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Royal Statistical Society

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Royal Statistical Society
AbbreviationRSS
Formation1834
TypeProfessional body
Legal statusNon-profit company
PurposeStatistics in the UK
Headquarters12 Errol Street, St Luke's, EC1Y 8LX
Region served
UK and worldwide
Membership
British and worldwide statisticians
Executive Director
Hetan Shah
Main organ
RSS Council (President 2011–12: Valerie Isham)
AffiliationsAmerican Statistical Association
WebsiteRSS

The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK.

History

It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London (LSS), though a perhaps unrelated London Statistical Society was in existence at least as early as 1824.[1][2] At that time there were many provincial statistics societies throughout Britain, but most have not survived. The Manchester Statistical Society (which is older than the LSS) is a notable exception. The associations were formed with the object of gathering information about society.[3] It was many decades before mathematics was regarded as part of the statistical project.[4]

Key figures

Instrumental in founding the LSS were Richard Jones, Charles Babbage, Adolphe Quetelet, William Whewell and Thomas Malthus. Among its famous members was Florence Nightingale, who was the society's first female member in 1858. Stella Cunliffe was the first female preseident.[5] Other notable RSS presidents have included William Beveridge, Ronald Fisher, Harold Wilson and David Cox: see also Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society. The current president is Valerie Isham.

Royal Charter

The LSS became the RSS (Royal Statistical Society) by Royal Charter in 1887, and merged with the Institute of Statisticians in 1993. Today the society has 7,200 members around the world, of whom some 1,500 are professionally qualified, with the status of Chartered Statistician (CStat). In January 2009, the RSS received Licensed Body status from the UK Science Council to award Chartered Scientist status. Since February 2009 the Society has awarded Chartered Statistician status to suitably qualified members.

Unusually among professional societies, all members of the RSS are known as "Fellows" — fellowship is nowadays not usually used as a post-nominal mark of distinction. However, before the 1993 merger with the Institute of Statisticians, Fellows did often use the post-nominal letters FSS. This merger enabled the Society to take on the role of a professional body as well as that of a learned society; use of the unearned FSS qualification was viewed as inappropriate[6] and strongly discouraged, and it became less common.

The post-nominal letters FRSS are sometimes seen, but this is a simple mistake.

Structure

The RSS has premises, including offices and meeting rooms, situated in the London Borough of Islington close to the boundary with the City of London, between Old Street and Barbican stations.

The Society has twenty-two local groups in the UK, together with a variety of topic-related sections and study groups. Each of these sections and groups organizes lectures and seminars on statistical topics.

The University of Plymouth was selected by the Royal Statistical Society in October 2008 to become the host institution for its Centre for Statistical Education (RSSCSE) from August 2009.

Function

The Society has been particularly engaged with the passage of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, having long argued for legislation on statistics.

Events

The RSS organises an annual conference. The Society awards Guy Medals in Gold, Silver and Bronze, in honour of William Guy.

The RSS team reached the finals of University Challenge: The Professionals 2006, where they were beaten 230 to 125 by a team from the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Publications

Significance magazine

It also publishes the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, which currently consists of three separate series of journals whose contents include papers presented at Ordinary Meetings of the Society, namely Series A (Statistics in Society), Series B (Statistical Methodology) and Series C (Applied Statistics), as well as a general audience magazine called Significance published in conjunction with the American Statistical Association.

See also

References

  1. ^ Statistical Illustrations ... of the British Empire, London Statistical Society, Third Edition, 1827
  2. ^ Willcox, WF (1934) "Note on the Chronology of Statistical Societies", Journal of the American Statistical Association, 29, 418–420
  3. ^ Hilts, V.L. (1978) "Aliis Exterendum, or the Origins of the Statistical Society of London", Isis, 69,(1), 21-43.
  4. ^ Aldrich, J. (2010) "Mathematics in the London/Royal Statistical Society 1834-1934", Electronic Journ@l for History of Probability and Statistics, 6, (1).
  5. ^ "First woman RSS president, Stella Cunliffe, dies - RSSeNEWS". Royal Statistical Society. 26 January, 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012. It is with sadness that we report that Stella Cunliffe, who was our first woman president, has died at the age of 95. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Professional membership pages on the RSS website: http://www.rss.org.uk/site/cms/contentChapterView.asp?Chapter=11 and http://www.rss.org.uk/site/cms/contentviewarticle.asp?article=495

External links

Video clips

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