Regina Liu, JSM 2017 Program Chair

The 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) will take place in Baltimore, Maryland, from July 29 to August 3, 2017. The theme for 2017 is “Statistics: It’s Essential,” as announced by 2017 ASA President Barry Nussbaum. This theme emphasizes the opportunity presented by the JSM program to highlight and promote the importance and achievement of our discipline and to illustrate how fundamental statistics is to all aspects of scientific endeavors, societal advancements, and even the seemingly mundane daily life.

The program committee is soliciting proposals for invited sessions to showcase some of the most innovative, impactful, and cutting-edge work in our profession. Invited sessions include invited papers, panels, and posters. Invited paper sessions consist of 2–6 speakers and discussants reporting new discoverers or advances in a common topic; invited panels include 3–6 panelists providing commentary, discussion, and engaging debate on a particular topic of contemporary interest; and invited posters consist of up to 20 electronic posters presented during the Opening Mixer.

The ideal session involves fresh, important work that many JSM attendees will find interesting. Many of the most stimulating sessions present diverse viewpoints and strategies on a common topic or problem, with speakers coming from different institutions or practices.

An invited session proposal should include a session title, general description of the session, list of participants, and tentative presentation titles (can be modified later). The invited session submission period is July 14 to September 6. When planning an invited session, please note that JSM has strict guidelines for participation. Make sure none of the potential speakers is committed to multiple invited proposals.

The session proposals must be submitted via the JSM online system, indicating type of session and proposed sponsor. Starting from JSM 2017, the invited session proposal form allows each proposal to select up to three sponsors in ranked order. This is to ensure a worthy proposal is considered by other sponsors if it is not selected by its designated primary sponsor. Before submitting your proposal, you are encouraged to contact members of the program committee representing your chosen sponsors to see if they are willing to sponsor your proposal. If you are a member of an ASA section or another sponsoring society, going through the corresponding representative is often a good way to proceed. They may accept the session outright for one of their allocated spots, or they may enter it into a general competition in which selection is decided by a consensus vote of the entire program committee. In either case, only sessions submitted via the online system will be considered. Decisions about the invited program will be made by the end of September. It is helpful to contact program committee members well ahead of the September deadline.

If you have ideas for invited papers or panels, but are unsure which sponsor to choose, you may contact me at rliu@stat.rutgers.edu. I am happy to help steer your proposal to appropriate program committee members for consideration.

I would also appreciate receiving good suggestions for topics or speakers for introductory overview lectures (IOLs), which are high-quality introductions to timely and important statistical topics of interest to broad JSM attendees. Note that IOL speakers can also present an invited or contributed paper, panel, or poster.

On behalf of all program committee members, I thank you in advance for your participation and efforts in making JSM 2017 a great success. I look forward to seeing you around the beautiful Baltimore Inner Harbor.