Getting Stats Help At Any Career Stage with Karen Grace-Martin

As an academic, seeking statistical support is beneficial and crucial for a successful career. The field of statistics is ever-evolving, and so is research. Just like business development is essential for writing, statistical support is a vital component at every stage of your academic journey. So, stay tuned to discover how statistical support can significantly enhance your writing and boost your publications!

Understanding Statistical Support

Statistical support helps researchers in every stage of their writing. Professional journals and committees have high expectations for statistical analyses. The Analysis Factor helps get the statistics right, assisting academics in interpreting and wording the data in the most impactful way possible. 

But statistical support is more than just an analysis—it is a working partnership. The Analysis Factor is a consultant to help academics in any career stage understand data and make statistical support as accessible as possible. Every researcher needs statistical help! There is no judgment or shame around needing support.

How Statistics Impact Academic Writing

What worked ten years ago isn’t going to fly with journals today. As the expectations around statistical data evolve, academics must get help interpreting and presenting their research.

There are several reasons why papers are rejected, one of which is because of statistics.

1. Interpretation—The analysis could be correct, but the author didn’t explain it well. Conversely, the reviewer might misinterpret because they are not versed in the statistics.
2. Terminology – different fields use different terms for the same thing.
3. The right level of detail – if a reviewer needs clarification, they reject.
4. Educational component – why did you choose this method, and why is it important?

Common Challenges Academics Face Regarding Statistical 

Karen shares the universal challenges she helps researchers overcome, such as:

• Picking the proper data analysis early on
• Understanding new best practices in the statistical field
• Waiting for a rejection to seek statistical support
• Feeling embarrassed about needing help

If you want to learn more about how The Analysis Factor can support your writing and publications, visit Karen’s website. She created a special page just for this podcast: https://www.theanalysisfactor.com/scholarsvoice/ 

More about Karen:

Karen Grace-Martin has a superpower. She can help even the most mathematically anxious to intuitively understand, apply, interpret, and communicate statistics in their research. Karen founded The Analysis Factor and her signature program, Statistically Speaking, with a mission to take the fear and confusion out of statistics.

Over more than two decades, and across thousands of conversations, Karen has figured out which parts of statistics trip up both new and seasoned researchers. With her rare ability to break down complex technical concepts for researchers in social science, biology, and health fields, Karen creates light bulb moments when teaching even the most tricky concepts.

Karen has master’s degrees in Applied Statistics and in Social Psychology from UC Santa Barbara and has co-authored a book on statistics with SPSS.

LinkedIn: /in/karengracemartin.  |  X: @‌analysis_factor.  |  Medium: @‌kgm_52135

“Writing and statistics are not separate. They are interwoven. The data are telling a story and that story should always relate back to the research question. The 14-Step Data Analysis Pathway is the process you need to take to do any data analysis. The first step is getting clear on your research question, not just in theoretical terms but in operational terms too. Then the last step is communicating the answer to that research question like how you write it up, when to use a graph, and how you tell the story the data told you. 

“What I see universally is just plain lack of statistical support. A lot comes early in the process like choosing the right analysis given the design of the study and given the types of variables being measured. There are over 800 statistical tests, so knowing what is out there and choosing what the appropriate one is and then understanding the results is a problem. The field is changing so fast and academics can’t keep up with changes in statistics and the changes in their industry.”

We’ve opened the waitlist for our next cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap®. Check out the program details and get on the waitlist here.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:

1. Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Get on the waitlist here!
2. Cathy’s book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that’s going to reshape your writing, and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!
3. Want to train with us for free on your campus? Now you can when you recommend our Scholar’s Voice™ Faculty Retreats to a decision-maker on your campus! Download the brochure with the retreat curriculum and both in-person and online retreat options here.
4. If you would like to hear more from Cathy for free, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter, In the Pipeline, at scholarsvoice.org. It’s a newsletter that she personally writes that goes out once a week with writing and publication tips, strategies, inspiration, book reviews and more.

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