The SCC can help you determine which level of help you need. While all of the work that is done at the SCC is supervised by faculty members of the Department of Statistics (typically the Associate Director or Director of the SCC), collaborations will always involve a faculty member affiliated with the SCC. For some collaborative projects, co-authorship and/or involvement in grant proposals may be a more appropriate arrangement than our usual fee-for-service model. Such arrangements can be negotiated with the Associate Director of the SCC, or Dr. Dan Hall, Director of the SCC. Researchers interested in the involvement of the SCC in a collaborative or consulting role on grant proposals should contact Dan Hall. Clients from Outside of UGA While our first obligation is to faculty, staff, and students at UGA, we are willing, resources permitting, to accept projects from other academic, government, non-profit, or commercial clients. Charges for such will typically be higher than for UGA clients, as explained on the Consulting Fees page, though rates do vary. Requesting an Appointment & Walk-In Hours To set up an appointment for an initial free consultation, please go to the Consultation Request, fill out the short form there, and submit it electronically. We will attempt to contact you within two business days to set up a mutually agreeable meeting time. The SCC also offers a limited number of walk-in hours. Clients who need help on relatively straight-forward topics or who are in a hurry to meet with a consultant may drop in at the SCC Office, Room 339, Brooks Hall. During walk-in hours you will meet with one of the graduate student consulting assistants. Although you may get all the help you need from walk-in hours, keep in mind that clients often think their questions are much more simple than they really are. In such cases we may redirect you to schedule a regular appointment. We ask that clients limit their use of walk-in hours to twice per semester. The scope of our services in walk-in hours is limited; without an appointment for a full initial consultation, we do not implement statistical analyses, write code, or provide advice on study design (including sample size/power calculations).
