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Purpose of the Guidelines

  

The American Statistical Association's Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice are intended to help statistics practitioners make decisions ethically. Additionally, the Ethical Guidelines aim to promote accountability by informing those who rely on statistical analysis of the standards that they should expect. The discipline of statistics links the capacity to observe with the ability to gather evidence and make decisions, providing a foundation for building a more informed society. 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.

Good statistical practice is fundamentally based on transparent assumptions, reproducible results, and valid interpretations. In some situations, Guideline principles may conflict, requiring individuals to prioritize principles according to context. However, in all cases, stakeholders have an obligation to act in good faith, to act in a manner that is consistent with these Guidelines, and to encourage others to do the same. Above all, professionalism in statistical practice presumes the goal of advancing knowledge while avoiding harm; using statistics in pursuit of unethical ends is inherently unethical.

Ethical statistical practice does not include, promote, or tolerate any type of professional or scientific misconduct, including, but not limited to, bullying; sexual or other harassment; discrimination based on personal characteristics; or other forms of intimidation.

The principles expressed here should guide both those whose primary occupation is statistics and those in all other disciplines who use statistical methods in their professional work. Therefore, throughout these Guidelines, the term "statistician" includes all practitioners of statistics and quantitative sciences, regardless of job title or field of degree, comprising statisticians at all levels of the profession and members of other professions who utilize and report statistical analyses and their implications.
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Rochelle Tractenberg
02-08-2020 17:47

I have a suggestion for the Preamble. I think a statement should be added, indicating that the purpose of the Guidelines is "to promote the conduct, aims, and qualities that characterize or mark our profession or professional persons in our discipline”. I believe that a statement of this (or possibly this exact statement) had existed in an earlier version/draft of the Guidelines, but it is not in the Preamble any more. For example, in the Ethical Guidelines of the Royal Statistical Society, there is an element (#6), "Fellows shall uphold the reputation of the Profession and the Society" and the ASA Ethical Guidelines have no corresponding item.  It could be a simple addition to the purposes of the guidelines to insert something like that "the purposes of the Guidelines include the articulation and promotion of the reputation of the profession and practices of the statistician and data scientist" - "and data scientist" would only be added if the COPE decides to add "data science" to "statistics" as being covered by the ASA Guidelines.

Rochelle Tractenberg
12-10-2019 12:09

I have a suggestion for revising the Preamble of the Guidelines. I suggest the following should be added, "It is never acceptable to seek or create “loopholes” in the Guidelines (unless you also seek to fix/close them)".

Matthew Rotelli
04-29-2019 13:57

​Recommend additions related to Journals - they should have some responsibilities for ethical communication of statistics

Michael Hawes
04-18-2019 13:25

​Building on Rochelle's comment, universally changing "the ethical statistician" to "the ethical statistician and the ethical data scientist" will make reading the guidelines cumbersome.

Rochelle Tractenberg
03-26-2019 17:09

Something has come up as I explore the teachability of the ASA Ethical Guidelines (GLs): It could be useful to consider including a statement along the lines of, "It is never acceptable to seek or create “loopholes” in the GLs (unless you also seek to fix/close them). If an unexpected ethical challenge arises, the ethical statistician/data scientist seeks guidance, not exceptions, in the ethical GLs. To try and justify unethical or underspecified behaviors is unprofessional and unethical". This is actually a quote from a book chapter I am finishing (March 2019) so revising this - as I'm sure the committee will do if it is deemed worthwhile to include in the next iteration of the GLs - will be important.

Rochelle Tractenberg
03-23-2019 17:10

Something that would come up as the ASA begins to shift from its focus on "statistics" to a focus on "statistics and data science" is that the Guidelines (GLs) will need to add "and data science" throughout the GLs. However, this won't be a straightforward insertion fix, because, e.g., in sentence 3 of the preamble, "The discipline of statistics" might need to add S to "disciplines" if the sense is that "statistics" and "data science" cannot be considered to be a single discipline.