University of California San Francisco

Biostatistics Core FAQs

How do I request a service consultation?

What does a consultation entail?

  • Consultation time for data analysis encompasses all meetings and time dedicated to planning, conducting, and refining the analysis. This includes data preparation and cleaning, discussing and interpreting results, drafting manuscript sections, addressing reviewer comments (which may involve additional analysis and revisions), and any project-related communication via email, phone, or Zoom.

Who are the biostatisticians?

What are the services and turnaround time?

Type of AnalysisForecasted Hours
Advice on analysis plan or analyses already done by requester5-10 hours
Code Review of data cleaning/analysis already done by requester2-5 hours, depending on complexity of data set/analysis
Perform all analysis for manuscript + manuscript reviewApproximately 30 hours, but could range from 20-100 hours, depending on complexity of analysis
Providing additional analysis support to address reviewer comments for a paper in which the DoS Biostats Core was not initially involved10-15 hours, depending on complexity of additional analyses requested
Small requests such as instructions on how to perform a specific test or tests in Stata, R, etc. and how to interpret the results1-5 hours
Grant proposal help10-20 hours, depending on type of grant proposal
Abstract Preparation - may involve clarifying primary study objectives, cleaning data and preparing an analysis data set, performing analyses to address study objectives, creating summary tables and figures, writing the statistical methods and results, reviewing drafts of the abstract

5-40 hours 

  • ~5-20 hours if data is relatively clean, and the requester only asks for a few specific analyses for the abstract
  • >20 if the data is not in an analysis data set format, requires cleaning, and pre-determined analyses for the abstract are not specified, e.g., several analyses are requested before deciding on which results will be included in the abstract

How much does it cost?

  • Core Director $180.96
  • Senior Biostatistician $132.24

How many free hours do I get?

  • Residents and post-doctoral fellows receive 40 hours during their residency
  • Faculty members receive one free consultation per year; maximum of 1 per each academic year; for grant submission, unlimited hours for NIH grants and maximum of 10 hours/year for non-federally funded grants

Refer to our policy for more information

Things to have ready when you sign up

  • Funding information:
    • Faculty – Speedtype, which is the funding chartstring. Your finance administrator can provide this information.
    • For residents/postdoc fellows, medical students, and staff, please contact your PI for their approval and speedtype information.

Could you extract or organize my data?

  • The Biostatistics Core does not support data extracting.