Hi.
I've consulted on a number of dissertations and theses in the past 4 years.
Generally folks come to me post data and have been told to do a particular
type of analysis by their chair, but do not know how to do it. Usually I just
help them by teaching the statistical method and assumptions, and then help
them actually do it. Then I usually go through the results with them and
explain the findings.
Sometimes the students just aren't comfortable with their chair, or they don't
want the chair to think they are incompetent or just not a good student simply
because they don't know how to do the procedure. Other times they can't find
a readable reference, such as for 3-way fully-repeated measures ANOVA designs.
I get the occasional post data person who has no idea how to analyze their
data to answer their questions of interest. Sometimes I tell them they simply
can't and need to change their proposal or collect different data.
Still other times folks come to me from the beginning. They know the research
in their area and know the background for what they are interested in, but
don't know how to set up a study that tests a particular hypothesis
adequately. In those cases I actually help them set it up and give suggested
readings for doing the analysis.
I've had discussions with other researchers about how ethical my consulting
is, as well as other faculty at the university I teach part-time at. It
usually boils down to differences in what is expected of graduate students at
different universities. Some faculty don't really care if the student can do
the statistics. They are interested in the student doing the background
research to understand the area and in getting experience doing
assisted but original research. When I know or am told that a person's
faculty member wouldn't approve of the person being helped, I still help out.
The people I help are not stupid, they just were not taught how to properly
set up research studies and do analyses. A lot of times I simply won't charge
people. I usually feel like I'm supplementing the teaching they received in
their graduate program with hands-on knowledge. One of the problems with
teaching statistics in a non-applied fashion, in my opinion, is that you end
up with people who know plenty of theory, but don't know how to use it in the
real world. In the mean time, I keep making a decent amount of money
supplementing their educations.
Scott
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (EAKIN MARK E) wrote:
>
>A graduate student showed me an email from a web-based service that offers
>to help graduate students plan their study, analyze the data, and edit the
>results. He was concerned about the ethics of using this service.
>In my opinion, graduate students have always received this kind
>of assistance from their committee members and fellow students. My only
>concern would be the amount of assistance provided and the inclusion of
>appropriate citation(s). But for me this leads to the question of how much
>is too much?
>
> Any comments?
>
>Mark Eakin
>Associate Professor
>Information Systems and Management Sciences Department
>University of Texas at Arlington
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] or
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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