[Passed] - Statistical Data Practice

[Goobergunchia]

Motivation

This is basically setting down rules for WA states not to manipulate any data that they submit to WA organs.

Note that this explicitly does not rule out P-hacking if you need it for your thesis/PhD/work or to justify grant money or whatever. It only applies to official statistics.

Category: political stability/mild

Submitted

The World Assembly (WA),

Noting the frequent need for the WA and WA states to collect statistical data ("data") for analysis and as part of a decision-making process;

Desiring the assurance that such data collection is subject to rigorous professional standards;

The WA hereby enacts as follows:

1. Definitions.
   
   1. "Agency" means one (or more) entities in charge of statistical practice (defined below) on behalf of a WA state and/or on behalf of a WA organ, including WA organs conducting statistical practice themselves.
   2. "Practitioner" means any individual involved in statistical practice.
   3. "Statistical practice" means the practice of statistical sciences for and on behalf of an agency, including (but not limited to) survey design, methodology, sampling, survey field work, data collection, analysis, and presentation.
   4. "Survey" means both sampling (such as stratified sampling) as well as a survey of all members of a population (such as a census).
   5. "WA organs" means any of the sub-committees of the WA.
2. Scope of regulation.
   
   1. The standards for statistical practice set forth in clauses (3) to (6) apply to any data collected by a WA state and/or WA organs for official statistics purposes; and apply to any data for regulatory approvals by a WA state or WA organ, or for compliance with any WA resolutions.
   2. The WA reserves the right to impose additional rules on statistical practice at its discretion.
   3. This resolution does not regulate how an agency of a WA state is organized, whether it is a public or private body, and whether multiple agencies are employed for different political subdivisions or functions of a WA state.
3. Establishment of PDAA.
   
   1. The "Principal Directorate for Administrative Affairs" (PDAA) is hereby established as an organ of the WA.
   2. PDAA is funded by the WA General Fund.
4. Integrity. Each WA organ and each WA state must ensure that, at all times, all of its agencies and their practitioners must:
   
   1. remain impartial and independent from political interference;
   2. employ practitioners deemed qualified and competent by that agency;
   3. treat all participants in a survey (whether paid or unpaid) with dignity and respect.
5. Standards of practitioners. Each WA organ and each WA state must ensure that, at all times, all of its agencies and their practitioners must base their practice on:
   
   1. scientifically valid methodologies on all matters of statistical practice, including setting all parameters to a survey prior to the start of a survey;
   2. transparent, informed and prudent decision-making;
   3. completing all work to the best of their capabilities and available resources.
6. Publications. Subject to relevant laws and extant resolutions (such as on matters concerning national security and privacy of personal data):
   
   1. All WA organs and all WA states are required to ensure that all of their official statistics be made public free-of-charge, and available through convenient physical and/or electronic means.
   2. All such publications must include all underlying methodologies, assumptions, and raw data for verification and re-testing of hypotheses by third parties.
7. Role. The PDAA is responsible for:
   
   1. Provide updated best practice guidelines in statistical practice to agencies;
   2. Reviews and inspections from time to time regarding the implementation of statistical practice by agencies;
   3. Conduct additional forensic testing, such as stochasticity testing, if suspicions arise as to the quality of any data submitted and/or published;
   4. Provide accreditation (if required) of practitioners and continuous professional training of practitioners;
   5. Provide up-to-date guidance to WA organs and agencies from WA states on statistics software, such as bleeding edge linear regression and modeling tools.
8. Delegation.
   
   1. A WA state may request PDAA to act as its agency on its behalf.
   2. PDAA will only accept such a request if it determines that a WA state (i) lacks a functioning government or (ii) lacks the resources necessary to maintain such infrastructure.

Char count: 4,373

[The Overmind]

If I can make two suggestions:

A good way to ensure that data is properly collected, processed, and analyzed, especially to avoid p-hacking, is to require all official statistical studies (i.e. the ones conducted by WA governing bodies) to be pre-registered. All sampling, identification and handling of outliers, practices for addressing missing data points, statistical tests, and standards for accepting and rejecting interpretations would be submitted as design proposals and approved, sent for revision, or rejected by the responsible body (whether you choose to make that STATS or an organization or committee answerable to STATS).

