Consultation

The Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) offers methodology consultation and short workshops on quantitative and qualitative methods. These services are free for students, faculty, and other members of the UMass-Amherst research community. Our graduate student consultants are funded by the Graduate School at UMass-Amherst.

Request your free consultation 

Our consulting service is staffed by a team of advanced graduate students who provide consultation by appointment.  The team also offers short courses in specific methods and data program packages.  ISSR Research Methodologist, Jessica Pearlman, is available for consulting appointments with faculty and graduate students, as well as to assist with the methods sections of grant proposals. 

Consultations are available by appointment, or during walk-in hours at Machmer E27F.

Request consultation

Spring 2019 walk-in hours

Day and Time Consultant
Monday (1 - 4 PM) Qiong Chen
Tuesday (10 AM - 1 PM) Rodrigo Dominguez Villegas
Tuesday (1 - 4 PM) Ashley Carpenter
Wednesday (10 AM - 1 PM) Eric Griffith
Wednesday (1 - 4 PM)  Jayash Paudel
Thursday (12:30 - 3:30 PM) Andrea Cataldo

 

Fee-for-Service Consultation

ISSR offers private, customized fee-based consultations as well as customized workshops for individual researchers, nonprofit organizations and research-intensive companies.

To request private fee-for-service consultations or a customized workshop for your course, please email a description of your needs to Jessica Pearlman.

Areas of expertise

Research Design, Data Collection and Processing

  • Research design
  • Experimental design
  • Survey design
  • Semi-structured interviewing methods
  • Participant observation
  • Data management, coding, and processing
  • Questionnaire design and survey implementation
  • Public secondary data sources (Census, Bureau of Economic Analysis, etc.)

Quantitative Analysis

  • Descriptive analysis and simple hypothesis testing
  • Multivariate linear regression
  • Logistic and Probit regression, including multinomial and ordered approaches
  • Methods for count data, including poisson and negative binomial models
  • Longitudinal data analysis, including fixed and random effects
  • Event history and survival analysis
  • Multi-level modeling for linear and nonlinear outcomes
  • Factor and principal components analysis
  • Cluster analysis and latent class analysis
  • Structural equation models and simultaneous equation models
  • Propensity score matching
  • Imputation methods for missing data
  • Data visualization and graphics
  • Survey sampling methods (including weighting)
  • Spatial data analysis
  • Nonparametric tests
  • Bayesian statistics
  • Signal detection analysis
  • Mathematical modeling of cognition

Qualitative Analysis

  • Coding qualitative data
  • Archival research
  • Content analysis
  • Use of descriptive statistics in qualitative research
  • Design of comparative and case study-based research

Software Platforms

  • ArcGIS
  • GeoDA
  • GPower
  • LaTeX
  • Matlab
  • Mplus
  • Python
  • Qualtrics
  • NVivo
  • R
  • Resampling Stats
  • SAS
  • SPSS 
  • STATA