Experiences in consulting with Russian biologists on applications of statistical methods.


Book: 
Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference On Teaching Statistics (ICOTS-7), Salvador, Brazil.
Authors: 
McDonald, L. L.
Editors: 
Rossman, A., & Chance, B.
Category: 
Year: 
2006
Publisher: 
Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute.
URL: 
http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/17/4B2_MCDO.pdf
Abstract: 

I report on my experience in consulting with environmental biologists on applications of statistical methods while on a tour of State Nature Reserves and National Parks in Russia, 2003. The biologists that I worked with were well trained in mathematics in comparison to biologists trained in the United States. I also found some biologists with advanced graduate degrees to be well trained in analysis of time series data. However, training in many basic applied statistical methods was either absent, poor, or incorrect. This lack of knowledge of applied statistical methods greatly limits the ability of biologists to design observational studies or manipulate experiments and publish results of their work outside Russia. If there are individuals actively teaching applied statistics in Russia among the audience or among the readers of the proceedings of this conference, I apologize if I have offended anyone. The gap in knowledge of applied statistics is real, however, and I would appreciate communicating with you.

The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education