MRS Silver Medal
In 1960, one year after the launch of the International Journal of Market Research, MRS decided to recognise through a specific award those who make significant contributions to the development of methodologies and new thinking within the market research industry. Between 1960 and 1978, the Gold Medal was awarded for ‘an outstanding contribution to the theory or practice of market research’. In 1979, following a review of the awards scheme, the Society decided to use the Gold Medal as an occasional award for those having made a significant contribution to the market research industry, and introduced the Silver Medal awarded to the most notable published contribution to market research in the UK during the previous two years. The Silver Medal subsequently became an annual award given by the MRS Awards Panel to the author(s) of the best paper published in the IJMR in the year preceding the awarding year.
For 2011, the award covers the publishing period January 2010 (Vol. 52 No.1) to December 2010 (Vol.52 No.6), and is awarded to Cataldo Zuccaro for Statistical alchemy – the misuse of factor scores in linear regression from Vol. 52 No. 4. His paper provides a readable, well-thought-through, written and illustrated discussion outlining the pitfalls of using multivariate techniques.The judges said this paper should be required reading to the growing number of practitioners turning to these methods without the necessary background in how to deploy such analyses.
MRS Members can request full copies of the paper by emailing info@mrs.org.uk.