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Published three times a year, the ISI Newsletter provides a broad overview of the Institute's activities, and also includes additional information of interest to statisticians. The Newsletter is sent to all members of the ISI and its Sections (approx. 5,000) as part of their membership.
Editors: Mr. D. Berze and Ms. S. Mehta, Graphic Designer: Mr. H. Lucas
In this online Issue Message from the President Message from the Director News of Members In Memoriam Awards, Prizes and Competitions ISI Committee Matters Memories of the Past 40th Anniversary of Statistics Research Institute ISI Officers’ Elections Donations to the ISI ISI Membership Dues ISI Electronic Payment Website Calendar of Events News from ISI sections Volume 30, No. 3 (90) 2006
Message from the President
Conflicts of Interest in Statistical Work
Even though we had no ISI Session this past summer, there were many other interesting international statistical meetings to attend. I was invited (not in my capacity as ISI President) to join a panel on ‘Conflicts of interest in statistical work’ at the International Biometric Conference in Montreal in July.
The direct trigger of this panel was a policy recently introduced by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This influential journal will no longer print articles reporting clinical trials sponsored by drug companies, if the statistical analysis has been performed by the company’s statisticians. A confirmatory reanalysis by a statistician in the academic world is required.
In the long and expensive process from Research and Development to Registration of a new drug, journal publication has gained increasing importance, putting increased pressure on the journals’ peer review process. JAMA’s proposal can be seen as an additional safety measure over and above the usual refereeing, before the journal risks its reputation on a high-stake report.
There are several difficulties with the proposal, also beyond the professionally debatable collective mistrust of a large segment of our colleagues working in the industry. A reanalysis in our usual sense of what serious biostatistics is about will require access not only to all original data, but also to the subject matter researchers involved. If, on the other hand, all the journal wants is that somebody checks that the SAS programme used on a particular data file actually produces the results that the manuscript claims, the journal will be asking for a parody version of statistics that serious colleagues hopefully will not want to be quoted for. At least I would not.
Another non-trivial objection is that somebody will have to sponsor these reanalyses. Who else is there to do that than the companies? Although one could imagine some complex money-laundering procedure, for example through some blind trust not directly governed by the companies, complete financial independence is not totally convincing.
This specific debate has already occupied many pages in medical and statistical journals and newsletters and will no doubt continue.
In Montreal we intended, and succeeded quite well, to broaden the perspective to one of more general problems of conflicts-of-interest for statisticians.
Staying in the collaborative role of the biostatistician, and other applied analytical statisticians, the attractive and successful projects require close collaboration with considerable mutual confidence. As part of such a team, it is unrealistic that the statistician can always act as a policeman towards the rest of the team. We contribute with our professional competence as well as our professional integrity, but we are also part of the team and sometimes solutions have to be found that we might have preferred to be different if we were to decide alone. For example, the results of the research group should preferably be 'positive', i.e. there should be some statistical significance, so that the group can obtain its next research grant.
One very concrete example is how to handle multiple testing problems. Science is about using your imagination, in our case often to find structure in large collections of data. We cannot always easily combine this with rigid hypothesis testing theory, for which imagination is an undesirable complication.
Much more widely, statisticians have other threatening conflicts of interest than these. I mentioned in Montreal the official statistician's culture about valuing political independence very highly.
Can the ISI contribute to strengthening the statistician's position in conflicts of interest?
Most statisticians will be employees and will have to obey the conditions of the contract with their employer, be it a government, a drug company or a consulting firm just wanting to maintain its business. Is it realistic for us to claim special status as an independent police force assuring that data are never tampered with and always interpreted honestly and independently of irrelevant interests?
It is a central task for the ISI to do what we can to maintain high professional status in our profession. Honest and independent presentation and analysis of data is at the heart of this.
There are several paths that the ISI can take. We need to update our Declaration of Professional Ethics to better encompass new areas of ethical importance, such as the above example, and we are reconstituting our Ethics Committee for precisely that purpose. In some contexts, Professional Accreditation may play a role, providing the lone individual statistician with a concrete context to help him/her maintain professional integrity in his/her daily work. Professional integrity could also be given a more prominent role in teaching institutions. We should teach our students that we expect them to carry the spirit of honesty and independence in their work, wherever they end up, and this needs to be concrete, showing them examples from their concrete applied context.
