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Stat textbook recommendations?

8 messages · Monte Milanuk, Greg Snow, Daniel Viar +3 more

Original
Greg Snow
# 
I like:

Applied Linear Statistical Models by Neter, Kutner, Nachtsheim, and Wasserman (McGraw Hill)

It is not specific to any stats package, but it gives a good mix of theory behind the routines and how to apply them and covers a good breadth of material.

A must have for statistics and R is:

Modern Applied Statistics with S by Venables and Ripley (Springer).  This gives specific examples and commands to use in S-plus/R along with more background information and theory than the R tutorials.

Once you have the theory down, a couple more books that help with the practical aspects of using R to do the analysis are:

A Handbook of Statistical Analyses Using R by Everitt and Hothorn (Chapman & Hall/CRC)
An R and S-PLUS Companion to Applied Regression by Fox (Sage)

There may be other good ones out there that I am not familiar enough with to recommend.

Hope this helps,
Daniel Viar
# 
You might want to check out the following:

http://www.stochas.org/
http://www1.appstate.edu/~arnholta/PASWR/index.htm
http://turtle.gis.umn.edu/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/StatisticsandDatawithR/HomePage
http://www.janehorgan.com/

I own all of these books and like them.

The book by Dr. Jan Horgan:
"Probability with R: An Introduction with Computer Science
Applications" is nice in that it's quick and right to the point.
Don't let the title fool you, there's plenty of information applicable
to all fields.

The book by Dr. Kenneth Baclawski:
"Introduction to Probability with R" is has more theory than the
previous book and also has lots of worked problems.

The other two books are general prob/stat books, I find they're both
extremely well written with the Arnholt book with a little more
theory.

All of these books start from first principles (no required stat
background, just some math) but I suspect that all of these may be a
good next step to bridge the gaps that you mention.  In addition, I
think that owners of PASWR and SADWR may be able to get a solution
manual from the author (if you're working on your own and not taking a
class).

Cheers,

Dan Viar
Chesapeake, VA
On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 11:57 AM, Monte Milanuk <memilanuk at gmail.com> wrote:
Christopher W. Ryan
# 
If you don't want to be on your own, and you are looking for more
statistics courses than you have available locally, Texas A&M University
statistics department offers some single courses, a 4-course
certificate, and an entire masters degree, all online, no campus visits
required.  I am in their masters program now.

Colorado State University offers similar things, also no campus visits
needed.

--Chris
Christopher W. Ryan, MD
SUNY Upstate Medical University Clinical Campus at Binghamton
40 Arch Street, Johnson City, NY  13790
cryanatbinghamtondotedu
PGP public keys available at http://home.stny.rr.com/ryancw/

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood,
divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the
vast and endless sea."  [Antoine de St. Exupery]
Monte Milanuk wrote:
Peter Dalgaard
# 
(resending to include r-help)
Monte Milanuk wrote:
Re. ISwR, you might want to take notice that it was originally written
for a course that used Altman's "Practical Statistics for Medical
Research". It is, however, a bit wordy for some and glosses rather too
quickly over the math.

Another popular item for ambitious beginners is Kirkwood and Sterne:
Essential Medical Statistics. Their notation is a bit maddening (for
teachers anyway) but they do cover a lot of ground without digging too
deeply into the math.

If you want more math, beware that what is good, strongly depends on
your prerequisites. Linear model theory, e.g., gets much easier with
matrix calculus and nearly trivial if you know about abstract linear
algebra and projections in N dimensional vector spaces. For relatively
basic levels, look at booke that are popular for first courses in
Engineering: Devore, Johnson+Miller+Freund, and probably more.
Monte Milanuk
# 
Hello Chris,

Thanks for the info... because of my work schedule making it  
functionally very difficult to attend traditional classes, the  
courses I have taken to date have been online.  Definitely  
interesting to balance with a full-time job, family and other  
activities, but sometimes the only option.  I'll look into those  
courses and see if I can persuade the local school to perhaps accept  
them as elective credits ;)

Thanks,

Monte
On Jan 23, 2009, at 10:36 AM, Christopher W. Ryan wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Monte Milanuk
    

    

      
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On Jan 23, 2009, at 11:23 AM, Peter Dalgaard wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Hello Peter,

Thank you for the recommendations; I'll be sure to look into them.   
As you mention, the math level involved in some areas may well be   
beyond my current education... I've been a bit stymied by the online  
class system here not offering anything beyond the typical Math 105  
'math for non-science majors' courses designed to meet the bare  
minimum obligatory 5 credit requirement for a degree.  Chris  
mentioned some more extensive stat course available elsewhere online;  
I may have to start searching for some better general math courses as  
well.

Thanks,

Monte

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      William Asquith
    

    

      
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Monte,

Here is an entire book released to public domain from earlier  
publication by Elsevier

http://pubs.usgs.gov/twri/twri4a3/

William

        
On Jan 23, 2009, at 10:57 AM, Monte Milanuk wrote: