Biometrika was established in 1901 by
Francis Galton,
Karl Pearson, and
Raphael Weldon to promote the study of
biometrics. The history of
Biometrika is covered by Cox (2001). The name of the journal was chosen by Pearson, but
Francis 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 biologists
Charles Davenport and
Raymond Pearl were nominally involved but they dropped out. On Pearson's death his son
Egon Pearson became editor and remained in this position until 1966.
David Cox was editor for the next 25 years. So, in its first 65 years
Biometrika 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 included
William Palin Elderton, an associate of Pearson's who published several articles in the early days and in 1935 became chairman of the Biometrika Trust. In the first issue, the editors presented a statement of purpose:
It is intended that Biometrika
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. Its contents were to include: • memoirs on
variation,
inheritance, and
selection in
animals and
plants, based upon the examination of statistically large numbers of specimens • those developments of statistical theory which are applicable to biological problems • numerical tables and graphical solutions tending to reduce the labour of statistical arithmetic • abstracts of memoirs, dealing with these subjects, which are published elsewhere • notes on current biometric work and unsolved problems 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." The same might be said of Pearson's journal. Of note,
Karl Pearson had adopted as the motto of the journal a declaration of
Charles Darwin that resonated with Karl Pearson's focus on biological topics and the large data sets that biology generated. In a letter to
William Darwin Fox in 1855, Charles Darwin declared “I have no faith in anything short of actual measurement and the Rule of Three.”
Karl Pearson adopted this declaration as the motto of his newly founded journal Biometrika. This rule of three referred to
cross-multiplication, however, and not the statistical
rule of three. ==Historical reference==