IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jorssa/v154y1991i3p443-445.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

R. A. Fisher and the Role of a Statistical Consultant

Author

Listed:
  • J. H. Bennett

Abstract

Extracts from R. A. Fisher's letters referring to the responsibilities of statistical consultants are considered along with his view of his own role as a scientific consultant to the Tobacco Manufacturers' Standing Committee in the late 1950s. Contrary to a recent suggestion that Fisher may have been ‘misrepresenting data on lung cancer while acting as an adviser to the tobacco industry’, his letters show that he was very deeply concerned about the possible misrepresentation to consumers of an alleged statistical result. Further, Fisher believed that it is ‘only by giving students the opportunity of making fine distinctions in the logic of the subject that they can learn to recognize the difference between honest and dishonest work in statistical practice’.

Suggested Citation

  • J. H. Bennett, 1991. "R. A. Fisher and the Role of a Statistical Consultant," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 154(3), pages 443-445, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jorssa:v:154:y:1991:i:3:p:443-445
    DOI: 10.2307/2983153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2307/2983153
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2307/2983153?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jorssa:v:154:y:1991:i:3:p:443-445. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rssssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.