Niels Keiding,
President ISI
Top
Message from the Director
An e-mail was recently circulated to all ISI members inviting them to consider membership in the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics (ISBIS) and I am pleased at the large number of positive responses we received. Details about ISBIS objectives and activities can be found at
http://www.stats.wits.ac.za/isbis/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1.Members can now process their payments to the ISI Permanent Office using an entirely secure electronic payment website, available at:
https://www.isi-web.org/404?intro-payment.htm.This site accommodates both Visa and MasterCard payments, as well as bank transfers. While all of our prices are in Euros, members are charged in their local currency according to the daily market exchange rate.
Beginning in October, the ISI Permanent Office will be mailing out the ballots for the Officers Elections. Please indicate your selection for ISI President-Elect, Vice-Presidents and Council members of your choice. Additional details about the individual candidates can be found at:
https://www.isi-web.org/404?Nlet/NLet061.htm#07ISIOfficersElections2007-2009.Be certain to return your ballot no later than January 1, 2007, at which time the totals will be counted.
I would like to thank all organisers and participants who have been involved in the large number of ISI Section conferences that have taken place the last few months in: Lima, Peru (5th International Symposium on Business and Industrial Statistics, ISBIS); Cardiff, Wales (Q2006 Conference, IASS); Smolenice, Slovak Republic (Probstat 2006, Bernoulli Society); Vilnius, Lithuania (9th International Conference on Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics, Bernoulli Society); Bahia, Brazil (ICOTS 7, IASE); Essex, U.K. (Methodology of Longitudinal Surveys, IASS); Thorun, Poland (26th European Meeting of Statisticians, Bernoulli Society); Paris, France (31st Conference on Stochastic Processes, Bernoulli Society); Rome, Italy (COMPSTAT 2006, IASC); Wroclaw, Poland (SCORUS 25th Conference, SCORUS/IAOS); and Ottawa, Canada (IAOS 2006 Conference).
Participants at many of these conferences will have noticed the presence of representatives of the Lisboa 2007 National Organising Committee, who kindly served to inform participants about plans for the 2007 Session in Lisboa. If you have not already pre-registered to attend the Lisboa Session, you can now do so at:
http://www.isi2007.com.pt.Information Bulletin #1 for the Lisboa Session will be sent to all ISI and Section members, and all those who have pre-registered, later this year.
The ISI would like to express its appreciation to the World Bank for kindly providing funding that will help to support the participation of a limited number of persons from developing countries wishing to attend the Lisboa Session in order to present an invited or contributed paper. Details about this opportunity can be found at:
https://www.isi-web.org/404?wbf/fund.htm.The Tokyo Memorial Fund has also again announced that applications to obtain funding to attend the ISI Lisboa Session will be considered. Details are contained here.
I would like to publicly announce that the 4th International Conference on Agricultural Statistics will take place from October 23-25, 2007, at the 'Friendship Hotel' in Beijing, China. The Conference will be hosted by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics with the Programme Committee chaired by the FAO. Information about the Conference can be found at:
www.stats.gov.cn/english/icas.Beginning in 2007, Blackwell Publishing will assume responsibility for the printing, marketing and distribution of the International Statistical Review, which will now also contain Short Book Reviews. Existing ISI/Section member subscribers of the International Statistical Review will notice little difference in the delivery of their journal as a result of the changeover. Subscribers of Short Book Reviews are urged to now subscribe to the International Statistical Review, if they do not already do so. Member subscriptions will continue to be administered by the ISI Permanent Office (the option to subscribe to the International Statistical Review will be indicated on your 2007 membership invoice), and mid-year subscriptions can be obtained by contacting Mrs. Margaret de Ruiter-Molloy (@cbs.nl).
Daniel Berze
Director ISI
Top
News of Members
Professor Gunnar Kulldorff has been awarded a degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Vilnius for his international merits in statistical science and for his contribution to studies of statistics in the University of Vilnius and in the Baltic states. The ceremony took place on May 5 in the University Church of St. John. Gunnar Kulldorff is an elected member of the ISI since 1968 and an IASS member. He served as Vice-President 1981-85, President-Elect 1987-89 and President of the ISI 1989-91. Since 1993, he is Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Statistics at the University of Umeå in Sweden.
