Statistical Methods & Applications (SMA) is the official journal of the Italian Statistical Society. This international journal fosters the development of statistical methodology and statistical learning, and their applications in biological, ecological, demographic, economic, engineering, financial, medical, epidemiological, social, psychometric and other scientific domains. The journal especially welcomes new methods that have broad applications. It also welcomes well-developed applications in the area of data science and non-heuristic developments in the area of machine learning. SMA includes two sections. The first is devoted to statistical methodology, publishing original contributions in all fields of statistics and machine learning. In addition, this section welcomes submissions of authoritative reviews. The second section publishes papers devoted to original and innovative applications of recent statistical methodology and complex approaches to statistical data analysis. Officially cited as: Stat Methods Appl Fosters the development of statistical methodology and statistical learning, and their applications in biological, ecological, demographic, economic, engineering, financial, medical, epidemiological, social, psychometric and other scientific domains Emphasizes investigations of methodological foundations and methods that have broad applications