Results of survey of statisticians at JSM 2013 conference

During the 2013 JSM (Joint Statistics Meetings) Conference in Montreal, Revolution Analytics conducted a survey of attendees from August 5 to August 8. The 865 respondents gave their opinions on the privacy and ethics related to data collection, and on their familiarity with statistical software used for the analysis of such data.

Out of the 865 statisticians surveyed:

• A majority of the data scientists surveyed (overall — 88%; Life Sciences/Healthcare industry — 89%; Education — 87%) believe that consumers should worry about privacy issues with all of the data being collected on them. 

• 80% agreed that there should be an ethical framework in place for collecting and using data.

• More than half of data scientists agreed that ethics already play a big part in their research.
• Only 10% of respondents thought that there should not be an ethical framework with 1% stating that ethics should not play a part in data research.
• In the education industry 76% of data scientists said that there should be an ethical framework in place for data analytics – while 49% of that group declared that ethics already play a large part in their research.
• Similarly - in the life sciences/healthcare industry a majority (92%) agreed that having ethical framework was necessary with 64% of data scientists in the life sciences/healthcare industry said that ethics are already a part of their research.

The survey also polled respondents on their familiarity with popular statistical analysis software. 

• 62% are very familiar with Open Source R and/or Revolution R. 10% are not familiar.

• 51% are very familiar with SAS. 12% are not familiar.

The detailed survey results are below. (Percentage calculations do not include nonresponses. All respondents completed the survey by accessing the local Wi-Fi network at the conference.)

In which country do you live?

USA:   717  80%
Canada: 79   9%
Others: 69  11%

Which of the following best describes your occupation?

Education               519   62%
Non-Academic Research   178   21%
Consultant               68    8%
Corporate IT/Analytics   70    8%

Which of the following best describes your organization's industry?

Education                   528   62%
Government/Defense           61    7%
Consulting Firm              41    5%
Life Sciences/Healthcare    158   18%
Technology/Software/Web      39    5%
Others                       29    3%

Should consumers worry about privacy issues related to the data that is being collected on them?

Yes	751	88%
No	102	12%

Should there be an ethical framework in place for collecting and using data?

Yes—Ethics already plays a big part in my research           442   52%
Yes—An industry standard  on ethics needs to be implemented  238   28%
No—Ethics of data should be examined on a case-by-case issue  78    9%
No—Ethics should not play a part in data research              8    1%
I don’t know                                                  87   10%

How familiar are you with the following statistics products/languages: R/Revolution R

Not Familiar          83   10%
Somewhat Familiar    214   26%
Very Familiar        512   62%
Don't Know            23    3%

How familiar are you with the following statistics products/languages: SAS

Not Familiar          100   12%
Somewhat Familiar     284   35%
Very Familiar         417   51%
Don't Know             21    3%

This post was updated to correct the description of the final two charts.

Revolution Analytics press releases: Data Scientists Warn Consumers of Data Privacy Concerns 

Comments

[Robert Young]

A cross-tab of "industry" and "ethics" might be instructive, since the vast majority are self-identified with the left wing edu-gov cabal, with the job creating private sector barely moving the needle. Did I miss such? Methinks the latter would reveal themselves utterly unconcerned. With the emerging collaboration betwixt the NSA/etc. and "private sector" data vacuums, it's important to know.

[Robert Young]

The use of made up HTML tags appears to not appear. Too bad. There were a couple of "sarcasm" tags that got ett.

[Bob Muenchen]

Very interesting. How were the respondents chosen? In particular, were they people who stopped by the Revolution Analytics information booth, or were they more randomly selected?

[David Smith]

@Bob, the attendees were polled when the logged on to the Wi-Fi network which was accessible by all attendees present at JSM 2013. All valid responses were included in the results.

[Elizabeth]

Ironic to see a basic data analysis mistake in an article analyzing a survey of statisticians. "62% are very familiar or somewhat familiar with Open Source R and/or Revolution R" - but the chart shows that about 62% are very familiar and about 25% are somewhat familiar, so the correct interpretation is that 87% are very familiar or somewhat familiar with R. The same mistake occurs in the SAS familiarity interpretation.

[David Smith]

@Elizabeth, that was my mistake in reporting the results (and yes, it's both ironic and embarassing). I've updated the post above and issued a correction.