Professor Pilar Martín-Guzmán
Professor Pilar Martín-Guzmán has been recently elected a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. She is an ISI elected member as well as IAOS and IASE member. Professor Martín-Guzmán served as Vice-President of the ISI from 2003-2005.
Professor N. Balakrishnan
ISI elected member and ISBIS member Professor N. Balakrishnan of McMaster University was named Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS). The induction ceremony took place August 2, 2006, at the IMS Annual Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Professor Balakrishnan received the Award for research on order statistics and applications to life-testing and reliability; for scholarly publications on distributions; for leadership in encyclopedic publications; and for service to the profession by organising numerous conferences.
Professor Brajendra Sutradhar
Professor Brajendra Sutradhar was awarded 2006 Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Brajendra Sutradhar, Professor of Statistics at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Memorial University of Canada, has received his Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) Award from Dr. Sallie Keller-McNulty, President of the ASA, during the annual awards ceremony at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Seattle on August 8. This Fellow title is awarded to Professor Sutradhar for his outstanding contributions to multivariate statistics, estimation theory and the analysis of longitudinal and clustered data; for applications to important societal problems; and for service to the profession. He is also a University Research Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, and is an elected member of the ISI since 1991.
Please send in news items! We depend on our members to make "News of Members" newsworthy!
The ISI regrets to announce the death of our colleagues:
Born Elected Deceased Professor Aleksander Józef Zeliaś 1939 1999 14 February 2006 Professor Dr. Oskar Anderson 1922 1968 13 March 2006 Professor Em. Frederick Mosteller 1916 1955 23 July 2006
In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Frederick Mosteller
Frederick Mosteller, President of the ISI during 1991-1993, died July 23, 2006, at the age of 89.5. Mosteller was born in West Virginia on December 24, 1916, and studied mathematics at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). After working during the Second World War with the Statistical Research Group in Princeton, he received his PhD in Statistics from Princeton in 1946 for a dissertation on estimators that were linear combinations of order statistics, working with Sam Wilks. Mosteller joined the faculty of Harvard University that same year, appointed in the Department of Social Relations. A decade later, spurred partly by an offer to Mosteller from the University of Chicago, Harvard formed a Department of Mathematical Statistics with Mosteller as Chair. He remained at Harvard, except for a few leaves of absence, until his retirement from research in 2004.
Mosteller brought his deep understanding of statistics to bear on important problems in many disciplines. His early work on learning theory, his role in the National Halothane Study, and his book On Equality in Educational Opportunity with future Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, were particularly influential. With David Wallace, he co-authored a book studying the disputed authorship of the US Federalist Papers that was simultaneously a significant contribution to research in American History and a classic applied work in Bayesian statistical analysis.
Mosteller was a stellar teacher, not only at Harvard, but through the several texts he wrote or co-authored, and he even reached a national audience when in 1961 he taught an early morning course as part of NBC channel’s experiment called Continental Classroom. He had a youthful talent for magic (and created and published several mathematical card tricks in a magazine for magicians), and he brought this magical touch to his teaching. He co-edited and wrote a major portion of the series of books Statistics by Example, and his textbooks, especially the early one with Rourke and Thomas, helped shape the way statistics was taught internationally. His books with John Tukey helped bring to light exploratory methodology that has attracted a wide usage.
Mosteller played both a personal and a catalytic role in the development of modern contingency table methodology, and he wrote extensively on the statistics of sports. He did not edit any major statistical journal, but he found time to comment perceptively on such a large number of colleagues’ drafts that he was essentially an editor-at-large to the profession. His tireless advocacy of statistics in national and international forums and in support of the ISI and other statistical societies earned him the reputation of the senior statesman of our field. He was widely admired and will be fondly remembered by all who knew him.
Stephen Stigler
University of Chicago
Awards, Prizes and Competitions
Jan Tinbergen Awards: Competition for Young Statisticians
from Developing Countries 2007The International Statistical Institute announces the thirteenth Competition among young statisticians from developing countries. Qualifying applicants are invited to submit a paper on any topic within the broad field of statistics, for possible presentation at the 56th Session of the ISI to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, in August 2007.
