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Home > Statistical Consulting Service : Expectations & Eligibility

Expectations & Eligibility

Who is eligible?

Our priority is to help researchers, including students, faculty, and staff, from sponsoring units, currently the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Veterinary Medicine. Other University researchers will be helped if time is available.

Your college, department, graduate program, or research group can become a sponsor by funding the portion of our costs proportional to your usage; please contact Aaron Rendahl, Consulting Manager with any questions.

What kinds of projects are eligible?

Any project of scientific or educational research within the University of Minnesota is eligible for this service. Consulting is not available for questions regarding classwork or non-university projects. We also do not provide support for statistical packages and database management except in the context of specific research projects.

What is expected from clients?

Clients are not expected to already understand the statistical issues they face, or even to have any statistical background at all. Clients should be able to fully explain their experiment or study, including how the data was collected and a basic overview of the scientific issues involved.

Additionally, we expect collegial and respectful interaction between users and consultants, and it is always appropriate to recognize the role of the Statistical Consulting Service in your research. Co-authorship of papers can be appropriate when the consultant in the Service provides significant input to a final research product; otherwise a statement of acknowledgement similar to the following may be appropriate:

"The Statistical Consulting Service at the University of Minnesota and in particular [name the consultant] helped with the design and analysis of this experiment [or study or project]."

Articles: Please send copies of all articles that recognize the Statistical Consulting Service to clinic@stat.umn.edu, or by regular mail to Sanford Weisberg, School of Statistics, 312 Ford Hall, Minneapolis Campus.

Locations

The Statistical Clinic operates in two locations, in 390 Ford Hall on the Minneapolis campus for CLA consulting, and in 48 McNeal Hall on the St. Paul campus for all other units.

Status of Free Statistical Consulting

During Summer 2011, our no cost consulting is limited to researchers from sponsoring units, currently CLA and CVM, and researchers working grant proposals which include support for statistical services. Other researchers can be seen at cost. Limited no-cost consulting is expected to return in the fall.

To ensure availability for researchers from your college, department, or graduate program, your unit can become a sponsor of this service by funding the portion of our costs proportional to your usage.

For specific projects, the best way to ensure availability of service is to include funding for statistical support in grant proposals.

Contact the Consulting Manager, Aaron Rendahl at arendahl@stat.umn.edu or 612-625-1062 with any questions.