INTERNET RESOURCE GUIDE
For Penn State Undergraduate Students Of Statistics Majors
StatisticsTable of Contents
FRONT MATTER
This section provides a brief description of the guide’s contents including, whom it is intended for, what the guide assumes users know, how the guide is organized for use, and tips for users when using the guide.
What is in this Guide
The purpose of “INTERNET RESOURCE GUIDE FOR STATISTICS STUDENTS” is to help undergraduate statistics students use internet resources that will help them succeed in the professional field. The guide contains important information and descriptions of resources about two professional organizations, two statistics publications, two online courses and tutorials, and government resources. The resources mentioned in this guide are fully available online, and the guide provides helpful tips for each of them.
Who are the Audiences
This guide was created for undergraduate students of Pennsylvania State University who are majoring in Statistics or interest to enroll in statistics major. Many contents require a PSU student account to gain access. The guide covers a wide range of statistics topics from basic concepts to each of its specific applications in particular fields that will prepare new statistics students in academics. Senior students are also benefited from this guide as review material. At the same time, this guide also includes information on professional research websites and organizations, which will help statistics students.
What this Guide Assumes
This guide assumes that the reader has at least a high school level knowledge of statistics and mathematics to understand the online course and tutorial sections fully. The guide also expects keen interest in the study of statistics and a motivation to use the Society for Statistical Organization resources. These resources also require readers to have adequate reading skills and basic mathematical knowledge to use them effectively. The guide also requires PSU student status to gain access to specific resources.
Organization of this Guide
This guide organizes the resources it covers through a logical progression from simple to profound. New statistics students can start by reviewing basic statistical principles in the initial online course and tutorial sections, as well as getting a glimpse of the topics they will be studying next. The next sections are “Professional Organizations” and “Government Resources.” These sections will focus on how to systematically begin statistical research by giving examples and descriptions of statistics publications and government publications. The guide also provides tips for using each resource to help the audiences use the resources efficiently in their professional fields.
Tips for using the Guide
Here are some essential hints on how to use this guide. We hope that this will help the reader save time and use the information more effectively.
- Please read the preamble carefully as it may serve as additional guidance.
- The table of contents details the title and location of each section and the resource it belongs to.
- The section title is displayed in the top left corner of each page, and the page number is displayed in the bottom right of each page.
- Each section has a short description under its title page that summarizes the necessary information about the section.
- Resources that require PSU student status to gain access are noted under the section title.
- Resources that require a membership subscription are indicated under the heading.
- Read the “Tips” under each resource for additional details.
ONLINE COURSES AND TUTORIALS
This section provides two statistics learning websites to help audiences understand statistics knowledge. The first is Against All odds: inside statistics, which provides the basics of statistics for everyone. The other is Penn State’s online statistics course, which provides a more in-depth explanation and statistical theory application.
Against All odds: inside statistics
Website
Location
https://www.learner.org/series/against-all-odds-inside-statistics/
Description
Against all the odds: Inside Statistics is an open online course of statistics, sponsored by Annenberg Learning. There are 36 units in total and covers basic statistics knowledge. Each unit comes with a short video, about 5 to 15 minutes, introduces a statistical topic in a real-world context. Then a supplement of Student Guide and Faculty Guide as after-class exercises to guide students to master these topics. This course is designed for beginners in statistics, thus makes it is a useful tutorial for new undergraduate students so that they can have a basic understanding of statistics. At the same time, the systematic arrangement of this course also makes it is a handy review tool for senior students.
Tips
- The “Series Directory” on the right side of the site is a helpful searching tool.
- There is a transcript at the bottom of the page in each unit for students’ reference.
- The Student Guide contains an excellent summary of this unit.
- The Faculty Guide contains solutions to the exercises in the Student Guide.
PSU Statistics Online
Website
Location
https://online.stat.psu.edu/statprogram/
Description
PSU Stat Online is a series of undergraduate and graduate-level online courses provided by PSU World Campus. The arrangement of these courses focuses on applied statistics. These courses cover a wide range of statistics topics, from the most basic statistical concepts to their specific applications. Because the course arrangement is identical to that of statistics courses on all PSU campuses, and the online courses provide detailed notes, these courses are suitable as a supplement material to the in-person courses. They are also an excellent tool for students to expand their knowledge.
Tips
- The PSU Statistics Online also provides technology tutorials, which locates on the left side of the homepage, guide students to practice their online communicating abilities, statistical software skills, and digital content management abilities.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
This section provides two statistical societies that offer a variety of academic assistance to students and scholars of statistics. The first, the American Statistical Association (ASA), is the nation’s leading organization for statistics and related professions. The other is the International Statistical Institute (ISI), which is an international professional society.
American Statistical Association (ASA)
Website
Location and Availability
*The information is mostly free on this site. There are exclusive journals that require membership subscriptions to gain access. *
Description
The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the nation’s most influential organization for statistics and related majors. The ASA dedicates to promote the practice and profession of statistics by providing services for statisticians, quantitative scientists, and users of statistics across many academic areas and applications through meetings, publications, membership services, education, accreditation, and advocacy. The association’s membership exceeds 19,000 professionals in various fields. It consists of more than 17 journals and six yearly conferences. The ASA is very resourceful to help scholars and students update their knowledge base, understand cutting-edge research, and expand their career prospects.
Tips
- Exclusive journals published by the ASA require membership subscriptions to gain assess. Full-time students get a much economic rate.
