QSU Policy on Timeliness

The QSU is dedicated to collaborating in a timely and efficient manner.  As we collaborate with multiple investigators on several projects, however, there is a queue.  Below is a guideline on what to expect with respect to turnaround time.  

  • For grant proposal development, the QSU should to be notified at least two months in advance of a submission deadline to secure its involvement and ideally 3 months prior to submission. In general, investigators should contact the QSU at the earliest notification that a grant proposal will be developed. It is never too early to contact us!
  • For data analysis, the QSU requires the development of a Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP), pre-registeration of the study, or registration of the trial, and ample time to assess reproducibility of results. Once the SAP is developed, the data set needs to be cleaned, analyzed, interpreted and reproduced, before bringing preliminary findings to discuss with investigators. This process takes at least two months. 
  • Out of respect and fairness to our collaborators and to continue to uphold highest levels of data integrity, we are unable to perform last minute requests.

 

QSU Timeliness Policy as the Analytic Center for the Western Regional Center of the WHI Extension Study

The QSU is the Western Analytic Center for the WHI Extension Study.  In its role, the QSU offers support to

  • Assess study feasibility
  • Develop proposals for manuscripts
  • Conduct data analysis and
  • Prepare manuscripts

 

Our policy on timeliness for grant proposal and manuscript development applies to WHI investigators as well.  Additionally,

  • For study feasibility, the QSU needs one week after an initial meeting to provide feedback on feasibility.
  • For development of manuscript proposals, the QSU will aid in study design and create an analysis plan two weeks after an initial meeting.
  • Timeliness on data analysis and grant proposals follows QSU's general rules described above.  Note that often with WHI, there may be a time lag in receiving a complete data set if one or more variables are specially requested from the coordinating center.

 

For further information, please contact Ni Deng at nideng@stanford.edu.