The inadvertently revealing statistic: A systemic gap in statistical training? (2024)
Journal Article
Derrick, B., Green, E., Ritchie, F., Smith, J., & White, P. (2024). The inadvertently revealing statistic: A systemic gap in statistical training?. Significance, 21(1), 24-27. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrssig/qmae009

While concerns around data privacy are well-known, there's a lack of awareness and training when it comes to the confidentiality risk of published statistics, argue Ben Derrick, Elizabeth Green, Felix Ritchie, Jim Smith, Paul White

Using pedagogical and psychological insights to train analysts using confidential data (2023)
Journal Article
Green, E., & Ritchie, F. (2023). Using pedagogical and psychological insights to train analysts using confidential data. Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality, 13(2), https://doi.org/10.29012/jpc.842

With researchers increasingly gaining access to confidentiality data through restricted environments, interest has grown in the training of those researchers to protect confidentiality and to use the secure facility effectively. Researcher training,... Read More about Using pedagogical and psychological insights to train analysts using confidential data.

The just-about-right pilot sample size to control the error margin (2023)
Journal Article
Obodo, S., Toher, D., & White, P. (2023). The just-about-right pilot sample size to control the error margin. International Journal of Statistics and Probability, 12(3), https://doi.org/10.5539/ijsp.v12n3p1

In practice, the required sample size for a two-arm randomised controlled trial cannot always be determined pre-study with great accuracy. This lack of accuracy has economic, ethical and scientific implications. The sample size for a pilot study is... Read More about The just-about-right pilot sample size to control the error margin.

The nonequilibrium potential today: A short review (2022)
Journal Article
Wio, H. S., Deza, J. I., Sánchez, A. D., García-García, R., Gallego, R., Revelli, J. A., & Deza, R. R. (2022). The nonequilibrium potential today: A short review. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, 165(Part 1), 112778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chaos.2022.112778

A brief review is made of the birth and evolution of the “nonequilibrium potential” (NEP) concept. As if providing a landscape for qualitative reasoning were not helpful enough, the NEP adds a quantitative dimension to the qualitative theory of diffe... Read More about The nonequilibrium potential today: A short review.

10 is the safest number that there's ever been (2022)
Journal Article
Ritchie, F. (2022). 10 is the safest number that there's ever been. Transactions on data privacy, 15(2), 109-140

When checking frequency and magnitude tables for disclosure risk, the cell threshold (the minimum number of observations in each cell) is a crucial parameter. In rules-based environments, this is a hard limit on what can or can't be published. In pri... Read More about 10 is the safest number that there's ever been.

Estimation of the two-group pilot sample size with a cautionary note on Browne’s formula (2021)
Journal Article
Obodo, S., Toher, D., & White, P. (2021). Estimation of the two-group pilot sample size with a cautionary note on Browne’s formula. Journal of Applied Quantitative Methods, 16(3),

Using data obtained from a pilot study, Browne (1995) proposed a procedure for estimating the sample size needed for a definitive two-arm randomised controlled trial when the minimal important difference is specified. Simulations confirm these findi... Read More about Estimation of the two-group pilot sample size with a cautionary note on Browne’s formula.

Ordinal Logistic Regression as an alternative analysis strategy for the comparison of two independent samples (2021)
Journal Article
Bilski, B., Derrick, B., Toher, D., & White, P. (2021). Ordinal Logistic Regression as an alternative analysis strategy for the comparison of two independent samples. Journal of Applied Quantitative Methods, 16(3),

The two group between subjects design is pervasive with analyses often performed using the Mann Whitney Rank Sum test or using the Welch variant of the t-test. Using simulation it is shown that a dummy variable ordinal logistic regression (OLR) mode... Read More about Ordinal Logistic Regression as an alternative analysis strategy for the comparison of two independent samples.