Methods and stats support
I offer two ways of getting help with methods and statistics: standing office hours at your institution for departments without an in-house methods person, and one-off consulting for individual researchers or projects. Both cover much the same ground (research design, analysis, interpretation, reproducibility); the difference is mainly whether you’re looking for an ongoing arrangement from which the whole department may profit or help with a specific piece of work. Details and rates for each are below.
I also offer one- and multi-day courses on statistics geared principally towards Master’s and Ph.D. students; see the Courses for further information.
Departmental office hours
If your department doesn’t have an in-house methods and stats person, I’d be happy to set up shop at your institution and organise regular office hours (e.g., one afternoon every fortnight). This way, faculty, associated researchers, and students can drop by to discuss any issue methodological or statistical, including:
- sharpening research questions and formulating them in statistical terms (usually the single most important aspect!);
- providing feedback on a study design or a write-up;
- running a sanity check on an analysis;
- finding a suitable data visualisation;
- interpreting model output;
- making sense of the methods or stats in a published study.
This offer is not a substitute for supervision. Nor is it a rubber-stamping service that doles out seals of approval or a crisis management service that attempts to salvage some publishable result from a poorly designed study or to put a spin on findings deemed unfavourable to the researcher’s hypothesis. Instead, the goal is to make clear-eyed methodological and statistical thinking a standing habit in the department by acting as a sounding board that faculty, researchers, and students come back to from time to time for frank but constructive feedback.
If you’re interested, get in touch by e-mail so that we can work out the details.
- On-site and therefore available only to institutions not farther than a 90-minute commute by public transport away from Bern.
- Sessions can be on appointment or one a first come, first serve basis and last for roughly 40 minutes.
- Reference rate for a four-hour block with up to two hours of prep and follow-up: CHF 850.
- Other durations possible.
- Bookable as a regular event (e.g., weekly, fortnightly) over a longer time frame (at least four months) rather than as a one-off.
- In English, German, French or Dutch.
Consulting and data analyses
I’m happy to take on consulting work for researchers who need help with their research design, statistical analysis, or data interpretation. While my own experience is mostly in the social sciences, my statistical training extends beyond this.
I can help you with:
- sharpening research questions and formulating them in statistical terms (usually the single most important aspect!);
- designing your study;
- stress-testing questionnaires;
- outlining or checking analysis plans;
- data wrangling;
- choosing effective visualisations;
- making sense of output;
- making your work reproducible and transparent: open data, open code, preregistrations, writing documentation;
- or even doing the entire analysis from start to finish;
- providing feedback on manuscripts.
My goal isn’t to help you squeeze out a significant p-value or run analyses whose principal merit is that everyone in the field runs them. Rather, it is to help you design, run, and analyse studies that strike a suitable balance between technical correctness and accessibility to others in the field.
If you’re interested, get in touch by e-mail. If I think I can help you, we can arrange a short video call to discuss details.
- Both remote and, if the commute from Bern is feasible, on-site consulting are possible.
- Work can be billed per hour or at a fixed quote.
- Reference rate per hour: CHF 170.
- Oral consulting in English, German, French or Dutch; written products in English, German or Dutch.