June 15, 2011 (Vol. 31, No. 12)
URL:
http://www.statsoft.com/textbook
Rating:
Strong Points: Complete, free online textbook
Weak Points: None
Summary:
Scientific discovery (as you might very well be aware) is not simply composed of bench work and raw data. Those data must be interpreted—and interpreted correctly. This is oftentimes accomplished with the use of statistics. But where, oh where, can one go to brush up on the difference between a t-test and an ANOVA? I’d head over to the StatSoft Electronic Statistics Textbook, a comprehensive online statistics reference. With over 40 chapters, this textbook covers everything from elementary concepts such as “what is a correlation?” to advanced topics like neural networks, nonparametric statistics, and process analysis. This is one resource of which every scientist should take advantage. Remember folks—just as a molecular biologist is lost without a pipette, any scientist will flounder without the proper foundation in statistics.