Participation in the Competition is open to nationals of developing countries who are living in a developing country, and who were born in 1975 or later (see https://www.isi-web.org/404?tinbergen/2007papers.htm).
Developing countries will be defined as countries with an annual GDP per capita of less than US$ 4,000 (U.N. February 2005); see the list at https://www.isi-web.org/404?tinbergen/developing.htm.
Previous winners of the Award are prohibited to compete again. Papers submitted must be unpublished original works, which may include material from participants’ university theses. The papers submitted will be examined by an International Jury of distinguished statisticians, who will select the three best papers presented in the Competition. Their decision will be final.
Each author of a winning paper will receive the Jan Tinbergen Award in the amount of € 2,269 and will be invited to present his/her paper at the Lisbon Session of ISI, with all expenses paid (i.e. round trip airline ticket from his/her place of residence to Lisbon, plus a lump sum to cover living expenses).Manuscripts for the Competition should be submitted in time to reach the ISI no later than January 1, 2007.
The rules governing the preparation of papers, application forms and full details are available on request from the ISI Permanent Office. The address is as follows:
The Director of the Permanent Office
International Statistical Institute
428 Prinses Beatrixlaan
2273 XZ Voorburg, The Netherlands
Fax: +31 70 386 0025; E-mail: @cbs.nlCochran-Hansen Prize 2007: Competition for Young Survey Statisticians from Developing and Transitional Countries
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the International Association of Survey Statisticians established the Cochran-Hansen Prize to be awarded every two years to the best paper on survey research methods submitted by a young statistician from a developing or transitional country.
Participation in the competition for the Prize is open to nationals of developing or transitional countries who are living in such countries and who were born in 1967 or later.Papers submitted must be unpublished original works. They may include materials from the participant’s university thesis. They should be in either English or French. Papers for consideration should be submitted to the IASS Secretariat at the address below to arrive by December 29, 2006. Each submission should be accompanied by a cover letter that gives the participant’s year of birth, nationality, and country of residence.
The papers submitted will be examined by the Cochran-Hansen Prize Committee appointed by the IASS. The decision of the Committee is final.The winner of the Prize will be invited to present his/her paper at the 56th Session of the International Statistical Institute to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, August 22-29, 2007, and the name of the winner will be announced at the ISI General Assembly in Lisbon.
The author of the winning paper will receive the Cochran-Hansen Prize in the form of books and journal subscriptions to the value of about € 500, and will have reasonable travel and living expenses paid in order to present the paper at the ISI Session in Lisbon.
For further information, please contact:Madame Claude Olivier
IASS Secretariat
International Association of Survey Statisticians
CEFIL-INSEE, 3 rue de la Cité, 33500 Libourne, France
Tel : +33 5 57 55 56 17
Fax : +33 5 57 55 56 20
E-mail : Claude.olivier@insee.frISI Tokyo Session Memorial Programme for Financial Assistance
This Programme was established after the 46th ISI Session (1987) held in Tokyo to provide ISI Session participants of developing countries with financial support for travel and accommodation expenses.
Open applications are now under consideration for the 10th Round of the Programme in support of the upcoming 56th ISI Biennial Session to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, in August 2007.Financial support is available for active Session participants from developing countries that are included in the ISI Developing Countries list (*1) or the latest DAC (Development Assistance Committee, OECD) list of ODA Recipients (*2). Authors of Invited Papers, Invited Paper Meetings Organisers and the ISI Council members are especially encouraged to apply. Furthermore, in the case of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) of the DAC list, applications from Authors of Contributed Papers and Contributed Paper Meetings Organisers will be also considered. The grantees from the Programme within the past five years and ISI Ex-officio members are ineligible. In principle, no more than one grant will be allotted to the same country.
(*1) The countries with an annual GDP per capita of less than US$4,000 (U.N., February 2005: Refer to the ISI website at https://www.isi-web.org/404?tinbergen/developing.htm.)
(*2) Refer to the OECD website at: www.oecd.org/dac/stats/daclistThe applicant is requested to submit an estimate of:
• Anticipated travel expenses,
• Anticipated staying expenses (including accommodation and daily expenses),
• Duration of stay (days and nights).The maximum monetary amount for a grant is 300,000 Japanese Yen (FYR, US$ 2,560 at the rate of 117.21 Yen to the US Dollar as of August 31, 2006).
