R book review: Two approaches to learning data science
In 2012, the Harvard Business Review declared data scientist “the sexiest job of the 21st century”. Six years on it is still “America’s Hottest Job”, according to Bloomberg. As a statistician or data analyst you might be willing to give it a try. Of course, you need to know R. And both Modern Data Science with R (MDSR) and R for Data Science (R4DS) may help you find your way.
By Jordi Prats
R book review: Two approaches to learning data science
In 2012, the Harvard Business Review declared data scientist “the sexiest job of the 21st century”. Six years on it is still “America’s Hottest Job”, according to Bloomberg. As a statistician or data analyst you might be willing to give it a try. Of course, you need to know R. And both Modern Data Science with R (MDSR) and R for Data Science (R4DS) may help you find your way.
By Jordi Prats
Forecast error: Are polls getting worse at predicting elections?
Voting intention polls appear to have an accuracy problem. The UK House of Lords recently instructed the polling industry“to get its house in order”, citing its failure to predict...
By Timothy Martyn Hill
Cargo-cult statistics and scientific crisis
Poor practice is catching up with science,1-3 manifesting in part in the failure of results to be reproducible and replicable.4-7 Various causes have been posited,1, 8but...
By Philip B. Stark and Andrea Saltelli
Forecast error: Are polls getting worse at predicting elections?
Voting intention polls appear to have an accuracy problem. The UK House of Lords recently instructed the polling industry “to get its house in order”, citing its failure to predict the outcomes of the 2015 and 2017 general elections and the 2016 “Brexit” referendum. The Lords report stated that: “For each of those events, albeit to varying degrees, the polls ‘called it wrong’.” But is this recent poor performance a temporary blip? Or is it part of a longer term decline in accuracy?
By Timothy Martyn Hill
Cargo-cult statistics and scientific crisis
Poor practice is catching up with science,1-3 manifesting in part in the failure of results to be reproducible and replicable.4-7 Various causes have been posited,1, 8 but we believe that poor statistical education and practice are symptoms of and contributors to problems in science as a whole.
By Philip B. Stark and Andrea Saltelli
The pick of R packages
Our August 2018 cover story celebrates the 25th anniversary of the creation of R, the statistical programming language that became a subcultural phenomenon. While researching R’s history, community and culture, our reporter Nick Thieme interviewed a number of active R users and developers – and he invited them to tell our readers about some of the things they love most about R: specifically, the packages.
By Brian Tarran
