Statistical Support

To be eligible for a capped number of hours of Faculty funded statistical support, a client must be one of the following:

1. A Postgraduate research student (PhD or Masters by Research) or Masters by Coursework student enrolled in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide.
The statistical work must be directly related to a thesis or research project. Supervisors are required to attend a first meeting with the statistician. PhD and Masters by Research students are eligible for up to 15 hours of Faculty funded support per project. Masters by Coursework students are eligible for up to 5 hours of Faculty funded support per project.

2. A staff member or affiliate staff member in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.
The statistical work must be directly related to a recognisable research output (e.g. paper for publication or a grant application), with the staff member listing a School within the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences as their primary institutional affiliation. Staff and affiliate staff members are eligible for up to 15 hours of Faculty funded support per project.

AHTA statisticians are located at North Terrace and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital campuses: eligibility is the same at each site. Eligible staff and affiliates at other sites are also able to access statistical services at the North Terrace campus.

Statistical support under this scheme is not intended to replace funded support. Researchers should include funding for statistical support in their research budgets for grant applications. Undergraduate and Honours students are not supported by the Statistical Service.

Fee-for-service statistical support can be provided (subject to capacity) if a project exceeds the hours limit or if the eligibility requirements above are not met.   Studies that are intensive in their analysis requirements need to be discussed with sufficient lead-time so as to determine capacity and cost for statistical services provided.

For information on consulting services and to make an appointment with a statistician, please contact Rebecca Gross for a request form. Please note that initial appointments are set within approximately 2 weeks of receiving a form and can take longer depending on data formatting and other considerations.

Eligible staff and students at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital should contact Dr Stuart Howell, in the first instance, for statistical support.

As funding for statistical support is limited and demands on the service are high, statistical support is available for a maximum of 15 hours per research project, subject to availability, for staff and postgraduate research students and 5 hours in total for Masters by coursework students. Students or researchers requiring more extensive support should enquire about the possibility of a paid consulting arrangement with AHTA at an initial meeting, although such arrangements are subject to statistician availability.

Eligible students and researchers are required to complete a request form. A clear outline of the research question on this form, including specific hypotheses to be tested, is very helpful in making the initial meeting as productive as possible.

For research projects requiring data analysis, datasets must be cleaned and well prepared, with documentation of variable names and label formats. Working with poorly prepared datasets often results in wasted time and missed opportunities for more meaningful statistical input.

Often the services provided by the consulting statisticians would warrant consideration for co-authorship on resulting publications. According to University of Adelaide policy, authorship must be based on a substantial contribution to at least two of the following three activities:

•             conception and design of the project
•             analysis and interpretation of research data
•             drafting significant parts of the article or critically revising it
              so as to contribute to the interpretation

Often a statistician will satisfy at least two of these criteria if they are involved in the early stages of designing a research project or in critically revising a manuscript.

Authorship should be discussed and agreed upon prior to any work commencing and decisions should adhere to the University of Adelaide Authorship policy, (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/3503/).