COMPUTO, the journal for reproducible statistical research

Computo (latin for calculate, compute, reckon) is a new journal launched by the French statistical society (SFDS) to promote reproducible research in statistics and machine learning by publishing papers with reproducible contributions. Towards this goal, Computo goes beyond classical static publications by including technical advances in literate programming and scientific reporting. The reproducibility of numerical results is a necessary condition for publication in Computo. In particular, submissions must include all necessary data (e.g. via zenodo repositories) and code. For contributions featuring the implementation of methods/algorithms, the quality of the provided code is assessed during the review process. Meaning accepting contributions in the form of notebooks (e.g. Rmarkdown, or Jupyter). This is a 100% free and open-access journal, thanks to the sponsoring of the SFDS. Once a manuscript is accepted, its reviews will be made available on the Computo website. Reviewers can choose to remain anonymous or not. (Towards an even broader reach, we are now considering a partnership with the PCI, following an earlier attempt I did not pursue till its completion…) Computo’s logo has been designed by Loïc Schwaller. And represents the letters of Computo in bytes. Submissions are now open!

Online workshop: Measuring the quality of MCMC output

[Here is an announcement about an online MCMC workshop, posted by Pierre Jacob on Statisfaction and reposted here with his permission. By the way, there is a competition for the conference logo if the above does not sound good enough!]

With Leah South from QUT we are organizing an online workshop on the topic of “Measuring the quality of MCMC output”. The event website is here with more info:

https://bayescomp-isba.github.io/measuringquality.html

This is part of ISBA BayesComp section’s efforts to organize activities while waiting for the next “big” in-person meeting, hopefully in 2023. The event benefits from the generous support of QUT Centre for Data Science. The event’s website will be regularly updated between now and the event in October 2021, with three live sessions:

• 11am-2pm UTC on Wednesday 6th October,
• 1pm-4pm UTC on Thursday 14th October,
• 3pm-6pm UTC on Friday 22nd October.

Registration is free but compulsory (form here) as we want to make sure the live sessions remain convivial and focused; hence the rather specific theme, but it’s an exciting topic with lots of very much open questions, which we hope will attract both practitioners and methodologists. Meanwhile some material will be available on the website to everyone, including video recordings of presentations, and posters, so that the workshop hopefully benefits the wider community.

If you have suggestions for this event, or would like to organize a similar event in the future, on another “BayesComp” topic, do not hesitate to get in touch. Our contact details are on the workshop’s website.

þe norse farce shoppe

As an on-going multilevel pun (started with my misreading a famous outdoor brand logo as a Viking helmet!), and following popular request (at least from a few participants to our Bayesian school at CIRM two years ago!), I took advantage of one of the numerous make-your-own-tee websites to create a norse farce shop(pe) for afficionadas and  afficionados..!

talks at CIRM with special tee-shirts

the Norse farce [amazoning]

[Warning: This (silly) post is completely unrelated with the previous one!]

Last week, when biking back from ENSAE on the Plateau de Saclay, one strap of my (recent, grey, handy) North Face backpack gave way and I barely avoided a crash! The stitching at the top had unravelled, it appears, and there was no way I could fix it myself. Once safe at home, I thus called Amazon from whom I had bought it less than a year ago and was quite impressed by their handling of the matter, as they reimbursed me almost instantaneously. (Which brings the customary reminder and warning that my Amazon links are connected to my Amazon Associate account and [modest] benefits.) Anyway, this led me to concretise a pun I thought of a long while ago, namely to build a pastiche of the North Face logo where the Half-Dome representation would be turned into the half of a Viking helmet… My daughter Rachel helped me to turn this into an actual output, as shown above, but I would welcome proposals of alternative designs. The winner (if any) gets a free mug with the selected design!