Hi Lauren - thanks for this question! There isn't a deadline, per se, because the link will lead you to the continuously-available comment/revision suggestion system the COPE established in 2018. However, the COPE has established a working group - which will begin meeting in Jan 2021 - to consider and respond to all the suggestions received by that point. The ASA Board charged the COPE with reviewing/revising the Guidelines every five years, and this work must be done before the end of 2021 (and so begins in January and will continue until all then-received comments have been considered). The entire ASA Community will, as always, be invited to comment on the suggested revisions ahead of the ASA Board vote on the final revision suggestions, but again this all needs to happen before the end of 2021.
I hope this is helpful! Please don't hesitate to contact the Committee Chair (Jing Cao; https://community.amstat.org/members/members/profile?UserKey=cf9f1982-e902-4c62-81c9-fa4f33699cfc) or myself (former chair, current co-chair with Jing of the working group) if you have other questions!!
rt
------------------------------
--
Rochelle E. Tractenberg, PhD, MPH, PhD, PStat®, FASA, FAAAS
Director, Collaborative for Research on Outcomes and -Metrics
http://crom.gumc.georgetown.eduProfessor
Neurology
Biostatistics, Bioinformatics & Biomathematics
Rehabilitation Medicine
Georgetown University Medical Center
291 Building D
4000 Reservoir Road NW
Washington, D.C. 20057
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 12-18-2020 10:11
From: Lauren Samuels
Subject: The ASA Committee on Professional Ethics Needs Your Help to Revise the ASA Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice
Thank you for doing this! Is there a deadline for comments?
------------------------------
Lauren Samuels
Research Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Original Message:
Sent: 12-15-2020 11:59
From: Rochelle Tractenberg
Subject: The ASA Committee on Professional Ethics Needs Your Help to Revise the ASA Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice
The ASA Committee on Professional Ethics Needs Your Help to Revise the ASA Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice
"It's not doing what is right that's hard...It's knowing what is right."
-Lyndon B. Johnson
"Because society depends on informed judgments supported by statistical methods, all practitioners
of statistics-regardless of training and occupation or job title-have an obligation to work in a
professional, competent, respectful, and ethical manner."
-ASA Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice
Much like the world around us, the statistical profession is always growing, learning, and evolving. As a community, we are continuously developing new techniques, methods, and approaches to achieve the ASA's vision of "A world that relies on data and statistical thinking to drive discovery and inform decisions." Central to these efforts is our collective obligation, as practitioners of statistics, to conduct ourselves in a professional, competent, respectful, and ethical manner. To assist and support us in these efforts, the ASA has developed a set of Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice. These Guidelines serve as reminders of our ethical obligations to ourselves and our colleagues, to our employers, and to society
at large. The Ethical Guidelines are a roadmap to help us identify, avoid, and even resolve ethical dilemmas that occur across the practice of statistics and data science, at all career stages.
Recognizing that we live in a dynamic world, the ASA has acknowledged that the Ethical Guidelines require periodic revision and clarification. To that end, the ASA Board has tasked the Committee on Professional Ethics with the responsibility for reviewing and revising these Ethical Guidelines every five years. The goal of this periodic effort is to ensure that the Ethical Guidelines remain relevant, clear, and supportive to all practitioners in our community, including students, mentees, and those with whom we collaborate.
As 2020 winds to a close, the Committee on Professional Ethics is gearing up for the next scheduled revision of the Ethical Guidelines, and we need your help. We invite and encourage every member of the ASA to review the Ethical Guidelines and to let us know how you think they could be improved to be more relevant and helpful to your work, including helping you navigate any ethical challenges that you
may face. The COPE has established a mechanism for eliciting input from the ASA Community on the Ethical Guidelines at https://community.amstat.org/communities/community-home?CommunityKey=b482848a-43f9-441c-84cb-96bfe4f732c7. To submit a comment, click on the title of the section you wish to discuss. You can view the existing comments and respond to those, or submit a new comment. To be most helpful, we request that your comments be as specific and complete as possible so that the Committee can review and consider your suggestions and input.
All suggestions received through these discussion threads will be considered by the Committee. As with each of our revisions since 2016, the Guidelines will be shared ASA-wide once revisions are completed in 2021, to ensure the community can see, and comment on, what will change. All Committee revisions are finalized and submitted to the ASA Board for final approval, hopefully by November 2021. The Committee looks forward to input from the ASA community. We encourage ASA members to review the Ethical Guidelines and submit any suggestions they have for their improvement (and for their dissemination)! Thank you!
-Michael Hawes (current COPE Chair)
-Rochelle Tractenberg (past COPE Chair)
-Jing Cao (incoming COPE Chair)
------------------------------
--
Rochelle E. Tractenberg, PhD, MPH, PhD, PStat®, FASA, FAAAS
Director, Collaborative for Research on Outcomes and -Metrics
http://crom.gumc.georgetown.edu
Professor
Neurology
Biostatistics, Bioinformatics & Biomathematics
Rehabilitation Medicine
Georgetown University Medical Center
291 Building D
4000 Reservoir Road NW
Washington, D.C. 20057
------------------------------