Statistics Book: Chi2 Tests, Student Tests, Z Scores, TDTs

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the search for a suitable statistics book that covers various statistical tests and concepts, including Chi-squared tests, Student's t-tests, Z-scores, and Bonferroni corrections. Participants express their needs for reference materials that are accessible and useful for research purposes.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Homework-related
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • One participant seeks a statistics book that serves as a comprehensive reference for Chi-squared tests, Student's t-tests, and related topics.
  • Another participant expresses a preference for a review book rather than one focused on statistical rigor.
  • A suggestion is made that basic statistics books available at colleges may suffice for research purposes.
  • One participant shares their experience with a statistics course and mentions a specific book used, noting its limitations in covering all desired topics.
  • Another participant points to Mathworld as a resource for useful information related to statistics.
  • Schaum's Guide to Statistics is recommended as a potential resource that covers many necessary topics.
  • A participant mentions having multiple statistics books that together cover the basics but expresses doubt that a single comprehensive book exists.
  • There is a discussion about the need for a reference that lists all statistical tests along with their pros and cons, which some participants believe may not be available.
  • Several titles of statistics books are suggested, particularly those focused on biostatistics, along with a recommendation to check customer reviews on Amazon.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on a single recommended book, and multiple competing views regarding the adequacy of available resources remain. The discussion reflects a variety of needs and preferences for statistical references.

Contextual Notes

Some participants express uncertainty about the availability of a single book that comprehensively covers all statistical tests and their applications. There are also references to the varying definitions of statistical symbols, indicating a lack of standardization.

Monique
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Does anyone have a good statistics book standing on the shelve? Does it deal with Chi2 tests, student tests, bonferroni corrections etc? Z scores, TDTs?

It is so hard to get - and keep - a grip on these types of necessary components of conducting research. I'd really like to have a book which can be used as a reference..
 
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Actually basically I am looking for a review book more than a statistical rigor book..
 
Does your college not have a basic level statistic book. That will be all you need for research purposes and they usually make stats very easily understood.

Nautica
 
University I had a statistics course in college where we had to make our own models in Excel and use those to solve problems where different data groups were compared, I actually attained a full score (100%) on that test.

The book was statistics for analytical chemistry and deals w/ 95-99% confidence intervals, judging the precision and accuracy of measurements, calculating the significance between the averages of two independent studies, anova, cusum, shall I go on? Student T tests, something with F tests..

But this is all very long ago.. all my models are still on floppy disk! can you imagine? We didn't have zips or cds yet.. at least it wasn't one of those huge square thin black floppy drive things I've actually got a few hundered workable ones together with a commodore 64 computer lol

Back to the subject.. somehow I feel this book is not adequate, as I mentioned the methods in the first post are not in there.. well, chisquared is in it.. I guess I should be on the lookout for a statistical genetics book or epidemiology book.
 
I'm not sure what you're looking for, but you can find lot's of usefull stuff at Mathworld (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/). Especially if you're mostly doing some kind of review.
 
Schaum's Guide to statistics would have most of what you want (I once used it to pass a state statistics exam cold). Maybe not some of the special biostatistics topics.
 
Unfortunately, all my stats books are in my office, and I'm not. I don't have anyone book that has everything. I just don't know if such a thing exists. I have three stats books that together seem to cover all the basics. Oh, wait, just spotted one on the bookshelf here...that explains why I couldn't find it at the office the other day when trying to knock some sense into a stubborn post-doc :wink: This one doesn't really cover basic stats, but is really handy when designing experiments. Hicks, CR. Fundamental Concepts in the Design of Experiments, 4th ed. Saunders College Publishing, New York, 1993. For simple stats like chi-squared, I have one that's statistics for behavioral sciences (not the exact title)...it's great, written very easy to read (because I guess statisticians think psychology majors can't do math...they could be right). The third one goes into greater detail on all the types of t-tests, variance, confidence intervals, etc.

What I have never managed to get my hands on is something that just lists all those different things in one book. My PhD mentor used to have a great text, long out of print, well-worn, and the disappearance of which would certainly be punishable by death. It had an assortment of standard parametric stats along with some nonparametric stats and easy to follow examples of how to calculate them (that text was written back when computers used punch cards, so people still hand-calculated that stuff).

Oh, do you need theory or just need to do a chi-squared test? I think Excel has a function for chi-squared analysis. I know it will do t-tests. Or do you just want a reference on hand that you don't need at the moment?
 
I found all of your statistics questions answered on Google. Altruism: it's everywhere you want to google.



-Chris
 
Originally posted by Moonbear
Oh, do you need theory or just need to do a chi-squared test? I think Excel has a function for chi-squared analysis. I know it will do t-tests. Or do you just want a reference on hand that you don't need at the moment?
Well, I read a lot of research papers and they throw around all these statistics tests and corrections. I'd like to have a reference which lists ALL tests developed by type and gives their pros and cons.. I guess that book doesn't exist though..

Or a book which lists all the different definitions of the same symbol, since they don't always mean the same thing.

I will check out the titles listed though, thanks :)
 
  • #10
amazon.com has a lot of customer reviews of different stat books. Search there for something like 'statistics for biology' or 'biostatistics' I was going to buy one last year but they cost too much. I made a note of a couple of them:

Statistical Tables
by F. James Rohlf, Robert R. Sokal

Biometry: The Principles and Practice of Statistics in Biological Research
by Robert R. Sokal, F. James Rohlf

Fundamentals of Biostatistics (with Data Disk)
by Bernard Rosner

Primer of Biostatistics
by Stanton S. Glantz, Stanton A. Glantz

Biostatistical Analysis (4th Edition)
by Jerrold H. Zar

Whatever book you get, how about posting a follow up to whether it's any good or not.

for SAS try GraphPad's Prism
http://www.graphpad.com/prism/Prism.htm
it's a lot better than Excel and more intuitive.
 
  • #11
Oh great! I'll make sure to check those out..
 

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