As for catching fabrication or falsification, this could be done by requiring that all collected data undergo third-party forensic analyses such as rightmost digit and stochasticity testing even before it proceeds down the analysis pipeline.

[Tinhampton]

When a frontline agency does not exist, why must statistical work on its behalf be conducted by STATS rather than - for instance - a high-quality private practitioner? (I would add "or the various mini-frontline agencies of the political subdivisions" but Article 7a allows for this already.)

Article 4 should not apply to "all statisticians;" only those working on behalf of STATS or a frontline agency. (Although I'd argue it should be a very strong, if non-binding, encouragement for those working in the private sector.) I do not want to see thirteen-year-old "statisticians" in mathematics set 2 being arrested when they go into town to conduct a rudimentary survey as part of their class fieldwork because they called someone who refused to answer their survey a "mean stinkybutt."

Article 5 should explicitly encourage the collection of anonymised data (as happens with all advanced IRL nations).

How is Article 6b research to be published, or is it considered "STATS data" and widely published accordingly?

[Simone Republic]

Draft 1

The World Assembly (WA),

Noting the frequent need for the WA and WA states to collect statistical data, in order for both the WA and WA states to make (hopefully) informed decisions;

Noting the tendency for some WA states to manipulate statistical data (such as economic data or opinion polls) for political or other purposes, to the detriment of analysts, statisticians and investors;

Desiring minimally acceptable standards for such data;

The WA hereby enacts as follows:

1. Establishment of STATS.
   
   1. The WA Statistical Science Service (STATS) is hereby established as a committee of the WA.
   2. STATS is to be funded by the General Fund, and is responsible for interpretation of this resolution.
2. Definitions.
   
   1. ”IDI” means any identifiable information that can be used to link a datapoint in a dataset to identify an inhabitant that participates in any survey.
   2. ”Statistical practice” means the practice of statistical sciences, such as field work, survey design, sampling, data collection, and analysis, and a “statistician” means whose work involves statistical practice.
   3. ”WA organs” means any of the sub-committees of the WA, including STATS.
3. Frontline data collection.
   
   1. Each WA state must designate at least one ”frontline agency” in charge of statistical practice on behalf of STATS and other WA organs.
   2. Each WA state must ensure its frontline agency is not subject to political interference from other arms of the government of that WA state.
   3. Each frontline agency must employ qualified and competent practitioners for its work.
   4. Each frontline agency must publish all underlying raw data for verification and re-testing of hypotheses, excluding any IDI, if such data is collected by, or on behalf of, a WA organ.
   5. If a WA state does not maintain a frontline agency for any reason (such as a lack of appropriate technologies or resources), it may outsource its statistical practice activities to STATS.
4. Professional standards. All statisticians must ensure that:
   
   1. All of their work must be:
      
      1. based on scientifically valid methodologies;
      2. based on informed and prudent decision-making
      3. done to the best of their capabilities, and
      4. done to the highest degree of integrity and honesty.
   2. All participants in a survey (whether paid or unpaid) must be treated with dignity and respect.
5. Data privacy.
   
   1. No WA state shall send any IDI to STATS, subject to the exclusion in the following sub-clause. STATS must immediately destroy and retain no copies of any IDI sent to it inadvertently by a WA state.
   2. If a WA state decides to outsource its statistical practice activities to STATS, data privacy laws of that WA state shall apply. This includes complying with requirements such as the release of certain survey data after all inhabitants that participated in a survey are dead.
6. Responsibilities of STATS.
   
