Friday, May 2, 2014

R.A. Fisher's legacy in statistics

R.A. Fisher's approach to statistics can be still felt today in British statistics. His legacy has clearly lived on, such as in the distinguished history of statistics developed at the Rothamsted Agricultural Station after Fisher by Yates and J.A. Nelder. This seed of legacy has somehow spread across the US through immigration of some well-known statisticians such as G.E. P. Box.  Recently I discovered a nice article by G E P Box on R.A. Fisher,

Science and Statistics
George E. P. Box
Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 71, No. 356. (Dec., 1976), pp. 791-799.

Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0162-1459%28197612%2971%3A356%3C791%3ASAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W

In it, I learnt two new words,
Cookbookery and Mathematistry.Unfortunately, these two practices are still very commonly seen today.

The best website on R.A. Fisher's legacy is maintained in the Fisher Memorial Lecture page:
http://www.senns.demon.co.uk/FisherWeb.html.

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