 | |
| Discipline | Statistics |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Edited by | Paul Fearnhead |
| Publication details | |
| History | 1901–present |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press on behalf of the Biometrika Trust |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| 2.8 (2024) | |
| Standard abbreviations ISO 4 (alt) · Bluebook (alt) NLM (alt) · MathSciNet (alt  ) | |
| ISO 4 | Biometrika |
| Indexing CODEN (alt · alt2) · JSTOR (alt) · LCCN (alt) MIAR · NLM (alt) · Scopus · W&L | |
| CODEN | BIOKAX |
| ISSN | 0006-3444 (print) 1464-3510 (web) |
| LCCN | 25005151 |
| JSTOR | 00063444 |
| OCLC no. | 934140435 |
| Links | |
Biometrika is apeer-reviewedscientific journal published byOxford University Press for the Biometrika Trust. Theeditor-in-chief is Paul Fearnhead (Lancaster University). The principal focus of this journal is theoreticalstatistics. It was established in 1901 and originally appeared quarterly. It changed to three issues per year in 1977 but returned to quarterly publication in 1992.
Biometrika was established in 1901 byFrancis Galton,Karl Pearson, andRaphael Weldon to promote the study ofbiometrics. The history ofBiometrika is covered by Cox (2001).[1] The name of the journal was chosen by Pearson, butFrancis Edgeworth insisted that it be spelt with a "k" and not a "c". Since the 1930s, it has been a journal for statistical theory and methodology. Galton's role in the journal was essentially that of a patron and the journal was run by Pearson and Weldon and after Weldon's death in 1906 by Pearson alone until he died in 1936. In the early days, the American biologistsCharles Davenport andRaymond Pearl were nominally involved but they dropped out.[2] On Pearson's death his sonEgon Pearson became editor and remained in this position until 1966.David Cox was editor for the next 25 years. So, in its first 65 yearsBiometrika had effectively a total of just three editors, and in its first 90 years only four. Other people who were deeply involved in the journal includedWilliam Palin Elderton, an associate of Pearson's who published several articles in the early days and in 1935 became chairman of the Biometrika Trust.[3]
In the first issue, the editors presented a statement of purpose:
It is intended thatBiometrika shall serve as a means not only of collecting or publishing under one title biological data of a kind not systematically collected or published elsewhere in any other periodical, but also of spreading a knowledge of such statistical theory as may be requisite for their scientific treatment.[4]
Its contents were to include:
Early volumes contained many reports on biological topics, but over the twentieth century,Biometrika became a "journal of statistics in which emphasis is placed on papers containing original theoretical contributions of direct or potential value in applications." Thus, of the five types of contents envisaged by its founders, only the second and to a lesser extent the third remain, largely shorn of their biological roots. In his centenary tribute to Karl Pearson,J. B. S. Haldane likened him to Columbus who "set out for China, and discovered America."[5] The same might be said of Pearson's journal.
Of note,Karl Pearson had adopted as the motto of the journal a declaration ofCharles Darwin that resonated with Karl Pearson's focus on biological topics and the large data sets that biology generated. In a letter toWilliam Darwin Fox in 1855, Charles Darwin declared “I have no faith in anything short of actual measurement and the Rule of Three.”[6]Karl Pearson adopted this declaration as the motto of his newly founded journal Biometrika.[7] This rule of three referred tocross-multiplication, however, and not the statisticalrule of three.
To mark the centenary of "one of the world's leading academic journals in statistical theory and methodology" a commemorative volume was produced,[8] containing articles that had appeared in a special issue of the journal and a selection of classic papers published in the journal in the years 1939–1971.[9]
The editors of the journal have been:[10]
The journal is abstracted and indexed in:
According to theJournal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2024impact factor of 2.8.[15]
