Statistics

Topics

• representing data numerically
• representing data graphically
• significance tests
• guide to Excel for statistics
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Software

• R Statistics
• Microsoft's Excel and OpenOffice's Calc are of limited use for statistical analysis
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Quotes

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.

Evan Esar (1899 - 1995)

I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.

Fletcher Knebel

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Recommended Links

Background reading from the Wikipedia:

• biostatistics
• measures of central tendency: mean, median, mode
• normal distributions: normal distribution, standard deviation, variance, standard error of the mean from the Wikipedia
• significance tests: significance, confidence interval, t test, ANOVA from the
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Forums:

• Bioinformatics & biostatistics subforum at protocol-online.org. This subforum is mostly bioinformatics with only some statistics threads. The forum is very active with over 20k registered members and usually >200 users online.
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Tutorials:

• The really easy statistics site by Jim Deacon, Uni of Edinburgh - great starting point
• Statistical Notes Series by BMJ, listed on Jerry Dallal's page - very accessible article series on statistics in medicine