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    Research Engineer makes applied research and statistics easier

    Chi-square Database Management Diagnostic Testing Effect Size Epidemiology Evidence-based Medicine Kruskal-Wallis Kurtosis Mann-Whitney U Non-parametric Statistics Normality Odds Ratio With 95% CI Psychometrics Relative Risk Research Research Design Research Question Sample Size Skewness Statistical Assumptions Statistical Power Analysis Statistics Survey Variables Wilcoxon

    Research Engineer is designed to get you to the correct research question, research design, sample size, database, and statistical test

    Based on your decisions to the questions presented, you will get to right place

    A few words on what I'm doing on here. I am a biostatistician, methodologist, psychometrician, and counselor. Everyday, the incredibly intelligent people I work with including physicians, residents, fellows, staff, and faculty feel anxiety when it comes to statistics and research. Research has shown that statistics can induce cognitive dissonance in an individual due to limited experiences and competencies. The collective unconscious has sequestered statistics and research into a dark corner and that's scary.

    Research and statistics are the methods by which we, as scientists, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate our research findings in a manner that can be generalized to the appropriate audience. If our methods for communicating research findings causes cognitive dissonance, just because it relates to research and statistics, then how can one ever really be able to generalize the clinical literature and integrate it into clinical practice?

    After seven years of being the one to induce cognitive dissonance in others related to research and statistics, I decided to make a useful tool for students and researchers that could alleviate some of the feelings of anxiety associated with research and statistics. I built Research Engineer.

    Research Engineer is designed to get you to the correct research question, research design, sample size, database, statistical test, evidence-based medicine intervention, diagnostic calculation, epidemiological calculation, variables, surveys, psychometrics, and educational framework to answer your current question (and future questions). 

    I am trying to bring research and statistics out of the collective unconscious and into the conscious mind where it can be effectively communicated among researchers, scientists, and students by creating this decision engine. It is easy to get to the correct research or statistical component, just answer the questions that I present you in the webpages and click on the buttons with your answer in them. Also, the step-by-step methods for conducting and interpreting each statistical test in SPSS are presented on their respective webpages. 

    You can also contact me via phone, social media, and email at any time in you have questions. If you need some help conducting statistics for a research project, I have eight years of experience across thousands of individual projects and I would love to help you on your study.  We can negotiate prices if you are an undergraduate or graduate researcher. 

    In conclusion, Research Engineer makes choosing research methods and statistical tests MUCH EASIER. Just answer the questions embedded in the various decision engines and get to the correct method or test, EVERY TIME.

    Thanks for your continued support, dear friends and colleagues. And many thanks and salutations to the individuals that use Research Engineer. I am honored and humbled to have this great opportunity to create a very useful and unique website. You all are the ones that make it shine!

    ​Sincerely,

    R. Eric Heidel, Ph.D.
    Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
    ​Affiliate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
    Department of Surgery
    Office of Medical Education, Research, and Development
    University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine
    Owner and Operator, Scale, LLC
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    Research Engineer is the world's first online decision tree for applied research and statistics

    Database Management Diagnostic Testing Education Epidemiology Evidence-based Medicine Psychometric Tests Research Design Research Engineer Research Question Statistical-power-test Statistics Survey Variables

    Fully automated and freely accessible to researchers around the world

    The first interactive decision tree that integrates statistical assumptions and post hoc analyses

    Research Engineer is going to be presented for the first time in a public forum next Tuesday. I'm pretty excited to let all of my colleagues know what I've been up to these past five months. I realized earlier today that Research Engineer has completely changed my life for the better. And I'm so thankful to all of those that have supported me along the way.

    And to visitors of this website, I extend my most gracious and humble thanks for your patronage. The website will continue to grow and help you in all of your future empirical endeavors.

