Contact Information
If you would like an estimate from us, send us an brief email that includes the following information.
1) Your name, area of study, and your position.
Some examples:
- Education/director of institutional research
- Market research/project manager
- Academic researcher/nursing - applying for a grant
- Graduate student/education - I am working on a dissertation
2) If you have a data file (include the format) or if you need us to create one.
Some examples:
- I do not have a data file and don't know what to do...HELP!
- I have some data in excel but I'm not sure if it is arranged properly..
- I have an SPSS data file.
If you have a data file (even if it is a work in progress), attach it to this email and we will attempt to make sure we can read it.
3) A description of the variables you need to measure and how they are measured. Be sure to include a brief description of all subscales that need to be analyzed, if appropriate.
Some examples:
- Student dropout. Two categories, students either drop out or they do not. Family Income measured in thousands of dollars. SAT score (total score). Dropout is a binary variable (two possible scores) while income and SAT are continuous (high scores mean more and low scores mean less).
- We have market research data with 2500 participants and 452 variables. The variables are grouped into 10 sets that measure perceptions of a product before, during, and after testing. In addition, there are general attitudes items, demographic variables (sex, city, income, etc.), and scores that measure satisfaction with the products. The perceptions, general attitudes, and satisfaction subscale scores are formed from Likert items on a scale of 1-7. The demographic factors are all categorical. The perceptions, general attitudes, and satisfaction items are all continuous (a high score means more and a low score means less).
- Each participant receives one of three treatments (video tape, lecture, self-study). In addition, I am measuring knowledge of workplace safety, which is measured by the Workplace Safety Questionnaire (WSQ). The WSQ is a continuous variable (a high score means more knowledge of safety and a low score means less) and ranges from 0-50.
4) The research questions (hypotheses) you need answered.
Some examples:
- I want to see if family income and SAT score predict student dropout. Also, I'd like to know which of the two has more (or less) of an impact at predicting student dropout.
- First, we have no data file and need help with that. Next, we want to identify a relatively small number of homogenous groups of potential customers. Previous experience indicates that the number of groups is somewhere between 4 and 12. We would like you to suggest a method of doing this, then make a recommendation about an appropriate number of groups. Finally, we need to compare the groups on each of the perceptions, general attitudes, satisfaction, and demographic items. The hypothesis is that there will be significant differences between these newly formed groups on the perception and general attitudes items. The output needs to indicate which of the groups were higher or lower on each scale. We will then use this information to make decisions about marketing strategy.
- I need to see which of the three treatments (video, lecture, self-study) leads to the best score on the WSQ. My main hypothesis is that video and lecture will be higher than self-study.
5) Do you have a tentative plan for methodology? If so, briefly describe it. Be sure to comment on this when you email us.
Some examples:
- I'm in the planning stage of this research and need help choosing the sample size, methods, and editing my hypotheses.
- I have some data and don't know if I need more. Somebody told me to use a t-test, but I'm not sure if that will work.
We will get back to you with an estimate of the total cost of the project.
If you are an academic researcher, please do not send a series of text attachments in place of a summary. We give free estimates, however, it is inefficient for us to spend large amounts of time going through documents to find variables and hypotheses.
Again, please do not request an estimate unless you have answered the questions above and have examined our fees.
- Electronic mail
- Contact Information: drrichichi2@statisticians.net
- Postal address
- Statistical Analysis and Measurement Consultants, Inc.
- P.O. Box 224
- Lanexa, VA 23089
- U.S.A.
Telephone
(804) 814-7019
No solicitations please.
