Using a statistical consultant for dissertation

[Janie123]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone out there has used a statistical consultant or "dissertation coach" for dissertation analyses, or has heard of anyone who has done this. If so, I'm wondering how helpful it was and if there are any specific people or companies you'd recommend or not recommend.

Specifically, I'll need help running my analyses, interpreting them, and writing my results section.

I have a statistics person on my committee but don't think he can provide the level of support I'd need with this (I've never been good at statistics, plus will be out-of-state for my internship), so I'm hoping to hire someone who can help walk me through this.

Thanks!

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[73BARMYPgsp]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone out there has used a statistical consultant or "dissertation coach" for dissertation analyses, or has heard of anyone who has done this. If so, I'm wondering how helpful it was and if there are any specific people or companies you'd recommend or not recommend.

Specifically, I'll need help running my analyses, interpreting them, and writing my results section.

I have a statistics person on my committee but don't think he can provide the level of support I'd need with this (I've never been good at statistics, plus will be out-of-state for my internship), so I'm hoping to hire someone who can help walk me through this.

Thanks!

I had one. He is provided by the Army (I could not afford it if he wer not!). I think it's pretty normal.

 

[paramour]

Normal? Perhaps this is yet another thing that varies by university. We have to obtain approval from our department prior to obtaining any outside/additional statistical consulting/coaching. And I suspect they would laugh if someone were foolish enough to do so.

 

[JockNerd]

I've done informal consulting for dissertation analyses with people from pretty good universities.

 

[Ollie123]

I'd guess its somewhat dependent on the type of project. If we wanted to hire a stats person to help run a hierarchical regression, they'd probably kick us out Realistically though, its pretty common for faculty not to be able to run stats on their own studies these days...that's why more often than not grants will have a statistician written in. For really complicated designs, using multiple advanced techniques, etc. I think its reasonable to do - though I find it hard to believe someone couldn't get enough help within the department or find someone in another department willing to meet to help puzzle things out.

 

[JockNerd]

I'd guess its somewhat dependent on the type of project. If we wanted to hire a stats person to help run a hierarchical regression, they'd probably kick us out Realistically though, its pretty common for faculty not to be able to run stats on their own studies these days...that's why more often than not grants will have a statistician written in. For really complicated designs, using multiple advanced techniques, etc. I think its reasonable to do - though I find it hard to believe someone couldn't get enough help within the department or find someone in another department willing to meet to help puzzle things out.

Someone on my diss committee is on grants for tens of thousands of dollars to have meetings to teach people to run structural equation models and HLM. When I'm faculty I intend to pull in extra money being the stats consultant on half the grants in my dept.

I think it's totally reasonable to have stats *consultation* (as in, not someone doing it for you, but someone to make sure you're doing it right).

 

[Elle758]

Okay, so I need to revive this thread as I now have the same question. Specifically, would it be considered unethical to have a stats consultant assist with dissertation results and discussion?

Long story short - I am about as ABD as you can get and my timeline is ticking VERY quickly. Although my program is very research heavy, I am several years past taking any courses (let alone stats classes) and apparently limited statistics info was stored in my long term memory. As is true with many of us, my internship was in a different state than my program and I ended up staying and working here fulltime. Unfortunately, being so disconnected from my program has been a big barrier -- especially now as I'm working through my data analysis. My advisor, of course, has been available via email. However, it is not the same as being able to meet regularly.

So, in a moment of some high anxiety, I began googling "statistical consultants" and up pops these wonderful descriptions like "...will analyze your data and send results in APA table with summaries of the interpretation." Is stuff like this legitimate, and if so would it be acceptable? It somewhat seems like cheating to me - if that's possible. But, maybe no? I don't want someone to do the work for me. However, I also don't want to spend time re-teaching myself things that this consultant can just let me know. Yes? No? Similar to using an archived data set rather than collecting you own?

 

[Ollie123]

Getting help with the analysis is fine. Having someone run it for you definitely seems like it crosses well over the lines of academic dishonesty. If I were a prof. and caught wind of students doing that, they would likely not be getting their degrees.

