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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the reliability of official Chinese government statistics in general, overview the evolution of China's S&T (science and technology) statistical system while highlighting the main sources of such statistics, point out some of the particular problems related to China's S&T statistics, and provide perspectives about how to best use and interpret these numbers.

Statistics of China's human resources in science and technology has been used to illustrate how such S&T statistics should be interpreted.

While the S&T data collection involving multiple government ministries causes problems, the interpretation of the data, including reconciling data from different sources and piecing information together, poses challenges to drawing an appropriate and overall picture of the development of S&T in China. In order to achieve a better understanding of China's S&T statistics, student researchers of Chinese science and technology have to comprehend the definitions, exhaust all the sources, and find and recognize discrepancies.

This paper represents the first effort to examine China's S&T statistical system, an important source of information regarding China's S&T development.

The title for this paper was selected advisedly, for it will serve to correct a popular misconception about the part the Chemical Industries Association plays in the collection and dissemination of statistics about the chemical industry.

This article summarises and discusses the main findings from a recently completed Independent Review of Crime Statistics. The Review focused upon the use of crime statistics and their fitness for purpose with particular attention paid to the needs of ‘the public’. The main conclusion was that the ongoing development of crime statistics is hampered by a confusion of means (technical discussions about crime statistics that focus on their interpretation and reliability) and ends (conceptual discussions about the purposes and interests of different groups in using crime statistics).

In a paper published in 1986, Helen B. Josephine and Deborah K. Blouin discuss four areas where new reference works in women's studies were needed: statistical sources, encyclopedias, yearbooks, and abstracting and indexing services. Using modified criteria outlined in Josephine's and Blouin's article, this article evaluates print statistical sources that specifically cover women and that were published in English during the 1990s. Evaluations discuss titles in terms of their inclusion of comparisons based on gender, age, race/ethnicity, and time period (historical) in both statistical material and indexing. Evaluations also mention the variety of sources cited, scope, and the presence or absence of introductory material, narrative highlights, bibliographies of sources, full citation for each statistic, and explanatory footnotes. Evaluation of the accuracy of the statistics themselves or the adequacy of statistical methodology is beyond the scope of this article.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the supply of and perceived demand for statisticians in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the past decade.

An exploratory study is conducted to examine the institutional and individual supply of statisticians in the UAE in relation to the perceived demand for such services. Supply data for the study was derived from UAE University, the Statistical Training Center and the Statistical Training Institute on statistics graduates and trainees.

It was found that the supply of statisticians and trainees from UAE universities and training bodies is falling short of meeting the actual needs of statisticians in UAE. As the demand continues for such services, concerted efforts are needed to identify and implement workable approaches to reduce the gap between supply and demand. This includes stronger collaboration between government agencies and academic institutions to create a genuine partnership utilizing the experience of developed countries in this field.

This study is the first of its kind in the UAE aimed at exploring the arising need for statistical services in the UAE. Recommendations from the study are intended to guide educational policy makers in addressing identified shortages of skilled Emirati statisticians as main contributors in supporting the knowledge-driven economy vision of UAE government.

This is a very large subject area to discuss in forty minutes, therefore, I would like to begin by defining the aspects of the subject I intend to deal with. The statistics in the title refer to business and economic statistics only, examples of which are published by central statistical departments, trade associations and commercial publishers etc. Desk research is used to describe the process of gathering information available in published form, rather than obtaining the data directly.

The origins of statistical information relating to the textile industry as to statistics generally are to be found mainly in the needs of Governments which, especially in the field of export and import trade, have collected information from the earliest days and for which, in the case of the United Kingdom, systematic trade statistics tabulated by goods and countries date from 1696.

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the impact of women's enterprise on Scotland's economy and to provide policy recommendations to the Scottish Government on increasing women's business ownership.

The paper has been developed in collaboration with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS Group) and has utilised existing business data and research sources which have not recently been analysed to provide gender‐based information on businesses within Scotland. Where possible, calculations of gross value added (GVA) contribution by gender have been made. In addition, a review of relevant entrepreneurship data was carried out and comparative studies from other parts of the UK and North America were used to benchmark findings.

The impact of women's business ownership on Scotland's economic performance is not consistently measured by the Scottish Government. An increased commitment to women's enterprise policy development from the UK Government has not been emulated in Scotland despite devolved responsibility for economic development.

Practical outcomes from this research include: policy recommendations for the Scottish Government; practical recommendations for business support providers; actions for the RBS Group “Women in Business” team; recommendations for improved data disaggregation.

This is the first report to evaluate the impact of women's enterprise on the Scottish economy since 2005. Its findings and recommendations are of value to the Scottish Government and Scotland's economic development and business support agencies.