- On the top of the homepage, there are tabs to useful ASA sites include “Amstat News”, “ASA community”, “World of Statistics”, “STAT Tr@k,” and “STATS.org”.
- The ASA holds DataFest at Penn State University annually. It is a celebration of data where student teams work around the clock to find and share meaning in a large, rich, and complex dataset. The competition is free to attend and open to all undergraduate and master’s degree students.
International Statistical Institute (ISI)
Website
Location and availability
Free to access online
Description
The International Statistical Society is an international professional society founded in 1885 with 4,000 government, academic and private sector members. The ISI publishes many books and journals. The World Statistics Congress holds biannually and announces winners of the Karl Pearson Award for their significant contributions in research articles or books on statistical theory, methodology, practice, and application published in the past thirty years.
Tips
*The “ISI Blog” link can be found on the right side of the homepage. It is an excellent resource to review international news in statistical methods.
STATISTICS PUBLICATIONS
This section introduces a statistical search tool, the Current Index to Statistics (CIS), and two authoritative statistical journals, the Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA) and the International Statistical Review (ISR), corresponding to the two statistical organizations introduced in the previous section, respectively.
Current Index to Statistics (CIS)
Online Database
Location and availability
https://mathscinet.ams.org/cis
Penn State students have free access through PSU Library.
- Go to https://libraries.psu.edu
- Click on “Research”, then click on “Databases”.
- Find and click on “Current Index to (mathematical) Statistics”, the page will automatically transfer to the database. If the page is not redirected, click on the “access the database” link.
Description
The Current Index to Statistics (CIS) is an online bibliographic index published by the Institute of Mathematical and the American Statistical Association, covers publications in statistics-related topics. It consists of more than 500,000 articles and 10,000 book entries. A large amount of them attaches a summary or an abstract for users’ convenience. Furthermore, users can use the “Refine Results” function, adding filters to narrow down the search results. The search box also supports fielded searches by using codes to define keywords to get a narrower search.
Tips
- A list of field codes can be found by clicking the “Search Tips” tab on the top right of the page.
- Using the “Refine Results” function and fielded search simultaneously is possible.
- Adding search operators to adjust results is possible. “Search Tips” contains a more detailed guide.
- The American Mathematical Society now hosts the CIS. Users can also find the CIS link on the MathSciNet website, a robust online mathematical publication index.
Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA)
Professional Journal
Location
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/uasa20/current
Description
JASA is a statistics journal managed by the American Statistical Association (ASA). JASA is published quarterly and has always been regarded as the premier international journal in the field. JASA articles focus on statistical applications, theory, and methods in economic, social, physical, engineering, and health sciences. Although reading JASA’s articles may be difficult for undergraduate students, its methodological innovation is very suitable for students to learn from in research.
Tips
- PSU students can visit the Penn State Library website https://libraries.psu.edu and search “Journal of the American Statistical Association” to access electronic copies from the 1920s to 2014, or physical copies from 1920s to 2017.
- Students can also access the latest issue through the ASA website by purchasing its student membership.
International Statistical Review (ISR)
Professional Journal
Location
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/17515823/homepage/productinformation.html
Description
International Statistical Review (ISR) is a quarterly journal issued by the International Statistical Institute (ISI). Unlike other academic journals, its content is diverse, including reviews, tutorials, and explanatory papers on significant developments in statistical theory and its applications, as well as documents describing the development of related new fields and methods solving fundamental problems, as well as detailed statistical history’s description and its historical evaluation. ISR is a reliable and comprehensive source of statistical information. It is also completely free and open access to the public. Hence, it is a practical tool for statistics students to explore research trends and directions.
Tips
- PSU students can visit the Penn State Library website https://libraries.psu.edu and search “International Statistical Review” to access electronic copies from 2007 to 2020. Students can also visit the ISI homepage, find the “International Statistical Review” tab under “ISI Publications” in the “Media” tab on the top of the page to access all issues since 1997.
GOVERNMENT RESOURCES
This section introduces a federal government document retrieval tool, Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP), and a sample article, Science & Tech Spotlight: Contact Tracing Apps, to show how to search for documents through the CGP access to information needed for research and study.
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)
Government Database
Location and Availability
Open access to the public online.
Description
The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is a search tool for electronic and print federal publications. The CGP contains more than 500,000 records generated since July 1976, and the database updates every day. As an open-access database, students can read descriptive documents for historical and current publications and view the electrical version of the original copies. The basic search uses a keyword to match results in a specific catalog. The advance search allows users to limit the results by more constraints such as publication year, format, language, and departments. The CGP can help statistics students know the latest research trend and its application and find current government programs in relevant fields.
Tips
- Publications issued before 1976 can be found in printed Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications.
- Click the “Help” tab on the bottom of the homepage to read CGP search tips.
Science & Tech Spotlight: Contact Tracing Apps
Sample Document
Location:
https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/708405.pdf
Description:
The article introduces a possible idea of contact tracing apps, that could help reduce transmission rates during pandemic like the COVID-19 by identifying and notifying people who may have been exposed. The concept of contact tracing apps bases on the fact in the public health field that tracking possible infected people and asking them to take actions such as self-quarantine can significantly limit disease transmission in the population. The principle of contact tracking apps is simple. The app exchanges a unique code between two individuals who have recent contact and alerts the other person if one of them is infected for further actions to prevent the spread of the disease. However, the article points out some challenges about the accuracy, adoption rates, and privacy concerns that need policy supports to bring out the app’s full potential.
