The ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' is a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as ...

statistics Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industri ...

. It comprises three series and is published by Wiley for the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

History

The Statistical Society of London was founded in 1834, but would not begin producing a journal for four years. From 1834 to 1837, members of the society would read the results of their studies to the other members, and some details were recorded in the proceedings. The first study reported to the society in 1834 was a simple survey of the occupations of people in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

, England. Conducted by going door-to-door and inquiring, the study revealed that the most common profession was mill-hands, followed closely by weavers. When founded, the membership of the Statistical Society of London overlapped almost completely with the statistical section of the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

. In 1837 a volume of ''Transactions of the Statistical Society of London'' were written, and in May 1838 the society began its journal. The first

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the journal was Rawson W. Rawson. In the early days of the society and the journal, there was dispute over whether or not opinions should be expressed, or merely the numbers. The symbol of the society was a wheatsheaf, representing a bundle of facts, and the motto ''Aliis exterendum'', Latin for "to be threshed out by others." Many early members chafed under this prohibition, and in 1857 the motto was dropped. From 1838 to 1886, the journal was published as the ''Journal of the Statistical Society of London'' (). In 1887 it was renamed the ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' () when the society was granted a

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...

. On its centenary in 1934, the society inaugurated a ''Supplement to the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' to publish work on industrial and agricultural applications. In 1948 the society reorganised its journals and the main journal became the ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (General)'' () and the supplement became ''Series B (Statistical Methodology)''. In 1988, Series A changed its name to ''Series A (Statistics in Society)''. In 1952, the society founded ''Applied Statistics of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' which became ''Series C (Applied Statistics)''. After merging with the

Institute of Statisticians The Institute of Statisticians was a British professional organization founded in 1948 to protect the interests of professional statisticians. It was originally named ''The Association of Incorporated Statisticians Limited'', but this was later cha ...

in 1993, the society published ''Series D (The Statistician)'' (), but this journal was closed in 2003, to be replaced by Significance.

Discussion papers

Traditionally papers were presented at ordinary meetings of the society and those present, whether fellows or not, were invited to comment on the presentation. The paper and subsequent discussion would then be published in the journal. This followed a format used by other scientific societies of the time, such as the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. This practice continues although papers are selected for reading and go through peer review before being presented. It is considered a significant recognition to be invited to present a paper at an ordinary meeting of the society. This selection is currently done by the research section of the society for Series B and by an appointed editor for Series A&C. Papers are selected to be of importance and wide interest in terms of application or applicability. Any person is invited to attend discussion meetings and contribute to the discussion although they are limited to 5 minutes speaking time. Following the formal presentation of the paper, two speakers are invited to comment by prior arrangement. Formally they are there to propose and second the 'vote of thanks' and would have respectively praised and criticised the presentation. Contributions to the discussion are not peer reviewed but are limited to 400 words in the journal.

Current series

As of 2009, three series are published under this general title.

''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (Statistics in Society)''

''Statistics in Society'' () is published quarterly. Its 2021

impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as i ...

is 2.175.
(accessed 6 September 2022) Past and current editors: * 1987–1990:

Harvey Goldstein Harvey Goldstein (30 October 1939 – 9 April 2020) was a British statistician known for his contributions to multilevel modelling methodology and software, and for applying this to educational assessment and league tables. Goldstein was born i ...

* 1989–1992: S M Gore * 1991–1994: D Holt * 1993–1996: S G Thompson * 1995–1998: I F Plewis * 1997–2000: G M Raab * 1999–2001: C D Payne * 2001–2004:

Nicola Best Nicola G. "Nicky" Best is a statistician known for her work on the deviance information criterion in Bayesian inference and as a developer of Bayesian inference using Gibbs sampling. She is a former professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at ...

* 2002–2005: P J Lynn * 2004–2004: J Haigh * 2005–2008: Geert Verbeke * 2006–2010: Antony Fielding * 2009–2012: Simon Day * 2011–2014: Arnaud Chevalier * 2013–2016: Linda Sharples * 2015–2018:

* 2017–2020: James Carpenter * 2019-2022: Jouni Kuha * 2021-2024: Bianca de Stavola

''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B (Statistical Methodology)''

''Statistical Methodology'' () is published five times a year. Its 2021 impact factor is 4.933.''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B (Statistical Methodology)''
(accessed 6 September 2022) Starting in 1934, it was originally called ''Supplement to the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' (), and in 1948 was changed to ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B (Methodological)'' (), before being changed to its current name in 1998. In a 2003 survey of statisticians, Series B was perceived to have been one of the highest quality journals in statistics. Past and current editors: * 1951–1959:

J. O. Irwin Joseph Oscar Irwin (17 December 1898 – 27 July 1982) was a British statistician who advanced the use of statistical methods in biological assay and other fields of laboratory medicine. Irwin's grasp of modern mathematical statistics disti ...

* 1960–1964:

N. T. J. Bailey N is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet. N or n may also refer to: Mathematics * \mathbb, the set of natural numbers * N, the field norm * N for ''nullae'', a rare Roman numeral for zero * n, the size of a statistical sample Sc ...

* 1960–1964:

D. R. Cox Sir David Roxbee Cox (15 July 1924 – 18 January 2022) was a British statistician and educator. His wide-ranging contributions to the field of statistics included introducing logistic regression, the proportional hazards model and the Cox pro ...

* 1965–1969:

D. M. G. Wishart David Matthew G. Wishart was a British statistician. Wishart was born in Stockton-on-Tees to parents William and Nelly in 1928. His father, an engineer, worked for Imperial Chemical Industries and was later a lecturer in mechanical engineering at ...