   1. STATS is to set forth templates, definitions and sampling methods for statistical practice on behalf of WA states or WA organs, to ease comparison between data between different WA states.
   2. STATS is to conduct ongoing research into statistical sciences and other matters of concern to STATS.
   3. STATS is to advise WA organs on the quality of software for the use of WA organs, including all bleeding edge statistical modeling software.
   4. If STATS has particular needs to conduct surveys in a WA state to gather specific data, such as the impact of a nuclear war in a non-WA state but near a WA state, no WA state may impede the work of STATS in such matters.
   5. All STATS data shall be published through convenient physical and electronic means and shall be free of charge.
7. Clarifications.
   
   1. A WA state may designate as many agencies as a “frontline agency” for the purpose of this resolution as required, depending on the government structure of that state.
      
   2. A “survey” includes both sampling of population (such as through cluster or stratified sampling) as well as a survey of all members of a population (such as a census).

When a frontline agency does not exist, why must statistical work on its behalf be conducted by STATS rather than - for instance - a high-quality private practitioner? (I would add "or the various mini-frontline agencies of the political subdivisions" but Article 7a allows for this already.)

Article 7a has been changed to "entities" whether private or public.

Article 4 should not apply to "all statisticians;" only those working on behalf of STATS or a frontline agency.

Changed.

Article 5 should explicitly encourage the collection of anonymised data (as happens with all advanced IRL nations).

I made it "IDI should not be collected unless deemed necessary" because I want to cover census data.

How is Article 6b research to be published, or is it considered "STATS data" and widely published accordingly?

I got rid of the research thing for char count reasons.

This is still missing a category

If I can make two suggestions:

A good way to ensure that data is properly collected, processed, and analyzed, especially to avoid p-hacking, is to require all official statistical studies (i.e. the ones conducted by WA governing bodies) to be pre-registered.

I don't mind p-hacking as a career choice (or to get your PhD or whatever). But yes, P-hacking on government statistics should not be acceptable. (2c) should cover WHA and WASP and FDRA, so food/drug/health stuff can't be p-hacked.

All sampling, identification and handling of outliers, practices for addressing missing data points, statistical tests, and standards for accepting and rejecting interpretations would be submitted as design proposals and approved, sent for revision, or rejected by the responsible body (whether you choose to make that STATS or an organization or committee answerable to STATS).

As for catching fabrication or falsification, this could be done by requiring that all collected data undergo third-party forensic analyses such as rightmost digit and stochasticity testing even before it proceeds down the analysis pipeline.

I've incorporated some points above.

[Simone Republic]

Draft 2

The World Assembly (WA),

Noting the frequent need for the WA and WA states to collect statistical data ("data"), in order for both to make (hopefully) informed decisions;

Noting the tendency for some nefarious actors to manipulate data for political or other purposes, to the detriment of data users;

Desiring minimally acceptable professional standards for such data;

The WA hereby enacts as follows:

1. Establishment of STATS.
   
   1. The WA Statistical Science Service (STATS) is hereby established as a committee of the WA.
   2. STATS is to be funded by the General Fund.
   3. STATS is responsible for interpretation of this resolution.
2. Definitions.
   
   1. "IDI" means any identifiable information that can link a datapoint in a dataset to an individual inhabitant surveyed.
   2. "State" means a WA state.
   3. "Statistical practice" means the practice of statistical sciences on behalf of a WA state or the WA, such as field work, survey design, sampling, data collection, and analysis.
   4. "Statistician” means whose work involves statistical practice.
   5. "WA organs" means any of the sub-committees of the WA, including STATS itself.
3. Frontline practice.
   
   1. Each state must designate at least one "frontline agency" in charge of statistical practice on behalf of, or for submission to, WA organs.
   2. Each state must ensure its frontline agency is not subject to political interference from other arms of the government of that state.
   3. Each frontline agency must employ qualified and competent practitioners for its work.
   4. Each frontline agency must publish all underlying raw data for verification and re-testing of hypotheses, excluding any IDI, if such data is collected by, or on behalf of, WA organs.
   5. If a WA state is unable to appoint a frontline agency for any reason (such as a lack of appropriate technologies or resources), it may outsource its statistical practice to STATS.
4. Professional standards. All statisticians in each state must ensure that:
   
   1. All of their work must be:
      
      1. based on scientifically valid methodologies;
      2. based on informed and prudent decision-making;
      3. done to the best of their capabilities; and
      4. done to the highest degree of integrity and honesty.
   2. The design and structure of the survey, such as sampling methods, field work, handling of outliers, extrapolation of data points, statistical testing and hypotheses must be set prior to the start of a survey.
   3. All participants in a survey in a state, whether paid or unpaid, and whether sapient or not, must be treated with dignity and respect.
5. Data privacy.
   
