FAQs Membership in Health Science Research Core

What is the HSRC?

Q:  What is the Health Science Research Core?

A:  HSRC is administratively under the Research and Graduate Education, through the Vice Provost.  A Steering Committee composed of representatives of health science units will provide guidance on policy and services.  As shown in the diagram below, the HSRC will initially contain three units: 

• the Methodology and Biostatistics Collaborative Unit (BCU), formed by the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and composed of faculty from that Department and methodological researchers from other departments, provides consultation and collaboration and conducts original methodological and biostatistical research; 
• the Data Support Services Unit (DaSS) provides biostatistical and methodological support, data entry and management, data analysis and interpretation, and assistance with preparation of standard data management and analysis sections of grants;
• the Data Portal and Repository (DaPR) archives data from research projects and other data available for use in research, maintains a library of public access data sets with documentation, and serves as liaison or access point for other sources of data such as the SC Data Warehouse in the Office of Research and Statistics.

Q:  How do you become a member?

A:  An annual fee is paid to the HSRC for membership.  (Describe fee determination process)

Q:  What are the advantages to being HSRC member?

A:  A basic level of statistical assistance with grant development and answers to methodological or analytical questions is provided for free for faculty from participating units.  Greater assistance can be provided when HSRC, including BCU or DaSS, is included in the grant budget.  Grant budgets will be developed in consultation with the Principal Investigator to reflect expected actual time and effort and expense.  All post-award work for grants that do not include HSRC and work that goes beyond the original plan will be billed at an hourly rate, as shown below.  This includes consultation, meetings, data entry, data management, data analysis, programming, writing, editing, paper revisions, etc.

Q:  How do Members get help?

A:  Fill out a request form at http://www.sc.edu//hsrc.

Q:  What are the customer rates?

A:  Internal and external hourly rates for the 2006-2007 fiscal year are shown in the following table.  These rates cover salary & fringe expenses.  The internal rates do not include indirect costs but the external rates do include indirect costs.  Rates will be adjusted annually, and projects will be charged the current rates in effect when work is performed. 

Q:  How often will rates be changed?  What does this mean for an existing grant?

A:  We will evaluate rates on an annual basis and will change them if necessary at the start of each fiscal year (July 1).  We will bill at the current rates.

Q:  Who will be charged the internal rate?

A:  Internal rates apply to participating units of the HSRC.  External rates apply to all others.

Q:  What do customers get for free?

A:  Statistical assistance with grant development is provided for free for HSRC member faculty provided that the BCU is included in the grant budget.

Q:  What do customers have to pay for?

A:  All post-award work will be billed at an hourly rate.  This includes data entry, data management, meetings, data analysis, programming, writing, editing, paper revisions, etc.  All other post award work not covered by previous agreements would be subject to charges.

Q:  How are budgets determined?

A:  They are created in a collaborative manner.  BCU members would work with the investigator(s) to establish a scope of work and will budget accordingly.  If there is only a fixed amount of money available, we will discuss what can be accomplished for that amount.

Q:  What does the HSRC need to help a customer?

A:  If the HSRC was assisting with a grant, they would need a description of all available pilot data, proposed study design, an idea of the feasible sample size, and any other relevant information.  If the HSRC is assisting with data analysis, they would need the data (preferably electronically, e.g., SAS, Stata, comma/tab delimited, or Excel).

Q:  How is the HSRC affected when the grant budget is cut by the funding agency?

A:  It is common in today’s world to see entire grant budgets get cut.  If a grant gets cut by 20% then it would be reasonable for the HSRC to be cut by 20% but not reasonable for the BCU to receive a disproportionately large cut.  Of course, it will be discussed how budget cuts affect the work we can perform.

Q:  What about authorship?

A:  Authorship is completely independent of funding.  If we make a contribution that warrants authorship, then we expect to be listed as an author(s).  The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (1) states
Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.
There is no discussion of payment as exclusion for authorship.  The Journal of the American Medical Association has a very similar policy (2).  The DAU operates under the ICMJE policy.

Q:  Who can I call if I have further questions?

A:  Please contact the Robert McKeown HSRC Director (803) 777-6220 rmckeown@mailbox.sc.edu) or BCU Director (James Hardin, Ph.D., (803) 777-0388, jhardin@mailbox.sc.edu).

• The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication, http://www.icmje.org/, updated February 2006 (accessed December 13, 2006).
• JAMA Instructions for Authors, The Journal of the American Medical Association, http://jama.ama-assn.org/misc/ifora.dtl , (accessed December 13, 2006).