Regina Liu, JSM 2017 Program Committee Chair

The 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM), the largest annual statistics conference held in North America, will be in Baltimore, Maryland.

The discipline of statistics is critical for progress in such diverse fields as the environment, education, medicine, public policy, and sports. The JSM 2017 theme, “Statistics: It’s Essential,” celebrates statistics’ indispensable role from basic research to application.

The JSM 2017 Program Committee has put together 204 invited sessions. The topics are interesting and diverse, ranging from machine learning and analysis of complex data to reproducible research, climate science, precision medicine, sports policy, and survey methodology. I hope you will enjoy the program and participate by presenting your work, attending talks, visiting poster sessions, and taking Professional Development 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 details of the work, customized to the interests and background of the viewer.

In the past, the best speed session presentations do not try 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 and positive feedback on speed sessions, we are trying to increase participation in these sessions. Besides providing a great experience for the presenter and audience, speed sessions improve the overall program by reducing overlapping sessions, since they accommodate 20 presenters—much more than the 3–7 presenters in invited or contributed oral sessions. By increasing the prominence of speed sessions, we can allow generic ativan forum more people to have an opportunity to present at JSM and reduce the competition from overlapping sessions.

When you submit your contributed abstract, simply select “Speed” as the sub-type.

Poster Sessions

Poster sessions are a great way to generate more attention for your topic due to the use of effective visual display tools. You will have a better chance of interacting with your audience without worrying about time constraints and have the opportunity to make important connections with other professionals. 

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: 

• The talks are focused on one theme and 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 11, 2017.

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, 2017. This deadline is firm, so submit your abstract ahead of time. The system will be reopened for abstract editing from March 30 to April 18, 2017. 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. I especially encourage people who are new to the profession to consider chairing sessions by contacting the program committee members.

The best way to navigate this amazing and complex program is to be part of it.

Submit an abstract and volunteer to chair a session. Visit the JSM website for details.