Quantitative Consulting Unit

The Quantitative Consulting Unit (QCU) provides higher degree by research (HDR) students and staff across the University with statistical support.

Statistics tools and workshops

R: Statistical Computing

R is a free powerful open source programming language for statistical computing, data analysis and graphical visualisation. It works on all operating systems.

A 3-hour workshop for introducing R is available upon request.  You can also join free tutorials and Q & A sessions.

G*Power

G*Power is free software that provides an effective user-friendly solution for power analysis as part of the routine statistical data analysis procedure.

Workshops are run as required with 2-10 participants.

LaTeX

LaTeX is a free open source document preparation system that is widely used amongst the scientific research community.

You can get help with LaTeX as required.

Bayesian Network

Bayesian Network (BN) is a machine-learning data analysis technique. It complements the traditional statistical data analysis approach and provides a better solution for analysis of models with complex structure.

A 3-day face-to-face BN workshop is available upon request with 2-10 participants.

Support we offer

  • General consultancy on statistical theory and application related to research problems.
  • Tutorials and training for learning and using analysis software such as R, SPSS, G*Power3.1, @Risk and Netica.
  • Advice on, support to, and completion of statistical analyses needed for research projects.
  • Workshops for HDR students and researchers to enhance their statistical skills in special topics such as design and analysis of experiments, statistical graphics, and Bayesian Networks.

Consultations

If you are a Research Honours, Masters or PhD student, we offer a free initial consultation with the QCU. The aim is to provide a kick-start and to ensure a path that will lead to successful research. Subject to the terms and conditions specified in QCU's service policy, further statistics support is available.

CSU staff researchers are also entitled to receive statistics support, as detailed in our service policy.

QCU Service Policy

(Effective 1 September 2017)

QCU provides a free initial consultation service (30-minute session) which may lead to:

  1. Further paid consultation service - $150 per hour. If necessary an extra free (30-min.) consultation session is available for further confirming the terms and conditions of the consulting services
    2. OR
  2. Further free collaboration service (subject to an upper limit of the service hours allocated for each case) requiring co-authorship/ownership of research publications/outcomes if the contribution of the consultation service is substantial.

Time limits

A time limit (per case) available for the free services will be as follows:

  • 10 hours for honours and masters students;
  • 20 hours for doctoral candidate students;
  • 20 hours for staff members.

Service priority

Service priority will be applied in the order of:

  1. Masters by research and Doctoral students (first priority);
  2. Staff members (second priority);
  3. Masters by course and Honours students (third priority).

NOTE: Any consultation time which exceeds the limit may be charged at $75 per hour unless an exemption is granted by the Research Office (subject to the availability of QCU's consulting resources).

What counts as consulting hours

Only the time directly related to the consulting service is counted as 'consulting hours'. This includes time spent:

  • with the client in phone call or email communications or in face-to-face meetings
  • on performing data treatment and/or analysis and/or presenting the analysis outcomes.

Any time spent on background reading, finding reference materials or familiarisation with or learning specific topics related to the consulting problem normally will not be counted.

Your role in our support

Understanding and defining the research problem(s) qualitatively and quantitatively so that relevant information/data are collected and analysed using the most suitable analysis methodology are essential for students at all levels.

The use of QCU's services (free or paid) should not become an excuse for students not being able to understand and/or interpret their research outcomes/findings. If this does happen, it may seriously compromise the integrity of their academic assessment outcomes. Therefore, under their supervisor's guidance, students should try their best to build up their own ability in performing valid data analyses and correctly interpreting their analysis results with the help of QCU's services.

View QCU website