   1. All WA governments, frontline agencies, and WA organs must maintain data privacy in accordance with prevailing WA requirements and/or the laws of that state, whichever is stricter.
   2. STATS must ensure that appropriate technical infrastructure is in place to fulfil all relevant data privacy requirements.
6. Responsibilities of STATS.
   
   1. STATS is to set forth templates, definitions and sampling methods for statistical practice on behalf of WA states or WA organs, to ease comparison between data between different WA states.
   2. STATS is to collate and organize all data for and on behalf of WA organs, and is responsible for forensic analysis, such as stochastic testing, in case of queries on the quality of data.
   3. STATS is to advise WA organs on the quality of statistical software quality, including all bleeding edge modeling tools.
   4. All STATS data (including anything collated from WA states) shall be published through convenient physical and electronic means and shall be free of charge to users.
7. STATS to step in emergency.
   
   1. If STATS or another WA organ determines that urgent surveys in a WA state is gather specific data, such as the impact of two WA states at war, no WA state may impede the work of STATS in such matters.
   2. Any protection afforded to humanitarian workers shall also apply to statisticians working for STATS.
8. Clarifications.
   
   1. This resolution does not mandate whether a state chooses to collect statistics on its own state and its own affairs. However, if it chooses to do so, then clauses (3), (4) and (5) shall apply to that state.
   2. A state may designate as many entities (public or private) as a “frontline agency” as it deems fit, depending on its government structure.
   3. A “survey” includes both sampling of a population (such as cluster or stratified sampling) as well as a survey of all members of a population.

[Simone Republic]

This has merged in the other draft "Statisticians' independence protocol" because I realized that splitting the integrity of statistical data with the independence of statisticians themselves don't work well.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=545006

I've shortened the portion on personal data because I explicitly define this to include census data as well and some IRL countries publish census data after ensuring that all participants are dead.

This resolution was originally "Integrity of statistical data". I changed the name.

[The Ice States]

Support if the GSA recommends the use of R for linear regressions only.

[Simone Republic]

*Bump* on the Simone Republic bumper drone.

[Imperium Anglorum]

Rename "General Services Administration". There is a real one – https://www.gsa.gov – and we do not need another United Nations™. As to the requirement that WA organs abide with national laws on privacy (section 4(c) currently) I think this is a nonsense that would make it extremely difficult for WA organs to do work in nations that with to be obstructive. If it isn't jurisdictionally limited it would be a nonsense and a disaster given the certainty of mutually exclusive policies.

[Simone Republic]

Rename "General Services Administration". There is a real one – https://www.gsa.gov – and we do not need another United Nations™. As to the requirement that WA organs abide with national laws on privacy (section 4(c) currently) I think this is a nonsense that would make it extremely difficult for WA organs to do work in nations that with to be obstructive. If it isn't jurisdictionally limited it would be a nonsense and a disaster given the certainty of mutually exclusive policies.

4(c) changed to "privacy requirements pursuant to WA resolutions" Strike that, that's superfluous since all WA organs must comply with all WA resolutions anyway.

The organization is now Directorate-General for Administrative Affairs or "Principal Directorate for Administrative Affairs" since the latter seems to have exactly zero departments of that name anywhere on earth.

[Fachumonn]

This is now at vote.

[Goobergunchia]

It is the position of the Moderately Liberal Unitary Republic that clause 6 is essentially an inkblot as it is subordinated to national laws.

We also believe that clauses 2c and 4a are fundamentally in conflict.

We respectfully urge a vote against. We could support a more limited resolution targeted solely at statistics provided to the World Assembly or its constituent organs.

