The Journal Teaching Statistics

JSM Minneapolis, 8 Aug 2005

The JournalTeaching Statistics

Neville DaviesThe Royal Statistical Society

Centre for Statistical EducationNottingham Trent University, UK

Gerald GoodallThe Royal Statistical Society12, Errol Street, London, UK

Centre for Statistical Education

With help from Peter Holmes, David Green and Neville Hunt



Plan

• History• The Editors & experiences• Articles submitted 1988 - 2004• Publishers & Journal Development• The Future


In the Beginning …

Sheffield, England

1977

Vic BarnettJoe Gani

Peter Holmes


Teaching Statistics Trust

Set up to publish Teaching Statistics

– but with broader aims to improve statistical education for all ages

sponsored by …

Applied Probability TrustRoyal Statistical SocietyInstitute of Statisticians

International Statistical Institute


Teaching Statistics

• Three issues per year• For teachers of students aged 9-19• Both specialist and user-disciplines• Emphasis on teaching and the classroom• Inform, entertain, encourage and

enlighten• Light and readable• International perspective


Getting it going

• Run on a shoestring• 1st issue was distributed freely

– this used up much of the borrowed capital

• Designed for an international audience– Even in 1st issue there were many international

authors


The four editorial eras …

• 1978 - 1987 Peter Holmes• 1987 - 1993 David Green• 1993 - 1997 Neville Hunt• 1997 - Gerald Goodall


1978-1987 Peter Holmes

• Setting the standard

• Establishing readership

• Panel of referees

• Venture of faith


Early days ...

• first received - David Hill 20/3/78• timeless - The Pie Chart: a Piece of Cake• prolific author - A.F.Bissell

Articles

• some commissioned initially


Early design - 32 pages of size 17.5cm by 24.5 cm


Early days …

Editorials “Many new developments are based on hunch rather than research. There is not as well developed a theory and body of literature on statistical education as there is in mathematical education. Courses for teachers concentrate on the content rather than the process.” PH (1979)


Early days ...

Letters

“I am sure Mrs Dolan’s pupils enjoy statistics …

Nevertheless … it is most important that all technical terms should be used correctly.

Unfortunately this account of some of the work done by her pupils involves a number of serious errors.”


Profits given to the ISI as base funding for ICOTS2 held in Victoria, Canada, 1986.

Published Proceedings of ICOTS1, 1982


Peter Holmes’ high and low points

• Major high– putting together the first issue & getting it

published

• Low - unable to persuade teachers of need:(i) to write up their experiences with lower age pupils;(ii) to write up their different insights into teaching

statistics in subjects outside mathematics


1987-1993 David Green

• IASE pullout feature

• In-house publication

Computing CornerCurriculum MattersData BankHistorical

PerspectivePractical ActivitiesProblem PageProject ParadeResearch Report

• Complete re-design

• Special Sections

• Longmans venture


Longman’s innovation – 32, A4-sized pages and an insert from what became the International

Association for Statistical Education (IASE), it contained many more photographs and

illustrations


David Green’s high points

• As Editor of Teaching Statistics at its Best 1994 – He chose the 48 best articles from TS for vols 6-

14.

• Communicating with colleagues from all round the world and meeting many of them at ICOTS3 in Dunedin in 1990


• Following-up commissioned articles– Very often they turned out to be of a poor

standard for publishing a lot of extra work was required as editor, since rejection was hardly an option!

• The dearth of feedback from readers– When solicited it was very positive but it came

very rarely spontaneously, which makes judging the impact (of the journal) on teachers and students hard

David Green’s low points


1993-1997 Neville Hunt

• Golden Jubilee Issue

• New special sections Standard Errors Net Benefits Competition Page

• Separation of roles


Neville Hunt’s Experiences• Articles

– Too many at too high a level, almost never too low!– Did not get one article that involved the teacher using a

data set in an illuminating way

• Readers – Corpse-like passivity! – Major competitions that only attracted about 4 entries – Special offer of a disk of data - nil response – We asked for people to tell us what they thought of the

journal - nil response – The lack of feedback was somewhat unnerving!

• Referees– Variation in promptness of reply– Often saw value in a paper that at first sight deserved

rejection: indicates the broad church of Teaching Statistics


1997- Gerald Goodall

• Spreadsheets

• World Wide Web

• Mentoring


Redesigned cover under Blackwell the publishers


Gerald Goodall’s Highlights

• Development of the contract with Blackwell Publishing– excellent working relationship

• Very little feedback about the journal– But what there is usually very positive


Articles Submitted to Teaching Statistics 1978-2004

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Accept 29 46 47 43 44 29 26 36 23 38 30 40 48 38 41 40 51 50 43 52 50 57 35 53 41 43 37

78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 0 1 2 3 4

Numbers of Articles


Years of New Editors


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Accept 29 46 47 43 44 29 26 36 23 38 30 40 48 38 41 40 51 50 43 52 50 57 35 53 41 43 37

78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 0 1 2 3 4


The ICOTS Years


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Accept 29 46 47 43 44 29 26 36 23 38 30 40 48 38 41 40 51 50 43 52 50 57 35 53 41 43 37

78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 0 1 2 3 4


Articles accepted/rejected

Article acceptance rate for Teaching Statistics 1978-2004

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 0 1 2 3 4

Reject

Accept


Publications – Three Compilations of Articles

• The Best of Teaching Statistics has the best articles from volumes 1 – 5, 1979 - 1983 – now out of print, but articles are available online at

www.rsscse.org.uk/ts/

• Teaching Statistics at its Best has articles from volumes 6 to 14, 1984 - 1992

• Getting the Best from Teaching Statistics has articles from volumes 15 – 20, 1993 - 1998– only available online at www.rsscse.org.uk/ts/, free of

charge

• Since 2000 all the articles are viewable by subscribers via Blackwell’s Synergy online service

http://www.rsscse.org.uk/ts/





A

The Best series…the first 5 years and years 6-11


The current publishers - Blackwell

• Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading specialist publisher of statistics journals

• Annual report to Teaching Statistics Trust– Readership, circulation, sales, marketing activity– Conferences, new marketing campaigns, promotions

• Working with search engines – Full text content indexed by Google in 2003– Increase in online usage

• E-proofing introduced, so authors can pick up page proofs from a dedicated web site

• Blackwell recently awarded, jointly with the Teaching Statistics Trust, a bursary for a UK teacher to present a paper at ICOTS7 in Brazil


The Future

• The Teaching Statistics Trust occasionally debates broadening the readership beyond teachers of students 9 -19– Resisted, as school-level material would be in

danger of being crowded out– TS is still the only international journal that

concentrates on school-level statistics material

• Not designed for research papers in the traditional academic journal way– Will continue to be about good ideas, things that

have been tried and have worked in the classroom

• About sharing good practice worldwide




Visit us on the web at:

http://www.rsscse.org.uk/ts

http://www.rsscse.org.uk/ts



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The Journal Teaching Statistics