Problem to be Solved
Student researchers: Undergraduate students doing undergraduate research projects, masters degree candidates doing thesis research, and doctoral students doing dissertation research, all have a common need, which is obtaining expert advice about statistics. What they learn in their one or two statistics courses is never sufficient. The material in statistics texts and courses are limited to simple questions and data examples. Real world research questions are always more complex, and data are always messy, so the students must seek help. Without Departmental funding, they must turn to their professors. Their professors are not sufficiently trained in statistics to provide expert advice. Both the students and professors end up having a bad experience. The result is that students become discouraged about doing research, and professors become discouraged about providing students with research opportunities.
Statistics students: No matter what degree they are working on, BS, MS, or PhD, statistics students are not provided with enough real world research problems to train on to make them experts at analyzing data upon graduation. Potential employers are reluctant to even interview them for statistician positions if they do not have statistician work experience on their résumés.
Solution
The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the University of Utah has solved this problem. We offer a service to student researchers called Stat Lab to provide them with expert statistical consultations at no cost to them. Stat Lab is a “students consulting for students” program. The statistical consultants are master of statistics degree (MStat) or statistics PhD students, who are mentored by a professional statistician from our Study Design and Biostatistics Center (SDBC), which is the CTSI statistics core. The professional statistician mentors have joint positions in the SDBC and are faculty in either the University of Utah MStat or Biostatistics PhD programs. The student researcher meets with both the statistics student and the statistics student’s mentor, so that the quality of statistical advice is ensured.
If we offered consultations to student researchers where only a CTSI statistician provided the statistical consultation, a learning experience that a statistics student could have had would be lost. With how if we have structured Stat Lab, the statistics students benefit as much as the student researchers.
Win-Win
The student researcher ends up with a high quality research worthy of publication, because the study design and statistical methods used in the manuscript had the benefit of a statistician being involved. The statistics students usually make enough contribution to the research project to justify co-authorship if the research is published, which it frequently is. So, the statistics student ends up with both work experience and publication experience, making them very competitive in the statistician job market.
Future Researchers
Helping undergraduates with their research projects leads to a good experience, so the undergraduates get excited about research and then are more likely to go on to enroll in a masters degree program. Masters degree students who have a good research experience are more likely to go on to enrolling in a PhD program. Finally, PhD students who have a good research experience are more likely to go to seeking postdoctoral training. Another benefit of Stat Lab, then, is training future researchers, who also have improved publication productivity and are more likely to apply for grants.
Response to Stat Lab
The response to Stat Lab has been very positive. The student researchers, the student statisticians, and the faculty all across campus are all excited about the program. An example is Dr. Julie Barkmeier-Kraemer. She is a tenured professor in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery and is adjunct faculty to the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Utah. She has been referring all of her graduate students to Stat Lab.
Greg Stoddard is a statistical consultant in the CTSI Study Design and Biostatistic Center, the Director of Stat Lab, and faculty in the Master of Statistics (Biostatistic Track) program at the University of Utah. He has participated in many of the Stat Lab consultations, mentoring both MStat and PhD statistics students.
Stoddard remarks, “Although my coursework pursuing a Master of Statistics was excellent, it was a big shock to face real word statistical problems right after graduation. In the real world, every situation involves an exception to the classroom examples and statistical techniques learned. I am really excited that the students in our MStat and PhD programs have this Stat Lab opportunity to train using real world research problems. By mentoring them in our Stat Lab program, I have the opportunity to pass along the professional statistician skills I acquired while on the job after graduation. Now our students will become statistical consulting experts even before they graduate.”