The new co-editors of the Annals of Statistics for 2025–27 are Hans-Georg Müller, University of California, Davis (hgmueller@ucdavis.edu), and Harrison Zhou, Yale University (harrison.zhou@yale.edu). They write to share their plans for the flagship IMS journal:
As the new co-editors, we aim to broaden the scope of the Annals of Statistics (AOS) and enhance its focus on statistical innovation. While AOS will maintain its emphasis on mathematical statistics, our goal is to publish outstanding papers in all areas of statistics and encourage authors to submit their best work.
Innovation and impact.
We welcome forward-looking papers that contain truly new ideas. Demonstrated impact for statistical theory, methodology, computing or applications is paramount, while mathematical depth is welcome but is not a requirement. We particularly encourage submission of papers on statistical aspects of AI and machine learning. To facilitate conveying the innovation of their work, authors are asked to describe the novelty and impact clearly and succinctly in the abstract, introduction and cover letter, where using enumeration or bullet points to list key findings are good options.
Shortening review times.
We aim to speed up the evaluation process, especially avoiding undue delays in conveying a negative decision. Shortening review times will require cooperation from all reviewers. We ask reviewers to quickly evaluate the impact of a paper in statistics and to check further details only if the innovation is found to be major and commensurate with an AOS paper.
Discussion papers and broader perspectives.
AOS will also consider papers that provide advanced new perspectives or reviews. These and other papers of broad interest that are not narrowly focused on technical advances may be selected as discussion papers. We will maintain the previous practice of generally not considering extended versions of papers previously published in conferences or other venues, except in exceptional cases.
Supplementary materials.
When submitting a paper, proofs and technical materials should be presented in a Supplement that is well written, contains complete and comprehensible technical details and other materials, and is in the same format as the main paper. Failure to meet these requirements may lead to the rejection of the paper.
Responsibilities of authors.
We require that all co-authors of a submitted paper agree that they will make themselves available to serve as referees for future submissions, irrespective of whether the paper is accepted or not. If a paper is accepted, well-documented code and data sources, if applicable, must be made publicly available.
For reference, we list the current IMS policy for AOS:
Current AOS Editorial Policy (IMS). The Annals of Statistics aim to publish research papers of highest quality reflecting the many facets of contemporary statistics. Primary emphasis is placed on importance and originality, not on formalism. The journal aims to cover all areas of statistics, especially mathematical statistics and applied/interdisciplinary statistics. Of course many of the best papers will touch on more than one of these general areas, because the discipline of statistics has deep roots in mathematics, and in substantive scientific fields.
Mathematical Statistics. Mathematics provides the language in which models, the properties of statistical methods and computation algorithms are formulated. It is essential for rigor, coherence, clarity and understanding. Consequently, our policy is to continue to play a special role in presenting research at the forefront of mathematical statistics, especially theoretical advances that are likely to have a significant impact on statistical methodology, computation or understanding.
Applied and Interdisciplinary Statistics. Substantive fields are essential for continued vitality of statistics since they provide the motivation and direction for most of the future developments in statistics. We thus intend to publish papers relating to the role of statistics in interdisciplinary investigations in all fields of natural, medical, technical and social science.
Moving forward.
We welcome feedback and discussion regarding these aspirations for AOS from the statistical community. As we move forward, we will make adjustments as we acquire more experience with the editorial process and receive feedback from authors, associate editors and reviewers.
Acknowledgments.
Special thanks are due to Enno Mammen, Lan Wang, Bin Yu, Richard Samworth, Runze Li, Ed George, Tony Cai, Ming Yuan and Iain Johnstone for their most helpful input, and we are also grateful for the suggestions that were communicated to us from the 2024 AOS board meeting in Bochum 2024 (with Mladen Kolar, Igor Pruenster, Johannes Schmidt-Hieber, Axel Munk, Mouli Banerjee and Holger Dette in attendance).