ASA at 175 - Statistics and Public Policy

By Ronald Wasserstein posted 01-14-2014 09:08

  

We are delighted to announce the establishment of a new ASA journal, Statistics and Public Policy (SPP), edited by David Banks, Sharon Lohr, Dan McCaffrey, and Sally Morton.  Volume 1, Issue 1 is now available to everyone online.  This new journal reflects at least two aspects of the ASA’s strategic activities in its 175th year. 

Members recognize the fundamental obligation of professional societies like the ASA to produce high quality publications covering important areas of statistics.  In a survey mentioned in an earlier “ASA at 175” blog, nearly 90% of respondents selected “publications” when answering the question “What do you think are the fundamental activities of the ASA? (Consider an activity to be “fundamental” if it is something you can’t imagine the ASA would ever stop doing in some form.)”

Additionally, public policy guided by sound data and competent statistical analysis is a key component of the ASA’s strategic plan.  The aim of the new journal is to publish “papers that apply strong statistical methodology to problems in the realm of public policy and /or relevant political science.  Articles may address international, national, or local policy questions, and the emphasis is upon the application rather than methodological novelty.”

For example, “The Statistical Role in Voter Identification (ID) Laws,” written by David Marker, demonstrates plainly the difference that appropriate data collection and analysis make in a situation in which the courts are asked to decide an important policy question.  Andrew Gelman’s article, “The Twentieth-Century Reversal: How Did the Republican States Switch to the Democrats and Vice Versa?” is a great illustration of the insight that keen application of statistics brings to identifying historical social, economic, and political trends shedding light on current events.

Statistics in Public Policy is a part of the 175th anniversary theme to “energize our future,” and it is also trying to help us visualize that future. Not only is it an ASA foray into partnering with a commercial publisher to create an open access journal, but when fully implemented the journal will provide a number of features that we expect to be commonplace in the future but which are experimental at present.  (More details on these features will be coming as they are made available.) 

Please give SPP a read, and consider writing for it.

In 2014, the American Statistical Association is celebrating its 175th anniversary.  Over the course of this year, this blog will highlight aspects of that celebration, and look broadly at the ASA and its activities.  Please contact ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein (ron@amstat.org) if you would like to post an entry to this blog.

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