Biostatistical Consulting Laboratory

The BCL offers free consultation to members of VCU and VCU Health, including assistance with study design, data analysis, or education in biostatistics and data science.

The BCL offers free consultations to researchers in VCU and VCU Health Sciences, and provides free (or low-cost) assistance with study design and data analysis, as well as educational training in biostatistics and data science.

Our faculty supervise and approve all projects that come through the lab. You can expect to work with at least one biostatistics graduate student on your request — they are trained to collaborate with researchers and will earn course credit for their work in the BCL.

BCL does not provide tutoring, cannot assist with academic coursework, and cannot provide services on capstone projects, theses or dissertations, though 1-hour consultations are still permitted to discuss study design and analysis plans. Educational activities (such as short courses or seminars) can be arranged, and will be led by graduate students under the mentorship of departmental faculty.

By the Numbers: BCL achievements through January 2020

30 manuscripts

15 accepted, 15 under review

52 abstracts

37 accepted, 15 under review

6 sessions of education

97% satisfaction

in follow-up surveys

BCL Policies

The Department of Biostatistics and the BCL are committed to practices that promote responsible, ethical and reproducible research in a manner that fosters a multidisciplinary research environment. As such, we have developed the following policies that support good data science practice for the BCL.

Publications

Collaborations with BCL members must also include those BCL members as co-authors in any resulting peer-reviewed manuscripts or presentations. Please note that omission of an author who meets the standard requirements is a violation of standard research ethics. Several examples of published works stemming from BCL collaborations are provided below.

Ph.D. Graduate Perspective - Brian DiPace

“In addition to didactic courses, the Department of Biostatistics offers students the unique opportunity to gain consulting and/or collaborative experience with a variety of researchers within the VCU community through the Biostatistical Consulting Laboratory (BCL).”

Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) for Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR) 

At BERD, our ultimate goals are to foster university-wide collaborations, promote high-quality and reproducible health science research that will generate actionable knowledge, and establish more and longer-lasting grant-supported research programs.

Our faculty members, together with our graduate students at BCL,  supports quantitative health science research at VCU, through the BERD core of the CCTR. We provide services including:

  • study design and trial planning in grant proposal development
  • on-study database management, analysis and dissemination
  • educational and training opportunities
  • co-author peer-reviewed publications

At BERD, we aim to: (i) promotes health science research that is high quality, reproducible, transparent and translatable, (ii) establishes more and longer-lasting grant-supported research programs and (iii) generates peer-reviewed publications in top journals