* 1965–1969:

D. J. Bartholomew David John Bartholomew (6 August 1931 – 16 October 2017) was a British statistician who was president of the Royal Statistical Society between 1993 and 1995.''Who Was Who'', Published by A&C Black Limited, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishin ...

* 1970–1974:

D. E. Barton D. or d. may refer to, usually as an abbreviation: * Don (honorific), a form of address in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and their former overseas empires, usually given to nobles or other individuals of high social rank. * Date of death, as an abbreviati ...

* 1975–1978:

M. Stone ( ; ; pl. ; ; 1512, from Middle French , literally "my lord") is an honorific title that was used to refer to or address the eldest living brother of the king in the French royal court. It has now become the customary French title of res ...

* 1978–1981:

J. A. Anderson ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...

* 1978–1983:

T. M. F. Smith Terence Michael Frederick Smith (18 January 1934 – 7 December 2019) was a British statistician known for his research in survey sampling. Fred Smith gained his first degree in 1959. He succeeded Prof Maurice Quenouille as Professor of Statist ...

* 1980–1983:

P. Holgate P. is an abbreviation or acronym that may refer to: * Page (paper), where the abbreviation comes from Latin ''pagina'' * Paris Herbarium, at the ''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'' * ''Pani'' (Polish), translating as Mrs. * The ''Pacific Rep ...

* 1982–1985:

P. M. E. Altham P. is an abbreviation or acronym that may refer to: * Page (paper), where the abbreviation comes from Latin ''pagina'' * Paris Herbarium, at the ''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'' * ''Pani'' (Polish), translating as Mrs. * The ''Pacific Rep ...

* 1984–1987: P. J. Diggle * 1986–1989:

D. M. Titterington D. or d. may refer to, usually as an abbreviation: * Don (honorific), a form of address in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and their former overseas empires, usually given to nobles or other individuals of high social rank. * Date of death, as an abbreviati ...

* 1988–1991:

R. L. Smith R. or r. may refer to: * ''Reign'', the period of time during which an Emperor, king, queen, etc., is ruler. * '' Rex'', abbreviated as R., the Latin word meaning King * ''Regina'', abbreviated as R., the Latin word meaning Queen * or , abbrevia ...

* 1990–1993:

John T. Kent John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

* 1992–1995:

Anthony C. Atkinson Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton ...

* 1994–1997: Alastair Young * 1996–1999: Chris Jones * 1998–2001: David Firth * 2000–2003:

Anthony C. Davison Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton ...

* 2002–2005: Robin Henderson * 2004–2007: Andy Wood * 2006–2009:

Christian Robert Christian P. Robert is a French statistician, specializing in Bayesian statistics and Monte Carlo methods. Career Christian Robert studied at ENSAE then defended his PhD in 1987 at Université de Rouen. He held temporary positions at Purd ...

* 2008–2011:

George Casella George Casella (January 22, 1951 – June 17, 2012) was a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Florida. He died from multiple myeloma. Academic career Casella completed his undergraduate education at Fo ...

* 2010–2013: Gareth Roberts * 2012–2015: Ingrid van Keilegom * 2014–2017: Piotr Fryzlewicz * 2016–2019:

David B Dunson David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

* 2018–2021: Simon Wood * 2020–2022: Aurore Delaigle * 2021–2023:

Steffen Lauritzen Steffen Lauritzen FRS (born 22 April 1947) is former Head of the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and currently Emeritus Professor of Statistics at the University of Copenhagen. He is a le ...

* 2022–2024: Q. Yao * 2023–2025:

Daniela Witten Daniela M. Witten is an American biostatistician. She is a professor and the Dorothy Gilford Endowed Chair of Mathematical Statistics at the University of Washington. Her research investigates the use of machine learning to understand high-dim ...

''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series C (Applied Statistics)''

''Applied Statistics'' () is published five times a year. Its 2021 impact factor is 1.680.''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series C (Applied Statistics)''
(accessed 6 September 2022) A review of the first 227 algorithms published as source code in Applied Statistics is available. The last such code was published in 1997. Past and current editors: * 1987–1990: I. R. Dunsmore * 1989–1992: David J. Hand * 1991–1994: W. J. Krzanowski * 1993–1996: D. A. Preece * 1995–1998: S. M. Lewis * 1997–2000: J. N. S. Matthews * 1999–2002: A. W. Bowman * 2001–2004: Geert Molenberghs * 2003–2006: C. A. Glasbey * 2005–2008: M. S. Ridout * 2007–2010: Chris J. Skinner * 2009–2012: Stephen Gilmour * 2011–2014: Richard Chandler * 2013–2016: Peter W. F. Smith * 2015–2019: Nigel Stallard * 2017-2019: Richard Boys * 2019-2022: Nial Friel * 2020-2020: Peter W. F. Smith * 2021-2024: Janine Illian

''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series D (The Statistician)''

''The Statistician'' () is no longer published, but was published 4 times a year up to 2003, being replaced by Significance. The final editors were A.J. Watkins (

University of Wales , latin_name = , image = , caption = Coat of Arms , motto = cy, Goreu Awen Gwirionedd , mottoeng = The Best Inspiration is Truth , established = , , type = Confederal, non-member ...

) and L.C. Wolstenholme ( City University London). ''The Statistician'' was added in parallel to Series A-C as a Royal Statistical Society publication in 1993, having previously been published by the

Allied publications

Since 2004 the Society has published '' Significance'', which consists of articles on topics of statistical interest presented at a level suited to a general audience. From September 2010 ''Significance'' is jointly published with the American Statistical Association and distributed to members of both societies.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Journal Of The Royal Statistical Society Royal Statistical Society

Publications established in 1838 English-language journals 1838 establishments in the United Kingdom Wiley-Blackwell academic journals Academic journals associated with learned and professional societies of the United Kingdom