Choosing and Using Statistics: A Biologist's Guide, 2nd edition (Book review)

Abstract

Compressing data generally results in lost information but makes the remainder easier to comprehend. It is a common issue in statistical analysis, and it applies equally to statistics textbooks. This relatively slim volume provides practical instructions for selecting statistical tests and carrying them out using any of three different computer packages: SPSS, MINITAB, and Excel. For the more complex tests, there is no option in Excel, and sometimes not in MINITAB. Even in SPSS, some tests need special tricks or partial computation by hand. There are four sets of information for each test, and any one reader will generally use only two, or around 120 pages in all.