By Kingsley I. Ilechukwu, Bureau Chief, South West
Are you an individual who frequently uses statistics in your respective fields and craves best statistical practice? If your answer is in the affirmative, then, you should pay attention to these five(5) advices from Professor of Econometrics, Faculty of Science at the University of Ibadan(UNIBADAN), south west, Nigeria, Olusanya Elisa Olubusoye.
Professor Olubusoye, who gave this advisory during his inaugural lecture delivered at the University of Ibadan On Thursday, December 21, 2023 stated that statistical practice involved using statistical methods and techniques to collect, analyse, interpret, draw inferences and present data. The theme of the lecture was: From Data To Wonders: Unlocking The Extraordinary Power Of Statistics.
According to Prof. Olubusoye, for individuals to optimize the power of statistics, they should avoid the following pitfalls:
- Manipulation to meet pre-conceived goals.
- Trivialisation of its principles to minimise the possibility of a rejection of the anticipated thesis.
- Indiscreet, frivolous, ill-advised modelling to justify fixed views.
- Pretentious applications involve highly technical, complicated modelling instead of a less demanding, appropriate, and adequate alternative.
- Oversimplification due to simplistic but inappropriate and inadequate modelling as an alternative to more complicated but truer modelling.
Olubusoye, who is the Co-ordinator of the University of Ibadan Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis(UI-LISA) explained that the best statistical practice involved the choice and application of principles, processes, determinations and inferences that statisticians and data analysts adopted to ensure that the findings were reliable, relevant, and appropriate to the immediate and general situation of the data.
