ASA SLDS JSM 2017 student paper competition

Call for papers

Student Paper Competition - JSM 2017
(July 29th-Aug 3rd, 2017, Baltimore, MD)
ASA Section on Statistical Learning and Data Science
Sponsored by SLDS

Key dates:
• Abstracts due December 15th, 2016
• Full papers due January 4th, 2017

The Section on Statistical Learning and Data Science (SLDS) of the American Statistical Association (ASA) is sponsoring a student paper competition for the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings in Baltimore, MD, on July 29th-August 3rd, 2017.

The paper might be an original methodological research or a real-world application (from various fields including but not limited to marketing, pharmaceutical, genomics, bioinformatics, imaging, defense, business, public health) that uses principles and methods in statistical learning and data science.

Papers that have been accepted for publication are NOT eligible for the competition. Selected winners will present their papers in a designated topic-contributed session at the 2017 JSM in Chicago, IL organized by the award committee. In this session, they will be presented a monetary prize and an award certificate. Winning papers will be recommended for submission to Statistical Analysis and Data Mining: The ASA Data Science Journal, which is the flagship journal of the SLDS Section.

Graduate or undergraduate students who are enrolled in Fall 2016 or Winter/Spring 2017 are eligible to participate. The applicant MUST be the first author of the paper.

Abstracts (up to 1000 characters) are due 12:00 PM (noon) EST on December 15th, 2016 and shall be submitted via this Abstract submission form (https://goo.gl/forms/jkPrjVuRbeLUufGm2). ONLY students who submit their abstracts on time are eligible for submitting full papers after 12/15/2016.

Full papers and other application materials must be submitted electronically (in PDF, see instruction below) to Professor Tian Zheng (tian.zheng@columbia.edu) by 12:00 PM (noon) EST on Wednesday, January 4th, 2017. ONLY students who submit their abstracts by 12/15/2016 are eligible for submitting full papers.

All full paper email entries must include the following:

1. An email message contains:
• List of authors and contact information;
• Abstract with no more than 1000 characters.
2. Unblinded manuscript - double-spaced with no more than 25 pages including figures, tables, references and appendix. Please use 11pt fonts (preferably Arial or Helvetical) and 1 inch margins all around.
3. Blinded versions of the abstract and manuscript (with no authors nor references that could easily lead to author identification).
4. A reference letter from a faculty member familiar with the student's work which MUST include a verification of the applicant's student status and, in the case of joint authorship, should indicate the fraction of the applicant's contribution to the manuscript.

All materials must be in English.

Entries will be reviewed by the Student Paper Competition Award committee. The selection criteria used by the committee will include statistical novelty, innovation and significance of the contribution to the field of application as well as the professional quality of the manuscript.

This year’s student competition is sponsored ASA SLDS and is chaired by Professor Tian Zheng (Columbia University). Award announcements will be made in mid-January 2017. For inquiries, please contact Professor Tian Zheng (tian.zheng@columbia.edu).