Using Data: Lab

Statistical consulting services are available to currently enrolled/employed members of Princeton University. The consultant provides assistance in using Stata, SPSS, SAS, and MatLab and related utilities in the lab. For details of the background of the consultants, check the Contacts page.

The lab is very crowded from February to April with primarily juniors and seniors working on their junior paper or senior thesis. If you need extensive assistance, come to the lab any other times of the year.

Hours

The lab is open when Firestone Library is open. The staffed hours are as below. *If you would like to meet with a consultant outside of the staffed hours, please email data@princeton.edu to make an appointment.

Location

The DSS computer lab is located at A-16-H-3 in Firestone Library, in the back of Social Science Reference Center, by the Industrial Relations section.

Making the most from the consultation

At an earlier stage in your research,

• Have a well-defined research question.
• Know what data you will want to use.
• Have a very good idea of what variables you will want to use.
• If there is a printed version of the codebook, bring it with you.

At a later stage in your research,

• Assure that your advisor approves of your analysis plan. Although the consultants are knowledgeable, the choices you will be making may be matters of opinion. The ultimate responsibility for what goes into your paper is yours!
• Have a plan for your project as a whole. A written time-line and "to-do" list will be very helpful. During busy times, consultants may not be able to give as much personalized attention, so knowing specifically what you need to ask will make your time more efficient.

Contact

We do not provide telephone support, and the lab phone number is not publicly available. If you would like to ask questions but can not come to the lab, please email your questions to data@princeton.edu from your princeton email address. The assistance can only be provided to current Princeton members who have a valid Princeton email address. Even though you may send emails any time of the day, they are responded during regular business hours, Monday through Friday.

Available Programs

Hardware

• 10 Windows XP stations
• 1 Scanner

Software

• Office 2003
• OmniPage 15
• Stata 9.2 & 10.0
• SPSS 15 & 16
• SAS 9.1
• S-Plus 7.0
• R 2.4.1
• MatLab R2007a
• DBMS/Copy 8
• WinZip 10.0
• Adobe Reader 8
• Mozila Firefox 2.0.0.6
• SSH Secure Shell 3.2.9
• Hummingbird Exceed

Lab Consulting Report

View lab usage statistics.