IASS News April 2020

In this issue we welcome appointments to The Survey Statistician’s team, provide an update about IASS representation, foreshadow the honoring of two well-respected statisticians, and provide links to United Nations resources to support statistical organisations in the face of the corona virus pandemic. Finally, this issue reports on the significant impact the pandemic has had on conferences that were planned for 2020.

Links to more information

Please feel free to send items to publish in future IASS newsletters to james.chipperfield@abs.gov.au

Appointments to The Survey Statistician

We are very happy to welcome the following people to the TSS team:

  • Emilio López Escobar from Mexico is now editor of Book and Software Reviews
  • Ton de Waal from Netherlands is now editor of Ask the Experts
  • Marie Ragola and Melini Cooper, of the Australian Bureau of, have agree to jointly hold the IASS webmaster role. We aim to keep the IASS website more up-to-date. You will hear more from us on this in the coming months.

IASS Representation

Solange Correa-Onel, of the Data Science Campus of ONS/UK and IASS member, is representing the IASS on the Working Group for the International Year of Women in Statistics and Data Science.  The aim is to celebrate the contributions of women and promote gender diversity in statistics and data science.

Last month’s newsletter mentioned that the IASS is also represented on the ISI Data Science Working Group and the Programme Committee for the the World Statistics Conference 2021.

Chris Skinner and Fred Smith

Southampton colleagues are planning an event in honour of Chris Skinner and Fred Smith. Current thinking is to hold it around the time of the WSC 2021.

Corona Virus and National Statistical Offices

The United Nations is collecting information from countries to assess the impact of the corona virus pandemic on Census collection that was planned in 2020. See https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/census/COVID-19/.

The United Nations has also created a website to share best practice between National Statistical Offices on mitigating the impact of the corona virus pandemic on its business. See https://covid-19-response.unstatshub.org/ 

Conferences

Due to the corona virus pandemic some conferences have announced postponements, changes to format (from an in-person to a virtual conference) and suspended registration. Other conferences are in the process of doing so. Where this information is available, it has been noted below. This is a fast-evolving situation so, if in doubt, please check the conference website.

Upcoming IASS-Supported Conferences in 2020

ICES VI – The International Conference on Establishment Statistics was planned to take place 15–18 June in New Orleans, U.S. but planning is underway to postpone it. Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/ices/2020/conferenceinfo.cfm.

SAE2020- BigSmall – Conference on Small Area Estimation was to be held 6–8 July in Naples, Italy, with the theme “Big Data for Small Areas”. Due to the corona virus pandemic, the organising committee is considering postponing the conference, making it instead a satellite conference to the World Statistics Conference in 2021. Website: https://sae2020.org/ 

Summer School on Survey Statistics 2020 is planned to be held 24–28 August in Minsk, Belarus. Website: https://wiki.helsinki.fi/display/BNU/Events.

11e Colloque International Francophone sur les Sondages – 11th International Francophone Conference on Surveys is planned for 13–16 October in Brussels, Belgium.
Website: http://sondages2020.sciencesconf.org.

Other 2020 Conferences on survey statistics and related areas

Use of R in Official Statistics 2020 – 8th International Conference was to take place 6–8 May but due to the corona virus pandemic it is now planned for 2-4 December in Vienna, Austria.  Website: http://r-project.ro/conference2020.html.

American Association for Public Opinion Research Annual Conference will be held 14-17 May in Atlanta, U.S. It will now be a virtual conference rather than an in-person conference. Website: https://www.aapor.org/Conference-Events/Annual-Meeting.aspx

17th IAOS Conference and the 3rd ISI Regional Statistics Conference due to be held 19-21 May 2020 in Livingstone, Zambia, will be postponed to a date to be confirmed. Website: https://2020-iaos-isi.zamstats.gov.zm/index.php

12th International Conference on Transport Survey Methods was to take take place May 31 – June 5 but due to the corona virus pandemic it is currently planned for 25-30 October at the Hotel Golf Mar in Porto Novo (near Lisbon), Portugal.Website: https://www.isctsc2020.pt/

Symposium on Data Science & Statistics is planned to take placeJune 3 – 6 in Pittsburgh US. Website https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/sdss/2020/ 

Australian and New Zealand Statistical Conference was to take place 6-10 July 2020, Gold Coast, Australia but is now postponed to 5-9 July 2021. Website: https://anzsc2020.com.au/

Q2020 -10th European Conference on Quality in Official Statisticsis planned to take place 9–12 June in Budapest, Hungary. Website: http://q2020.hu/

Joint Statistical Meeting with the theme Everyone Counts: Data for the Public Good will take place 1-6th August in Philadelphia, US. Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2020/index.cfm

BigSurv20 – Big Data Meets Survey Science is planned to be held 4–6 November in Utrecht, Netherlands. Website: https://www.bigsurv20.org

The Survey Research Methods Section (SRMS) of the ASA

Information on activities of the Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association (ASA) are available at: https://community.amstat.org/surveyresearchmethodssection/home