Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Long-term Collaboration Plans (not covered by grant funding)
We recommend a collaboration plan where the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and the collaborating department/division uses their departmental/divisional funds jointly to support time for biostatisticians to be involved in developing research programs in other departments.
What does this plan provide?
- Data analysis for all existing (non-grant-funded) projects
- Study and experimental design for all (non-grant-funded) projects
- Assistance with all (non-grant-funded) manuscripts
- Priority work on grant proposals from this group
- Assistance with journal clubs and paper review (from methodology perspective)
- Assistance with research conference (e.g., data analysis and pre-conference critique of fellows' presentations)
- Teaching short courses in experimental design and analysis methodology catering to the particular disease system
- K award mentoring
How does it work?
- Internal Long-Term Collaborations:
The collaborating department/division at WCMC reimburses the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology for a part of the percent effort plus fringes of the biostatistician dedicated to the learning and creation of projects for their research interest. A mutually agreed budget is developed before starting the collaboration and the effectiveness of the collaboration is discussed yearly. Quarterly or semiannual invoices will be accompanied by reports of activities. - External Long-Term Collaborations:
The same plan as above is also made available to our affiliate institutions and outside research groups with overlapping research interests. This collaboration requires departmental approval. The cost for this service is $250/hr. An approximate budget is developed before starting the collaboration. Quarterly or semiannual invoices will be accompanied by reports of activities.
How to take part in this plan:
Please email Dr. Mazumdar at mam2073@med.cornell.edu with an assessment of your needs in terms of how many faculty and staff members will need support and the type of projects (protocol development, manuscript writing, grant development, journal club, training/mentoring activities) you will need help with.
Current Internal Long-term Collaboration Plans:
| Subject Area | Contact | Biostatistical Team | Duration of Collaboration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hematology-Oncology | Nanus (WCMC) | Mazumdar, Christos, Zhou, Monni | Oct 2004 – to date |
| Thoracic Surgery | Altorki (WCMC) | Mazumdar, Christos, Chiu, Shao | Feb 2005 - to date |
| Quality and Medical Informatics | Kaushal, R | Barrón-Vaya, Edwards | May 2008 – to date |
| Development and Molecular Biology | Melnick, A | To be Hired | |
| Experimental Pathology | Rubin, M | Banerjee | Aug 2008 – to date |
| Translational Research Program | Knowles, D | Mazumdar, Zhou, Monni | June 2008 – to date |
| Urology | Tewari, A | John | Aug 2008 – to date |
| Radiology | Min, R; Dorfman, G | John, Edwards | Aug 2008 – to date |
| Cardiac Imaging | Min, J; Dorfman, G | Dunning | Oct 2009 – to date |
| Cancer Prevention | Dannenberg, A | Zhou | Sept 2008 – to date |
| HIV/AIDS | Fitzgerald, D; Johnson, W | Edwards | Feb 2009 – to date |
| Radiation Oncology | Chao, C | Monni | Feb 2009 – to date |
Current External Long-term Collaboration Plans:
| Subject Area | Contact | Biostatistical Team | Duration of Collaboration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brain Trauma | Brain Trauma Foundation | Gerber, Chiu | Jul 2004 – to date |
| Renal Cancer | Pfizer, Inc. | Zhou | Sept 2007 – to date |
| Surgical Clinical Trial | Applied Medical | Mazumdar, Christos | Aug 2009 – Aug 2012 |
| Therapeutic Response by Imaging | AstraZeneca | Mazumdar | Aug 2008 – Aug 2010 |
Policies for Manuscript Writing (Under this Plan)
Authorship
A frequently asked question is whether biostatistical consultants should be co-authors on scientific papers. We feel that decisions about authorship should be independent of consideration of funding sources. As recommended in published guidelines (Parker RA, Berman NG: Criteria for authorship for statisticians in medical papers. Statistics in Medicine 17: 2289-2299 (1998)), "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." Examples of scientific contributions are the following.
- The statistician has to develop new statistical methods to meet the project's needs, or she/he has to combine existing techniques in a novel way.
- The statistician has a major role in designing the study.
- The statistician writes part of the manuscript other than a standard paragraph or two describing which statistical methods were used.
- The statistician is asked to critique an initial draft and the statistician spends a considerable amount of time suggesting alternative wording and presentation of results.
- The statistician provides data analysis along with interpretation of results.
By JAMA's criteria for authorship for statistical experts involved in the analysis and interpretation of data used in a manuscript; a statistician is a co-author if (1) he/she took part in the drafting of the manuscript or (2) he/she was involved in a critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Above all, it is important for the medical researcher and biostatistician(s) working on the project to agree on criteria for authorship early in their collaboration.
Manuscript Preparation
Whether or not the statistician is an author, it is important to allow sufficient time for the statistician 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. When different analyses are carried out by different personnel, it is beneficial for the investigator and statistician to map out the entire analysis together in advance.
(Modeled after http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/ManuscriptPolicies)
