THE STATA JOURNAL

The Stata Journal is a printed and electronic journal containing reviewed articles related to Stata together with user-written software additions to Stata. The Journal is included in scientific citation indexes. You subscribe to the Journal. An electronic version of the Journal is also available.

Accompanying each issue is software that can be installed into Stata. The software is available for free over the Internet, to both subscribers and nonsubscribers.

The STB—the Stata Technical Bulletin —is the predecessor of the Stata Journal. It was published six times per year between May 1991 and May 2001.

For ten years, the STB served as a means of distributing new commands and Stata updates, both user-written and “official”. When the STB began, there was no Internet or, at least, no Internet that was used to distribute software and updates, and the STB fulfilled this need. Users back then subscribed to the STB with diskettes, and these diskettes contained the updates.

More recently, the growth of the Internet along with the growth in both the number and the diversity of Stata users led and forced the editors gradually to introduce changes in the STB. In particular, the Internet, Stata’s web site, and the Statalist listserver allowed instant communication among users, and moreover, improvements to Stata software actually allowed it to search the Internet for desired statistical capabilities—whether written by StataCorp or by users—and instantly to install what it finds.

The result was that over its last five years, STB “inserts” became less announcements and short articles describing user-written programs and became more longer articles describing complicated programs as well as more general articles about how Stata can be used to analyze interesting datasets.

When the STB began, timeliness was of primary importance. Nowadays, printed matter cannot compete with the Internet in that respect; however, printed material is more considered, more substantial, and more trustworthy, and thus, the editors came to the conclusion that a new vehicle needed to be created, the Stata Journal. The editors decided that the Journal should be printed less often (4 times per year rather than 6), thus allowing them more time to have articles reviewed and making the articles even more considered, substantial, and trustworthy. They also knew that they wanted to change the emphasis of the articles. Programs with documentation will always be welcome, but we believe that users want and need more expository articles, expository articles about statistics and using Stata, rather than about Stata.

The Stata Journal is a publication for all Stata users, both novice and experienced, with various levels of expertise in statistics, research design, data management, graphics, reporting of results, and of Stata in particular.

A portion of the article “The Stata Journal begins publication fourth quarter 2001”, which appeared in STB-61, May 2001, states

The numerous daily postings on Statalist illustrate very well the readership we have mind, as those who follow it will appreciate. As with many listservers, the style and content of Statalist discussions have evolved very much as an expression of members’ interests and expertise. Statalist is centered on, but in no sense limited to, Stata users. Those members’ questions and answers range back and forth through specifics on using Stata to general questions on data management, statistical data analysis and modeling, and what is and is not good practice, statistically, computationally and scientifically. Statalist is widely appreciated, not just as a relatively rapid and effective way of solving Stata problems, but also as a source of wisdom on statistical matters in the widest sense. It is this mix which we seek to emulate, although with more substantial and more durable contributions, in the Stata Journal.

The Stata Journal publishes reviewed papers together with shorter notes or comments, regular columns, book reviews, and other material of interest to Stata users.

Examples of the types of papers include

Expository papers which link the use of Stata commands or programs to associated principles, such as those which will serve as tutorials for those first encountering a new field of statistics or a major new technique.

Papers which go “beyond the Stata manual” in explaining key features or uses of Stata which are of interest to intermediate or advanced users of Stata.

Papers which discuss new commands or Stata programs of interest either to a wide spectrum of users (e.g. in data management or graphics) or to some large segment of Stata users (e.g. in survey statistics, survival analysis, panel analysis, limited dependent variable modeling).

Papers analyzing the statistical properties of new or existing estimators and tests in Stata. This includes topics such as simulations of bias, convergence, or small-sample properties of estimators and tests; power analyses; comparisons of tests or estimators.

Papers of interest or usefulness to researchers, especially in fields which are of practical importance but not often written up in texts or other journals, e.g., the use of Stata in managing datasets, particularly large datasets, with advice from hard-won experience.

Papers of interest to those teaching with Stata. Topics might include extended examples of techniques and interpretation of results, simulations of statistical concepts, and overviews of subject areas.

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Notes and comments are normally short (about one page or less). Notes may include, for example, explanation of a neat trick using a few lines of Stata which appears to be worth publicizing. Comments refer to material previously published in the Journal (or in the Stata Technical Bulletin).

COLUMNS

Columns are solicited by the Editors. At present two columns run regularly.

“Mata matters” by William Gould and other guest writers focuses on the new Mata programming language added in Stata 9. Mata offers users considerable flexibility and power and further extends the programming of Stata. For example, the first such column discusses translation of Fortran programs into Mata.

