Social stats on the Net — Uplink Archive

A guide to online newsgroups and mailing lists focused on statistics and social science research, including resources like sci.stat.consult, CUSSNET, STAT-L, and EVALTEN where journalists and professionals can find statistical expertise and discuss methodology.

Social stats on the Net

Interested in degrees of freedom? What about range values? Is multivariate data analysis your cup of tea? Let's be serious: How about a novice's questions about reliabilities?

You can find these topics and hundreds of other statistical bran muffins on an active newsgroup at the following e-mail address:

sci.stat.consult. It's full of serious statisticians as well as us novices who need a helping hand now and then.

Here's several other valuable resources on statistical conundra: 1. CUSSNET, short for Computer Users in the Social Sciences. It's a discussion list devoted to social workers, counselors, human service workers and others interested in computer applications and research. To get on the list, send a message to LISTSERV@stat.com and in the body of the message type, SUBSCRIBE CUSSNET. To contribute an article, send it to CUSSNET@stat.com.

2. STAT-L is an unlisted mailing list. It appeals to anyone interested in statistics. To subscribe, send e-mail to LISTSERV@MCGILLI.BITNET (or LISTSERV@VM1.MCGILL.CA). Digests of the contributions can be found in the newsgroup sci.stat.consul

3. EVALTEN, short for Evaluation Center's Topical Evaluation Network on Methodology and Statistics, is another mailing list. This one primarily works with statistics and mental health. To subscribe, send e-mail to Majordomo@world.std.com. In the body of the message, type SUBSCRIBE EVALTEN. To contribute articles, send them to EVALTEN@world.std.com

I am 95 percent certain that the average computer-assisted reporter out there will find something useful the online resources mentioned above. -Dan Browning (70343.2713@compuserv.com).