Statistical Consulting Services and Policies

The UCLA Statistical Consulting Group offers many services to UCLA researchers. All of our services are provided free of charge. Our services are listed below, along with details regarding the service. Please note that we do not offer telephone consulting (that is to say, we do not answer statistical consulting questions over the phone).

The goal of the UCLA Statistical Consulting Group is to help UCLA faculty, staff, and graduate students perform top-notch research, with the greatest emphasis on data analysis related to grants and publications, but also including dissertation research. We provide advice and resources to enable you to develop and/or extend your statistical computing skills, helping you to independently use common statistical packages for the analysis of research data.

Please visit our services FAQ page for more information and examples of the services that we offer.

Walk-in consulting

• Location: We are located in the DCP/Stat Lab, 4919 Math Sciences (see campus map).
• Days and times: Walk-in statistical consulting is offered Monday and Tuesday 10-12 & 2-4; Wednesday, 2-4; Thursday, 1-4 (see detailed consulting schedule below).
• Appointments: We do not make appointments. UCLA researchers are welcome to come to our walk-in consulting.
• What our walk-in service includes: Please see our Statistical Consulting Services page for a description of the services offered in walk-in consulting. Please note that we cannot provide assistance to undergraduate students or graduate students who are working on homework, papers or projects for a class.
• Walk-in consulting for graduate students: We respectfully request that graduate students limit themselves to one visit to walk-in consulting per day.
• Wait time: Sometimes researchers must wait for a consultant to become available. We regret having to ask clients to wait, but we try to give all clients the time necessary to completely answer the questions that have brought them to consulting. You can follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/atsstat/) for updates on the number of clients currently waiting in line.
• Data security: We strongly encourage our clients to take necessary steps to ensure the privacy of their subjects. This includes following all relevant UCLA OPRS and/or IRB rules and regulations regarding the redaction of personal or sensitive data from working data sets. In many cases, we will not be able to assist a researcher who has personal or sensitive information about their subjects in their data file. We also ask that researchers do not leave any data files on the computers in the consulting office, and that flash drives are not left behind.
• Data sets/syntax: Most of the time, it is easier for consultants to identify problems or issues if a client brings sample data sets and/or syntax files. You can save your sample data sets/syntax files to a flash drive that you bring with you, or you can bring your laptop.
• Detailed consulting schedule (Spring, March 25 through June 7, 2013)

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning	10-12	10-12	No Consulting	No Consulting	No Consulting
Consultant	Joni	Andy
Afternoon	2-4	2-4	2-4	1-4	No Consulting
Consultant	Christine	Joni	Josh	Phil

NOTE: At least three consultants will be available for all consulting shifts.

Exceptions
-  Consulting will be closed from Monday, March 18 through Friday, March 22.
-  Consulting will be closed on Thursday, April 25 for an all-day SAS workshop.
-  Consulting will be closed on Monday, May 27 for the Memorial Day holiday.

Email consulting

• Affiliation: Email consulting is only available to members of the UCLA research community: Faculty, staff researchers and graduate students. If you are a member of the UCLA research community, but are sending your question from a non-UCLA email account (e.g., hotmail, gmail, etc.), please be sure to indicate your affiliation with UCLA in your email. We regret that we are not able to assist researchers who are not currently affiliated with UCLA, including UCLA alumni.
• Email address: You may send your email question to . We request that questions not be sent to individual consultants.
• Response time: Emails questions are usually answered within 2-3 business days. We will make our best effort to respond within 2-3 business days, however, due to the high volume of email questions it may take us longer to reply.
• Stat package: Please indicate which statistical package you are using (e.g., SAS, Stata, SPSS, etc.). It is also often helpful if you include the version of the software and the platform on which you are running the software (e.g., Windows, Mac, etc.).
• Information to include: If you are having difficulty with a certain task, especially a data management task, please be sure to include in your email:
  • a clear description of the task that you are trying to accomplish
  • the code that you used to accomplish this task
  • the error message issued or the reason you believe the task was not successfully accomplished.
• Files to include: If it helps explain your question or questions, you can include your data file, program file and/or output file.
  • If you send an output file, please also include the syntax that generated the output (you can include that in the body of the email or as a separate attachment).
  • If you send a data file, please include only the relevant variables.
• Sample email questions:
  • In my model, the interaction of a categorical variable and a continuous variable is statistically significant. I would like to graph this two-way interaction in SPSS. Could you tell me how to graph it in SPSS?
  • I am using proc gplot in SAS. If I want to label my points, how do I go about it?
  • I am running xtmixed in Stata. How do I calculate the intraclass correlation based on the output of the model?
• When to come to walk-in consulting: If you find yourself spending a long time writing an email question or if you think it will take a long time to explain your situation/question, it usually means that your question is too complicated for email consulting, and it might be time to make a visit to our walk-in consulting. Please note that we cannot provide assistance to undergraduate students or graduate students who are working on homework, papers or projects for a class.

Mailing list

• You can join the ATSstat-L mailing list to 2-4 emails per month announcing updates to the consulting schedule, upcoming classes and workshops, etc.

Workshops and classes

• We have more than 60 online seminars that you can access 24/7 by visiting our Workshops and classes page. This page also lists any live workshops and/or classes that will be presented during the current quarter.

Stat books for loan

• When and where: Books may be borrowed and returned visiting Statistical Consulting in Math Sciences 4919 during walk-in consulting hours. For a list of books available and our lending policy, please see our Stat Books for Loan page.
• How long: Books are due two weeks from the time you borrow them, and you may have a total of two books on loan at any given time. Although you can have a book for two weeks, we kindly request that you return the book early if you are finished with it early, as this helps to keep books in stock for other researchers.
• Renewals: Books cannot be renewed.
• Policy on late returns: It is important to return your book on time, and if you do not return your book on time it will be counted as late. If you have three late returns, you will no longer be permitted to borrow books.
• Returning books: Please return books during regular consulting hours. If you cannot stop by during regular consulting hours, you may return your book(s) to the IDRE main office, MS 5308 (on the fifth floor). This office is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Please do NOT:
  • leave books on the floor outside of the consulting office.
  • mail books back to us, as they tend to get lost in the mail. If you know that you will be going out of town, it is your responsibility to return your book(s) before you leave.
• Where to buy the books: Once you have borrowed a book, you may find that it is a book that you would like to purchase for yourself. See Where to buy books for tips on different places you can buy these books.
• Want to look inside some of these (or other) books: Many of these books are available at http://books.google.com/ which permits you to peek inside the books to view a limited number of pages. You can visit http://books.google.com or use the search box below to search for books.

List of statistical consultants and tutors for hire

• We maintain a list of statistical consultants and tutors for hire. You can email us at to request that list.

FAQ

• Please visit our services FAQ page for more information and examples of the services that we offer.

Other statistical consulting services on campus

• Statistical Biomathematical Consulting Clinic
• Statistical Consulting Center in the UCLA Department of Statistics