HOW Should We do statistics?

My name is Russell J. Bowater and welcome to the How We Should Do Statistics website.

The How We Should Do Statistics project

This project is a research project aimed at resolving the How We Should Do Statistics crisis. It has been my research project since 2012. Up to now, I have written 12 papers (some very long) as a direct result of working on this project. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to advance this project so much and certainly beyond what I originally expected would be possible.

The How We Should Do Statistics crisis

This crisis was caused by a perceived failure of conventional statistical methods to serve the needs of science, e.g. the fallout from the replication crisis in psychological research, and the incapacity of leading statisticians to reach a consensus on what were the most appropriate statistical methods, theories or schools of thought to apply even to the most basic problems in statistical inference. Perhaps the clearest symptom of the continued impact of this crisis are the hostile debates between supporters of the frequentist school of inference (frequentists) and supporters of the Bayesian school of inference (Bayesians) about how, in general, statistical inference should be carried out.

Although recognition of a crisis of this type is widespread, there are many currently active statisticians who attempt to deny its existence or importance. From a sociological point of view, this is quite understandable. It would not be expected that many who have dedicated their lives to studying a particular topic would freely admit that they actually only have a superficial understanding of that topic!

Under construction.

About me

I am an independent statistical consultant and adviser based in the city of Oaxaca in the south of Mexico and therefore I work on the How We Should Do Statistics project largely in my spare time. My roots are in England where I was born and brought up and where most of my family live. If you are interested, my academic and work history can be found here, while a list of (most!) of my publications can be found here. Please feel free to contact me via email .

Informal offerings

I believe that social media is a useful tool for scientists. I have a fairly active Twitter account. Some of my general musings about statistical inference can be found here.