Announcing the SPA poster competition

The Scientific and Public Affairs (SPA) Committee invites all 2012 JSM poster contributors to compete for a policy applications prize in its third Statistical Significance competition. A $250 prize will be awarded to the JSM poster that includes a Statistical Significance piece the judges deem describes the best contribution of statistics to society.

What constitutes a Statistical Significance piece? Statistical Significance is a short one-page illustration of the value of statistics to society within the context of the research problem dealt with in the poster submitted for JSM presentation. The objective is to illustrate to a lay person how the statistical solution to the problem presented in the poster would help form decisions that improve our society in specific areas such as health, agriculture, economy, education, manufacturing, medicine, etc.

This specific piece should be clearly written to convey the beneficial role of statistics in a concise and unambiguous manner. The most effective Statistical Significance pieces are easy to develop, simple in exposition, enlightening, and fun to read.

Contest participants must include a one-page Statistical Significance piece with their poster presentation at JSM. Both the scientific merit of the poster and the Statistical Significance piece will be judged; however, posters without the separate Statistical Significance page will be ineligible to win the competition.

A panel of judges appointed by the SPA committee will visit the posters at JSM and determine a winner on the morning of July 30 or 31. The winner will be notified immediately thereafter.

To enter, email your intention to compete to SPA member Dan McCaffrey at danielm@rand.org (including your abstract number) when you submit the poster abstract. Feel free to contact McCaffrey with questions.

Editor’s Note: Participation in this competition is only available to poster authors who submit their abstract by the JSM deadline of February 1.