| Royal Statistical Society | |
|---|---|
Logo printed in the Transactions, 1837 |
|
| Abbreviation | RSS |
| Formation | 1834 |
| Type | Professional body |
| Legal status | Non-profit company |
| Purpose/focus | Statistics in the UK |
| Headquarters | 12 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) |
| Affiliations | American Statistical Association |
| Website | RSS |
The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK.
Contents |
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]
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. 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.
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 within the UK Science Council, and since February 2009 Chartered Statisticians have been able to apply for Chartered Scientist (CSci) status.
Unusually among professional societies, all members of the RSS are known as "Fellows" — fellowship is not a mark of distinction. Before the 1993 merger with the Institute of Statisticians, Fellows often used 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[5] and strongly discouraged, and it became less common.
The post-nominal letters FRSS are sometimes seen, but this is a simple mistake.
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.
The Society has been particularly engaged with the passage of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, having long argued for legislation on statistics.
The RSS organises an annual conference; the three most recent being held at the University of Nottingham in September 2008, the University of Edinburgh in September 2009, at which the Society's 175th anniversary was celebrated, and September 2010 in Brighton. 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.
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.