BPH Statsitics Consulting
The Division of Biostatistics offers a free consulting service to Berkeley Affiliates. Under the supervision of faculty, biostatistics graduate students meet with clients to help with statistical research questions in areas such as:
- Understanding your research question
- Formalizing and checking assumptions
- Experimental design and data acquisition
- Data exploration, analysis, and interpretation
- Data modeling and model fitting
- Statistical inference for estimation, testing, and prediction
- Correctly using statistical software
You can see our regular hours and availability in the calendar below. To book a time, click here. Drop-ins are not allowed, all appointments must be booked at least 48 hours in advance. For locations please see this spreadsheet or refer to the calendar below.
FAQ
Who can sign up?
The service is open to any Berkeley affiliate doing a research project, including but not limited to: undergraduate majors, MPH, MA, PhD, DrPh students, postdocs, research scientists, and faculty.
What do I get?
By signing up for a consultation you will get an hour with two consultants. The consultants are MA or PhD students with demonstrated statistical expertise who have enrolled in the Biostatistical Consulting Course. Consultants are advised by biostatistics faculty.
Each consultation is a stand-alone engagement and there should be no expectation for consultants to become long-term partners in a research project. You are welcome to schedule multiple consults to discuss additional questions but if you are taking up too much of a consultant’s time to the detriment of other clients we reserve the right to postpone or decline your consultation. A consultation should not be seen as an alternative to forming a stable collaboration with or hiring a dedicated biostatistician, but a consult could certainly help you decide if that is required.
What can I ask?
Clients are welcome to ask any statistics or statistical programming question related to an ongoing or planned research project, including in-class research projects. Questions related to homework are not allowed: please go instead to the statistics tutoring service offered by the DREAM office or talk with your TAs.
We prioritize questions with statistical content. If your question is purely about coding (data cleaning, visualization) then we may refer you to the D-lab consulting services. However, we find that most people who think they just have coding questions actually benefit immensely from consulting about their statistical analyses.