ABSTRACT
Let neither of these deter you. With respect to (1), you just need to have the faintest idea of what you want, and any number of statistics handbooks are available to tell you exactly what to do. As far as (2) is concerned, go ahead and formulate the question. If the limitation you perceive is real, none of the handbooks will help you. You then go to a statistics lecturer (but retain your copyright of the question -just in case!). If they cannot help you, the question will be referred to a mathematician dealing with that field. If you really have found a gap, you will be informed and thus have the basis for an interesting communication to a statistical research journal. It is not often that simply the question leads to a publication, but it has happened!
