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!

Monsieur le Président [reposted]

Let us carry out screening campaigns on representative samples of population!

Mr President of the Republic, as you rightly indicated, we are at war and everything must be done to combat the spread of CODIV-19. You had the wisdom to surround yourself with a Scientific Council and an Analysis, Research and Expertise Committee, both competent, and, as you know, applied mathematicians, statisticians have a role to play in this battle. Yes, to predict the evolution of the epidemic, mathematical models are used at different scales. This allows us estimate the number of people infected in the coming weeks and months. We are at war and these predictions are essential to the development of the best control strategy. They inform political decisions. This is especially with the help of these items of information that the confinement of the French population has been decided and renewed.

Mr President we are at war and these predictions must be the most robust possible. The more precise they are, the better the decisions they will guide. Mathematical models include a number of unknown parameters whose values ​​should be set based on expert advice or data. These include the transmission rate, incubation time, contagion time, and, of course, to initialize dynamic mathematical models, the number of covered individuals. To enjoy more reliable predictions, it is necessary to better estimate such crucial quantities. The proportion of healthy carriers appears to be a particularly critical parameter.

Mr President, we are at war and we must assess the proportions of healthy carriers by geographic areas. We do not currently have the means to implement massive screenings, but we can carry out surveys. This means, for a well-defined geographic area, to run biological tests on samples of individuals that are drawn at random and are representative of the total population of the area. Such data would come to supplement those already available and would considerably reduce the uncertainty in model predictions.

Mr. President, we are at war, let us give ourselves the means to fight effectively against this scourge. Thanks to a significant effort, the number of individuals that can be tested daily increases significantly, let’s devote some of these available tests to samples representative. For each individual drawn at random, we will perform a nasal swab, a blood test, let us collect clinical data and other items of information on its follow-up barriers. This would provide important information on the percentage of immunized French people. This data would open the possibility to feed mathematical models wisely, and hence to make informed decisions about the different strategies of deconfinement.

Mr. President, we are at war. This strategy, which could at first be deployed only in the most affected sectors, is, we believe, essential. It is doable: designing the survey and determining a representative sample is not an issue, going to the homes of the people in the sample, towards taking samples and having them fill out a questionnaire is also perfectly achievable if we give ourselves the means to do so. You only have to decide that a few of the available PCR tests and serological tests will be devoted to these statistical studies. In Paris and in the Grand Est, for instance, a mere few thousand tests on a representative population of individuals properly selected could better assess the situation and help in taking informed decisions.

Mr. President, a proposal to this effect has been presented to the Scientific Council and to the Analysis, Research and Expertise Committee that you have set up by a group of mathematicians at École Polytechnique with Professor Josselin Garnier at their head. You will realise by reading this tribune that the statistician that I am does support very strongly. I am in no way disputing the competence of the councils which support you but you have to act quickly and, I repeat, only dedicate a few thousand tests to statistics studies. Emergency is everywhere, assistance to the patients, to people in intensive care, must of course be the priority, but let us attempt to anticipate as well . We do not have the means to massively test the entire population, let us run polls.

Jean-Michel Marin
Professeur à l’Université de Montpellier
Président de la Société Française de Statistique
Directeur de l’Institut Montpelliérain Alexander Grothendieck
Vice-Doyen de la Faculté des Sciences de Montpellier

ateliers statistiques bayésiens

The French Statistical Association is running a training workshop on practical computational Bayesian methods on 10-12 September 2019 in Paris (IHP), animated by Sylvain LE CORFF (Telecom SudParis – Institut Polytechnique de Paris) for the initiation to « rstan », by Matthieu AUTHIER (Université de La Rochelle).