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Discussion: Play-Acting at Science?

Robert E. FayU.S. Census Bureau

Disclaimer

My written discussion advocates specific directions for survey research.

Disclaimer: My discussion represents my views and not necessarily those of the Census Bureau.

General points

My written comments are general and not specific to Saris’ talk

I argue against quantified total error models at this point (and possibly ever)

Part of my criticism stems from my study of scientific communication and its importance to hard science

The past

I comment on the total error modeling of the decennial census undercount in the 1990 and 2000 census, based on its failure of scientific communication

Future directions

I encourage more active collaboration of statisticians and behavioral scientists – example: mathematical biology

APS as a model for some of the behavioral scientists I want to involve

Future directions

I encourage what I call more “fine-grained” analysis. I provide two examples published in Science. Some talks presented today exemplify that direction.

I would like to see the reporting of research results more closely modeled on the hard sciences

Written remarks

Note: These transparencies touch on a few points from more extensive written remarks. You may contact me for the written version.

robert.e.fay.iii@census.gov