The Section on Statistical Learning and Data Mining (SLDM) and Statistical Analysis and Data Mining (SAM), a flagship journal of SLDM, are jointly sponsoring a student paper competition for the 2011 Joint Statistical Meetings. The paper might be an original methodological research or analysis of data from various fields—including pharmaceutical, genomics, bioinformatics, imaging, defense, business, and public health—that uses principles and methods in statistical learning and data mining.

Manuscripts submitted to the competition will be reviewed for publication in SAM. Papers that have been accepted for publication elsewhere or are currently being reviewed by another journal are not eligible. Selected winners will present their papers in an organized session at JSM in Miami, Florida. They also will be presented an award certificate and $1,000.

Graduate or undergraduate students enrolled in the fall of 2010 or spring of 2011 are eligible to participate. Applicants must be the first author of the paper. All application materials must be submitted electronically (in PDF format) to the SAM submission website by 11 p.m. EST in January 28, 2011. Please check the author guidelines when preparing the entry.

All entries must include the following:

• List of authors and contact information
• Abstract with no more than 200 words
• Manuscript, double spaced with no more than 20 pages, including figures, tables, references, and appendices
• Blinded versions of the abstract and manuscript (with no authors nor references that could easily lead to author identification)
• CV
• A reference letter from a faculty member familiar with the student’s work that includes verification of the applicant’s student status and, in the case of joint authorship, indicates the fraction of the applicant’s contribution to the manuscript

All materials must be in English.

Entries will be reviewed by the section’s student paper competition award committee. Selection criteria include statistical novelty, innovation, significance of the contribution to the field of application, and professional quality of the manuscript.

Award announcements will be made in late February 2011.