Wildcat Data Hub Faculty Affiliate Expectations Guide

This guide details the minimum expectations for participation to maintain status as a Faculty Affiliate of the Wildcat Data Hub (WDH/ “The Hub”), part of the Data Science Initiative (DSI) at California State University, Chico.

A Partnership Based on Performance

Your affiliation with the WDH is a renewable, performance-based service partnership, designed to recognize individuals who provide substantive and sustained contributions to advancing the WDH’s research and services to our students, staff, fellow faculty, and community.

1 Wildcat Data Hub Mission and Services

The Wildcat Data Hub (WDH) at Chico State serves as a consulting and support service designed to support both campus and community researchers, including undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty, and community members.

1.1 Goals and Role of The Hub

The WDH is dedicated to providing high-quality support for research projects while creating paid, hands-on learning opportunities for students, through a mix of pro-bono and fee-based services.

We fulfill this role by offering:

  • Free drop-in consultation and coding support
  • Short- and long-term project assistance provided by qualified students and experienced faculty on a fee-based system

1.2 Core Services

The WDH offers comprehensive support across the research lifecycle, including:

  • Support for programming languages (R, Python, SQL, and more)
  • Data cleaning and transformation
  • Data collection tools and techniques
  • Data visualization and reports
  • Reproducible research techniques
  • Data analysis using statistical modeling and machine learning
  • Developing measurable outcomes for research and grant proposals

2 Minimum Service and Communication Requirements

Affiliation with the WDH is contingent upon active contribution toward the Hub’s mission of supporting data-driven research and analysis across CSU Chico and our community.

2.1 Mandatory Annual Engagement

Annual Contribution Required

Affiliates must contribute to at least one (1) WDH service activity or project per calendar year to maintain their active status and qualify for renewal. Failure to meet this expectation may result in the non-renewal or removal of affiliate status at the end of the year.

Examples of qualifying activities include:

  • Contributing to a WDH project: Providing specialized data analysis, programming, or research support to an official WDH project.
  • Hosting weekly Community Coding hours: Offering time for drop-in programming support to students, staff, and faculty through our Community Coding program. Note: This is an ongoing commitment; one session will not suffice.
  • Recruit a client to the Wildcat Data Hub: Securing a client, whether at the university or in the community, for The Hub’s business.
  • Grant Proposals: Writing, applying to, and receiving grants for The Hub to use to provide funding to training, equipment, students, or affiliates.

2.2 Communication Standards

When you become an affiliate, you may be sent projects for consideration based on your skillset and domain knowledge. While you are not required to accept and work on a project, the following is expected:

Response Required Within 2 Business Days!

Acknowledgement of receipt and an initial assessment of the feasibility of the project and your availability to work on it is expected within two business days.

Timely response is mandatory, even if you ultimately decline the request, to ensure that incoming client requests are handled promptly. Chronic failure to meet this communication standard will constitute an inadequate contribution to service and may result in non-renewal of your affiliation.

3 Policy and Affiliation Compliance

Faculty affiliates are subject to and must comply with all applicable university policies and procedures, especially those relating to research integrity, intellectual property, and data security.

3.1 Mandatory Affiliation Disclosure

Affiliates must proactively acknowledge the Wildcat Data Hub in all professional output and communication when the work in question utilized WDH resources, services, or personnel.

Affiliates are expected to list the WDH as one of their affiliations in:

  • CVs
  • Talks
  • Papers
  • Grant proposals

If scholarly work is conducted using the WDH (e.g., using WDH resources or staff time), the WDH must be listed as an institutional affiliation, and any WDH staff contributors must be listed on the resulting research or scholarly output.

3.2 Authorship and Integrity Standards

Affiliates must adhere to institutional standards for research integrity.

  • Authorship on publication resulting from WDH collaboration should be limited to only those individuals who have contributed in a meaningful and substantive way to its intellectual content.
  • Passive affiliate status alone does not guarantee authorship on WDH-produced or -supported works.

4 Benefits of Affiliation

Perks of Being an Affiliate 🤝

In exchange for fulfilling the expectations outlined above, active and compliant faculty affiliates are eligible for the following institutional benefits:

  • Resource Access: Get priority position for your own projects in the WDH’s queue.
  • Institutional Recognition: Public recognition through the official WDH website listing and promotion of relevant work through WDH communication channels.
  • Access to Paid Activities: Should the opportunity arise, faculty affiliates are eligible to participate in paid WDH-sponsored activities such as on-site trainings for internal and external organizations, larger paid projects, etc.