All applications are requested to save on costs as much as possible, using a discounted ticket for instance.
Application forms must be received by the Institute of Statistical Research in Japan, no later than April 13, 2007. The screening panel will notify all applicants with their decision no later than May 31, 2007.
Within two weeks of the closing date of the ISI Session, all grantees must submit documents issued either by the Secretariat of the Session, or by the Session Organiser to certify his/her participation in the said Session.Application forms can be obtained from:
Isi Tokyo Session Memorial Programme
The Institute of Statistical Research
1-18-16 Shimbashi, Minatoku, Tokyo, 105-0004 Japan
E-mail: isi-tokyo-memorial@isr.or.jp
Website: http://www.isr.or.jp/isi-tokyo-memorial.htmlKei Takeuchi
Chairman, Steering Committee of the
ISI Tokyo Session Memorial Programme
Institute of Statistical ResearchNOTE: The Institute of Statistical Research is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation operating under the supervision of the Director-General for Policy Planning (Statistical Standards), Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Government of Japan.
Call for Nominations C.R. and Bhargavi Rao Prize
for Outstanding Research in Statistics
to be Awarded by Penn State University Department of StatisticsThe C.R. and Bhargavi Rao Prize is established to honor and recognize outstanding and influential innovations in the theory and practice of mathematical statistics, international leadership in directing statistical research, and pioneering contributions by a recognized leader in the field of statistics. The Rao Prize is awarded by the Department of Statistics at Penn State University to a nominee selected by the members of the Rao Prize Committee.
The 2003 Prize was awarded to Bradley Efron, the Max H. Stein Professor in the Department of Statistics at Stanford University. Jayaram Sethuraman, former Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor and current Professor Emeritus and Adjunct Professor at Florida State University received the 2005 Prize.
For additional information, see http://www.stat.psu.edu/news/awards/raoprize.html.
Nominations for the 2007 Rao Prize should be submitted by December 1, 2006 to:
Chair, Rao Prize Selection Committee
326 Thomas Building
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802-2111The Rao Prize shall be awarded every two years (odd numbered years) to an individual working in the United States. The award recipient will receive a medal, cash prize and an invitation to visit Penn State and give a talk. Nominations should include a letter describing the nominee’s outstanding contributions to leadership and research in statistics, a current curriculum vita, and two supporting letters.
C.R. Rao held the Eberly Chair in Statistics at Penn State University from 1988-2001. He now serves as Holder Emeritus of the Eberly Chair in Statistics. He was the founding Director of the Center for Multivariate Analysis. A President's National Medal of Science Laureate, Dr. Rao is recognized worldwide as one of the pioneers of modern statistical theory and as one of the world’s top five statisticians, with multifaceted distinctions as a mathematician, researcher, scientist, and teacher. His pioneering contributions to mathematics and statistical theory and applications have become part of undergraduate and graduate courses in statistics, econometrics, electrical engineering, and many other disciplines at most universities throughout the world.
ISI Committee Matters
Risk Analysis Committee
The Risk Analysis Committee (RAC), which was founded in 2000 by 6 ISI members, has recently been enlarged to 10 members. They are:
A. John Bailer (Oxford, Ohio, USA)
John C. Bailar III (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
David Banks (Durham, North Carolina, USA)
Daniel J. de Waal (Bloemfontein, South Africa)
Lutz Edler (Heidelberg, Germany)
Hyomin Lee (Seoul, South Korea)
Tsuyoshi Nakamura (Nagasaki, Japan)
Jianqing Fang (Princeton, New Jersey, USA)
Byung-Soo Kim (Seoul, South Korea)
Ho Kim (Seoul, South Korea)
Naohite Yamaguchi (Tokyo, Japan)This process of augmentation was thought necessary to increase the critical capacity for pursuing projects in the future, for strengthening the work in regions and, in particular, for an extension of the agenda from the field of health and environmental risk assessment to a wider area of risk analysis comprising physical, meteorological, economical and financial, and social risk analysis. This enlargement was started at the Committee's Administrative Meeting during the ISI Sydney Session and is still ongoing, and the Committee is open for suggestions coming from ISI members.
