Guidelines for using Stats Central
Introduction
The Wits Strategy for Research and Strategic Plan for Postgraduate Research aim to provide enabling conditions for staff and postgraduates to increase their research productivity.
However, increasing supervision demands – as is expected of a research-intensive university – along with heavy workloads sometimes necessitates the sourcing of specialist support and services to enable such conditions. One such service is statistical support at various stages of the research process.
Wits staff and students often spend a lot of their own and dedicated research funds to consult with specialist statisticians – either to learn more, to confirm their current understandings of techniques, or because they are new to quantitative research and are looking to initiate quantitative studies.
While the Faculty of Health Sciences has offered free access to specialist biostatisticians for some time, there is currently no central statistical support service available at Wits. Thus, the Wits Research Office is trialling “Stats Central,” a model of central statistical support services, available to all staff, doctoral and masters level students across faculties at Wits, for the 2024 academic year.
The Purpose of Stats Central
Stats Central is a virtual network of training and specialist statisticians contracted to the Wits Research Office. The network provides need-specific, differentiated levels of support to all Wits staff, doctoral and masters students planning or currently conducting research that requires statistical analysis as part of the project’s research design. The service is free to staff, doctoral and masters level students, as the Wits Research Office will cover the consultation costs in 2024.
The Scope of the Stats Central Service
The aim of the service is to provide staff, doctoral and masters level students with advice, guidance and support related to the use of statistical methods for their own research project, thereby increasing general statistical literacy and deepening an understanding of the logic of the selected analytic technique. While the service is available at any part of the research cycle, it is strongly recommended that clients (i.e. staff, doctoral and masters level students) contact Stats Central at the onset of their project.
For Students
The service is not intended to replace the superordinate role of the supervisor in overseeing their students’ research, but to complement the various sources of learning support across the postgraduate research pathway. Following detailed advice and support by the Stats Central consultants, doctoral and masters level students must conduct the analysis themselves, as per the requirements to confer any higher degree.
For Staff
Staff needs will vary widely. Where possible, the staff member should undertake the analysis themself. This skills transfer enhances the general statistical competencies of Wits’ researchers. However, the statistician can conduct the analysis for the staff member by mutual agreement. For co-authorship on any article resulting from the project, the statistician must satisfy the criteria outlined in the University’s Guidelines on Authorship.
Beyond the Scope of the Stats Central Service
The service is advisory only. It does not replace the quality assurance required of the supervisor of any postgraduate research project. As such the consultants will not contribute to the conceptualisation of the research question, assist with any form of literature review and will not assist with the writing of research reports, dissertations or theses. Stats Central is not designed to directly teach or do/perform statistics. Such courses are available across the university.
Eligibility for Making Use of Stats Central
All Wits staff, doctoral and masters level students are eligible to make use of Stats Central. However, all queries related to the Faculty of Health Sciences will be redirected to that Faculty’s existing support structure.
Research Integrity and Stats Central
Stats Central is governed by the University’s Research Integrity Policy. By making use of the service the user acknowledges that they have read and will abide by its clauses. In cases where data will be shared between the user and the consultant, such data must be fully anonymised and comply with POPIA requirements and Research Ethics Committee considerations. Before any sharing of any data between user and consultant a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) must be signed by the consultant and returned to the user.
Accessing Stats Central
Click here to see how it works.
As 2024 represents a trial of the Stats Central model, uptake and usage trends will be carefully monitored to ensure the best use of University resources. The processes detailed above are therefore subject to revision based on the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the model during the 2024 trial year.