News & Announcements

Will Your 2009 JSM Poster Have Statistical Significance?

Announcing the SPA poster competition

Members of the Scientific and Public Affairs Advisory (SPA) Committee invite all 2009 JSM poster authors to compete for a $200 prize and Statistical Significance publication.

The prize will be awarded to the author of the JSM poster that the judges deem the best contribution of statistics to society and that includes a Statistical Significance piece. (NOTE: participation in this competition is only available to poster authors who submitted their poster abstract by the JSM deadline of February 2, 2009.)

What constitutes a Statistical Significance piece? Statistical Significance is a short, one-page illustration of the value of statistics to society. The objective is to illustrate to the lay person how statistics has helped our society in a specific area (e.g., health, agriculture, economics, education, manufacturing, medicine, etc.). The most effective Statistical Significance pieces are easy to develop, simple in exposition, enlightening, and fun to read. See www.amstat.org/outreach/pdfs/StatSignificancePrototypes.pdf for examples.

The competition requires that the subject matter of the JSM poster be included in the Statistical Significance piece and that the Statistical Significance piece accompanies your poster presentation at JSM. Poster authors will prepare their posters as they normally would, but add to it a Statistical Significance piece.

A panel of judges appointed by the SPA committee will visit the posters and Statistical Significance pieces at JSM and determine a winner during the SPA business meeting on the morning of August 5. The winner will be notified immediately thereafter.

To enter, email your intention to compete to SPA member Robert Santos at rsantos@urban.org. Feel free to contact Santos if you have any questions.