This award provides partial support for the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) to conduct A NISS Writing Workshop for Junior Researchers at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM), August 2-4, 2020, in Philadelphia, PA, and the 2021 workshop August 8-10, 2021 in Seattle, WA. The writing workshop provides individual hands-on guidance and mentoring for 25 junior researchers in statistics, biostatistics, and data science on how to write journal articles and research funding proposals. Junior researchers apply to the workshop by May 15 with a writing sample and are notified of acceptance no later than June 15 after pairing applicants with mentors and senior editors.
The ability to write well is a critical but often short-changed component of the education of statisticians and data scientists. The inability to write well can hinder not only publication of a researcher's results but also grant proposals. From 2007 to 2016, 2018, and 2019, NISS organized technical writing workshops for junior researchers in statistics, biostatistics and data science. The 2020 and 2021 NISS writing workshops will consist of two parts. The Sunday tutorial is an all-day session that covers scientific writing, as well as how to organize a paper. The workshop will cover ethical issues, writing grant proposals, strategies for journal choice, effective use of graphics, and understanding and responding to reviewers' comments. At the end of this session, participants will meet with their mentor who will have analyzed a paper the participant submitted prior to JSM. The Tuesday session focuses on specific issues for improving a manuscript, especially useful for participants whose native language is not English. It will include the writing process and details of grammar, sentence structure, and word choice. A panel of successful senior researchers whose native language is not English will discuss their experiences with technical writing in English and its importance to their success. Previous workshops have been very successful with many workshop participants going on to become associate editors or co-editors of major statistical journals. Individuals from among the 109 graduates from 2007 to 2011, the first five years, have held at least 23 associate editorships and one co-editorship. Information and registration instructions for the upcoming writing workshop are provided at:www.niss.org/events/2020-niss-writing-workshop-junior-researchers-jsm
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