    I have built the world's first online decision engine for research questions, research designs, statistics, statistical power, databases, evidence-based medicine, survey design, psychometrics, epidemiology, diagnostic testing, variables, and education. I look forward to the future!
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    Merging databases

    Database Management Merging Databases

    Grouping variables assist in merging databases

    Database management is essential when conducting research

    I work with brilliant people in academic and clinical medicine.  These individuals are dedicated and professional people that work really hard to serve patient populations. Database management is not an everyday concern for most medical professionals. It IS an everyday concern for medical professionals that analyze data.

    When working with a single research database, multiple databases, or secondary analysis of existing datasets, it is highly important to have some method for identifying individual participants with unique identifiers. Also, there must be some sort of primary "grouping" variable that distinguishes groups, datasets, or strata in more complex databases.

    The unique identifiers serve the purpose of meeting the assumption of independence of observations. The "grouping" variable serves as a means for sensitivity and subgroup analyses. It further helps data analysts work with secondary, tertiary, and ancillary research questions.

    The efforts you make as a researcher to have an objective and consistent method for data entry, maintenance, and analysis pays great dividends in the analysis phase of a research study. It is also the difference between it taking your statistician FIVE MINUTES to analyze your data versus FIVE MONTHS, or a happy statistical day versus a nightmare scenario.
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    Preliminary statistical consultation

    Database Management Research Engineer Sample Size Statistical Analysis Statistical Consultation Statistician Statistics

    Support your local statistician!

    Seek out methodological and statistical consultation

    If you have access to a statistical consultants or statisticians within your empirical or clinical environment, seek out their services in the preliminary phases of planning your study. Here is a list of things that I do for residents, fellows, faculty, physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and staff at an academic regional medical campus:

    1. Sample Size - I conduct sample size calculations for at least of 80-85% of my first-time clients. They often want to know how many people they need to reach a significant p-value. We work through the process of acquiring an evidence-based measure of effect that reflects what their research question is trying to answer.

    It feels good knowing that you have a good chance of detecting significance with a small sample size. Also, it is good to find out that you have to collect A LOT more observations than you thought you would. Post hoc power analyses should be run for any non-significant main effects that may be considered Type II errors (limited or small sample sizes).

    2. Statistical analysis - Real biostatistical scientists and statisticians will conduct your statistical analyses in an objective and expeditious manner to help you answer your research questions. Please help them understand what your research question is and what research design you want to use to answer it to the best of your abilities. They will be able to help you choose the correct statistic given that you can tell them the scale of measurement for your primary outcome and what type of design (between-subjects, within-subjects, correlational, mixed, or multivariate) you want to use to answer your question. It is also important to know WHO or WHAT you want to include in your sample in terms of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Finally, know your content area. We may not know your knowledge/philosophical base and need to understand the entire picture, as much as you can tell us.

    3. Database management - Go ahead and let us build your database in a basic Excel spreadsheet and send an accompanying code book in Word so that we are all on the same page. It helps us all know what is going on, what variables are being collected, what they mean, how they are measured, and how the analysis will work. Share it with all members of the research team. Use the code book when entering your data. Tell the rest of us if you make changes to the code book or database. These simple tasks and communicative efforts can mean the difference between your statistics being run in five minutes versus five weeks.  SERIOUSLY.

    4. Write-up of findings for publication - We will give you an annotated write-up of your findings with statistical outputs and give you basic and unbiased interpretations of the statistical results of your study. We can help you write up the statistical methods and results sections of your abstracts and manuscripts. We can even help you design tables and graphs that will make your study findings more aesthetically and visually appealing to your audience.

    When it comes to authorship, if you feel that your statistical professional's contribution to the design, execution, and interpretation of your study warrants authorship, offer it to them. They will greatly appreciate it! However, YOU SHOULD NEVER BE REQUIRED TO GIVE US AUTHORSHIP JUST BECAUSE WE RAN YOUR STATISTICS FOR YOU.  IT IS UNETHICAL FOR US TO REQUIRE AUTHORSHIP FOR DOING OUR JOB. THAT IS, IF OUR JOB IS TO RUN STATISTICS IN YOUR EMPIRICAL OR CLINICAL ENVIRONMENT.