Abstract
Now in our 17th volume, Statistical Modelling brings exceptional opportunity to all statistical modellers to publish their quality manuscripts (within the journal's aims and scope found at www.statmod.org/smij). Currently, the typical approximate time to print stands at a very attractive period of 9–12 months (including review). We are also pleased to report that Online First is running smoothly, making our accepted manuscripts fully accessible even earlier, perhaps in just about 4–6 weeks (while allowing coloured figures).
Like years past, you may have found that the journal has recently offered an interesting blend of contemporary special/discussion issues, along with our regular contributed issues. For example, the discussion issue Discrete variable selection using the LASSO, by Gerhard Tutz and Jan Gertheiss, appeared last year. A rich and thought-provoking exchange and rejoinder was ensured by the discussants, including Professors Alan Agresti, Peter Buehlmann and Ruben Dezeure, Julien Chiquet et al., Cheryl Flynn et al., Chenlei Leng, Bryan Shepherd and Qi Liu, and Helga Wagner and Daniela Pauger. We currently have two more special discussion issues on the near horizon: (a) Statistical modelling for bioinformatics data by Jeffrey Morris and Veera Baladandayuthapani, and (b) Functional regression modelling by Sonja Greven and Fabian Scheipl. The editors are always open to new ideas for future special issues related to discussions, workshops or tutorials; so, please let us know if you have any ideas for us.
This year also brought a few changes to our board: we have gained Vito Muggeo (during late 2015) from University of Palermo and, more recently, Matthew Reimherr from Pennsylvania State University and Kenan Matawie from Western Sydney University, who have joined as associate editors. The editors look forward to the opportunity to work with Vito, Matthew and Kenan. One of our associate editors has stepped down this year, Piotr Kokoszka. We thank Piotr for his many dedicated years of truly quality work.
The editors also wish to congratulate Wilfried Bonou from University of Liege Belgium on his first place student competition award for his paper ‘Inference in a Stochastic SIR Epidemic Model Using Bayesian Filtering’ (with co-author/advisor Philippe Lambert). The work was recently presented at the International Workshop on Statistical Modelling in Rennes during July 2016. Among Wilfried's awards, the journal offered him a fast-tracked review process, subject to refereeing.
Please do not forget that this is your journal; so, along with reading it, the editors encourage you to help with its visibility across the globe. Further, we always seek your constructive input. See www.statmod.org for online data, code and e-appendices associated with most of our published articles, as well as a variety of other general information regarding your membership and the Statistical Modelling Society.
Thank you for your support, and we wish you a productive year.