What is consulting

The function of statistics

is to solve real problems
Do statistics
Why statistical consulting?
Why people consult statistics?
Finding the righet system to explore a problem
, finding the nuts and bolts to do the research
How to start identifying a statistical
relationship?
Where and which are the important source of
variation
Where are the uncertainty part
Subject matter view vs Statistical view

consultancy


12 Jan 2006 Hort Retreat Brian S Yandell 8
what is statistics?
We may at once admit that
any inference from the particular to the general
must be attended with
some degree of uncertainty,
but this is not the same as to admit that
such inference cannot be absolutely rigorous,
for the nature and degree of the uncertainty
may itself be capable of rigorous expression.
Sir Ronald A. Fisher
(1935 The Design of Experiments)
digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/coll/special/fisher
The Ideal Statistical Consultant and
the Satisfied Client

The statisticians
perspective.
The clients perspective.
Five Dimensions of
Quality.
Aligning expectations.
Ten issues that represent
vulnerabilities in the
client-consultant
relationship.
Asking Good Questions??
Avoid errors of the
third kind.
Identify what you
need to find out.
Develop an effective
strategy for gathering
information.

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Rules to Practice By
13
Rule 1:
NEVER give advice over the phone.
It will always be bad
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Rule 2
NEVER answer when asked how many.
It is almost always the wrong question
The right question has to do with defining the
goals of the experiment
Typically, you will have to help the investigator
figure this out.
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Rule 3
Always interrogate the measurement
Systematic sources of measurement variability
abound
Ivestigators rarely know how to quantify them
But they often can tell you what could be there
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Rule 4 (suggested by Lisa Bernstein)
Get the raw data
Many instruments, vendor-supplied/user-
created software preprocess the data in ad
hoc, crazy ways devised by folks with no
statistical training
Producing irretrievable junk that no subsequent
analysis can redeem
Often difficult to get raw data and difficult
to deal with when you have them
e.g. images

17
Rule 5
Thermodynamics: Disorder rules unless
you work hard to defeat it. So...
Take nothing for granted
Provide explicit step by step instructions, data
format specifications, ...
Remember Murphy


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Some useful things Ive learned
Most science is about hypothesis
generation, not hypothesis testing
All scientists have strong priors
All variation is caused
Beware of the data that arent there
(suggested by Bill Forrest)
All replicates are not created equal
You can never know too much statistics
But most of what you learn is silly
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A few more ...
Listen more, talk less
Always provide an executive summary of your
results in a graph or two and a paragraph or so
of text
A little paranoia can be good thing
Its better to lead the parade than sweep up
after the elephants (good design is more
important than fancy analysis)
If you dont think its ethical, dont do it
Your job is to speak for the data integrity is
everything!

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And most important ...
HAVE FUN !
(else why do it?)