Consultations


The College of Education and Human Ecology’s Quantitative Methodology Center (QMC) provides free consulting for the faculty, students, staff, post-doctoral researchers, and visiting scholars of our college. Our goal is to provide capacity-building assistance to help EHE researchers conduct their own research with rigor and confidence.

We consult with EHE researchers on any topic related to quantitative methodology.

  • We meet with people who are doing all kinds of quantitative research (e.g., small sample research, experiments with mice, research in the schools, developing a survey).
  • Our clients have a wide range of quantitative knowledge (e.g., those who have taken only an introductory statistics course to those who have experience with advanced methods).
  • We provide information and resources for conducting quantitative analysis using a variety of software (e.g., SPSS, R, Mplus, Stata, HLM, SAS).
  • Our clients sometimes just want to discuss their research or analysis plan with someone with a quantitative background.

We are currently unable to provide data analytic services for our clients but are happy to support our EHE researchers in other ways.


To Request a Consultation

If you would like to meet with us, please send an email to qmc@osu.edu and provide the following information:

  • Working title of your project
  • Type (e.g., manuscript, dissertation, survey, grant proposal)
  • Brief description of the study
  • Research question(s), even in draft form
  • Analysis, if appropriate and if known
  • Software you are planning to use
  • Purpose of the consultation

Common Discussion Topics

We discuss and find resources (e.g., books, peer-reviewed articles) to inform and support methodological choices for conducting a myriad of quantitative methods, from simple to advanced, for example:

  • Regression, ANOVA, MANOVA
  • Multilevel modeling, SEM, IRT, and Rasch modeling
  • Descriptive statistics
  • Nonparametric statistics
  • Dealing with missing data
  • Statistical power

We discuss and review methods and/or results sections for grant applications, conference presentations, or journal articles.

We recommend courses and workshops from across campus.


Special Notes for Doctoral Students

We are happy to meet with you to discuss your dissertation study, but final decisions are, of course, yours to make. We recommend that you:

  • Share with your advisor that you are seeking a consultation with the QMC.
  • Send a copy of your consultation summary to your advisor.
  • Discuss with your advisor any methodological decisions you are considering as a result of your consultation.

Special Assistance

In specific cases we provide support in other ways than a standard consulting appointment.

Our consultants are available for more time-intensive services such as guest presentations and tutorials. If you would like to request other services, please send an email with details about your request to qmc@osu.edu.


Please contact Susie Mauck, QMC Research Specialist, at qmc@osu.edu if you have any questions. Thank you!