The Power Of Research

With increased emphasis on helping readers understand the context in which power calculations are done, this Second Edition of How Many Subjects? by Helena Chmura Kraemer and Christine Blasey introduces a simple technique of statistical power analysis that allows researchers to compute approximate sample sizes and power for a wide range of research designs. Because the same technique is used with only slight modifications for different statistical tests, researchers can then easily compare the sample sizes required by different designs and tests to make cost-effective decisions in planning a study. These comparisons demonstrate important principles of design, measurement, and analysis that are rarely discussed in courses or textbooks, making this book a valuable instructional resource as well as a must-have guide for frequent reference.

This book addresses sample size and power in the context of research, offering valuable insights for graduate and doctoral students as well as researchers in any discipline where data is generated to investigate research questions. It explains how to enhance the authenticity of research by estimating the sample size and reporting the power of the tests used. Further, it discusses the issue of sample size determination in survey studies as well as in hypothesis testing experiments so that readers can grasp the concept of statistical errors, minimum detectable difference, effect size, one-tail and two-tail tests and the power of the test. The book also highlights the importance of fixing these boundary conditions in enhancing the authenticity of research findings and improving the chances of research papers being accepted by respected journals. Further, it explores the significance of sample size by showing the power achieved in selected doctoral studies. Procedure has been discussed to fix power in the hypothesis testing experiment. One should usually have power at least 0.8 in the study because having power less than this will have the issue of practical significance of findings. If the power in any study is less than 0.5 then it would be better to test the hypothesis by tossing a coin instead of organizing the experiment. It also discusses determining sample size and power using the freeware G*Power software, based on twenty-one examples using different analyses, like t-test, parametric and non-parametric correlations, multivariate regression, logistic regression, independent and repeated measures ANOVA, mixed design, MANOVA and chi-square.

How Many Subjects? is a practical guide to sample size calculations and general principles of cost-effective research. It introduces a simple technique of statistical power analysis which allows researchers to compute approximate sample sizes and power for a wide variety of research designs. Because the same technique is used with only slight modifications for different statistical tests, researchers can easily compare the sample sizes required by different designs and tests to make cost-effective decisions in planning a study. These comparisons, emphasized throughout the book, demonstrate important principles of design, measurement and analysis that are rarely discussed in courses or textbooks.

Power analysis is an essential tool for determining whether a statistically significant result can be expected in a scientific experiment prior to the experiment being performed. Many funding agencies and institutional review boards now require power analyses to be carried out before they will approve experiments, particularly where they involve the use of human subjects. This comprehensive, yet accessible, book provides practising researchers with step-by-step instructions for conducting power/sample size analyses, assuming only basic prior knowledge of summary statistics and the normal distribution. It contains a unified approach to statistical power analysis, with numerous easy-to-use tables to guide the reader without the need for further calculations or statistical expertise. This will be an indispensable text for researchers and graduates in the medical and biological sciences needing to apply power analysis in the design of their experiments.

The book provides a step-wise approach to determine the sample size and power in survey studies and hypothesis testing experiments. Concepts involved in the process have been discussed in a crisp and easy manner so that one can understand them even without having much knowledge of statistical techniques. The G*Power software, which is a freeware has been used to determine sample size and power in research studies. In order to make it more simple lots of screenshots have been used so that the researchers can determine their own sample size in different types of experiments for specific power.

Power analysis is an essential tool for determining whether a statistically significant result can be expected in a scientific experiment prior to the experiment being performed. This comprehensive, accessible book provides practicing researchers with step-by-step instructions for conducting power/sample size analyses, assuming only basic prior knowledge of summary statistics and normal distribution. It contains a unified approach to statistical power analysis, with numerous easy-to-use tables that make further calculations or statistical expertise unnecessary.