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ALLSTAT  2004

ALLSTAT 2004

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Subject:

Summary - How to look after your statistician

From:

"G.S.Clarke" <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

G.S.Clarke

Date:

Mon, 22 Mar 2004 10:36:54 +0000

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (108 lines)

Many Thanks to all of you who sent their pet gripes.  Several sent 
informative/amusing/depressing stories, which unfortunately, to preserve 
anonymity, can't easily be reproduced!

Several of you have also asked for copies of the talk that I am giving. 
  I'm afraid that as I've never really mastered powerpoint and tend to 
largely 'make up lectures' as I go, I don't really have anything that I 
can send out. Hopefully the summary below will make up for that.

A point made in several replies was that statisticians need to make an 
effort to get on with clients, in particular to try and speak a language 
that the client will understand.  I'm sure that we'd all agree that 
problems in statistical consultancy aren't all one sided - they just 
feel like it some times!

I've summarized below as well as I could. Perhaps some responses should 
fall into different 'categories' but hopefully I've got them broadly 
correct.  The numbers in parenthesis indicates how many responses of 
each type I received (most people sent several responses).  I've phrased 
the responses 'negatively' "we are unhappy with" ....  many replies were 
in fact positively phrased "it would be better if clients ..."  The 
negative slant a) feels more natural to me somehow (wonder what that 
says about my state of mind!) b)probably reflects more generally the 
'tone' of the responses I received.   If somehow I've missed out your 
contribution - my apologies, it wasn't intentional.

Once again, thanks for you help with this.

Graham

=======================================================================

We are unhappy with  …

(20) Not being consulted from the start, when we could help develop a 
well designed study and subsequently not have to sort out the mess after 
the event.

(12) Clients who take the statistician ‘for granted’.  For instance 
never saying thanks

(10) Not being credited as an author on a paper, or a collaborator or 
co-applicant in grant despite undertaking significant work

(10) People who are going to ignore our advice and use whatever 
statistical approach they like – sometimes because “Blogs uses that 
method”; sometimes based upon a very limited short stats course they 
took as an undergraduate

(7) People who ask for sample size calculations but don't provide any of 
the necessary information to undertake this.

(5) People who fail to realize or accept a non-significant result 
(either that it is ‘statistically’ non-significant, or ‘functionally’ 
unimportant).

(5) People who don't give the background/explanation of the context in 
which the data was collected

(5) Clients who give very short (sometimes false) deadlines.

(4) Being asked to sort out the software/the data base – computational 
things which should have been sorted out by someone else earlier.

(4) Clients who don't have any question/objective in mind when they hand 
you the data.

(3) People who misrepresent/change the results/graphs etc. after you 
have done the analysis, or put pressure on you to ‘change’ the results

(3) People using tests they don't understand and/or programs whose 
printout they can't interpret.

(18)  Odds & Ends (only got a few mentions)

We are unhappy with clients who …
Go to other statisticians for advice once we have started working with them.
Fail to appreciate that the statistician may know a fair amount about 
the topic area
Fail to appreciate that statisticians may specialize in their knowledge 
and failing to discriminate between a RA and a Professor's expertise.
Who ask us about a really ‘unusual’ test then look at us ‘weirdly’ when 
we haven't heard of it
Who collect ‘millions’ of pieces of data on a limited number of subjects
Who try to ‘bribe’ us (with flowers/drink)
Who only want a P value
Who don't appreciate that correlation isn't causation
Or that 100:300 is not ‘the same as’ 1:3
Or that once the subject is randomized they are ‘in the study’
Or don't realize that their ‘simple question’ isn't!

And many, many of use share the ‘heart sink’ feeling when the client says;
                        “This will only take 2 minutes”.


-- 
Dr G.S.Clarke
Lecturer in Physiology & Biometery
Faculty of Health Studies
University of Wales, Bangor
Fron Heulog
Ffriddoedd Road
Bangor
Gwynedd LL57 2EF

Tel:    01248 383157
e-mail: [log in to unmask]

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