The Quality of Statistical Information and Statistical Inference in a Rapidly Changing World
Year: 1967
Type: article
Abstract: E ARE proud to be one of the oldest scientific and professional organizations in the United States as well as one of the oldest statistical societies in the World.The century and a quarter since our Association was founded has been crowded with great historical events and profound transformations.In many of these developments, members of our Association, past and present, were prominent leaders, advisors, and active participants.They played important roles in the rise of modern business, government and education; the progress of the sciences; the achievement of rationality in administration and in the professions; the improvement of working and living conditions; and the enhanced productivity of human effort in both manual and intellectual enterprises.These developments of the past century and a quarter were closely related to developments ekewhere throughout the World.We benefited from the ventures of our counterparts, especially in Europe and particularly in Great Britain.We borrowed freely and, when we could, we gave in return.Today members of our Association are working with statisticians in many countries, and we are sharing in the advances made in India, Japan, Australia, and other Asian countries.During these momentous years, the theory and practice of statistics have been shaped by the kinds of problems our members have encountered in their diverse activities.Fundamentally their problems sprang from the need to know and to act effectively in whatever sphere of life each membei had chosen for his work.Specifically, they required quantitative information, ever more detailed, more comprehensive, more accurat,e, and more effectively interrelated.Concurrently, they required continuity, comparability, and ever more sophisticated analysis.Inevitably, they stimulated the mathematical and logical developments that are proceeding so rapidly in our research and publications.Thus, our Association has, from its beginning, both served and been shaped by the rapid development,s of the past as they have generated demands for statistical information on a wide variety of subjects and urgent needs for ever
Author: Frederick F. Stephan
Institution: Princeton University
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics and Probability
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2027024546