Consultation and meeting policies
I'm happy to help members of my community work through their statistical, data and coding problems! That said, I get a lot of requests for help, and so I've adopted a system to help prevent over-booking, to manage how my work in this area is credited in my effort reporting and personal accomplishments, and to protect a bit of my time for my own research.
First, if your question is for a class, particularly if your question involves work you will be graded on, please consult with your instructor regarding their policies on external consults(1). Otherwise:
In general, simple problems that can be handled in a single meeting ("Am I using the appropriate statistic here?" "Can you help me find the bug in my code?" "What is the best tutorial to use to do [x] with my data?"), I expect no compensation beyond an acknowledgement.
For problems where I am required to make a substantial intellectual contribution to the work (i.e. writing custom analysis code, data manipulation and quality control, teaching you a new method, or substantial input in experimental design or interpretation), I will generally require some form of credit beyond a simple acknowledgement. This form of credit is negotiable and depends on the exact circumstance, but can include (and is not necessarily limited to):
- For graduate students, an invitation to serve on your thesis/dissertation committee
- Authorship on manuscripts or other research products resulting from work where I have made these contributions
- For external requests, service contracts can be negotiated with the Bahlai Lab via Kent State University Division of Research and Sponsored Programs
If you would like to book a meeting with me, you can use this interface which automatically places the meeting in my schedule:
(1) That time I accidentally did a student's homework for them made for a very awkward conversation with my colleague, their instructor.