Choose, fit and interpret the right longitudinal model for your research
A live online course with Prof. Alexandru Cernat, author of Longitudinal Data Analysis Using R. Learn how to use longitudinal analysis to answer your research questions.
Five Mondays · 12 Oct – 9 Nov 2026 · 09:00–16:00 UK · Live on Zoom · £750 · 20 places
Enrolment closes Monday 5 October or earlier if all 20 places are taken. Full refund within 14 days of booking or after the first session if it’s not for you.
As a PhD researcher, this course helped me understand the various topics involved in longitudinal research and gave me the confidence to use R for analysis. I’d highly recommend it to any Early Career Researcher looking to build these skills!
Vanessa Cieplinska, UCL, PhD Candidate
★★★★★
Description
Longitudinal data is essential for social and health research because it allows us to understand how people, organisations, and societies change, why events happen, and to support stronger causal inference.
In this course, you will learn both how to clean longitudinal data and the main statistical models used to analyse it. The course will cover three fundamental frameworks for analysing longitudinal data: multilevel modelling, structural equation modelling and event history analysis.
The course is organised as a mixture of lectures and hands-on practicals using real-world data. During the course, there will also be opportunities to discuss how to apply these models in your own research.
The weekly format is designed to allow you to complete the guided reading for each session and apply the techniques we cover to your own research. This learn-apply-review format gives you time to consolidate each method, use it with your own data, and resolve problems while support is still available. The follow-up data clinics will further help you apply these methods to your own research.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Prepare and visualise longitudinal data in R
- Choose between multilevel, SEM and event-history models
- Fit and interpret the principal longitudinal approaches
- Recognise their assumptions and limitations
- Develop a defensible analysis plan for your own research
Schedule (09:00 to 16:00 UK time)
- Mon 12 Oct – Data cleaning and visualisation of longitudinal data
- Mon 19 Oct – Cross-lagged models (intro to SEM and autoregressive models)
- Mon 26 Oct – Multilevel model of change (intro to multilevel modelling)
- Mon 2 Nov – Latent Growth Modelling
- Mon 9 Nov – Survival models (event history analysis)
All sessions are recorded (available for 30 days).
What’s included
| Included | Value |
|---|---|
| 5 live full-day sessions: live lectures + guided R practicals, support with your research | £750 |
| Three live group data clinics * – Get follow-up help doing your own analysis from an expert | £300 |
| Longitudinal Data Analysis Using R – the complete ebook** | £60 |
| Introduction to R for Social Researchers – full on-demand course** | £190 |
| Mediation and Moderation Analysis using R – full on-demand course** | £150 |
| The Ultimate Longitudinal Analysis Cheat Sheet** | £15 |
| Total value | £1,465 |
| Your price with everything included | £750 |
* Provisional dates for the data clinics are: 07 December, 11 January, 8 February (16:00 to 17:00 UK time).
**You will get the bonuses immediately on enrolment
Who teaches the course
I’m Alexandru Cernat, Professor in Methodology and Social Data Science at the University of Manchester. I have more than 10 years of experience doing research and teaching statistical methods, and hundreds of students from around the world have taken my classes. I’m the editor of Measurement Error in Longitudinal Data and the author of Longitudinal Data Analysis Using R. I’ve published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in top journals and have served as an associate editor for the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A, Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology and Survey Research Methods. Thousands of researchers use my guides at longitudinalanalysis.com every month to learn how to analyse their data.
FAQ
What are the prerequisites for this course? Basic knowledge of regression and R. Need to learn these? No worries, use the book and the on-demand courses included to get ready!
Can’t make every Monday? Recordings of the lectures, solutions, and data clinics are available for 30 days from the date of recording.
Software used? R and RStudio (free). Need to learn it? No problem; use the included course to get ready.
When is the course confirmed? When the minimum number of students registers, or by Monday 28 September at the latest.
What happens if minimum enrolment is not reached? You get a full refund, and you keep the bonus book and on-demand courses for free.
What is the cancellation/refund policy? Full refund within 14 days of booking, no questions asked. And if you attend the first session and find it’s not for you, email me that week, and I’ll refund you in full.
Is there a certificate? Yes, you will receive a certificate at the end of the course.
How do the data clinics work? You will submit questions about your own research in advance of the meeting. During the live online session, I will answer all the questions received. Meeting recordings will be available for 30 days from the date of recording.
Which time zone applies? All times are UK local times. The October sessions cross the BST-to-GMT change.
If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me