Posted by John Gardenier on July 12, 1999 at 14:49:57:
In Reply to: Comment on Ethics Guideline 7, Section II.H posted by Jay Chmiel on July 02, 1999 at 15:33:31:
: In Section II.H, the Committee has suggested that ethical responsibilities related to statistical practice extend beyond the statistical practitioner. In particular, this section attributes responsibilities
: to employers, clients, etc.
: In that same spirit, would it not also be appropriate
: to recognize the related ethical responsibilities of
: those who educate statistical practitioners? If
: employers and clients have such ethical
: responsibilities, then so do educators.
: At a minimum, educators who train students to be
: statistical practitioners should:
: 1. Keep abreast of the statistical skills required to
: practice the discipline and assure that their
: students, when they graduate, possess these skills;
: and
: 2. Assure that students who plan to practice
: statistics also acquire the non-statistical skills
: needed to succeed, such as communication skills,
: interpersonal skills and teamwork skills.
: Of course, educators may choose to offer purely
: theoretical statistical degree programs that do not
: prepare students to be statistical practitioners.
: If so, these educators have an ethical responsibility
: to make this clear to prospective students and to
: prospective employers of their students.
: Jay Chmiel
There are three topics which have been identified for consideration for a future guidelines revision. It takes about three to five years to prepare a substantial revision, considering time for research, discussion within the committee, posting and publication for public response, sequential revisions and repostings, and formal directed reviews as ordered by the Board. Thus, topics introduced near the end of a revision cycle, such as this one, which are too complex or controversial to be dealt with in the current effort should be deferred to the next revision cycle. The incoming Chair of the Committee on Professional Ethics (TBA shortly) is committed to starting work on the next revision immediately. Candidate topics which are not covered in the current revision that deserve consideration during the next revision include, per your suggestion, the ethics of teaching statistics (not only by "statisticians" and in "statistics" courses) and also, ethical issues specific to official statistics, and ethical issues in the handling and reporting of confounding factors in observational studies. Each of these has several dimensions and many of those dimensions will engender controversy. We are simply unable to give them the full vetting they are entitled to during this revision process.
In short, you are right to raise the issue. It does need attention, but it needs more attention that can be devoted in the current revision cycle.
John Gardenier