The company behind GSS
The statistics software GSS is a product of WSC Scientific GmbH located in Heidelberg, Germany (founded in 2012).
We are a private research company offering statistical consulting, scientific computing (such as software development for scientific purposes or machine learning projects), ecological modelling and environmental risk assessments. We frequently conduct large scale statistical analyses of field or lab studies, i.e. analyses of large datasets (meta-analyses), applying guidance documents when required. Especially when working with novel approaches, new, tailor-made software tools are often needed. For this purpose, WSC Scientific GmbH delivers customer-oriented software solutions. Database development and maintenance completes the portfolio.
The story behind GSS
During our over 25 years of experience in scientific software development, and working with a variety of industry and academic partners, we saw that on one side users frequently feel challenged by the large amount of statistical methods being available. We found that in many research articles and even in some guidance documents statistical methods were not always correctly applied. Additionally, some very useful methods or statistical tests were not available to researchers, as they were not implemented commonly used third party software or R-packages. Hence, we saw a need of a very intuitive statistical software solution, which really helps the user to choose the correct statistical method, without investing much time reading through text books. We wanted to create software that at the same time is suitable for everyone even without statistical experience but also offers more than just the standard statistical test methods.
Hence, we developed GSS in close collaboration of our scientists and software developers, in order to make it really intuitive and practical, incorporating our experience in research and data analysis. After applying GSS for a couple of years only in-house for our own projects, we have finally reached a point where we want to offer it to the public. Above all, we hope that it will help many scientists to apply statistics in a correct manner. We want them to feel confident to have chosen appropriate test methods, without investing too much time in reading through statistical text books, so that they can focus on their valuable research.
Examples of GSS used in research
- Hahne, J., Foudoulakis, M., Kragten, S., Patterson, D., Sprenger, D., Ristau, K., Guckland, A. and Wang, M. 2024, Decline of pesticide residue on treated crop seeds: An analysis of comprehensive industry data and implications of the current risk assessment scheme for plant protection products. Integr. Environ. Assess. Manag. 20: 239-247.
- Dietrich, C., Wang, M. 2023, Challenges of benchmark dose analyses for risk assessors in the wildlife risk assessment. Poster presentation SETAC Europe 2023, Dublin, Ireland.
Examples of other solutions developed by WSC Scientific GmbH
ALDiS – Automated landscape digitisation using machine learning. ALDiS is our AI-based landscape digitisation system for high resolution satellite and aerial images
Software for honeybee trials using AI. HoneybeeComplete and IndiCounter is software for the evaluation of honeybee field (EPPO 170) and semi-field trials (OECD 75).
Software for video assessment of forager losses in bees. VideoCounter is software for automated counting of honeybees or bumblebees leaving and entering their hives..
Kinetic software. KModeller is a software for a broad range of kinetic analyses, offering the use of simple to complex custom built compartment models.
POLARIS – Population modelling platform. POLARIS is a software platform simulating the behaviour of mammals on a landscape level. For an applied example of POLARIS see this article.