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3550 Rackham Building University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070
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Background
CSCAR is a service and research unit of the University of Michigan, administratively located in The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR). Its staff provides statistical services to faculty, primary researchers, graduate students and staff of the University for up to one hour per week at no charge. For additional statistical service options, click here.
CSCAR is located in room 3550 of the Rackham Building, on the University of Michigan Main Campus (directions.) Statistical consulting is available by phone, walk-in visit, or email. More in-depth statistical consulting is available by appointment. Collaborative/joint research should be arranged with the CSCAR director,Kerby Shedden, or Associate Director, Brenda W. Gillespie.
Appointment Policy: To schedule an hour long consulting appointment, please call our office at 764-7828 (4-STAT). Clients can schedule no more than one appointment per calendar week. Only two appointments can be scheduled for any client at any given time. Consultants will not assist with coursework or provide consulting services to undergraduates except for honors students writing a thesis or UROP students.
Walk-in Policy: Walk-in consultations are designed to assist with short questions (30 minute maximum) from the CSCAR front desk staff on a first-come first-served basis. Walk-in consultants will not assist with coursework, provide more than 30 minutes of assistance, or provide consulting services to undergraduates except for honors students writing a thesis or UROP students.
Cancellation Policy: If you need to cancel your appointment, we kindly request that you call or e-mail our office no less than 24 hours prior to your scheduled time (call 764-7828 or email cscar@umich.edu). Last minute cancellations and no-call/no-shows take away valuable consulting time from your fellow CSCAR clients. Failure to provide sufficient notice of cancellation is an immense disservice to other clients and may result in a loss of privileges.
CSCAR emphasizes an integrated, comprehensive statistical consulting service, covering all aspects of a quantitative research project ranging from the initial study design through to the presentation of the final research conclusions. More specifically, CSCAR offers the following services:
Proposal Presentation and Study Design
CSCAR's staff provides free consulting services on the statistical aspects of research grants and/or contract proposals. These include design and sampling methods, power and sample size calculations, and choice of statistical methodology.
Researchers are encouraged to make contact with CSCAR early in the planning process of a quantitative study. Consulting may involve power calculations and help in determining sample sizes needed to achieve various degrees of precision for sample estimators. Sample size software is also available at CSCAR for use by clients. Statistical advice on matters of measurement or instrument design is also provided.
Dataset Consulting
CSCAR provides advice on database design and management, as well as on transferring datasets across platforms (e.g., Mac to PC) and across software (e.g., SPSS to SAS).
Choice of Statistical Methods
CSCAR provides consulting services regarding the choice of appropriate and contemporary statistical methodology.
Use of Statistical Software
CSCAR maintains a staff of consultants to help researchers implement statistical methodology using one or more of the standard statistical computer programs. At present these programs include SAS, SPSS, SYSTAT, S-Plus, Stata, R, HLM, LISREL, and AMOS. Support is also available on each platform for which the programs are written, including Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh.
Interpretation of Results
CSCAR's staff assists researchers in interpreting the results of various statistical methods and in determining what conclusions are statistically justifiable.
Presentation of Results
CSCAR's staff offers advice on presenting the results of statistical analyses, including graphical presentation.
Collaborative Research
For projects that require more statistical services than CSCAR can offer without charge, CSCAR and its staff are available to submit joint, collaborative research grant/contract proposals or to enter into subcontract agreements. Such agreements might cover any or all of the various statistical/quantitative aspects of the research.
Workshops
CSCAR presents workshops on statistical methods and statistical software. SAS and SPSS workshops, as well as a statistics review workshop, are offered each fall and winter. Other recent workshops include: Calculating Sample Size, Structural Equation Modeling, Missing Data, and Survival Analysis.
Remote Consulting
University of Michigan's CSCAR can provide remote consulting if necessary. CSCAR uses software called Centra to allow CSCAR consultants to view clients' computer screens and provide input on software problems. "Whiteboard" is also available within Centra, which in conjunction with a phone conversation, can substitute for a face-to-face meeting.
Client Requirements for Remote Consulting
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
University of Michigan's Spatial Analysis/GIS Initiative
CSCAR is developing expertise in the statistical aspect of GIS. In particular, software and expertise in modeling spatial data, including variogram estimation and kriging, is available.
Professional Staff
- Kerby Shedden, Ph.D.
- Director
- Professor, Statistics and Biostatistics
- High dimensional data sets, statistical computing
- David Childers, M.A.
- Statistical Consultant
- Regression modeling, ANOVA, data management,
- SPSS, R, Stata
- Brenda W. Gillespie, Ph.D.
- Associate Director
- Survival analysis, design of experiments, regression
- modeling, clinical trials.
- Kenneth Guire, M.A.
- Statistician Staff Specialist
- Study design, general linear modeling.
- Hyungjin Myra Kim, Sc.D.
- Associate Research Scientist
- Clinical trials, medical decision making, technology
- assessment, health services research.
- Laura Klem, A.B.
- Senior Research Associate
- Structural equations, path analysis, LISREL/AMOS.
- Giselle E. Kolenic, M.A.
- Statistical Consultant
- SPSS, Stata, NVivo, R, ArcGIS, regression,
- Data management, questionnaire design.
- Melissa Plegue, M.A.
- Statistical Consultant
- SPSS, STATA, R, ArcGis.
- Nidhi Talwar, M.B.A., M.A.
- Statistical Consultant
- SPSS, SAS, NVivo, regression, ANOVA,
- categorical data analysis, data management.
- Kathleen Welch, M.S., M.P.H.
- Statistical Consultant
- SAS, SYSTAT, JMP, data management, regression modeling.
- Brady West, B.S., M.A.
- Statistical Consultant
- SPSS, SAS, R, STATA, data management,
- Regression/ANOVA, Analysis of Sample Survey Data.
Faculty Associates
- Charles Kowalski, Ph.D.
- Professor of Dentistry
- Multivariate methods, longitudinal data analysis,
- clinical measurement of pain.
- James Lepkowski, Ph.D.
- Senior Research Scientist, SRC
- Professor, Biostatistics
- Survey sampling.
- Rod Little, Ph.D.
- Professor of Biotatistics
- Missing data.
- Vijay Nair, Ph.D.
- Professor of Statistics
- Design of experiments, reliability.
- Trivellore Raghunathan, Ph.D.
- Senior Research Scientist, SRC
- Professor, Biostatistics
- Survey sampling, missing data.
- George Michailidis, Ph.D
- Professor, Statistics
- Professor, EECS
- Multivariate analysis, Applied Probability
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CSCAR's Computing Resources
The ITCS site in CSCAR consists of four PCs and one Mac. For a complete listing of statistical, GIS and other software that is loaded on lab machines across campus, please visit the Campus Computing Sites Software List.
Computers are available during regular CSCAR hours on a walk-in basis.