Submitted paper: The Growth of Personal Science: Implications For Statistics

Quantified Self Research & Media
1

Here’s a paper that I have submitted to Statistical Science. The title is “The Growth of Personal Science: Implications For Statistics” – meaning implications for the field of statistics. It contains many examples so it may help people who want to do it, not just statisticians.

here is the paper (pdf):
http://blog.sethroberts.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012-09-24-The-Growth-of-Personal-Science-Implications-For-Statistics.pdf

here is a blog post about it:
http://blog.sethroberts.net/2012/09/30/the-growth-of-personal-science-implications-for-statistics/

2

The examples are very insightful!

Do you have any thoughts on how to deal with placebo effects?

3

Several ways

  1. compare conditions where expectations are equal – e.g., different dosages.

  2. study surprising effects – e.g., effects first suggested by unexpected outliers. they cannot be due to placebo effects.

  3. pay attention to how closely results conform to expectations. The more closely they conform, the more suspicion that expectations matter.

4

Interesting. I’m not sure I agree with some of the points in your summary, but I haven’t had a chance to read the whole paper. I definitely want to, and will get back to you when I have a chance.

5

I tried to click the link for the paper but got an error. What is the status of this manuscript? I do research on self-data collection, am interested in reading this. Could you repost a more current link or PM me with the manuscript?

6

Here’s a link that works:

http://blog.sethroberts.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012-09-24-The-Growth-of-Personal-Science-Implications-For-Statistics.pdf

At the moment it’s rejected.