That said, as I note above, getting help (paid or otherwise) is perfectly fine. I just see issues arising when it crosses from "teaching you how to do it" into "Doing it for you".

 

[deleted176373]

Getting help with the analysis is fine. Having someone run it for you definitely seems like it crosses well over the lines of academic dishonesty. If I were a prof. and caught wind of students doing that, they would likely not be getting their degrees.

That said, as I note above, getting help (paid or otherwise) is perfectly fine. I just see issues arising when it crosses from "teaching you how to do it" into "Doing it for you".

I have to agree. If you can't run your own statistics analysis, you probably don't deserve a Ph.D., however having someone to consult with (from inside or outside your department) is fair game.

I see it this way:

Asking a consultant: Did I run this correctly? Can you think of alternate analyses to use with the data? Are there any problems with how I approached my analysis? What questions would you have about my analysis?

I think those are all fair game.

Having a consultant create your analysis and run the analysis, that clearly way over the line. If you are not capable of forming a competent data analysis strategy, you should consider how your defense will go when the questions about it come.

Even having a person run your data for you after you designed the analysis strategy could still be a bit sketchy. Although ,I was required to do that for a senior student in my lab and saw nothing really wrong with it in the right context. She was certainly capable of running the analysis, but I was the data manager for the project. In fairness, she designed the analysis and told me pretty explicitly what she needed as far as the data products.

The dissertation isn't supposed to be easy. It should be your work and your thinking, not someone else's.

 

[Pragma]

Okay, so I need to revive this thread as I now have the same question. Specifically, would it be considered unethical to have a stats consultant assist with dissertation results and discussion?

Some colleagues started referring Psy.D. students in my town to me to provide statistical consultation, and I always turned down these requests because I think it can very easily become unethical.

Getting someone to train you to do the analysis? No problem - that's like taking a workshop or something. I ran some questions by my stats committee member and that is pretty normal.

Having someone DO IT FOR YOU? Hell no! Totally unethical.

These friggin Psy.D students in my city hire people to run their analyses and write their results sections. It's ridiculous - particularly because they are often just doing a t-test.

So to answer your question, I think getting training to help you do it better is no problem. having someone do it for you is blatantly unethical. Also to avoid confusion - I am talking about dissertations here, not R01 grants.

 

[Elle758]

Thanks for your comments, everyone.

I think I initially posted in the midst of some dissertation panic and since have dusted off some trusty old textbooks which are helping me out just fine. Standard committee feedback/consults should do the trick.

In general, I was surprised that on these consultant websites there were entire sections dedicated to thesis/dissertations work. It made it seem like a pretty standard practice..which is why I thought I would ask if this work was more common than I imagined. Perhaps it is for different academic disciplines. I particularly found one site interesting which noted that the consultant could be available via phone during your defense!

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

These friggin Psy.D students in my city hire people to run their analyses and write their results sections. It's ridiculous - particularly because they are often just doing a t-test.

What program? Is it a university-based program? It irks me that you generalize the issue to all Psy.D. students in your city.

 

[Sanman]

Frankly, I know there are a lot people that do this, both PhD and PSyD. The level of help you get certainly runs into ethical boundaries. However, the truth ends up being that when you are paying for it privately, no one will be the wiser and someone that can't do it themselves will pay to finish their degree. Personally, I used a stats consultant, but I only did this to:

1. Discuss whether multiple hierarchical regressions or SEM was better since a member challenged my design at the proposal meeting (the consultant agreed my design was better and we talked about ways I could defend my ideas should issue come up in my defense)

2. He gave me a blueprint for the SPSS code I needed to write my regression and checked that I wrote the code correctly. I still wrote the code for the regression, ran the stats, and interpreted the results myself.

However, I got the guys name from people I was internship with and I am sure that others needed more help than I.

 

[Pragma]

What program? Is it a university-based program? It irks me that you generalize the issue to all Psy.D. students in your city.

Yeah I should have been a little more careful when posting.

