I had a meeting this morning that signals the shift of focus on my sabbatical. Up to this point, I have been concentrating on the background information, reading, and preparation phase. I’ve read several journal articles about the type of analysis that we are trying to do. I’ve read the main report on the overall research finding of the study. I’ve spent some time getting familiar with a new (to me) statistical software package called R. I’ve investigated what options SAS has to accomplish our goals.

Now we turn the corner. I met with my primary collaborator here (Dr. Vern Chinchilli) and discussed beginning the analysis phase. Turns out that the data set I was given access to was not the one he wants us to work on (a misunderstanding with one of his assistants). He is going to get me the correct dataset, and send along a related analysis file that will get me on my way with the analysis that we want to do.

I’m really excited to finally get a look at the data, and see whether we can get SAS to give us the kind of analysis that we are really looking for. Next week starts the part of this sabbatical that I was really looking forward to. Sitting around reading research articles and such isn’t nearly as exciting as really getting to play with the data, and hopefully discover new things that shed light on the real world. Things are going well!