STATS

STATS is our collaborative project with the American Statistical Association to improve statistical literacy among journalists, academic journal editors, and researchers.

“The ASA-SAS USA partnership on STATS has set its sights squarely on the target of developing a statistical literate citizenry, and is quite likely the most important development in the American Statistical Association’s long efforts to promote statistical literacy.”

—Ron Wasserstein Ph.D., Executive Director, ASA

New on STATS

Data Journalism's Sweet Spot

With the current fervor for big data and data journalism, what do statisticians and mathematicians think of the reporting that’s being done?

We asked the math and stats experts of our STATS Advisory Board.

STATScheck

Are you a journalist? Our volunteer advisory board of academics from across the U.S.
are here to help you make sense of statistics and numbers. We’ll do our best to help you make your deadline.

Since launching in April 2015, our volunteer advisory board has helped journalists at these news organizations and other media.

Business Insider
Dallas Morning News
Five Thirty Eight
Forbes
Fortune
Fusion
Gatehouse Media
Health News Review
Huffington Post
KOMOTV
L.A. Times
Las Vegas Review Journal
Medpage Today
National Geographic
National Press Foundation

National Public Radio
New York Times
News Tribune
NPR
PBS NewsHour
Press Democrat
ProPublica
Quartz
Reuters
STAT News
Vox
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Worcester Business Journal
WUSA9

STATScheck

STATS Workshops

Free interactive workshops in statistics tailored to science, health, and general reporting. We’ll come to your newsroom, journalism school or media organization.

STATS workshop at the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT with Rebecca Goldin, Director of STATS and Professor of Mathematics, George Mason University, and Regina Nuzzo, Professor, Gallaudet University

STATS workshop at Springer Nature/Scientific American with Rebecca Goldin,
Director of STATS and Professor of Mathematics, George Mason University

STATS workshop at Springer Nature with Tian Zheng,
Associate Professor of Statistics, Columbia University

STATScamp at the Grady College of Journalism, University of Georgia, with George Mason University’s Rebecca Goldin and Patrick McKnight

STATS workshop for American Geophysical Union and DC Science Writers Association with Gallaudet University statistician Regina Nuzzo

STATS workshop at STAT News with Rebecca Goldin,
Director of STATS and Professor of Mathematics, George Mason University

STATS workshop at Vox with Rebecca Goldin,
Director of STATS and Professor of Mathematics, George Mason University

Workshops

Promoting Statistical Literacy

Sense About Science USA promotes statistical literacy at academic and public events across the U.S.

STATS’ Rebecca Goldin at the Broad Institute for the 2017
Cambridge Science Festival

Read about it here

Trevor Butterworth at the National Academy of Sciences
Sackler Colloquium on Reproducibility 2017

Read about it here

Our panel at the Joint Statistical Meeting 2016

Scientifically Speaking (STATS edition)

We also work with statisticians and statistics students to improve the public’s understanding of statistics through better communication.

Scientifically Speaking communications workshop with ASA members

We co-sponsored a hackathon with Columbia University’s Statistics Club

David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk
at Cambridge University talks about STATS at AAAS 2016

Scientifically Speaking

STATS Forum

A venue for statisticians and mathematicians to critically evaluate study design and statistical methods in research. The subjects (products, procedures, treatments, etc.) of the studies being evaluated are neither endorsed nor rejected by Sense About Science USA. We encourage readers to use these articles as a starting point to discuss better study design and statistical analysis. While we strive for factual accuracy in these posts, they should be considered academic rather than journalistic writing.

Death by Bacon: Did the News get to the Meat of the Matter?

by sasusa | Nov 11, 2015 | Causality, Risk

The conclusions were guaranteed to make headlines around the world: processed meats, such as bacon, were carcinogenic—and red meat was a “probable” carcinogen. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer had surveyed over 800 studies on...

Glaring Flaws in Sugar Toxicity Study

by sasusa | Oct 27, 2015 | Control group, Multiple testing

Anew study has claimed that obese children could find rapid health improvement by small sugar reductions, without caloric restrictions. According to the lead author, Robert Lustig, the new study shows that sugar may not be harmful because of how it leads to weight...

Black Coffee is Not a Sign You Are a Sadist

by sasusa | Oct 26, 2015 | Association, Causality, Multiple testing, Studies in the News

Black coffee drinkers are more likely to be psychopaths and sadists, screamed a slew of recent headlines (see: Huffington Post and Quartz). And the content of some of these stories was equally hyperbolic: “Are you wondering whether to trust someone you recently met?...