Statistical Consulting Service

The Ohio State University Statistical Consulting Service (SCS) is a team of faculty, staff, and graduate students in the Department of Statistics providing research planning and analytical services. 

By the Numbers

Over the last 5 years, the SCS has worked with more than 100 academic departments and administrative units at Ohio State. In that time, the SCS has worked on more than 300 different projects.

The SCS has conducted projects with more than 50 companies, organizations, and government agencies across Ohio. These companies range from small start-ups to Fortune 100 enterprises.

At a Glance

The SCS provides support in the following areas:

• Research Planning
• Design of Experiments
• Survey Design, Administration, and Analysis
• Statistical Process Control
• Statistical Modeling and Analysis
• Independent Verification of Statistical Analyses 

Building Statistical Models for Success

SCS and Elizabeth Dayton (School of Environment and Natural Resources) developed a series of models for the On Field Ohio project, to understand the complex relationship between phosphorus in Ohio’s soils, farmer management practices and the runoff of phosphorus into Ohio’s rivers and streams. The SCS developed databases for storing many different types of information at different spatial and temporal resolutions; to perform a sensitivity analysis to assess standard instruments for assessing runoff; to automate the use of a computer model for predicting soil loss from farm fields; to develop a graphical user interface for data visualization; and to fit statistical models that separate baseline runoff from spikes in runoff associated with farmer actions on their fields. This research has led to a better understanding of which tillage, fertilization and harvesting practices are most appropriate for individual farmers to produce a high yield from their crops without endangering Ohio’s water resources. 

Project Descriptions

Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services

Every two years since 2004, SCS has designed and implemented surveys that are sent to all child care providers in Ohio and performed statistical analysis of the results for the purposes of determining fair market rates for child-care subsidies to low-income families.

Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center

SCS provides experimental design, survey development, and statistical data analysis support for a variety of research studies in Natural Resources, Horticulture, Animal Sciences, Entomology, and Food Agriculture and Biological Engineering.

Boehringer-Ingelheim-Roxanne Inc.

SCS has provided assistance in developing and implementing statistical process control methods to be applied to their Process Validation phase of new drug development.

Ohio Department of Health

SCS developed and applied statistical models to predict the proportion of children who will have elevated blood lead levels in each Ohio Census tract based on data obtained from the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company

SCS has developed experiment designs and performed data analysis for several research studies regarding bird seed, weed control, pest repellant, and fertilizer products.

Medvet Medical and Cancer Centers for Pets

SCS assists in designing experimental studies and performing statistical analysis for several projects examining new and existing veterinary orthopedic devices and practices and cancer treatments.

Social Work

In collaboration with researchers in the Government Resource Center, SCS is helping to improve care for children taken into the custody of Franklin County Children’s Services. The work will improve the rate of diagnosis for mental health disorders and the rate of mental health treatment received by these children.

Human Nutrition

SCS has helped researchers design and analyze a series of studies to investigate the effects of various interventions on child and adult health. Modeling techniques included hierarchical modeling, repeated measures modeling, and cumulative logit modeling. 

5.2015