American Statistical Association Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice

The American Statistical Association’s Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice are intended to help statistical practitioners make decisions ethically. In these guidelines, “statistical practice” includes activities such as designing the collection of, summarizing, processing, analyzing, interpreting, or presenting data and model or algorithm development and deployment. Throughout these guidelines, the term “statistical practitioner” includes all those who engage in statistical practice, regardless of job title, profession, level, or field of degree. The guidelines are intended for individuals, but these principles are also relevant to organizations that engage in statistical practice.

The ethical guidelines aim to promote accountability by informing those who rely on any aspects of statistical practice of the standards they should expect. Society benefits from informed judgments supported by ethical statistical practice.