IMS Monographs/IMS Textbooks

The first IMS Monograph has been released.

Large-Scale Inference: Empirical Bayes Methods for Estimation, Testing, and Prediction by Bradley Efron
We live in a new age for statistical inference, where modern scientific technology such as microarrays and fMRI machines routinely produce thousands and sometimes millions of parallel data sets, each with its own estimation or testing problem. Doing thousands of problems at once is more than repeated application of classical methods. Taking an empirical Bayes approach, Bradley Efron, inventor of the bootstrap, shows how information accrues across problems in a way that combines Bayesian and frequentist ideas. Estimation, testing, and prediction blend in this framework, producing opportunities for new methodologies of increased power. New difficulties also arise, easily leading to flawed inferences. This book takes a careful look at both the promise and pitfalls of large-scale statistical inference, with particular attention to false discovery rates, the most successful of the new statistical techniques. Emphasis is on the inferential ideas underlying technical developments, illustrated using a large number of real examples.

The first IMS Textbook has been released.

Probability on Graphs: Random Processes on Graphs and Lattices by Geoffrey Grimmett is an introduction to some of the principal models in the theory of disordered systems leads the reader through the basics, to the very edge of contemporary research, with the minimum of technical fuss. Topics covered include random walk, percolation, self-avoiding walk, interacting particle systems, uniform spanning tree, random graphs, as well as the Ising, Potts, and random-cluster models for ferromagnetism, and the Lorentz model for motion in a random medium. Schramm–Löwner evolutions (SLE) arise in various contexts. The choice of topics is strongly motivated by modern applications and focuses on areas that merit further research. Special features include a simple account of Smirnov's proof of Cardy's formula for critical percolation, and a fairly full account of the theory of influence and sharp-thresholds. Accessible to a wide audience of mathematicians and physicists, this book can be used as a graduate course text. Each chapter ends with a range of exercises.

New Series Announcement and Request for Book Proposals

The Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Cambridge University Press announce two new series of books called IMS Monographs and IMS Textbooks.

Editorial Board

IMS Monographs will be concise research monographs of high quality on any branch of statistics or probability of sufficient interest to warrant publication as books. Some will concern relatively traditional topics in need of up-to-date assessment. Others will be on emerging themes. In all cases the objective will be to provide a balanced view of the field.

In parallel with the IMS Monographs there will be a series of compact IMS Textbooks. These will give introductory accounts of topics of current concern suitable for advanced courses at master’s level, for doctoral students and for individual study. They will be shorter than a fully developed textbook. Lengths of 100–290 pages are envisaged. The books will typically contain exercises.

If you are interested in publishing a book in the IMS Monographs or IMS Textbooks series, please write to one of the editors listed above, or to Lauren Cowles: lcowles@cambridge.org or Diana Gillooly: dgillooly@cambridge.org at Cambridge University Press.