Statistical Science is launching a new venture called “Short Communications.”

Short communications will have an upper bound of 10 pages with references and could comprise philosophical musings on current research areas; alternative proofs and interpretations of important existing statistical results; suggestions for new methodology; short new proofs of new results or simulation experiments that point out downsides of a widely used procedure that have hitherto gone unnoticed. Short Communications should not be used as an introduction for a long arXiv paper or supplement. Note that the platform is not intended to incorporate isolated short technical results. On the other hand,  an interesting interpretation of an important existing result that is consequential or a theorem that builds on existing results in a broad area and provides key insights is admissible.

A screening committee will judge the suitability of submissions to Short Communications. It is possible for a paper to not meet the bar for a Short Communication but be eventually published as a Statistical Science paper. Authors wishing to target “Short Communications” should indicate that they want a submitted paper to be considered for the platform since a short paper does not automatically qualify as a short communication.