IASS News July 2020

/ August 10, 2020

In this newsletter we will let you know about changes to our website, our intention to continue with a series of webinars, further resources on the role of surveys during the Covid-19 pandemic, and upcoming conferences. This monthly newsletter will now be emailed directly to IASS members.

Links to more information

  • The July 2020 issue of The Survey Statistician (TSS) will be available this month. When it is available IASS members will be notified by email. While we are continuing to publish the complete TSS in a single volume, we will be separately publishing TSS papers from the Ask the Experts, New and Emerging Methods, and Book and Software Review sections. This will allow authors of these papers to register their articles at libraries and will make TSS an open access journal.
  • IASS Twitter account @iass_isi
  • The IASS Executive Committee encourage members to subscribe and contribute articles to the Statistics Journal of the International Association of Official Statistics. Website: https://officialstatistics.com/aims-scope.

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

IASS website

The IASS Webmasters (Melini Cooper and Harry Raymond, Australian Bureau of Statistics) have made the following updates to the IASS website:

IASS’ First Webinar

On the 24 June the IASS hosted the webinar “SAMPLE SURVEYS ON COVID-19 PANDEMIA AROUND THE WORLD”. Representatives from Australia, Cuba, Brazil, Israel, Italy and Spain spoke about how their national statistical organizations are taking measures to collect data on Covid-19 using surveys. I was especially surprised to hear that for São Paulo (Brazil) the survey-estimated number of people with Covid-19 anti-bodies was about 10 times higher than the official number of confirmed cases. This underscores the importance of representative surveys and our association that supports and promotes them.

We had 250 people register to attend the webinar. Unfortunately, the trial version of the webinar platform could only allow 100 people to view the webinar at any one time. We will fix this for next time-so all who register are guaranteed to be able to view the webinar. The good news is that the webinar was recorded and we are in the process of making it available on the IASS website http://isi-iass.org/home/webinars/

We plan on organising webinars on an ongoing basis. The next webinar will again be on Covid-19 surveillance surveys and will include a representative of the UK who, due to technical difficulties, was unable to present during the webinar. More details will be announced in due course. If you would like to assist, please contact one of the organisers Denise Britz do Nascimento Silva, Gaia Bertarelli, James Chipperfield or Monica Pratesi (monica.pratesi@unipi.it).

The Important Role of Surveys during the COVID19 Pandemic (courtesy of Peter Lynn)

A recent issue of the free, open-access, journal Survey Research Methods is devoted to the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on survey research. Papers from several countries describe how surveys have adapted their methodology to be able to continue during the pandemic, and how survey research can contribute to understanding of the spread and the impacts of the virus. The issue can be found at https://surveymethods.org/issue/view/221/  

Also, the Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN) of the American National Academies has set up a COVID-19 Survey Archive that contains survey questions, results, reports and related materials from hundreds of probability-based surveys on aspects of the pandemic from around the world. The archive is expanding daily and can be found at https://covid-19.parc.us.com/. 

Both of these links will be added to the IASS website

Other News

The IASS has submitted a bid to the World Bank Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building for funding to present 3 Courses on Survey Sampling and Survey Methods Topics using R.  

Conferences

Due to the corona virus pandemic some conferences have announced postponements, changes to format (from an in-person to a virtual conference) or 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.

IASS-Supported Conferences Planned for 2020

Conference for Population Surveys, Data Users and Producers, took place 5-6 February 2020, Nigeria, Africa

ICES VI – The International Conference on Establishment Statistics was planned to take place 15–18 June in New Orleans, U.S but has been postponed to June 14-17, 2021

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 conference will be held 5-7 July in Naples as a satellite conference to the World Statistics Conference in 2021.

Website: https://sae2020.org/ 

Summer School on Survey Statistics 2020 was planned to be held 24–28 August in Minsk, Belarus but it has been postponed to 2021. Details to be announced.

Website: https://wiki.helsinki.fi/display/BNU/Events.

11e Colloque International Francophone sur les Sondages – 11th International Francophone Conference on Surveys was planned for 13–16 October in Brussels, Belgium. It has been postponed. Details to be announced soon.

Website: http://sondages2020.sciencesconf.org.

Other 2020 Conferences on survey statistics and related areas

17th IAOS Conference and the 3rd ISI Regional Statistics Conference due to be held 19-21 May 2020 in Livingstone, Zambia, has been 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/

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 Statistics was planned to take place 9–12 June in Budapest, Hungary. However, the conference will no longer take place during 2020.

Website: http://q2020.hu/

Joint Statistical Meeting with the theme Everyone Counts: Data for the Public Good will take place 1-6th August as a virtual conference.

Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2020/index.cfm

Women in Statistics and Data Science Conference 2020 is planned to take place 1-3 October in Pittsburgh, USA

Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/wsds/2020/

BigSurv20 – Big Data Meets Survey Science was planned to be held 4–6 November in Utrecht, Netherlands. This will likely not happen and organisers are considering a virtual conference or postponement. Website: https://www.bigsurv20.org

American Statistical Association Conference on Statistical Practice is planned to take place 18-20 February 2021 in Nashville, USA

Symposium on Data Science & Statistics is planned to take placeJune 2-5, 2021 in Missouri, USA–. Website https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/sdss/2021/ 

63rd ISI World Statistics Congress will take place 11-15 July 2021 at The Hague, The Netherlands Website: https://www.isi2021.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

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