RAC is organising, together with the ISI Life Sciences Committee, the Invited Paper Meeting IPM 81 "Food Risks" for the 56th Session of the ISI in Lisbon 2007. The topics are:
1. Estimating usual food intake from nutritional surveys with application to food safety/toxicity.
2. Dietary BSE versus human-to-human risks of VJCD.
3. Food safety in Asia.Furthermore, the RAC is organising, together with the ISI Life Sciences Committee and with the Laboratory of Biomathematics and Institute for Preventive Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon, Portugal, an "International Conference on Statistical Methods for Risk Analysis" (ICSMRA). This Conference will take place as a Satellite Conference after the 56th Session of the ISI on August 30-31, 2007, in Lisbon. The Local Organising Committee is chaired by Helena Bacelar Nicolau (hbacelar@netcabo.pt). An International Organising Committee, chaired by Lutz Edler (edler@dkfz.de), is now eliciting Invited and Contributed Paper session themes and papers together with the local colleagues in Lisbon. For more information, please refer to www.fm.ul.pt/ICSMRA2007 or contact the Organisers.
Dr. Lutz Edler
Chair, Risk Analysis CommitteeCommittee on Women in Statistics
The ISI Committee on Women in Statistics (CWS) has two current initiatives – preparing for an Invited Paper Meeting (IPM) at the ISI Session in Lisbon, Portugal, in August 2007, and seeking country representatives for its network of women statisticians.
The Committee is sponsoring an IPM on “Indicators of the Status of Women and Children”. The Committee is seeking papers from a wide distribution of countries – both developed and developing. Papers would ideally discuss indicators and how they are derived. Topics of discussion include any issues relevant to the well-being of women or children including, for example, health, crime, ageing, sexual discrimination, education. Abstracts are still being considered. They should be sent to Martha Farrar by the end of October (Martha.farrar@nass.usda.gov).
The Committee is seeking women at the mid or high career level who are willing to be country representatives. These individuals are being asked to assist in networking in their country or region of the world, to provide reports of relevance to women statisticians and to the ISI Committee on Women in Statistics from their country or region, and to encourage nominations of women as members of the ISI. The Committee is planning a meeting of country representatives at the Lisbon Session where country representatives can share their successes; additionally, further roles of the representatives can be discussed.
The Committee webmaster has recently enhanced the website (http://www.nass.usda.gov/cws/index.htm) with a button for “Country Representatives”. If you click on the button, you will see a world map that directs you to regions of the world and to the ISI CWS country representatives in those regions. Reports from country representatives will appear under “Brief Reports” on the website and be hot-linked from the “Country Representatives” page of the site. If you are willing to be a country representative, please contact the Committee Chair, Cynthia Clark (Cynthia.clark@ons.gov.uk).
The following individuals are country representatives:
Africa:
Miranda Mafafo (South Africa) and Sheila Shimwambwa-Mudenda (Zambia);
Asia:
Gayatri Vishwakarma (India), Mausumi Bose (India) and Ann-Lee Wang (Malaysia);
Europe:
Nel Verhoeven (The Netherlands), Ingrid Glad (Norway) and Eva Elvers (Sweden);
North America:
Susana Rubin-Bleuer (Canada) and Sheela Talwalker (USA);
Oceania:
Irene Hudson (New Zealand).
Dr. Cynthia Clark
Chair, Committee on Women in StatisticsTop
Memories of the ISI's Past
Indian Prime Minister Nehru addresses the participants at the Opening Ceremony of the 27th ISI Session in New Delhi, India, in 1951.
40th Anniversary of Statistics Research Institute
Established at the Central Statistical Office (CSO of the USSR) in 1963 by a decree of the USSR Government, the Statistical Research Institute, serving as the ‘headquarters’ for the domestic and economic statistical science, has played, in its 40 years of existence, a significant role (measured both by the volume and value of the implemented works), having initiated more than 1,5 thousand research projects and having provided over 2,5 thousand publications, including 160 fundamental monograph’s, which have played an essential role in statistical advancement, not only domestically, but also as concerns international statistical methodology and practices.
Being the only research center in the field of state statistics (in whole country) based on the scientific- methodological provision of effective development strategy, possessing either information, technical and the staff potential, capable to execute any complex class of modern research tasks in the statistics field, the Institute is considered today as a unique state organization which has a wide recognition both in our country, and in many other countries and international organizations.