“Speaking Stata” by Nicholas J. Cox concentrates on effective and fluent use of Stata as a language. Advice and detailed examples will cover the commands, devices, habits, tricks, tactics, and strategies which make problem-solving easier for the Stata user.

TIPS

Stata tips is a series of very concise notes about Stata commands, features, or tricks that you may not yet have encountered. A tip will draw attention to useful details in Stata or in the use of Stata. Tips must be brief, usually one or two printed pages. We welcome submissions of tips from readers, or suggestions of tips, or of kinds of tips, you would like to see.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviews are solicited by the Editors. Book reviews concentrate on books about Stata or that contain examples using Stata, but books which may be of interest or value to many readers may also be reviewed. Suggestions for book reviews are welcome.

The Journal is published by StataCorp.

Each article, column, note, or comment in The Stata Journal is assigned a letter-number code such as st0042, an0034, or ds0012.

A number such as st0042 indicates that this article is number 42 in the st category.

A number such as st0043_1 indicates that this article, column, note, or comment is related to the original st0042 article. The authors could be the same or different.

The following category codes are used:

The appropriate citation for an article in The Stata Journal is

• Author name. Year. Tag. Title.

Stata Journal

volume_number(issue_number): page_range.

For example,

• Royston, P. 2001. st0001. Flexible parametric alternatives to the Cox model, and more.

Stata Journal

1(1): 1–28.

In some cases, it is desirable to abbreviate the name of The Stata Journal. The official abbreviation is SJ.

DOES THE STATA JOURNAL HAVE AN ISSN NUMBER?

Yes. The ISSN number for the printed Journal is 1536-867X, and the ISSN number for the electronic Journal is 1536-8734.

WHEN IS THE STATA JOURNAL PUBLISHED?

The Journal is published quarterly:

Jan-Mar
Apr-Jun
Jul-Sep
Oct-Dec

Volume 1 refers to the first year, Volume 2 the second, and so on. Issues are numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 within each year. The first issue of the Journal was published Oct–Dec, 2001, and that issue is numbered Volume 1, Number 1:

volume 1 issue 1: 2001 Oct-Dec
volume 2 issue 1: 2002 Jan-Mar
volume 2 issue 2: 2002 Apr-Jun
volume 2 issue 3: 2002 Jul-Sep
volume 2 issue 4: 2002 Oct-Dec

volume 3 issue 1: 2003 Jan-Mar
…

HOW DO I SUBSCRIBE TO THE STATA JOURNAL?

The Stata Journal is published in association with SAGE Publishing.

To subscribe to the Stata Journal, visit SAGE Publishing online or email customer.service@sagepub.com

HOW DO I OBTAIN PAST ISSUES?

Past issues may be ordered by emailing tstat@tstat.it

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

The Stata Journal and the contents of the supporting files (programs, datasets, and help files) are copyright © by StataCorp. The contents of the supporting files (programs, datasets, and help files) may be copied or reproduced by any means whatsoever, in whole or in part, as long as any copy or reproduction includes attribution to both (1) the author and (2) the Stata Journal.

The articles appearing in the Stata Journal may be copied or reproduced as printed copies, in whole or in part, as long as any copy or reproduction includes attribution to both (1) the author and (2) the Stata Journal.

Written permission must be obtained from StataCorp if you wish to make electronic copies of the Stata Journal, in whole or in part, on web sites, fileservers, or any other location or media where the copy may be accessed by anyone other than the original Stata Journal subscriber.

Users of any of the software, ideas, data, or other materials published in the Stata Journal or the supporting files understand that such use is made without warranty of any kind, by either the Stata Journal, the author, or StataCorp. In particular, there is no warranty of fitness of purpose or merchantability, nor for special, incidental, or consequential damages such as loss of profits. The purpose of the Stata Journal is to promote free communication among Stata users.

The Stata Journal (ISSN 1536-867X) is a publication of Stata Press, and Stata is a registered trademark of StataCorp.

If you wanted to install insert st0001 from Volume 1, Number 1, you could use the net command:

net from http://www.stata-journal.com

net cd software

net cd sj1-1

net describe st0001

net install st0001

Or you could

Pull down Help and select STB and User-written Programs

Click on http://www.stata-journal.com

Click on software

Click on sj1-1

Click on st0001

Click on install

See [U] 20.6 How do I install an addition?, [U] 20.8 How do I install STB updates?, and [U] 32 Using the Internet to keep up to date.