In an article published in 1970 Professor A. Ehrenberg made the following
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1 feel that the kind of examples of statistical analysis that tend
to be considered in professional discussions...are so grossly over-simplified as to make a pretentious mockery of real-life situations and statistical consultancy.'
Examining some of the examples presented in many statistical text- books,wewereforcedtoagreewithProfessorEhrenberg- acomparison of the average weekly beer consumption of male college students living in halls-of-residence with those not living on campus hardly gives the flavour of most real-world consultancy problems!
So in an attempt to present the reality of statistical consulting we were led to assemble the collection of papers that make up this text. Our aim was to show that, in addition to statistical expertise of the type acquired from standard textbooks and in courses held up and down the country, the consultant statistician needs a number of other talents, foremost of which is the ability and willingness to communicate with researchers in other areas. We see this book as a complement to standard texts and ideally we would like to see it adopted as a companion volume on statistics courses, covering those parts of statistical consultancy which are not (and perhaps cannot be) formally taught.