There is no (or at least it is hard to name) any area of statistical – economic research, in which the Institute during 40 years of the vigorous activity would not have taken part in, or rendered assistance to its statistical maintenance and productive existence.
The temporary activity of the Institute is linked to elaboration and realization of all significant projects on development and improvements of the Russian state statistics and, first of all those, such as the State program of measures on transition of the Russian Federation to the system of the report and accounts accepted in the international practice and statistics, Federal program «Reforms of statistics in 1997-2000 years», STASYS project «Development of system of state statistics (DSSS)», Program on development of the state statistical system till 2005, etc.
Having the unique experience of participating in population census, the Institute provides guidance in the development of basic methodological positions for processing materials for the Russian population census for the year 2002 as well as analysis of its results.
Today the Institute takes an active part in projects over problems of format minimization and parameters optimization for the forthcoming Russian economic census, in particular census of agricultural and industrial enterprises.
The institute is one of initiators and the chief developer of the statistical project ‘Historical time series of demographic and socio - economic development of Russia for 1800-2000 years’, supported by the Economy section of the Russian Academy of Science, Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Labor of Russia.
The institute actively and fruitfully co-operates with the Russian Ministry of Education, the State Customs Committee of the Russian Federation, the Bank of Russia and a number of other Ministries and Departments in the country, as well as with various international organizations (such as the United Nations, EUROSTAT, the International Statistical Institute etc.), by initiating the practical implementation of its own programs on statistical research in the work of the international organizations and adapting significant international programs considering conditions of modern Russia.
The Institute takes part in the scientific - methodological maintenance of industrial plans and realization of plans on scientific - methodological works of State Committee of the Russian Federation on Statistics and Analysis (Goskomstat) on a regular basis.
In this line the Institute published the ‘Encyclopedia of statistical publications (Ancient Russia, Russian empire, the USSR, the Russian Federation)’ (2001), ‘Financial and actuarial calculations’ (2002), ‘Introduction in financial and actuarial calculations’ (2003), ‘Total industrial production in Russia for 100 years’ (2002), ‘Construction in Russia in XX century’ (2003), the official monographic edition ‘Organization of the state statistics in the Russian Federation’ is about to come out.
The Institute has carried out significant research on the creation of scientifically proved methodology for the organization of the state statistical monitoring which would be adequate to market economy, development of statistical parameters system taking into account the inter branch approach to its formation, improvements on analysis and forecast methods for demographic processes, development of investments modeling methods and also replacement of fixed assets, the statistical survey program of productivity with consideration of wages increase, system estimation of terms and consequences of Russia’s entrance to WTO (World Trade Organization), and unique methodology on constructions historical time series etc.
The Institute has done more than seventy five (75) works for a total cost exceeding 20 million roubles (it is 3,5 times more, than in 1999-2000), including 43 works made on demand for State Committee of the Russian Federation on Statistics and Analysis (Goskomstat), which are planed to be done during 2003, one provides for some more than 40 works amounted for 12,1 million roubles (1,2 times more, than in 2002).
The Institute has plans to develop fundamental research in the field of modern statistics reformation, scientific arguments for ultimate multitudes of standard statistical classifier and system catalogues of parameters and registers of enterprises, theory basis of approximation and actuarial calculations, a statistical estimation of parameters of the non-observable economy, development of methods on accuracy and reliability of the statistical information, its correction and presentation in accordance with international publications standards, determination of prospects and ways of creation in Russia a safe and open information society.
The Institute intends to complete fundamental works on historical time series of Russia’s development for 100 years, multilingual encyclopedic statistical dictionary, the edition of the album - almanac ‘100 outstanding statisticians of Russia’, the world encyclopedia of statistical publications etc.
The institute is eager to implement planned works on modern domestic statistics reformation, not destroying but preserving all of its worthy past, and bringing it to the future.
The institute contains today over 100 employees-scientists, and has a highly skilled scientific staff (60 % of researchers - doctors and candidates of sciences) who in their day-by-day work closely and actively cooperate with scientists and experts at other research organizations and high schools of the country, that allows on a conventional basis for the effective solution of many disputed statistical problems, to lower the degree of a public dissatisfaction with existing statistical estimations and clearly explain the essence, difficulties and objective restrictions in statistical assessments in order to achieve a greater transparency and the best understanding of all categories of ‘consumers’ of statistical information, including mass-media.
