Biostatistical Consulting Guidelines
The faculty biostatisticians provide advice on research design, data analysis and interpretation of results to staff and students within the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.
There is limited time available free of charge in the design stage of a research project and for unfunded research.
Researchers are expected to perform their own data preparation, descriptive statistics and basic analysis, with biostatistician’s guidance if required. On occasions when the complexity of the analysis is beyond reasonable expectation for a non-statistician, biostatisticians will perform the analysis based at the discretion of the biostatisticians.
Ongoing involvement from the biostatisticians should be paid for from grants or other funds. Staff submitting research grant applications should include funding for statistics, either as FTE with the biostatistician as a named investigator, or as a research expense if the statistician is less involved. This should be discussed with the biostatisticians prior to grant submission.
Biostatistical support and guidance for PhD students can be paid for via PReSS account or other funds. Prior to graduate students starting on research projects, the statistical support needed for the project should be evaluated by the faculty in conjunction with biostatisticians. If ongoing biostatistical support is required, a biostatistician should be involved as a co-supervisor or advisor. If a statistician made significant contribution to a research project or the development of a manuscript and met the authorship criteria of ICMJE, the statistician should be included as an author on publications resulting from the work.