Page 315 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS496 Alphonse L.M.
chartered and registered statisticians and scientists and graduated
statisticians. RSS also has a number of corporate partners, which are
government agencies. RSS has voluntary accreditation systems for
statisticians. It promotes the use of statistics in policy formulation and
decision-making, statistical literacy, and the development of statistics as a
science and profession. It has developed a large number of guides including
a series to assist judges, lawyers, forensic scientists and other expert witnesses
in dealing with statistical evidence in the administration of criminal justice. RSS
issued a code of conduct in 1993 which was revised in 2014. The code is
mandatory for all professionally qualified members but is recommended to all
the members.
(http://www.rss.org.uk/Images/PDF/join-us/RSS-Code-of-Conduct-2014.pdf)
ASA was established in 1839 in Boston. At present ASA has a global
membership in excess of 18,000 persons with an interest in statistics and has
a large network of US based chapters and sections. ASA also includes
organisations as members. Since its inception ASA has promoted excellence
in the development and application of statistics as a science, and the
dissemination of statistical information to the benefit of the society. Recently
ASA started a voluntary accreditation programme along the lines of the
chartered statistician system of the RSS. ASA started discussions on ethical
guidelines in 1949 and after a number of trials, the first version of the Ethical
guidelines for statistical practice was formalised and published in 1989. It was
revised in 1999 and the current version was approved in April 2018. ASA
introduced the concept of the “ethical statistician” and postulates that “all
practitioners of statistics, regardless of training and occupation or job title,
have an obligation to work in a professional, competent, and ethical manner
and to discourage any type of professional and scientific misconduct”.
Furthermore ASA states that “Good statistical practice is fundamentally based
on transparent assumptions, reproducible results, and valid interpretations.”
(https://www.amstat.org/ASA/Your-Career/Ethical-Guidelines-for-Statistical-
Practice.aspx?hkey=85085cd1-5dfc-4fb9-b526-e3c6d45abc0d)
The ISI was established at the Jubilee session of the Royal Statistical Society
of London in 1885, bringing together governmental and academic statisticians
with the objective of promoting the development of administrative (official)
and scientific statistics. It continued the organisation of international statistical
congresses, through it continued the development of international standards
and new methods and techniques. Members of the ISI first expressed their
desire for the promulgation of an ISI declaration of professional ethics in 1979.
The first ISI Declaration of professional ethics was issued in 1985 and the
current revised and updated version was issued in 2010. ISI considered the
Declaration to be applicable to all persons who are involved in or use statistics
and statistical information. The Declaration is not a set of mandatory rules, but

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