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Judges have enjoyed reading another year of strong entries for the 2023 Statistical Excellence Award for Early-Career Writing. Jointly organised by Significance and the Young Statisticians Section of the Royal Statistical Society, the competition forms part of the RSS Statistical Excellence Awards programme.

Judging took place throughout June, and we’re now excited to announce the competition finalists.

This year’s shortlist (in alphabetical order) is:

  • Robyn Goldsmith Surfing the Korean wave
  • James Jackson How many words in Shakespeare’s vocabulary?
  • Kenneth Menglin Lee Boxing with George EP Box

Winners and runners-up will be announced at the RSS Statistical Excellence Awards on 6 July. The three finalists have been invited to present papers based on their articles at the RSS 2023 Annual Conference, which takes place 4-7 September in Harrogate. The winning article will be published in a future print edition of Significance and online. Runners-up will also be published online.

Congratulations to Robyn, James and Kenneth on making the shortlist, and many thanks to all the other early-career statisticians and data scientists who took the time to submit interesting and thought-provoking pieces.

Significance editor Anna Britten said: “This year’s entries covered a huge variety of topics, and all showed great invention and thoughtfulness. We loved reading each one. It was tough to whittle them down, but we know our three-strong shortlist – covering the statistical stories behind the soaring popularity of Korean culture, the richness of Shakespeare’s writing and the best way to win a boxing match – will both entertain and enlighten our discerning Significance audience.”

While you wait for this year’s winner to be announced, why not check last year‘s winning article, by Lee Kennedy-Shaffer, and those by runners-up Veronica Carlan and Achilleas Ghinis?