"Analysis" vs. "analyses"

The (U.S.) National Institutes of Health website has a webpage that states that it contains

reports, data and analyses of NIH research activities

I feel as though this sounds awkward. Would "reports, data and analysis of NIH research activities" be better phrasing, or is the current one technically correct?

Solution 1:

There is nothing at all wrong with the original phrasing, technically or otherwise.

Converting analyses to the singular is at best misleading, since it implies there is only one analysis, which is unlikely to be true.

Perhaps it goes some way to explaining OP's misgivings about the plural if I point out that it's common practice for UK tv news programmes, for example, to end by saying something like "For more in-depth analysis of the news, go to our website..." In that construct we probably wouldn't hear the plural, even though obviously it's more 'accurate'. I think the mass media tend to assume analyses is a 'technical' term, too 'highbrow' for many of their audience.

Solution 2:

"Analysis" can be used as a collective noun, so multiple analyses can be described as "analysis", unless you talk of it in units.

Solution 3:

"Analysis" is the singular noun; "analyses" is the plural. Since your object is plural ("NIH research activities"), the inference is that at least one "analysis" has been made of each single "NIH research activity", and thus there are many "analyses" of the "NIH research activities".

This is further borne out by the other subjects: "reports" and "data", both of which are plural ("data", though often used to describe a single piece of information, is the plural of "datum").

If you wanted to specify that, indeed, there was only one analysis made of all NIH research activities, you would say "reports, data, and an analysis of all NIH research activities", using an indefinite article to reinforce the singular.