Cost Recovery/Payment Policies
The core (and the Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science as a whole) operates as a service center. There are two types of support: 1) percent effort support, and 2) fee-for-service (hourly) support. Grants/projects that include substantial support for biostatistics and health data science are submitted for external funding, with department faculty and staff specifically listed in the personnel section of the grant. After receiving detailed input from department faculty and staff regarding the level of support needed, the biostatistics and health data science portion of all budgets is prepared and approved by the department's director of finance or designee before they are submitted for external funding. Percent effort funding is recommended when 5% or more effort is required for a faculty member, 10% for a staff statistician or 15% for data manager in any year of the project. It is typical to use percent effort funding for R01-type or larger research projects, and it is also common for medium-sized projects such as R21 grants. Once funded, cost recovery is by charging the appropriate percent effort of salary directly to the account established by the Office for Research Administration.
Fee-for-service (hourly) rates are set based on university accounting standards, and the rates/calculations are approved by the Office of the University Controller biennially. Internal billing documents are processed in the IU School of Medicine recharge center system (iLab) monthly. External invoices are sent every month with a Net 30 payment requested. Prior to engaging in a fee-for-service effort, the department provides an estimate for support to the investigator, and a signed collaboration agreement form is obtained from the responsible party. Fee-for-service arrangements are typically used for smaller projects, for example where no faculty support is needed beyond 5% per year or staff support beyond 10-15% per year.
Each research project is unique and will be evaluated individually to determine the appropriate level of involvement and effort required from Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science faculty and staff. To ensure effective management and collaboration on externally funded research, the Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science expects that all projects budget a minimum of 5% faculty effort per year when a faculty member is listed as a co-investigator on an R21-type or larger grant.
Publications
Members of the Biostatistics and Health Data Science Core play a key role in study design, execution and preparation of results for presentations and publications. Authorship should follow the accepted criteria of the journal where the work is submitted; if none are specified, the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors should be followed. Generally, contribution to conception and design of the study and statistical analysis (acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data) is considered sufficient intellectual input for authorship. Financial support, whether as salary support through grants or reimbursement for time, does not qualify as or replace authorship.
Confidentiality
The department adheres to all IU HIPAA policies and procedures. All critical data, including PHI, are stored securely on file and database servers as described in the Biostatistics Data Storage Environment System Security Plan using the NIST 800-53 framework. This document is available upon request. Additionally, data and analytical results are never discussed with anyone outside of the project without the written approval from the project PIs and other data sharing requirements as needed (such as a data use agreement).
Conflict resolution
Complaints about specific individuals should be brought to the attention of the individual’s supervisor. If the supervisor is not known to the complainant, or if the complainant prefers, complaints can be made directly to the core director. General complaints about the core should be taken directly to the core director. The supervisor and/or core director (with potential guidance from the department chair) will identify possible solutions and discuss them with the complainant, preferably in person or by phone or video conference, with a follow-up email/electronic confirmation. If a solution cannot be agreed upon, the complaint will be brought to the attention of the core advisory committee electronically for their advice and guidance.
Prioritization of work
Projects are prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis, but rearrangements are sometimes made based on investigator deadlines.