Statistical Consulting Center

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About the Statistical Consulting Center

The Statistical Consulting Center (SCC) serves clients both inside and outside the university community.  Everyone is eligible for an initial one-hour consultation free of charge. Our services are free to College of Science and Mathematics faculty, staff, and graduate students doing research at Wright State without grant support or other funding. Our rates are modest for other fully-affiliated Wright State faculty, staff, and graduate students for research done at Wright State, and we provide free support on grant proposals if written into the grant to provide statistical support. Special policies and procedures must be followed by graduate students. Contact the SCC office to make an appointment or for further information.
 

Why Use a Consultant?

  • Many research proposals can be made more effective with a stronger statistical component. The SCC can strengthen your research work by assisting with such aspects as formulation of hypotheses, experimental design, sample size estimation, data collection methodology, methods of analysis, and interpretation of results. We welcome the opportunity to partner with you in your research.
  • Those who deal with data in their research, graduate studies, or business activities can seek advice and assistance from a consultant at the SCC (Wright State graduate students need the approval of their advisor). It is best to meet with us at the planning stage, before collecting data. Even if you carry out all your own statistical design and analysis, it is worthwhile to plan and review them with a SCC consultant to assess their appropriateness and viability to achieve your intended goals.
  • We can assist with data entry and data management.
  • We regularly offer a "Statistical Overview" short course as well as workshops on SAS, SPSS and R software packages.
  • We offer statistical software assistance either individually or via class presentations, as our availability and expertise permit, with no charge to faculty for these services.
     

Services

Personnel at the SCC can serve as effective members of a research team, especially if they are involved in the project early in its development. Faculty and staff are available to help you with your statistical needs. Specifically, we can offer help in the following areas:

  • Data Entry and Data Management: For a fixed hourly cost, the Statistical Consulting Center can enter your data from any of a number of formats, or we can work with data that you provide electronically. We can provide you with an email attachment of the data at no cost. We also provide help with SAS and SPSS statistical software packages.
  • Experimental and Research Design: We can help with
    • Designing a survey
    • Identifying the proper, most efficient design for an experiment
    • Devising the most effective sampling technique
    • Ensuring the integrity of the experimental protocol
    • Estimating the appropriate sample size for a given experiment
  • Statistical Analysis of Data: The statistical methodology that is appropriate for a set of data is highly dependent on how the data was collected, what research questions are being asked, and the general design of the experiment. We can provide data analysis capabilities ranging from complex data file manipulation and standard descriptive statistical techniques to the most powerful modern inferential statistical methods.
  • Interpretation of Results: Once the data have been analyzed, we interpret the results, translating the statistical notation, jargon, and computer output into clear, meaningful conclusions. We provide you with a professional, thorough report documenting the statistical methods that are used to substantiate the conclusions that are made.
  • Statistics Education: We regularly offer a "Statistical Overview" short course as well as workshops on SAS, SPSS and R software packages. We offer statistical software assistance either individually or via class presentations, as our availability and expertise permits, with no charge to faculty for these services.
  • Facilities and Computer Resources: Our statistical software includes:
    • SAS
    • SPSS
    • PASS
    • R
    • various graphics and spreadsheet programs
       

Contact

When do I Contact the Statistical Consulting Center?

It is important to contact us as early in your research project as possible, preferably when planning your data collection and analysis. For grant-funded, long-term research, we can be most effective if we are involved in planning and drafting the experimental design and analysis and written into the budget proposal as a consultant. Availability of consultants affects scheduling; priority is typically first-come first-served, and even last-minute requests should be scheduled at least a week in advance of your deadline.

If you're interested in using the center, please contact us at 937-775-3370.


Mission Statement

The mission of the SCC is five-fold:

  1. provide high-quality, effective statistical support for Wright State University faculty, staff, and graduate students,
  2. effectively and efficiently train statistics graduate students in the art and science of real-world statistical consulting,
  3. generate statistics research problems that can lead to grant funding opportunities, research publications, and/or presentations at professional meetings by the statistics faculty,
  4. offer high-quality and practically useful statistics education opportunities to University personnel and the surrounding community, including community service activities,
  5. offer high-quality, effective statistical support to individuals and organizations not affiliated with Wright State University (external clients).

Because the highest quality scientific research depends on the proper design of experiments/surveys, the correct analysis and interpretation of the data, and the accurate formulation of conclusions from the data, the SCC is committed to providing statistical support to researchers in such a way that these goals are achieved.

Because the transition of statistics graduate students from formal course work to the application of the science of statistics to real-world problems is crucial and highly valued by industry and government, the SCC is committed to offering a course, required of all statistics graduate students, which accomplishes this transition effectively and efficiently. The practicum part of this course affords the student opportunities to work with clients in helping to solve real-world problems.

The SCC strives to document those projects for which the best or most accurate statistical methodology is not currently available and, as a service to the statistics faculty, make these “potential research problems” available for their perusal and use.

The SCC is committed to providing quality statistical consulting services to the Dayton community and beyond. In this way, the ties between Wright State University and the community are strengthened.

In response to the demand for general statistics education, the SCC endeavors to provide quality educational opportunities in the form of seminars, short-courses, and customized lectures. In addition, the SCC is committed to engaging in community service activities, especially those involving young people.

In summary, the SCC is unconditionally committed to the principles espoused at the first World Statistics Day, October 20, 2010: service, professionalism, and integrity.