Consulting

CSSS Consulting Director: Yen-Chi Chen

Yen-Chi is a leading expert in nonparametric statistics, causal inference, missing data, and mixture modeling.

CSSS Consulting RA: Ethan Ancell

Ramses' research is in political economy and methodology, with an interest in measurement modeling, causal inference, and panel data/multi-level methods.

Types of Consultations

CSSS provides free statistical consulting to current UW faculty, staff, and students working on social science problems. We offer guidance at any stage of a project -- from study design and planning through the selection and interpretation of statistical models.

We provide the following services:

• Assistance with study planning and design
• Assistance with the choice of statistical methods
• Assistance with the application and interpretation of statistical methods
• Advice on data visualization and presentation
• Advice on complementary use of AI for statistical practice
• Development of specialized statistical methods
   

Please note that CSSS does not provide consultation on how to use statistical software, but we are happy to assist with statistical questions or concepts that may be connected to computing (e.g., model selection and interpretation).

How to Schedule an Appointment

To schedule a dedicated appointment slot, please log in with your UW netID and fill in the consulting intake form. You will then receive an email from our RA to book a time slot. Since appointments may not be immediately available, we recommend reaching out early.

Drop-in Statistical Consulting

If you would like to drop-in, feel free to join the zoom during the drop-in hour; no appointment is necessary. There is no need to submit the consulting intake form either, however, you may review the form for information that you will be asked to provide at your drop-in session.

Please note: there are no appointments or drop-in consulting during university breaks.

Appointment Schedule

Winter Quarter 2026

• Wednesdays: 10am-12pm
• Thursdays: 1pm-3pm
• Drop-in (Zoom only) Wednesday: 2–3pm

Can't access the consulting form? Please make sure you are logged in with your UW credentials, accessible on the bottom right of the CSSS site footer.

Other Consulting Services

Center for Social Science Computation & Research (CSSCR): CSSCR consulting on applied statistical analysis software (coding in R, Stata, SAS, SPSS, Python, etc.), data management, data access, and scientific publications. CSSCR also provides consultation on qualitative methods and geospatial (GIS) data.

Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE): CSDE provides consultation and assistance in both choosing and implementing statistical methodologies for demographic research.

Statistics and Biostatistics: The departments of Statistics and Biostatistics also provide consulting services for study design and data analysis advice; a list of biomedical statistical consulting services can be found here.

eScience Institute: Offers a range of consulting services focused on data science tools and techniques for research dealing with complex data. Topics include data analysis, cloud computing, AI/ML, high-performance computing, software engineering, and more. You can talk one-on-one with a data scientist through their Office Hours, or start a longer and more in-depth consultation by applying to their Research Accelerator program.

UW Librarian: UW librarians provide support for finding and accessing data, data management planning, data organization, reuse of data, data sharing and storage, data citation, instruction, literature review, publications, citation management tools, and more.

If you are not sure whether your question is appropriate for CSSS consulting, please do not hesitate to contact us at csss-consult@uw.edu and we can help you decide!