Statistics. An Introduction using R. Michael J Crawley. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005, 335 pp. $130.00, hardcover. ISBN 0-470-02297-3, $44.95; paperback. ISBN 0-470-02298-1. (Book web site: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/lifesciences/research/statisticsusingr).

摘要

The second volume, by Michael Crawley, is an R code sequel to his monumental Statistical Computing (reviewed in Clin Chem 2003;49:1959–62), which comprehensively explained statistical procedures using the S-Plus language (which is closely related to R). Crawley comments “This book is an introduction to the essentials of statistical analysis for students who have little or no background in mathematics or statistics.” Later he states “The hardest part of any statistical work is getting started—and one of the hardest things about getting started is choosing the right kind of statistical analysis. The truth is that there is no substitute for experience; the way to know what to do, is to have done it properly lots of times before.” The key, Crawley suggests, is to correctly categorize the response and explanatory variables. Is the …