Discovering Statistics Using R
- Andy Field - University of Sussex, UK
- Jeremy Miles - RAND Corporation, USA
- Zoë Field - University of Sussex, UK
Keeping the uniquely humorous and self-deprecating style that has made students across the world fall in love with Andy Field's books, Discovering Statistics Using R takes students on a journey of statistical discovery using R, a free, flexible and dynamically changing software tool for data analysis that is becoming increasingly popular across the social and behavioural sciences throughout the world.
The journey begins by explaining basic statistical and research concepts before a guided tour of the R software environment. Next you discover the importance of exploring and graphing data, before moving onto statistical tests that are the foundations of the rest of the book (for example correlation and regression). You will then stride confidently into intermediate level analyses such as ANOVA, before ending your journey with advanced techniques such as MANOVA and multilevel models. Although there is enough theory to help you gain the necessary conceptual understanding of what you're doing, the emphasis is on applying what you learn to playful and real-world examples that should make the experience more fun than you might expect.
Like its sister textbooks, Discovering Statistics Using R is written in an irreverent style and follows the same ground-breaking structure and pedagogical approach. The core material is augmented by a cast of characters to help the reader on their way, together with hundreds of examples, self-assessment tests to consolidate knowledge, and additional website material for those wanting to learn more.
Given this book's accessibility, fun spirit, and use of bizarre real-world research it should be essential for anyone wanting to learn about statistics using the freely-available R software.
Supplements
Very old edition, using R commander (instead of RStudio) screen shots from an ancient Windows version. Feels like this book is no longer maintained or updated.
Easy explanations
Large number of examples
Well organized
Cant wait for the next version!
The book has a very particular way to help students understand statistic with R!
Excellent and comprehensive statistical text which will be of great interest to students who would like to broaden their skillset using R.
This book will most certainly be adopted as the main course book. It covers the topics needed for my course rather comprehensive, with a closer look on the regression assumptions (how to test them and what to do when they are violated) as well as some extensions to ordinary OLS and logistic regression. It could be a little lengthy sometimes, and it is not always very well structured. I think that the book would benefit from an update (the 5th edition of the SPSS-version of this book looks much better, and I’m looking forward to a similar update of this R-version).
However, the combination of a well written textbook that also is helps the student to practically implement the knowledge in R makes it a book well worth adopting.
If we had used Stata in the course instead, I think that I had adopted “Applied Statistics Using Stata” by Mehmetoglu and Jakobsen. And if that book had existed in a R-version, I might have adopted that one instead. However, the book at hand (Field et. al.) is definitely well suited for the course as well. I’m looking forward to the next edition.
This textbook is easy-to-understand, and it is written in a humorous way. It has all the information needed for an easy comprehension of statistical intricacies. The book also comes with vast database that can be used by students to test their knowledge of the material, and/or how to operate R.
As I'm sure you know, R does more sophisticated statistical techniques for free that mainstream packages do not and so is potentially useful to the doctoral students I teach and supervise. An intermediate step is to use the R links in Field's SPSS book but in the end it is necessary to get to grips with R and this book is a relatively painless way of doing this (especially if you and/or your students are familiar with Fields SPSS book).
Discovering Statistics using R is an excellent book to engage students in learning statistics using top of the line software. The content is presented in a clear and coherent way, and the exercises help reinforce and consolidate knowledge in quite a funny way. It is great material for teaching and learning, but also a handy reference book for researchers.
As an open source software and with a vast supporting community, R is increasingly adopted by researchers. Discovering Statistics Using R allows a soft transition from other statistical softwares to this open source alternative.
Clear and easy to use as an alternative to using SPSS for my psychology students
