Resource Library

This textbook for medical statistics covers many topics such as: Data display and summary; Mean and standard deviation; Populations and samples; Statements of probability and confidence intervals; Differences between means: type I and type II errors and power; Differences between percentages and paired alternatives; The t tests; The chi-squared tests; Exact probabilty test; Rank score tests; Correlation and regression; Survival analysis; Study design and choosing a statistical test.

This collection of datasets, posted by UCLA, is divided into 6 groups: Datasets for Teaching; Data from Books; Data from Consulting Projects; Data from National Statistics Agencies; Social Science Data Archives; Data from US Governmental Agencies. The data from books come from the following authors: Petruccelli, Nandram and Chen; Freedman, Pisani, and Purves; Andrews and Herzberg; Carlson and Thorn; Cox and Snell; Hand, Daly, Lunn, McConway and Ostrowski; and Moore.

This site contains links to journals on probability and statistics published around the world. "Some publishers require registration to browse abstracts. Others require a current subscription to the journal by you or your institution. Most browsable titles, abstracts and papers are only for the past year or so."

This applet was designed to illustrate the impact on simple linear regression output caused by adding a new data point. The applet simulates data and provides a graphical display of the data points and fitted regression line as well as the updated regression line after the addition of a data point.

This site presents may articles on current events and issues that challenge statistics reported in the news. Each article encourages readers to think critically about statistics reported by the media and to look at the whole picture before believing conclusions presented in the news. "Our goals are to correct scientific misinformation in the media resulting from bad science, politics, or a simple lack of information or knowledge."

The individual source of the statistics may easily be the weakest link. Harold Cox tells a story of his life as a young man in India. He quoted some statistics to a Judge, an Englishman, and a very good fellow. His friend said, Cox, when you are a bit older, you will not quote Indian statistics with that assurance. The Government are very keen on amassing statistics ... they collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But what you must never forget is that every one of these figures comes in the first place from the `chowty dar` [village watchman], who just puts down what he damn pleases." Quoted from "Some Economic Factors in Modern Life" (King and Son, 1929; p. 258) by Sir Josiah Charles Stamp (1880 - 1941), British economist, statistician, director of the Bank of England and president of the Royal Statistical Society.

What do you call a tea party with more than 30 people? A Z party! This is joke #123 on http://www.ilstu.edu/~gcramsey/Gallery.html Gary Ramseyer's First Internet Gallery of Statistics Jokes and is attributed by the gallery to Stacey Ecott.

Statistics play an important role in genetics. For instance, statistics prove that the number of offspring you will have is an inherited trait. If your parents didn't have any kids, odds are you won't either. Joke #137 of Gary Ramseyer's "First Internet Gallery of Statistics Jokes" contributed by Hugh W. Graham of Abbott Labs.

Life is a school of probability. A quote attributed to English journalist and longtime editor of "The Economist" newspaper, Walter Bagehot (1826 - 1877). The quote is found in "The World of Mathematics", J.R. Newman (ed.); Simon and Schuster, 1956 p. 1360.

A knowledge of statistics is like a knowledge of foreign languages or of algebra; it may prove of use at any time under any circumstances. Quote from "Elements of Statistics" by English statistician, economist and early proponent of using statistics in the social sciences, Sir Arthur Lyon Bowley (1869 - 1957).