Second Biennial Conference of the Society for the Study of Measurement

We are excited to announce that the Second Biennial Conference of the Society for the Study of Measurement will be held at the University of Edinburgh June 22-25 2026. The main conference will take place June 23-25, with a pre-conference day of workshops held on June 22. 

We are delighted to announce that Professor Jana Uher (Greenwich) will be our keynote speaker and that Professor Luca Mari (Università Carlo Cattaneo - LIUC) will be giving the society’s inaugural presidential address.

Organiser and Host for the Conference: Jo Wolff (University of Edinburgh)

Queries: [email protected]

On behalf of the Council of the Society for the Study of Measurement: Luca Mari (President), Eran Tal (Secretary), and Council Members Leah McClimans, Nadine de Courtenay, Miguel Ohnesorge, David Torres Irribarra, and Mark Wilson. 

Topics

Please see below for a non-exhaustive list of suggested topics; we particularly welcome contributions that make contact with this year’s conference theme: Ground Truth and Validity. While the notion of measurement validity is comparatively familiar, ground truth may need more of an introduction. The concept of ground truth has origins in remote sensing, where it is used to contrast the outcomes of a near or ground level measurement with outcomes of a remotely sensed measurement. From these origins, the concept has now moved to a wider use, particularly in machine learning contexts, where it denotes data assumed to be true, which can then be used to calibrate and validate machine learning data. The time seems ripe for a more careful investigation from a measurement perspective of the concept of ground truth—both in its original understanding and in its more metaphorical use.

Measurement and Simulation

• Connections between measuring and simulating
• Can simulation substitute for measurement?

Measurement and Data Science

• Measurement and data quality
• Measurement and data analysis
• Measurement and AI

Models in Measurement

• The role of models in measurement
• The role of models in justifying measurement results
• Models, intersubjectivity, objectivity, validation

Models of Measurement

• The general structure of the measurement process
• The structure of measurement in social and human sciences
• Transduction and calibration in measurement
• History of the conception of the structure of measurement

History, Philosophy and Sociology of Measurement

• Exploration across sciences with diverse philosophical perspectives
• New quantification and measurement approaches
• Epistemological and metaphysical approaches to measurement

Measurement Applications and their conceptual foundations in any area of science

• Life & Health Sciences
• Geosciences
• Social & Historical Sciences
• Physical Sciences
• Engineering & Computing