The Statistical Analysis Of Experimental Data

First half of book presents fundamental mathematical definitions, concepts, and facts while remaining half deals with statistics primarily as an interpretive tool. Well-written text, numerous worked examples with step-by-step presentation. Includes 116 tables.

This open access textbook provides the background needed to correctly use, interpret and understand statistics and statistical data in diverse settings. Part I makes key concepts in statistics readily clear. Parts I and II give an overview of the most common tests (t-test, ANOVA, correlations) and work out their statistical principles. Part III provides insight into meta-statistics (statistics of statistics) and demonstrates why experiments often do not replicate. Finally, the textbook shows how complex statistics can be avoided by using clever experimental design. Both non-scientists and students in Biology, Biomedicine and Engineering will benefit from the book by learning the statistical basis of scientific claims and by discovering ways to evaluate the quality of scientific reports in academic journals and news outlets.

This book is intended as a guide to the analysis and presentation of experimental results. It develops various techniques for the numerical processing of experimental data, using basic statistical methods and the theory of errors. After presenting basic theoretical concepts, the book describes the methods by which the results can be presented, both numerically and graphically. The book is divided into three parts, of roughly equal length, addressing the theory, the analysis of data, and the presentation of results. Examples are given and problems are solved using the Excel, Origin, Python and R software packages. In addition, programs in all four languages are made available to readers, allowing them to use them in analyzing and presenting the results of their own experiments. Subjects are treated at a level appropriate for undergraduate students in the natural sciences, but this book should also appeal to anyone whose work involves dealing with experimental results.

Regression, analysis of variance, correlation, graphical.

Even with a limited mathematics background, readers can understand what statistical methods are & how they may be used to obtain the best possible results from experimental measurements & data.

This concise set of course-based notes provides the reader with the main concepts and tools needed to perform statistical analyses of experimental data, in particular in the field of high-energy physics (HEP). First, the book provides an introduction to probability theory and basic statistics, mainly intended as a refresher from readers’ advanced undergraduate studies, but also to help them clearly distinguish between the Frequentist and Bayesian approaches and interpretations in subsequent applications. More advanced concepts and applications are gradually introduced, culminating in the chapter on both discoveries and upper limits, as many applications in HEP concern hypothesis testing, where the main goal is often to provide better and better limits so as to eventually be able to distinguish between competing hypotheses, or to rule out some of them altogether. Many worked-out examples will help newcomers to the field and graduate students alike understand the pitfalls involved in applying theoretical concepts to actual data. This new second edition significantly expands on the original material, with more background content (e.g. the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, best linear unbiased estimator), applications (unfolding and regularization procedures, control regions and simultaneous fits, machine learning concepts) and examples (e.g. look-elsewhere effect calculation).

An introduction to the Bayesian approach to statistical inference that demonstrates its superiority to orthodox frequentist statistical analysis. This book offers an introduction to the Bayesian approach to statistical inference, with a focus on nonparametric and distribution-free methods. It covers not only well-developed methods for doing Bayesian statistics but also novel tools that enable Bayesian statistical analyses for cases that previously did not have a full Bayesian solution. The book's premise is that there are fundamental problems with orthodox frequentist statistical analyses that distort the scientific process. Side-by-side comparisons of Bayesian and frequentist methods illustrate the mismatch between the needs of experimental scientists in making inferences from data and the properties of the standard tools of classical statistics. The book first covers elementary probability theory, the binomial model, the multinomial model, and methods for comparing different experimental conditions or groups. It then turns its focus to distribution-free statistics that are based on having ranked data, examining data from experimental studies and rank-based correlative methods. Each chapter includes exercises that help readers achieve a more complete understanding of the material. The book devotes considerable attention not only to the linkage of statistics to practices in experimental science but also to the theoretical foundations of statistics. Frequentist statistical practices often violate their own theoretical premises. The beauty of Bayesian statistics, readers will learn, is that it is an internally coherent system of scientific inference that can be proved from probability theory.