[Lord] Michael Evif
Goobergunchian WA Ambassador

[Globalist Commie Alien Space Bats]

"We fully support this as a crucial step on the way towards full communism. Robust and accurate statistical analysis will be vital to achieving good outcomes in central economic planning. The added bureaucracy created in this proposal will also be a boon."

[Fachumonn]

New flag lol?

Support.

[Waaaar]

I voted for this but am starting to reconsider. I mean would this law give the world assembly control over my agencies and take them out of my jurisdiction.

[Fachumonn]

I voted for this but am starting to reconsider. I mean would this law give the world assembly control over my agencies and take them out of my jurisdiction.

GA is not the place to complain about things out of your control/complain about natsov. If that is a problem, leave the GA.

[Second Sovereignty]

OOC:
You know; I don't like to take this angle, but there's micromanagement, and then there's, whatever this is. A bizarre administration/money sink. Why does this need to exist at all? What does it fundamentally do?

[Fachumonn]

OOC:
You know; I don't like to take this angle, but there's micromanagement, and then there's, whatever this is. A bizarre administration/money sink. Why does this need to exist at all? What does it fundamentally do?

This is a question for most Simone proposals.

[Domnonia]

Holy moley.

So, like, we've got a local Grandmothers 4 Grandmothers group running their annual small baking fundraiser and Auntie Gertrude wants to know whether cookies or pies or cakes have been most popular in past years and now they need the UN/WA to figure that out for them? Poor Gerty just wanted to send a nice $20 note to Stephen Lewis to help out the grandmas raising their grandkids after their parents passed from HIV.

[Simone Republic]

It is the position of the Moderately Liberal Unitary Republic that clause 6 is essentially an inkblot as it is subordinated to national laws.

We also believe that clauses 2c and 4a are fundamentally in conflict.

We respectfully urge a vote against. We could support a more limited resolution targeted solely at statistics provided to the World Assembly or its constituent organs.

[Lord] Michael Evif
Goobergunchian WA Ambassador

It covered official statistics from WA states as well on the assumption that WA states' data would also be aggregated by WA organs for various purposes.

Holy moley.

So, like, we've got a local Grandmothers 4 Grandmothers group running their annual small baking fundraiser and Auntie Gertrude wants to know whether cookies or pies or cakes have been most popular in past years and now they need the UN/WA to figure that out for them? Poor Gerty just wanted to send a nice $20 note to Stephen Lewis to help out the grandmas raising their grandkids after their parents passed from HIV.

It only governs official statistics, not statistics for private businesses.

[Tigrisia]

While the Delegation of the Federal Republic of Tigrisia supports this Resolution, we see a missed opportunity. Due to constraints on personnel, we did miss the opportunity to bring this idea to the table. There already is a well-established entity that offers reliable, factual statistic to each and every nation, may they be in the World Assembly or not: the World Census. Therefore, as we proposed in our draft on combatting famine, we believe that it is a good idea to mandate that WA organizations that create statistics of some sort shall work together with the World Census and make use of their vast datasets.

For the delegation of the Federal Republic of Tigrisia at the World Assembly,
Ambassador Thomas Salazar
Head of Mission

[Kenmoria]

Ambassador Fortier stands to speak. “This proposal is vital to ensure the universality of truth in governmental reporting. Governments have a responsibility to their citizens to accurately record and promulgate the matters of the nation, including statistics and the like. Therefore, there is a correspondent duty on the General Assembly to enforce this responsibility, through international legislation such as this proposal. I am pleased to vote in favour of it, on behalf of the Delegation to the General Assembly of the People’s Republic of Kenmoria.”

[Waaaar]

The simone republic favors law and order over freedom.

[Waaaar]

I voted for this but am starting to reconsider. I mean would this law give the world assembly control over my agencies and take them out of my jurisdiction.

GA is not the place to complain about things out of your control/complain about natsov. If that is a problem, leave the GA.

If we shouldn't complain then no laws would ever be made.

[Nordheimrr]

Very nicely written!