Editorial

Abstract

Dear ASMBI readers, We would like to inform you of the new and exciting changes going on with the journal. First of all, you might have noticed some changes in the cover page. ASMBI is now the Official Journal of the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics (ISBIS), complete with a new Editorial Board. ISBIS was formed as an international society in April 2005, as one of the youngest sections of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). As described in its web site (www.isbis.org), ISBIS seeks to ‘promote the advancement and exchange of knowledge in business, financial and industrial statistics’. In addition to running biennial international conferences, regional conferences in collaboration with other societies (especially in developing countries) and ISI satellite conferences, ISBIS has now assumed editorial responsibility for a well-established journal, ASMBI. By combining the strong scientific expertise of ISBIS members with the outstanding publishing record of Wiley-Blackwell, we will strive to enhance the role played by ASMBI in promoting top-quality papers on stochastic/statistical modeling in industrial and business applications. An ISBIS taskforce chaired by Vijay Nair initiated creation of the new Editorial Board. Of us, Fabrizio Ruggeri (CNR IMATI, Italy) is the new Editor-in-Chief, while Nalini Ravishanker (University of Connecticut, U.S.A.) is Editor for Theory and Methods and Dennis Lin (Penn State University, U.S.A.) is Editor for Case Studies and Applications. The three of us as Editors have selected 32 Associate Editors who, between them, represent diverse working experiences in academe and industry, a broad range of expertise in several scientific areas, and considerable geographic diversity. Although this has been a lengthy process, we deeply appreciate the enthusiasm for involvement with ASMBI shown by these people we contacted. The new Editorial Board retains a few people who have been involved with ASMBI in the previous years, including the Editor-in-Chief who served as Editor for four years. Close cooperation with the outgoing Editor-in-Chief, Jef Teugels, has been very beneficial for the incoming Editor-in-Chief. We aspire to continue maintaining the high standard set by Jef Teugels during his years as Editor-in-Chief. We are indebted to him for his work and support and we are sure he will follow our progress closely. We are extremely grateful to Sir David Cox, Nick Fisher, Vijay Nair, and Jef Teugels who have graciously accepted our invitation to serve as Honorary Editors to ASMBI. We look forward to their valuable guidance and support. You will not see changes in the next few issues, since ASMBI is a healthy journal with a long backlog of excellent papers still in the pipeline. In the future, the first major change will be the introduction of discussion/review papers. We plan to invite leading experts in ‘hot’ fields to contribute highly innovative and in-depth review papers, and we will invite key researchers to discuss them. The first such paper is, quite naturally, about The Future of Business and Industrial Statistics and it will be written by Nick Fisher (ISBIS President) and Vijay Nair. Another important innovation is that from now on, the entire editorial process, from submission of a paper up to its publication decision, will be done via the Web. Achieving this has been a lengthy process for us and our partners at Wiley, but we now have a structure that equips us to tackle the challenging job we have ahead of us. The two Editors have differing areas of responsibility: Nalini Ravishanker for Theory and Methods and Dennis Lin of Case Studies and Applications. We are particularly interested in promoting the latter area. Specifically, we are interested in using Case Studies to demonstrate how sound statistical methodology and practice can have a significant beneficial impact on the prosperity of business and industrial enterprises. This issue is being sent to all ISBIS members and we kindly invite them not just to read the journal but also (especially!) to send us their best papers. We would like to make ASMBI a key resource in the field of business and industrial statistics. As you can see, we are planning some innovations about the content of the journal and we have appointed a diverse and authoritative Editorial Board. We hope you will join us in this adventure and be an integral part of it! Best regards