On student's 1908 article "the probable error of a mean"

Abstract

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the appearance of William Sealey Gosset's celebrated article, "The Probable Error of a Mean" (Student 1908a). Gosset's elegant result represented the first in a series of exact, "small-sample" results that were developed by Gosset, Fisher, and others to form a central component of the modern theory of statistical inference. This review celebrates the centenary of Gosset's article by discussing both its background and its impact on statistical theory and practice. © 2008 American Statistical Association.