Friday, August 7th was the first of what has become an annual event at JSM, NISS Writing Workshop for Junior Researchers (at JSM).
As you know, JSM went virtual this year and so did the writing workshop. And, because of the virtual access participants that might not have been able to travel to Philadelphia (even under normal circumstances) were able to participate in this year's event.
Day One
The first day led off with a couple of speakers. First speaker was Leland Wilkinson (H20.ai and University of Illinois at Chicago) who gave a lengthy and very informative presentation entitled "Writing for Data Science and Statistics" focused on writing skills and the second looked at evaluating good and bad writing. What made this workshop a bit different than the larger webinars that NISS has hosted lately is that participants were able to 'raise their hand' and using their microphone ask their own questions live. This made for much more interactive experience. In fact, a virtual lunch time followed where participants were sent to virtual break-out rooms with the senior mentor that they had been assigned to so that they could get to know each other and discuss the publication pieces that they have been involved in.
After the lunch time interaction with mentors, everyone returned to the 'main' room for a presentation by Nick Jewell (University of California, Berkeley & London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)entitled "Choosing Where to Publish (and some clues as to how to get published)". Nick was followed by a series of shorter presentations from a panel of speakers that was moderated by Lingzhou Xue (Associate Director, NISS and Penn State University). These panelists inlcuded the following experienced statisticians below, (the titles of their talks follow):
- Xuming He (University of Michigan) - "Statistical theory and methods journals"
- Nicole Lazar (University of Georgia and Penn State University) - "Publishing in Neuroscience and Social and Behavioral Science Journals "
- Tyler McCormick (University of Washington) - "Thoughts on Publishing"
- David Rocke (University of California, Davis) - "Publishing in Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Bio(medical) science Journals"
- Hal Stern (University of California, Irvine) - "Publishing in Methods/Applications Journals"
After this panel session participants were placed back into their break-out rooms with their mentors for another round of conversation
Day Two
Sessions resumed with Naomi Altman (Penn State University) providing advice on “The Review and Revision Process”. She was followed by Susan Ellenberg (University of Pennsylvania) whose comments focused on “How to Write a Collaborative Paper”. Peter Imrey (Cleveland Clinic) rounded out the morning with a insightful and important presentation that focused on “Ethical Issues and Reproducibility.” The end of his presentation included a number of actual ethical situations for participants to think about appropriate responses.
The afternoon panel sessions were first practical approaches to writing grants, followed by insightful stories of personal career advancement. The grant writing session moderated by Keith Crank involved the following speakers:
- Cheryl Eavey (NSF SBE Program Director)
- Karen Messer (NIH BMRD Study Section Chair & University of California, San Diego)
- Judy Wang (NSF DMS Statistics Program Director & Georgia Washington University)
The second session speakers included:
- Emma Benn (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
- Edsel Peña (University of South Carolina)
- Ali Shojaie (University of Washington)
- Judy Wang (NSF DMS Statistics Program Director & Georgia Washington University)
Check out the Photo Album of this virtual event!
SPONSORS
- National Science Foundation
- National Institute of Statistical Sciences
- American Statistical Association
- Institute for Mathematical Statistics
- International Chinese Statistical Association
- International Biometric Society (WNAR)
August 7 & 14, 2020
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED. Note the Adjusted Dates: This workshop will take place August 7 and August 14. This will follow the JSM virtual schedule.
Once again this very popular short course will be hosted by NISS. If you are a recent graduate of a doctoral program and want to improve your communication skills - then this event is for you!
“Thanks for organizing the writing workshop! We are very glad that we attended the workshop. We learned a lot related to writing and got detailed comments on how to revise our papers. We are looking forward to other education programs provided by NISS.”
Send in your application materials early!
Course Objective
The goal of the workshop is to provide instruction for writing journal articles and grant proposals. Participants will be required to provide a recent sample of their writing, which will be reviewed by a senior mentor. The sample could be a current draft of an article to be submitted for publication or an early version of a grant proposal. Senior mentors will be former journal editors and program officers, who will critique the submitted material and provide individual feedback. Participants will be expected to initiate a revision in response with additional feedback from their mentors. Deadline for the Writing Workshop application submission is July 5, with notification of acceptance on a rolling basis no later than July 15.
