The Training of Researchers in the Use of Statistics

A Round Table Conference on "The Training of Researchers in the Use of Statistics" was held at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Tokyo, Japan on August 7-11, 2000, sponsored by the IASE, the ISI, the Japanese Institute of Statistics and the Japanese Statistical Society. In 2001, a book was published with the conference papers and discussions. We hope this book will serve as a starting point for other faculty, researchers and statistics educators to change their teaching approaches, to increase the interest to collaborate in applied research and to start new research on the statistical training of researchers in empirical sciences. 

Book reference:
Training Researchers in the Use of Statistics
IASE Round Table Conference, Tokyo 2000 (published 2001)
Edited by Carmen Batanero,
ISBN 90-73592-19-4
Published by: International Association for Statistical Education (IASE),
International Statistical Institute (ISI)
Price: US$ 25, including postage.

Statisticians of the Centuries

The long awaited ISI publication ‘Statisticians of the Centuries’, edited by Professor Chris Heyde and Eugene Seneta has recently been published and is now available for sale.

This excellent work is published by Springer Verlag on behalf of ISI, in both hard and soft cover versions. The prices for ISI/ISI Section members are US$ 26.47 and US$ 40.17 respectively (prices quoted do not include postage and taxes) as ISI and its Section members are entitled to a 33% discount (the prices stated above include the percentage discounts). To apply for this discount you have to identify yourself as an ISI or ISI Section member and refer to Promo Code "ISI". Orders may be placed electronically via the following e-mail addresses:

North America: orders@springer-ny.com

Rest of the World: orders@springer.de

Statistical Publishing

Voorburg, The Netherlands/Warsaw, Poland: International Statistical Institute/Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS), 2000, pp. iv + 88, soft cover. ISBN 90-73592-17-8. Price: €10 .

Recognising the importance of statistical publishing, both in the academic and official statistical community, particularly in light of recent developments in electronic dissemination, it was decided to organise an ISI conference on Statistical Publishing. Taking advantage of the timing and location of the 1999 Session in Helsinki, the conference took place in Warsaw, Poland.

With more than two hundred academic statistics journals being published, and in view of the increasing importance of official statistical publications, the conference presented a rich and varied examination of the many facets of this topic. Special attention was paid to the effects of electronic dissemination, in particular as regards Internet and cd-rom publications.

These Proceedings contain all the papers presented during the conference.

The sixth edition of the Dictionary of Statistical Terms is now complete. This publication has been edited by Professor Yadolah Dodge (Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland) and is published by Oxford University Press. To order this publication, please visit the following website: http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-850994-4 .
ISI members receive a 25% discount (members should quote the following quotes when ordering: UK/Europe: DSISI03 USA: 23461).

Please note that it is now possible to submit input for future editions, for possible inclusion in future editions. For more details, please visit http://www.cbs.nl/isi/dictionarysubmitForm.htm 

Papers on Measuring Poverty to Celebrate the Bicentenary of the Publication in 1797 of "The State of the Poor" by Sir Frederick Morton Eden

Edited by: F.G. Pyatt (Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands), and M. Ward (The World Bank, Washington)

Technical Editors: D. Berze and M. Van den Broecke (ISI)

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press, 1999, pp. ix + 233. ISBN 90 5199 451 6. Price: €30.

Poverty has long been recognised as a socio-economic problem. Objective analysis of a quantitative nature are a crucial prerequisite to understanding the nature of poverty, where social and personal sentiments play a role of their own, next to political considerations. On of the first comprehensive attempts to assess the nature of poverty with a view to alleviate its consequences was a three volume series by Sir Frederick Morton Eden in 1797 entitled The State of the Poor. Next to an evaluation of Morton Eden’s significance then and now, this book discusses how perceptions of poverty have developed since that time. A proper understanding of the causes of poverty, indispensable for developing policies to alleviate it, requires a quantitative grasp on the subject that only statistics can provide. The present book provides eloquent proofs of this necessity, not from a single, static point of view, but from differing perspectives.

Edited by: Theresa E. Holland and Marcel P.R. Van den Broecke

Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute, 1998, pp. x + 429, soft cover. ISBN 90–73592–15–1. Price: €20.

The ISI has been involved in several efforts to support initiatives that serve to promote various forms of applied statistics. In 1992, the ISI established the "Gregor Mendel Committee for Agricultural Statistics" to promote the development of agricultural statistics on an international basis.

One of the primary objectives of this Committee was to organise an international "cutting edge conference" focusing exclusively on subjects related to agricultural statistics. The Committee Chairman, Mr. Frederic A. Vogel from the US Department of Agriculture, organised a Conference entitled "Agricultural Statistics 2000", which took place from March 18–20, 1998 in Washington, D.C. It included 226 participants representing 49 different countries. The proceedings of this conference, containing all 34 invited papers that were presented at the meeting in a revised form, plus a summary of the subsequent discussions, as well as the revised texts of 16 contributed papers are available from the ISI. Appendices give an index of authors and presenters, the Conference Program, a list of participants by alphabet and by country, and a map of the countries represented.

The Assessment Challenge in Statistics Education

Editors: I. Gal (University of Haifa, Israel), and J.B. Garfield (University of Minnesota, USA)

Technical Editor: Matthew Segaard

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press, 1997, pp. xii + 284, hard cover. ISBN 90 5199 333 1. Price: €10.

The book discusses conceptual and pragmatic issues in the assessment of statistical knowledge and reasoning skills among students at the college and pre-college levels, and the use of assessments to improve instruction. The book is written by international leading researchers and educators. It was designed primarily for academic audiences involved in teaching statistics and mathematics, and in teacher education and training. The book is divided into four sections (1) Assessment goals and frameworks, (2) Assessing conceptual understanding of statistical ideas, (3) Innovative models for classroom assessments, and (4) Assessing understanding of probability.

Edited by: Konstantin Momirovic and Vesna Mildner (University of Zagreb)

Heidelberg, Germany: Physica-Verlag by order of the IASC, 1990, pp. 336, soft cover. ISBN 3-7908-0475-4. Compstat Proceedings are still available from 1974 onwards. Details can be requested from Physica-Verlag (address).

A century has passed since the introduction of automatic computing in statistics. In fact, at the first ISI session in 1885, Herman Hollerith showed his tabulating machine to representatives of statistical offices from across the world. That machine was largely used in the analysis of census data, and at the end of the last century it gave birth to Computational Statistics.

The Compstat Symposium was organised by a group of independent statisticians at Vienna, Austria 1984. Since 1980, the Compstat Symposia have been patronised by the European section of the IASC (International Association for Statistical Computing). Each volume of the Compstat Proceedings contains about 70 papers which are selected by a scientific committee from up to 200–300 submitted abstracts.

Edited by: Dr. Marcel P.R. Van den Broecke and Mr. Daniel Berze (ISI)

Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute, 1997, pp. 155, soft cover. ISBN 90 73592-13-5. Price: €10.

This book contains the proceedings of the ISI cutting edge conference which was held in 1997 in Seoul, Korea, entitled "Demographic Problems of Countries Changing to a Market Economy. The transition to democracy and market economy must be to something better. In this context increased mortality and declines in life expectancy are serious anomalies, which may undermine the success of transition. This book calls attention to this important issue, and includes eight papers (plus discussion papers) which focus on various features of the demographic developments in several transition countries.

Edited by: Anne Hawkins (University of London)

Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute (with UNESCO), 1990, pp. xi + 297, hard cover. Price: €10.

In an effort to compile an informative and instructional guide to the teaching of statistics, Anne Hawkins has recorded and structured the dialogue and exchanges between an assembled group of curriculum experts, teachers, and research experts directly involved in statistics teacher training pilot projects in order that they may illustrate their findings and share their experiences.

Participants included key personnel in the Quantitative Literacy Project in the US as well as members of similar projects in the UK, Germany and other countries. A number of delegates from the developing countries are also represented and provide their personal insights into the specific difficulties that they have experienced as well as suggesting strategies to overcome these.

By including not only the keynote papers but also the comments and interchanges that these have provoked, the discussions have been reproduced in a style which preserves as much as possible the spontaneity and informality of the original sessions.

Proceedings of the 1996 IASE Round Table Conference, University of Granada, Spain, 23–27 July, 1996

Edited by: Joan B. Garfield (University of Minnesota, USA), and Gail Burrill (University of Wisconsin, USA)

Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute, 1997, pp. xi + 313. ISBN 90-73592-12-7. Price: US$ 30.

This volume consists of the proceedings of the 1996 IASE Round Table Conference, held in Granada, Spain. It contains twenty-one papers and five summaries of discussions, grouped into the following categories: (1) How technology is changing the teaching of statistics at the secondary level, (2) Developing exemplary software, (3) What we are learning from empirical research, (4) How technology is changing the teaching of statistics at the college level, and (5) Questions to be addressed on the role of technology in statistics education.

Note: Only seven copies remaining

Accuracy, Timeliness, and Relevance

Edited by: Zoltán Kenessey

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, 1997, pp. vii + 259, soft cover. ISBN 0-16-049117-7. Price: €20.

