The B5 Club

The B5 Club (套娃五兄弟)

-- It is just for fun.

There are 5 prestigious journals in statistics and related areas starting with the B letter including Bernoulli, Bioinformatics, Biometrics, Biometrika, and Biostatistics. From one perspective, these 5 journals cover all aspects ranging from probability, statistics to biostatistics. From another perspective, these 5 journals cover all aspects ranging from theory, methodology to application.

I now name them as "The B5 Club". To the best of my limited knowledge, there are only 9 statisticians in the world eligible for this club (i.e., who has published articles in all these journals) as follows.

Mark van der Laan, University of California at Berkeley, eligible in 2002
Jian Huang, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, eligible in 2010 (VIP Number: B5-N2)
Hans-Georg Müller, University of California at Davis, eligible in 2010
Zhiliang Ying, Columbia University, eligible in 2013
Tiejun Tong, Hong Kong Baptist University, eligible in 2015 (VIP Number: B5-N5)
Jianhua Huang, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, eligible in 2015
Ying Wei, Columbia University, eligible in 2017
David B. Dunson, Duke University, eligible in 2019
Hua Liang, George Washington University, eligible in 2020 (VIP Number: B5-N9)

In case I missed you (it is very likely as some top researchers do not have a Google Scholar profile) or if you are recently qualified, please do drop me a message. I would love to warmly invite you to visit Hong Kong Baptist University, provide you with a club VIP number, and treat you to a seafood dinner in Sai Kung.

（按创刊时间套娃）： Biometrika ≥ Biometrics ≥ Bioinformatics ≥ Bernoulli ≥ Biostatistics

（按数学难度套娃）： Bernoulli ≥ Biometrika ≥ Biometrics ≥ Biostatistics ≥ Bioinformatics

（按杂志声望套娃）： Biometrika ≥ Biometrics ≥ Bernoulli ≥ Bioinformatics ≥ Biostatistics

（按影响因子套娃）： Bioinformatics ≥ Biometrika ≥ Biostatistics ≥ Biometrics ≥ Bernoulli

（按期刊分区套娃）： Biometrika ≥ Bernoulli ≥ Biostatistics ≥ Bioinformatics ≥ Biometrics

（按执政时间套娃）：老布什 ≥ 克林顿 ≥ 小布什 ≥ 奥巴马 ≥ 特朗普 ≫ 童铁军

（按风流指数套娃）：克林顿 ≥ 特朗普 ≥ 小布什 ≥ 老布什 ≥ 奥巴马 ≫ 童铁军

（按强硬程度套娃）：特朗普 ≥ 老布什 ≥ 小布什 ≥ 奥巴马 ≥ 克林顿 ≫ 童铁军

（按执政能力套娃）：克林顿 ≥ 奥巴马 ≥ 小布什 ≥ 老布什 ≥ 特朗普 ≫ 童铁军

（按个人资产套娃）：特朗普 ≥ 克林顿 ≥ 老布什 ≥ 小布什 ≥ 奥巴马 ≫ 童铁军

Conclusion: The previous 5 U.S. presidents are, more or less, comparable to each other. It is also evident that they are all much better than the idiot (served as a baseline) listed in the end.

The China B4 Club (B5中国分舵)

Advised by Professors Xingwei Tong, Xingqiu Zhao and Fukang Zhu on 29 October 2023 in the Sai Kung trip (see the pictures below), I would be very pleased to also launch "The China B4 Club", which can be regarded as the China Chapter of The B5 Club. Once again, to the best of my limited knowledge, there are only 13 statisticians in China eligible for this club (i.e. who has published articles in any 4 or more of these journals) as follows.

Jian Huang, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, eligible in 2007 (VIP Number: CB4-N1)

Xingwei Tong, Beijing Normal University, eligible in 2013 (VIP Number: CB4-N2)

Tiejun Tong, Hong Kong Baptist University, eligible in 2013 (VIP Number: CB4-N3)

Jianhua Huang, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, eligible in 2014

Huazhen Lin, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, eligible in 2016

Hong Zhang, University of Science and Technology of China, eligible in 2016

Heng Lian, City University of Hong Kong, eligible in 2017

Yuanshan Wu, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, eligible in 2017

Guosheng Yin, University of Hong Kong, eligible in 2017

Tao Wang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, eligible in 2020

Yi-Hau Chen, Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, eligible in 2020

Hung Hung, National Taiwan University, eligible in 2021

Yingcun Xia, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, eligible in 2023

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1: What is the purpose to launch The B5 Club?

Answer:
As is well known, the top 4 journals in statistics consist of AoS, Biometrika, JASA, and JRSSB. For short, I now refer to them as The T4 Club. These 4 journals mainly focus on the statistical theory and methodology, and they are also, more or less, of the same style. In other words, if a statistician is extremely well trained in statistical theory so that s/he is able to independently publish papers in one of these journals, then assuming that s/he is also very productive, it will be very likely that this statistician will eventually join The T4 Club.

While for The B5 Club, its 5 journals cover not only "all aspects ranging from probability, statistics to biostatistics", but also "all aspects ranging from theory, methodology to application". To conclude, The T4 Club can be used to represent the depth of statistical knowledge, whereas The B5 Club can be used to represent the breadth of statistical knowledge. In addition, noting that Biometrika belongs to both clubs, can we simply conclude that the statistical knowledge of the B5 club members is with only the breadth but not the depth?

Question 2: Well, you almost convinced us. Is there anything else you would like to add about The B5 Club?

Answer:
As an additional message to share, the letter B in The B5 Club may also indicate the breadth of statistical knowledge, whereas the number 5 may imply that the B5 club members behave, in some sense, like pentagon warriors.

Question 3: Besides The B5 Club and The T4 Club, are there other interesting clubs that can be attractive for grouping the statistics and related journals?

Answer:
This is indeed a very good question. At your own interest, you are most welcome to group a few top-tier journals in your field and launch your own clubs. Hopefully, of course, you will be a member of your own club, as otherwise what is the purpose to spend a lot of effort to launch such a new club, right? With a brainstorming discussion, the people in the Sai Kung trip (see above) have actually suggested a few other club names including, but not limited to,
(a) The A3 Club (Annals of Mathematics, Annals of Probability, and Annals of Statistics) with, e.g., Terence Tao and Amir Dembo being two club members.
(b) The A4 Club (Annals of Applied Probability, Annals of Probability, Annals of Applied Statistics, and Annals of Statistics) with, e.g., Persi Diaconis and David Siegmund being two club members.

Question 4: Finally, why is it you but not other people have launched The B5 Club?

Answer:
Following the answer to Question 3, I do not believe that non-club members would be interested in launching such a B5 club. While for most existing members in The B5 Club (expect for me, who is doing research mainly for fun), they have devoted themselves to cutting-edge research and would certainly not waste their precious time building and maintaining such a nonsense club. In the end, it is either me or nobody, who might be interested to launch this purely-for-fun club.