ST810A - Preparation for Statistical Research
Spring 2009 --- 1 credit

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Instructor: Dr. Brian Reich
210D Patterson Hall
reich@stat.ncsu.edu
(919) 513 - 7686
Office hours: Tuesdays, 1-3pm


Course description

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This course is meant to give students pursuing a Ph.D. in Statistics an organized introduction to the necessary skills and knowledge for a career in statistical research, starting with the first formal research activity, the dissertation. Course topics are described in the Syllabus.


Assignments

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• Search the literature and identify the 10 most important papers in a statistical area (Due 2/10)
  
  
• Simulation study (Due 2/27)
  
  
• Final Project -- proposal (Due 3/24)
  
  
• Write your CV and prepare an application package for a real position announcements of interest to you (Due 4/14)
  
  
• Final Project -- written report (Due 4/30)
  
  
• Final Project -- oral presentation (Due 4/30)

Course materials

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• 1/13 Latex I (lecture notes)
  
  • The Crimson editor
  • WinEdt
  • The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e by Oetiker et al. (126 pages)
  • A catalog of LaTeX mathematical symbols
  • CTAN
  • Denis Girou's PSTricks page
  • Template for standard LaTeX document, the figure, and the resulting .pdf file
    
    
• 1/20 No class - blizzard!
• 1/27 Latex II - Class in Harrelson G100 at 3:30! (lecture notes, latex code)
  
  • Template for slides using seminar.sty
  • Template for slides using prosper
  • Template for slides using beamer
  • Creating a poster using sciposter.cls (Latex code, Style file, and figure)
  
  
• 2/3 Literature review - Guest lecturers Eleanor Smith and Josh Wilson
  
• 2/10 Statistical computing I - Class in Harrelson G100 at 3:30!(lecture notes)
  
  • The R website
  • R search page
  • R manuals
  • R cheat sheet
  
  
• 2/17 Simulation studies in statistics - Class in Harrelson G100 at 3:30! ( lecture notes )
  • Example 1: estimators for the mean
    
  • Example 2: power and size of the t-test
    
  • Stimulation Study in Statistics, by Li, Boos, and Gumpertz
  • Let's practice what we preach: Turning tables into graphs" by Gelman, Pasarica, and Dodhia
    
  • Calling WinBUGS from R
  
  
• 2/24 Academic publication (lecture notes)
  
  • IMS special issue on refereeing
  • Journal of the American Statistical Association
  • Biometrics
  • Biometrika
  • Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (General Methodology)
  • Applied Statistics (JRSS-C)
  • Annals of Statistics
  • Annals of Applied Statistics
  • Environmetrics
  • Statistics in Medicine
  • Technometrics
  • Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics
  • The American Statistician
  • Biostatistics
  
  
• 3/10 Grant writing (lecture notes)
  
  • Statistics awards at NSF
  • NSF CAREER Award
  • NIH grants main page
  • NIH Grant advice from Louise Ryan
  
  
• 3/17 No class, ENAR
  
  
• 3/24 Written communication - Guest lecturer Prof. Nancy Penrose
  
  
• 3/31 Positions in academia (lecture notes)
  
  • IMS Job Listing
  • ASA Job Web
  • Statistics Job Listing at University of Florida
  • Statistics Job Listing at Purdue University
  • Statistics Job Listing at University of Washington
  • NCSU Faculty Handbook
  • NCSU Department of Statistics Promotion and Tenure Policy
  • NCSU Department of Statistics Policy on Comprehensive Review of Tenured Faculty

• 3/31 Job Search (lecture notes)
  
  • Sample CV (latex code,style file)
    
  • Another sample CV (latex code)
    
  • Color sample cover letter (latex code)
  • Black and white sample cover letter (latex code, style file, postscript file) - NOTE: dvi2pdf will not work! Use dvips then ps2pdf.
  • Sample cover letter in Word
  • Sample home page (html code, picture file 1,picture file 2)
  • HTML help at NCSU
  • Dr. Bondell's research statement
  • Dr. Bondell's teaching statement
  
  
• 4/7 Oral communication - Guest lecturer Prof. Robert Anholt
  
  
• 4/14 Professional ethics for statisticians: Issues and advice(lecture notes)
  
  • ASA's Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice
  • MIT Dismisses Biology Professor for Faking Data
  
  
• 4/21 Project Peer reviews
  
  
• 4/30 Project presentations (finals week, 1-4pm)

Thanks to Profs. Marie Davidian and Montse Fuentes for providing material for the course!

Last modified: 1/09