To ensure that the consultation is as effective, as efficient, and as pleasant as possible, we have the following regulations:

Who can ask for statistical advice from M&S?

• We provide consultation only to staff of the department of Child Development and Education.
• Students are not entitled to use the consulting service themselves. However, their supervisor is welcome to consult us for questions relating to a master’s thesis.

What is the procedure?

• Send your question to consult-powl@uva.nl. A member of M&S will contact you to schedule an appointment for a consultation. There may be a waiting period of several days or more during times when we receive many requests. Please, do not ask M&S members for advice directly, as M&S members often find it difficult to say no although they are often extremely busy.
• It is helpful to formulate your question in the email as detailed and specific as possible, to ensure that we have enough information to match your question to an expert on the particular topic.
• The time for the consultation is limited to 30 minutes for reasons of capacity, so make sure to come prepared.
• The M&S member will try to answer your question immediately. However, this is often not possible. If you require more information than can be provided in the 30-minute appointment, another consultation (via email or in person) will be scheduled for a later time.
• Our consultation includes verbal answers to methodological and statistical questions and, if required, help in getting started with statistical software (such as R, SPSS and Mplus). M&S members do not perform data analyses on your behalf.
• Please be aware that M&S members will not be able to provide solutions to every single problem and that, in particular, you do not have the right to claim that your problem will be solved by a particular deadline. This is due to waiting times as well as the fact that it is not possible to estimate in advance how much time the statistical consulting will take. We recommend therefore that you make an appointment for consultation as early as possible.
• If, as a result of the content or the extent of the advice provided, an M&S member has substantially contributed to the conception or the completion of a publication or a grant proposal, it is customary to list him/her as coauthor. In this case, the consultant must be given the opportunity to read and approve the final draft before submission.