There is more that one FSPS in my city and that is where I hear that this is commonplace. I've always turned down any requests for statistical consultation, despite the fact that it would be easy money.

Honestly, why not just start giving people degrees when they pay tuition? At this point, some of the academic work sounds like it is just a formality in these programs.

 

[Pragma]

What program? Is it a university-based program? It irks me that you generalize the issue to all Psy.D. students in your city.

I'd also like to mention that I haven't ever actually met someone from a university-based Psy.D program. I have only met people from FSPSs. That's part of why I was a little loose in my language.

 

[paramour]

Our program would turn us out on our arse if we used a "statistical consulting" service. If we have a stats question or need clarification re: something, then there are plenty of gurus around in the dept who we can go ask. Otherwise, we damned well better be doing everything ourselves.

 

[wigflip]

I think this discussion is interesting in light of what I know about some tenured academics: virtually all of their work is done by their RAs or other students.

 

[Pragma]

I think this discussion is interesting in light of what I know about some tenured academics: virtually all of their work is done by their RAs or other students.

Well that is an interesting thought. However, I think most people would agree that the dissertation is supposed to be the cornerstone of your doctoral training, where you demonstrate your capability to design, conduct, and explain research. It is part of how you are evaluated as a "candidate" for your doctorate degree.

In that sense, hiring someone to do your statistics and write-up for you is no different than plagiarism, since it is your academic work in your degree-granting program. It's no different than purchasing a term paper online, IMO.

A tenured faculty member hiring RAs to run stats for them, etc, is a much different thing in my mind. I agree there are grey areas to it - I have heard of folks who just got the funding but never contributed to the work, for instance, getting authorship on all publicatons resulting from the grant. I think that's BS.

But the purpose of getting funding for RAs is different than the purpose of hiring a statistical consultant to write your dissertation results section. Most grant agencies recognize that a faculty member can't do everything on their own, so they give them money to hire a team. Seems reasonable to me.

 

[wigflip]

Well that is an interesting thought. However, I think most people would agree that the dissertation is supposed to be the cornerstone of your doctoral training, where you demonstrate your capability to design, conduct, and explain research. It is part of how you are evaluated as a "candidate" for your doctorate degree.

In that sense, hiring someone to do your statistics and write-up for you is no different than plagiarism, since it is your academic work in your degree-granting program. It's no different than purchasing a term paper online, IMO.

A tenured faculty member hiring RAs to run stats for them, etc, is a much different thing in my mind. I agree there are grey areas to it - I have heard of folks who just got the funding but never contributed to the work, for instance, getting authorship on all publicatons resulting from the grant. I think that's BS.

But the purpose of getting funding for RAs is different than the purpose of hiring a statistical consultant to write your dissertation results section. Most grant agencies recognize that a faculty member can't do everything on their own, so they give them money to hire a team. Seems reasonable to me.

No I'm talking about Venerated Prof X is a reviewer for Top Research Journal and student actually conducts peer review--prof never reads article. Student designs curriculum for prof's UG and grad classes. Student writes the prof's grant. Student conducts original research (which may or may not be quantitative) and Prof's name goes on it, or perhaps supplants student's name altogether. You know, the kind of academic shenanigans we pretend don't exist when we want to believe that academia is strictly a fair, merit-based system.

 

[Pragma]

No I'm talking about Venerated Prof X is a reviewer for Top Research Journal and student actually conducts peer review--prof never reads article. Student designs curriculum for UG and grad classes. Student writes the prof's grant. Student conducts original research (which may or may not be quantitative) and Prof's name goes on it, or perhaps supplants student's name altogether. You know, the kind of academic shenanigans we pretend don't exist when we want to believe that academia is a fair, merit-based system.

Yeah fortunately I never had experience with that. I am sure it exists somewhere, but it didn't in my program. That is certainly unfair, and I would liken it to plagiarism (as would having someone do your academic work for you on your dissertation).

Don't get me wrong - I did some peer reviewing for journals myself, but my mentor also reviewed it and we would combine the reviews. I thought it was actually a good way to teach one how to review. It probably saved them some work, but they still did work.