Category Archives: statistics

What Does Excellence Look Like?

Posted on 17 December 2022 by Athene Donald

Harnessing the Metric Tide, the recently-published follow-on to the 2015 Report The Metric Tide, provides a welcome focus on our cultures and practice within HEIs. It imagines an ecosystem where metrics are collected which inform the community about the health … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Equality, Harnessing the Metric Tide, HESA, IDAP, Research, statistics, The Metric Tide | Comments Off on What Does Excellence Look Like?

Sex, Gender, Research and Fairness

Posted on 30 November 2020 by Athene Donald

It is a daily matter to look around a typical laboratory and note the imbalance of the sexes in different roles. In a lab using animals, there may be a fair number of female technicians, but the PI is more … Continue reading →

Posted in cell-lines, ERC, Gendered Innovations, Londa Schiebinger, machine learning, Research, Science Funding, statistics, Women in science | Comments Off on Sex, Gender, Research and Fairness

Final Comments before (Armageddon?) Nov. 8, 2016

Posted on 6 November 2016 by Steve Caplan

My early vote cast weeks ago; couldn’t rest until the ballot was submitted… On Tuesday Nov. 8, the United States will have one of its most crucial elections in the history of the nation. Yes, I realize that many will … Continue reading →

Posted in 538, Clinton, Democrat, election, mendacious, misogyny, nate silver, NYT, Obama, Politics, prediction, president, princeton election consortium, pundits, racism, Republican, sam wang, science, statistician, statistics, Trump, Upshot, US | Comments Off on Final Comments before (Armageddon?) Nov. 8, 2016

Heroines We Still Need

Posted on 7 April 2016 by Athene Donald

I have not been able to think much about blogging recently due to a variety of factors culminating in the wedding last weekend of my daughter. Not that I had much to do with the organisation of the wedding but … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, Florence Nightingale, Mark Bostridge, statistics, Vera Brittain, Women in science | Comments Off on Heroines We Still Need

Psychology Journal Bans Almost All of Statistics

Posted on 3 March 2015 by Bob O'H

Amongst the big news last week (besides the octopus-squid battle, a dress, and a singer falling over whilst – presumably – sober) was the release of an editorial from the journal “Basic and Applied Social Psychology” (BASP) which announced that … Continue reading →

Posted in science publishing, statistics | Comments Off on Psychology Journal Bans Almost All of Statistics

Come and work with me in Frankfurt!

Posted on 8 January 2014 by Bob O'H

We’ve got an EXCITING(!) EXHILARATING(!!) ENTERTAINING(!!!) EXASPERATING(!

Posted in Ecology, Science Blogging, statistics | Comments Off on Come and work with me in Frankfurt!

The long and the short of papal reigns

Posted on 11 February 2013 by Bob O'H

If you’ve been following the news, or twitter, you’ll have noticed that the current pope, Pope Benedict XVI (pronounces Kss-vee) has decided to retire at the end of the month, to spend more time with his twitter account. Anyway, the … Continue reading →

Posted in statistics | Comments Off on The long and the short of papal reigns

Risk, Education and Politicians

Posted on 28 October 2012 by Athene Donald

As usual I’m a trifle behindhand in my reading, so only now am I catching up with the Darwin Lectures  on Risk, a series of lectures given in 2010 and now available as a book or on your Kindle). This … Continue reading →

Posted in British Academy, Communicating Science, David Spiegelhalter, education, Mathematics, quantitative skills, risk, statistics | Comments Off on Risk, Education and Politicians

Changing ecologists’ statistics to statistics about nature

Posted on 16 October 2012 by Bob O'H

Whilst my back was turned, I had another paper published online early. It’s rather embarrassing that I didn’t notice, because I’m an Executive Editor for the journal. The paper is, of course, superb (most of the work was done by … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, statistics | Comments Off on Changing ecologists’ statistics to statistics about nature

Abusing a Prior: some slides

Posted on 16 July 2012 by Bob O'H

Here are the slides for my talk today about Bayesian variable selection. It’s mainly of interest to other statisticians, my excuse is that I’m talking at a statistical meeting (and I’m a keynote speaker! Wooo!).

Posted in statistics | Comments Off on Abusing a Prior: some slides