ASA Connect

--- apologies for cross-postings ---

Dear colleagues,

This is to announce that the 31^st conference of the Austro-Swiss Region (ROeS) of the International Biometric Society will take place in Lausanne, Switzerland, September 9-12, 2019, under the motto:

**** From Controlled Trials to Big Data and Back ****

Registration and abstract submission can be done via the following link:

http://wp.unil.ch/ibs-roes2019/

Deadline for abstract submission is May 15 but this will be extended to the end of May.

Sander Greenland, Stephen Senn and Stefan Wäger will be the keynote speakers.

Statistical data analyses are sometimes classified as being either exploratory or confirmatory, while the reality of statistical practice often lies in between. This middle territory is exemplified by "model selection" issues and Frank Harrell's famous words: "Using the data to guide the data analysis is almost as dangerous as not doing so".

The most accomplished confirmatory statistical analyses are conducted in the context of controlled (clinical) trials, where regulations and guidelines are to ensure a fully protocolled and planned statistical analysis. On the other hand, we are now living in the era of "big data" and "data science", where extreme forms of exploratory data analyses are encouraged with the hope that data quantity prevails over data quality.

While data science is currently in vogue, there is also some perception that "those who ignore statistics are condemned to reinvent it", as Brad Efron once said. It might be a time to return from the big data paradigm towards more classical approaches and concerns, and to land somewhere between the two extremes of the purely confirmatory and purely exploratory data analyses.

The XXXIst ROeS statistical conference will be a timely occasion to try to define what this "middle ground" should or could be to best meet the expectations of scientists.

I hope to encounter many of you at this occasion!

I would also be grateful if you could send this link and make publicity for the conference around your colleagues and within your network

With best wishes

 Valentin Rousson

President of ROeS