RSS Matters

RSS FAQ

The following is taken from the recently updated "Frequently Asked Questions" portion of the RSS Website. Link to the last RSS article here: Open Source Technology in the Classroom, Part I - Ed.

What is RSS? 

The research and statistical support group at the University of North Texas (RSS) is staffed by two full-time and two part-time staff employees. Dr. Richard Herrington has degrees in psychology, mathematics and education, and is proficient in R, S-Plus, SPSS, SAS, LISREL, Zope Web Server, and various other research oriented tools in Unix/Linux. Patrick McLeod, the other full-time member, is currently anticipating his master’s thesis defense in the political science department. Patrick offers expertise in SAS, Stata, R, SPSS, Eviews, LaTeX and Unix/Linux based research tools. Dr. Mike Clark also has a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology and offers part-time assistance teaching, consulting and software support. Mike has experience with SPSS, R, Splus and various other statistical software. Jon Starkweather is also a graduate student in experimental psychology working toward obtaining his Ph.D. Jon offers experience in social science methodology and software support in SPSS, R, S-Plus and various other research oriented software packages.

What kind of help is offered?

• Software Support: we support various software packages related to research endeavors such as SPSS, S-Plus, Stata, R, LaTex, Zope, QSurvey, SAS, LISREL, and Eviews.

• Programming: we can suggest strategies, show you example programs, or outline programs for you.  However, we cannot write the programs for you.

• Data analysis: We can suggest the various analyses which can be performed on your data, along with the pros and cons of the analyses.  However we cannot make decisions about how you should analyze your data or perform the analysis for you.  That in the end is left to you and/or your committee.  We also cannot be expected to meet imminent deadlines.  Research problems often take weeks or even months to solve so come for help early before your deadline.  We also do not provide help for coursework.

More on our policies can be found here.

How much do your services cost?

Our services our free to the UNT community.

How do I set up an appointment to meet with someone?

Appointments are made by filling out a request form here.  Depending on your needs you may end up having to work with someone specifically, or anyone of us might be able to offer assistance.

How do I get a copy of SPSS, Splus, SAS etc.?

Students can obtain copies of some supported software at the UNT bookstore, and versions of varying degrees of functionality may be available for different prices depending on the program.  Stata must be purchased directly through the RSS office.  Full details of what is available and how available software is can be found here.

Full-time and/or benefits eligible staff and faculty may check out a copy of SPSS from the RSS office to be returned immediately upon installation. However, OUR LICENSE DOES NOT ALLOW THIS OPTION FOR STUDENTS, TFs, TAs, RAs etc., nor can we check out software to a student for a faculty member.

The short course I was interested in taking has already been given this semester, when are the next short courses going to be held?

If the dates are not posted they have not been decided upon yet.  As soon as the dates are determined they are posted to the web.

What are your hours?

Although the schedules of the members of RSS are somewhat variable depending on individual workload, we strive to maintain coverage from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.