Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice - Essay Example

The importance of statistical analyses in our current society cannot go unnoticed. Statistical practices are employed in various sectors of the economy such as the health sector, education, environment, agriculture, industry, and many other sectors. Therefore, ethical decision-making in statistics practices is inevitable. Before making any statistical decision, proper professionalism must be adhered to. The decision maker has to ensure relevance before making the final statistical decision. For instance, before making any policies that may arise from statistical results, statisticians have to take into consideration the long-term effects that the policy will have on the general public. The ethical guidelines require that the researcher should ensure that adequate statistical and subject-matter expertise is applied to any planned study. Therefore it is unethical for somebody who is experienced in agriculture to undertake research in a medical field where he/she has no expertise. In terms of responsibility, the guidelines clearly state that a person should maintain personal responsibility for all the work bearing his/her name. This will ensure that plagiarism is avoided at all costs.

The field of statistics is characterized by many stakeholders. This is because many people have personal or public interests in the results of statistical practices. The most likely stakeholders in statistical studies are funders, clients, and employers. Funders are those who sponsor the entire study and are mostly interested in the positive results of the study. They may use the results to make policies that may serve their interest or the general public’s. In most cases, NGOs and Government agencies are the main sponsors of most research. According to the guidelines, it is necessary to clearly state your statistical qualifications and experience before seeking funds from sponsors. When statistical sampling and analysis procedures are statistically used, there will be good result which is not predetermined. Good statistical results will ensure good quality for the general research. This might motivate the funders to fund further research that you might be interested in. However; a bad research outcome may drive away sponsors. The second stakeholders are the clients. It is important to make new statistical knowledge widely to provide benefits to the larger society beyond your scope of applications. It is imperative to recognize that the results of valid statistical studies cannot be guaranteed to conform to the expectations of the clients. Therefore, you should not take any measures to force the outcome as this will compromise the validity of the analysis. The clients need good quality of the things they want to buy. Therefore, you should apply these guidelines for quality outcomes hence the satisfaction of the clients. Just like other stakeholders, employers want valid and precise research. This is because a good outcome will guarantee quality for the good or products provided by the employers. The poor outcome may drive away their customers.