“The writing workshop was tremendously helpful! Thank you so much for organizing this workshop and helping us a lot. Thank you so much for sharing all the slides too. I am very grateful to take all advantages from NISS writing workshop.”
Course Content
The workshop consists of two sessions plus a final meeting with the mentor. The first tutorial is an all-day session that covers scientific writing, as well as how to organize a paper. It also discusses ethical issues, writing grant proposals and issues of journal choice and understanding and responding to reviewers’ comments. At the end of this session, each participant meets with the mentor who analyzed a paper the participant submitted prior to JSM. The second session focuses on the specific issues covering the writing process and details of grammar, sentence structure and word choice, especially helpful for participants whose native language is not English. A panel of senior researchers will discuss their experiences with technical writing in English.
“Thanks for your thorough guidance in the NISS Writing Workshop! I found that the one-to-one mentoring is very helpful for us to get insights into our shortcomings in academic writing. I really appreciate your work in organizing such a wonderful event.”
Target Audience
The workshop is designed for researchers with a Ph.D. awarded or anticipated during 2014-2020 in statistics, biostatistics or related field. Attendance at the Writing Workshop will be limited and applicants within 0-6 years’ post-PhD and members of the participating societies will receive preference. See testimonials from the evaluation at last year's event.
How to Register
You can register by clicking on the link just ahead, but, please note that you will need to submit a copy of your writing sample during this online registration. To register, click on the (Pre-Registration Information Webform. Registration had closed) Please answer all questions! All submitted material will be handled confidentially! If you have trouble with the submission of your paper on the registration form, please send a PDF or Word version to officeadmin@niss.org after you have completed the entire registration form. Thank you!
Course Fees
Workshop applicants are asked to register online, submit their writing sample. If your submission is accepted, to confirm your interest in participation by paying the $150 registration fee after you have been accepted. Funds have been secured for eligible participants without their own funding and registration can be reimbursed for those who complete the program.
Agenda
Course Schedule
Virtually - On Zoom - All Times Eastern Time Zone
Part I: Friday, August 7, 2020 10:30 am-3:30 pm ET
Part II: Friday, August 14, 2020 10:30 am-3:30 pm ET
List of Confirmed Session Speakers / Mentors!
- Jim Albert (Emeritus Distinguished University Professor of Statistics, Bowling Green State University)
- Naomi Altman (Professor Emeritus of Statistics, Pennsylvania State University)
- Roger Berger (Emeritus Professor of Statistics and Founding Chair & Director, Arizona State University)
- Emma Benn (Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
- Keith Crank (Program Officer at the National Science Foundation, retired)
- Cheryl Eavey (Program Director for Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics at SBE, National Science Foundation)
- Susan Ellenberg (Professor of Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine)
- Xuming He (Chair and H.C. Carver Professor of Statistics, University of Michigan)
- Tim Hesterberg (Senior Statistician, Google)
- Gabriel Huerta (Statistician, Sandia National Laboratories)
- Peter Imrey (Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic)
- Tyler McCormick (Associate Professor of Statistics and Sociology, University of Washington)
- Karen Messer (NIH BMRD Study Section Chair, Professor and Chief of the Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, UC San Diego School of Medicine)
- Nicholas Jewell (Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
- Nicole Lazar (Professor of Statistics, Pennsylvania State University)
- Edsel Pena (Professor of Statistics, University of South Carolina)
- David Rocke (Distinguished Professor of Biostatistics, University of California, Davis)
- Ali Shojaie (Professor of Biostatistics, University of Washington)
- Aleksandra Slavkovic (Professor of Statistics and Associate Dean, Pennsylvania State University)
- Hal Stern (Interim Provost, Executive Vice Chancellor, and Chancellor's Professor of Statistics, University of California, Irvine)
- John Stufken (Bank of America Excellence Professor, University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
- Judy Wang (Program Director for Statistics at MPS/DMS, National Science Foundation; Professor of Statistics, George Washington University)
- Leland Wilkinson (Chief Scientist, H2O.ai and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago)