Significance April 2021 issue

In the April 2021 issue of Significance magazine, out now, a new four-part series exploring the past, present and future of the data economy begins. In part 1, Timandra Harkness tells the story of the birth of customer insight.

Also in this issue, Kevin McConway and David Spiegelhalter offer tips to statisticians communicating through the media, especially in the time of Covid-19. Katie Harron explains the statistical concepts that underpin the complex but crucial process of linking records stored in different databases.

And David Nutt, author of Drugs Without the Hot Air, explains how multi‑criteria decision analysis has been used to assess harms caused by legal and illegal drugs.

Plus:

• Five years on, Robert Matthews asks what, if anything, has the American Statistical Association’s p-value statement achieved?
• Paul Allin and David J Hand call for official statistics to take centre stage as societies look to 'build back better' after Covid.
• Julia Silge shares her career story, from physics and astronomy to data science and open-source software development.
• Harry Spearing applies extreme value theory to personal best swim times to rank swimmers and predict future world records.

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Significance is online at www.significancemagazine.com.