In September 1996, a conference was held in Washington, D.C. on "The Accuracy, Timeliness, and Relevance of Economic Statistics." The sponsoring organisations were the International Statistical Institute (isi initiated the project and co-ordinated the program); the Bureau of Economic Analysis (bea hosted the conference at its conference facility); and Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities (which provided indispensable support for the conference). These three organisations each provided two of the articles in this book, together with the studies included from Statistics Canada, the Statistics Bureau of Japan, the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics, and the International Monetary Fund. This volume, in addition to these studies and the comments by the discussants of the papers, includes the luncheon address of Professor Robert Eisner from Northwestern University, the remarks of the imf First Deputy Managing Director, Dr. Stanley Fischer, and the review by Messrs. Hermann Habermann and Stefan Schweinfest from the UN Statistical Division at the closing session of the conference.

Proceedings of the First Scientific Meeting, University of Perugia, 23-24 August 1993

Edited by: Lina Brunelli and Giuseppe Cicchitelli (University of Perugia, Italy)

Perugia, Italy: 1994, pp. xii + 476, soft cover. ISBN 90-73592-10-0. Price: €10.

IASE held its first scientific meeting in Perugia, Italy in August 1993 as a satellite meeting to the ISI Session in Florence. Among the many interesting papers in the volume are Peter Holmes’ comparison of the place of school statistics in the eec countries and David Vere-Jones’ discussion of the problems of statistical education in developing countries.

Editors: A.C. Atkinson and S.E. Fienberg

Published for the International Statistical Institute: New York: Springer-Verlag, 1985, pp. 606, hard cover. Price: US$ 39. Available from: Springer-Verlag, New York Incorporated, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA.

The celebration of the Institute’s Centenary in 1985 is of considerable interest not only to statisticians but also more widely to the international scientific community. As part of its Centennial Celebration the Institute decided to publish a volume of papers representing the immensely wide range of interests encompassed by statistics in its international context, viewed both from a historical and from a contemporary standpoint.

Edited by: Vic Barnett (University of Sheffield, UK)

Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute (with assistance from UNESCO), 1982, pp. xv + 250, soft cover. Price: €10.

Provides a review of the nature of statistical education in some 20 developed and developing countries. Each country chapter includes information on types of schools, pupils catered for, principles of administration of the educational system, methods of teacher training, patterns for examination, prospects for curriculum reform, etc.

Edited by: Zoltán Kenessey

Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute, 1994, pp. vi + 296, soft cover. ISBN 90 73592-10-9. Price: €20.

The volume contains Proceedings of the "Long Term Perspectives of International Statistics" conference held in Voorburg, 1994. It encompasses eight studies prepared for the conference, the text of the invited discussants' papers, an introductory overview by the editor and the concluding address by a Vice President of ISI. The conference was sponsored by ISI, Statistics Netherlands, Central Planning Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands and Eurostat.

Proceedings of the Satellite Conference on Statistical Publishing

While the importance of statistical publishing is recognised by both the international academic and official statistical community, it is remarkable that little work has been done to establish an ongoing international forum of statistical publication specialists. To redress this deficiency, the International Statistical Institute (ISI) has taken steps to focus more attention on statistical publishing. This first materialised in the form of an invited paper meeting entitled "The Evolution of International Statistical Publishing" which took place in conjunction with the 1997 ISI Session in Istanbul, Turkey. Recognising the need to examine this topic further, particularly in light of recent developments in electronic dissemination, it was decided to organise the ISI conference on Statistical Publishing in Warsaw, Poland (August 23-24, 1999). Taking advantage of the timing and location of the 1999 Session in Helsinki, the conference was designated as an official satellite conference to the 52nd Session. The conference was organised by the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS).

With more than two hundred academic statistics journals being published, and in view of the increasing importance of official statistical publications, the conference presented a rich and varied examination of the many facets of this topic. Special attention was paid to the effects of electronic dissemination, in particular as regards Internet and CD-ROM publications. While it was not possible to obtain a perfect balance between representatives from official and academic statistics (the balance tilting toward the former), both sides were ably represented. Through the exchange of experiences voiced during the conference, it soon became apparent that although these two sectors are in many respects different, the challenges faced by those involved in the dissemination of statistics are very similar.

The edited Proceedings of the conference are available in hard copy printed format, printed by the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS), at US$15.00 (including postage).

ICOTS 6

Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Teaching Statistics (Capetown, South Africa - 2002) focussing on the theme "Developing a Literate Society". Edited by Brian Phillips. ISBN: 085590 782 7.
Available only in CD ROM format. Price per CD ROM: €25.