Jeffrey S. Morris, JSM 2016 Program Chair

The 2016 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) will be held in Chicago, Illinois, from July 30 to August 4. The theme is “The Extraordinary Power of Statistics,” which emphasizes the power our discipline has to extract relevant information and inform decisions based on collected data. Its further development has the potential to greatly affect all aspects of our society, including government, education, health care, marketing, business, finance, and even entertainment.

The JSM 2016 Program Committee has put together 181 invited sessions with topics ranging from data science and Big Data to health policy, climate science, precision medicine, sports, and complex modeling issues such as integrative modeling and various types of structured and high-dimensional data.

I hope you also will participate by presenting your work, attending talks, visiting poster sessions, and taking Continuing Education courses.

Speed Sessions

A speed session is a hybrid of an oral and poster presentation, and inherits the benefits of both. It consists of 20 oral presentations of four minutes each, with a 10-minute break after the first set of 10 talks. The short oral presentations are followed by an electronic poster session on the same day. The idea is that the oral presentation hits the main point of the work to pique interest, and then the e-poster provides an opportunity to present more details of the work, customized to the interests and background of the viewer.

In the past, the best speed session presentations have not tried to squeeze too much information into the four-minute oral presentation, but just enough to give the big picture and attract viewers to the e-posters. Also, e-posters allow greater flexibility than other formats, such as video files and software demonstrations. This format affords a great deal of flexibility to use your creativity in getting your message across.

Given the success of and positive feedback on speed sessions since they were introduced in 2013, the program committee is trying to increase participation in them. Besides providing a great experience for the presenter and audience, speed sessions also improve the overall program by reducing the number of overlapping sessions.

Poster Sessions

Poster sessions allow you to generate attention for your topic through the use of effective visual displays. You also have the opportunity to interact with your audience and make connections without worrying about time constraints. 

Topic-Contributed Sessions

A topic-contributed session is organized around a common theme. The session consists of five speakers—either five papers or four papers with one discussant. Topic-contributed sessions have several advantages over contributed sessions, including the following: 

• The talks are focused on one theme and are more cohesive
• Each speaker has 20 minutes of presentation time, instead of 15 minutes
• Session slots are limited, so high-quality papers are chosen

Topic-contributed sessions require organizers to select a theme, invite five speakers, and ensure speakers’ commitments prior to the submission deadline of January 14, 2016.

Contributed Sessions 

Nearly half of JSM sessions are contributed sessions. To present a contributed paper, you need to submit a title and abstract, along with the choice of the ASA section or JSM partner society most closely associated with the topic of your paper. These sessions consist of seven papers with 15 minutes of presentation time for each.

Abstract Submission 

The online abstract submission system will close February 1, 2016. This deadline is firm, so please submit your abstract ahead of time. The system will be reopened for abstract editing from March 31 to April 18, 2016. To ensure a well-organized program, speakers must register for JSM when they submit their abstracts. 

Session Chairs 

All JSM sessions require a chair to ensure speakers are well informed about the session in advance, introduce speakers, and manage time for each speaker. Chairing a session is a great way to get involved with JSM and network with other professionals in your field. I especially encourage people who are new to the profession and JSM to consider chairing sessions by contacting the program committee members. 

Finally, the success of JSM relies on your input and effort to help assemble a strong and exciting program. I encourage you all to participate, and I am glad to receive any feedback. Contact me, Jeff Morris, at jefmorris@mdanderson.org.