The American Statistical Association is the world’s largest community of statisticians.
Since it was founded in 1839, the ASA has supported excellence in the development, application, and dissemination of statistical science through meetings, publications, membership services, education, accreditation, and advocacy. In line with the ASA’s mission, the journal Statistics and Public Policy (SPP) was launched in 2014. Statisticians and other quantitative analysts often carry out evidence-based research that has direct relevance to important public policy questions. Such research might involve, for example, careful modeling of data to address issues of causal inference, investigating the properties of methods typically used in policy evaluation, or explaining the results of elections. SPP publishes peer-reviewed articles describing such research on outstanding, complex public policy issues, where the use of appropriate statistical methods is shown to clarify such questions. Below is a sample of some of the quality research recently published.