Consulting & Collaboration
Public Health Sciences (PHS) Consulting & Collaboration Support
Consultation & Collaboration Request Form
Note! The request form will not work if you are connected to the UVA High Security VPN network.
The Department of Public Health Sciences provides Consulting & Collaboration Support to assist researchers with research and quality improvement (QI) studies, including protocol development and grant submissions. PHS expertise includes:
- study design
- data analysis and graphics
- outcomes and comparative effectiveness research
- evaluation methods
- implementation science
- qualitative research
- surveys
- REDCap database development and management
- public data sharing requirements
PHS also has expertise across a range of publicly accessible and restricted datasets including the NIH funded All of Us and Bridge2AI Research Programs, and the VA All Payers Claims Database (APCD).
Consultation & Collaboration Request Form
Note! The request form will not work if you are connected to the UVA High Security VPN network.
PHS@the Library
PHS @ the Library provides free drop-in support staffed by PHS statisticians to address introductory statistics, software, data management and research methods questions. This service does not reproduce more substantive and comprehensive research collaborations available through PHS via the consulting and collaboration request form.
Software, Biostatistics, and Data management queries can be addressed on any day. Additional Services are based on normal staff coverage, and are subject to change without notice. PHS@ the Library consultants are available on demand via the following schedule:
| Day | Location | Additional Services |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 2-4pm | PHS@the Library Zoom Room | TriNetX, UVA Feasibility |
| Tuesday 2-4pm | In-person at Claude Moore Health Sciences Library first floor | EPIC Cosmos Feasibility |
| Wednesday 2-4pm | In-person at Claude Moore Health Sciences Library first floor | All of Us Research Feasibility |
| Thursday 2-4pm | In-person at Claude Moore Health Sciences Library first floor | VA All Payers Claims Database |
| Friday 2-4pm | PHS@the Library Zoom Room |
The service is closed during UVA Academic Division holidays.
Requesting Collaborative Support
Request for collaborative or hourly support can be initiated via the Consulting and Collaboration Request Form.
Grant Proposal Deadlines: Requests for grant proposal assistance should be submitted at least 6 weeks before the grant submission deadline. For NIH P, U and SPORE proposals (or similar) a lead time of 6 months is required. We cannot guarantee assistance for requests submitted after these deadline.
Notes:
- This REDCap form will not work if you are connected to the UVA HS-VPN.
- You are required to indicate that you have read and agreed to the information provided below regarding funding, authorship, and manuscript preparation.
Funding Models
We have three basic models for research collaboration and consulting.
PHS faculty members are a co-investigator with % effort on the project. Faculty will collaborate on grant submissions for free provided the % effort of the faculty, and any needed staff, on the proposal, and when awarded, is representative of the actual effort required to meet the project goals.
Note: PHS requires a minimum of 5% effort for PHS personnel on collaborative projects. See Research Collaborations % Effort Benchmarks for guidance. Additionally, PHS uses a faculty / staff model and staff many not have % effort on a project without PHS faculty effort. Exceptions to these policies require special approval.
Another SOM entity (department, division or center) funds a pre-set % effort of PHS faculty and staff members.
Research is a primary mission of an academic health center. It is important to maintain an infrastructure that facilitates research given time constraints in clinical departments. It is also important to educate trainees (fellows, residents, others) on research methods. While departments have research staff that provide IRB support, research coordination, etc., it can be difficult to recruit and retain research methodologists (e.g. biostatisticians) to provide crucial design and analytic collaboration. PHS can help address these considerations by providing research methodological collaboration and education across a range of expertise. See PHS Collaborative Research Partnership for more information.
Please contact the PHS Chair or Vice Chairs to discuss a potential collaborative partnership.
Hourly charge for those who are not providing % effort salary support on a grant or through a collaborative partnership. These projects are expected to be relatively straight-forward, short-term studies.
For internally funded UVA projects our rates are as follows:
- For work done by faculty the charge is $192/hour.
- For work done by staff the charge is $113/hour.
- For work done by graduate students the charge is $55/hour
For externally funded projects our rates are as follows:
- For work done by faculty the charge is $310/hour.
- For work done by staff the charge is $183/hour.
Each project will be performed by the appropriate level faculty or staff. Relevant personnel efforts will be fully discussed and provided to the investigator(s) for each project.
Authorship
A frequently asked question is whether research methodologists should be co-authors on scientific papers. It is the policy of PHS that decisions about authorship should be independent of consideration of funding sources. It is essential that all study team members (including PHS personnel) agree on criteria for authorship (and authorship position) early in their collaboration to avoid any misunderstanding.
Above all, it is important for the Researcher and PHS personnel to agree on criteria for authorship, and authorship order, early in their collaboration.
In biostatistics, published guidelines (Parker RA, Berman NG: Criteria for authorship for statisticians in medical papers. Statistics in Medicine 17: 2289-2299, 1998), state that “The basis of financial support should be the time/effort spent on a project and the basis for authorship should be whether the statistician has made a scientific contribution to the project.” There is a general recognition for what constitutes as “scientific contribution” in the field of biostatistics:
- The statistician has developed new statistical methods to meet the project’s needs, and/or has combined existing techniques in a novel manner.
- The statistician has participated in the conception or design of the study.
- The statistician provides data analysis and statistical interpretation of results.
- The statistician writes part of the manuscript describing which statistical methods were used and/or assists in writing other sections of the manuscript—including revisions.
- The statistician is asked to review/critique an initial draft and spends time suggesting alternative wording and presentation of results.
MS and PhD biostatisticians should be listed as authors if any of the above criteria are met, in addition to receiving appropriate remuneration for their services.
Manuscript Analytical Preparation and Data Sharing
It is important to allow sufficient time for the PHS biostatistician to check statistical results and descriptions of statistical methods that appear in a manuscript. We frequently find inconsistencies between analyses we perform and basic descriptive statistics computed by the investigator. For example, the primary statistical comparison may emphasize differences in medians while the investigator quotes mean values elsewhere in the manuscript.
Additionally, federally funded research requires that the code and all data supporting the findings are shared at the time the publication first appears. Researchers must allow sufficient time for these files to be prepared for a manuscript prior to submission in order to ensure compliance with public data sharing requirements.