The institute as the accredited scientific organisation, is an associate member of International Statistical Institute as well as several other domestic and international organisations. It is the recognized center of advanced statistical ideas as well as the active supporter and the defender of the Russian experience of statistical works.
Employees of the Institute, being guided by principles of the Russian statistical school of XVIII-XIX centuries, conduct many-sided educational work, prepare manuals for the professional skill improvement of workers in a statistical system, actively participate in the preparation of post-graduate students and work at the Institute Council to defend thesis, contribute to successful activity of the Central House of Scientific of Russian Academy of Science, especially for statistics and demographic sections. Also they establish and maintain close relations with some other public and academic organisations, such as International Statistical Institute, the Statistical Committee of the CIS, Eurostat, OECD, and the Statistical Commission of the United Nations etc.
The initial organizer and the director of the Statistics Research Institute was the outstanding domestic scientist – statistician and demographer, the honored worker of a science and engineering of the USSR, Professor A.J. Boyarskiy.
Nowadays the Institute is headed by a prominent Russian statistician, the author of more than 50 monographs in the field of modern statistics, the honored worker of a science of the Russian Federation, the elected member of the International Statistical Institute, vice-president of the Russian Academy of Economic Sciences, and Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor V.M. Simchera.
ISI Officers’ Elections
The process of electing the future ISI President-Elect, Vice-Presidents and members of the ISI Council has now begun. All ISI members have been mailed a ballot upon which they can indicate their choices for the various ISI Officers to serve the 2007-2009 term and beyond. Please note that all completed ballots must be returned to the ISI Permanent Office, in the envelopes provided, no later than January 1, 2007. A listing of all candidates, and a statement indicating their expected contribution to the ISI if elected, is indicated in Volume 30, No. 1 (pages 12-14) of the ISI Newsletter and on the ISI website at
https://www.isi-web.org/404?Nlet/NLet061.htm#07ISIOfficersElections2007-2009Don’t forget to vote!
Donations to the ISI
The ISI is dependent on the contributions of its members in order to support its ongoing operations. If you strongly support the aims and activities of the ISI and would like to make a special financial donation, please contact the ISI Permanent Office in order to process your contribution. Gifts can take several forms, including annual contributions, one-time gifts, or bequeats. You may communicate your gift intentions using the special web page at https://www.isi-web.org/404?donations-form.htm or by directly contacting the ISI Permanent Office.
ISI Membership Dues
This December, all ISI/Section members will be receiving their membership dues invoices for 2007. In the past, there has been some confusion about the combination of ISI and Section membership. Please note:
i) ISI members are entitled (as an option) to have one additional Section as part of their membership. There is no additional payment for this membership. The standard developed country rate for 2007 is € 69. Should a member choose not to have this Section membership, the dues rate remains the same. Should a member choose to become a member of more than one Section, then the first Section remains a complimentary Section, while the second, third, etc., Sections are charged at the going Section rate.
ii) If you are a joint member of the ISI and the Bernoulli Society, while your Bernoulli Society membership is complimentary, you are required to pay an additional € 33 for your subscription to the Bernoulli journal (this was also the case in 2006).
iii) If you are a joint member of the ISI and the IASC, while your IASC membership is complementary, you are required to pay an additional € 26 for your subscription to Computational Statistics and Data Analysis.
iv) Your invoice will also provide you with the option to subscribe to other journals. Please note that beginning in 2007, Short Book Reviews will be incorporated as a part of the International Statistical Review.
v) Your membership dues payment can now be processed safely and easily using our electronic payment web page at: https://www.isi-web.org/404?intro-payment.htm.
ISI Electronic Payment Website
Members can now process their payments to the ISI Permanent Office using an entirely secure electronic payment website, available at: https://www.isi-web.org/404?intro-payment.htm
This site accommodates both Visa and MasterCard payments, as well as bank transfers. While all of our prices are in Euros, members are charged in their local currency according to the daily market exchange rate.
News from ISI Sections: Bernoulli Society IAOS IASC IASE IASS IFC ISBIS Back to Home Page
News from ISI sections Volume 30, No. 3 (90) 2006
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