Guidelines for use of the Service

The Statistical Support Service (SSS) is intended to provide low cost and non profit statistical support for University of Newcastle researchers.

Who can use it?

It is open to all Newcastle University researchers, including those from non-supporting faculties.

  • Staff
  • Research Higher Degree (RHD) students: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and research Masters or equivalent
  • Honours students and course work Masters' students with projects equivalent to Honours
  • Conjoint staff

Who cannot use it at all?

The service is not available to clients external to Newcastle University, Newcastle University undergraduate students, and course work only Masters' students. Clients external to the university may contact NewStat (a division of Newcastle Innovation, the commercial arm of The University of Newcastle), to obtain quotes for commercial statistical consulting work.

Cost of support

The service is free to all researchers from the Faculty of Science and IT (S&IT). All other university researchers can use the service but have to pay full rate, $115/hr for 2013. Our resources are limited so priority will be given to S&IT researchers and if there is spare capacity other areas will be assisted.

Requests for assistance

Prior to the initial appointment the Appointment Form will need to be filled out by the client and sent to the Statistical Support Service. Details of the project and the researcher are necessary to allocate a suitable consultant and appointment time. Students should be accompanied by their supervisor to the initial appointment, and will require their supervisor's authorisation. In cases where payment will be required, full details of the university account to be billed and proper authorisation must be provided.

Statistics background of client

Students will need to have a sufficient background in statistics to adequately communicate with the service. If this is not the case it will be necessary to attend undergraduate Statistics courses and other courses available in Statistics and Statistical Computing software before requesting personal advice from the SSS. Ideally this need would be identified by the supervisor at the beginning of a students' candidature before coming to the SSS for help.

First appointment

The Appointment Form should be completed, and sent to the Statistical Support Service (SSS) before attending the first appointment. Research students are required to obtain the agreement of their supervisor, and to be accompanied by their supervisor to their initial appointment. If you have a deadline please note this in your application.

A consultant will be assigned by the SSS to meet with the client at Callaghan campus and the client will be contacted by telephone or email by the consultant who will carry out the work. Several suitable weekdays and times for meetings should be listed on the Appointment Form by the client to make this process easier.

How advice is to be used

Responsibility for how SSS consultant advice is used in the thesis belongs to the student and their supervisor. However an acknowledgement of the contribution of the SSS consultant should be made in the thesis, and a copy of the acknowledgement in the final report sent to the SSS.

Joint authorship by the SSS consultant of project papers submitted for publication may be appropriate. Payment for statistical advice does not preclude joint authorship. Please ensure the statistician is given the opportunity for both full recognition in the research and approval of the manuscript before submission. In some cases they may write part of the manuscript planned for publication.

When is the best time to seek support?

Statistical advice can help at all stages of a project. Ideally statistical advice should be requested at the project initial planning and design stage. It is most often requested at analysis stage and in some cases in report writing, but this is often too late. Large projects preparing budgets will require cost estimates of statistical advice, design and analysis. Several appointments at each stage of a research project including the final writing up should be envisioned. If you have a deadline please note this on your request for an appointment form.