Hi Nathan, >From a MS student's point of view I thought Fields' “Discovering Statistics Using R” was fantastic! I'm doing a MS in ecology at the University of Zürich and took a course based entirely on that textbook just last semester. I had no previous experience with R, only some in SPSS. Yes it had a lot of low brow humour in it but I enjoyed that Fields was having fun with the material - and it made for a welcome change from all of the day-to-day seriousness, while still bringing the point across! The exercises in each chapter were also great.
The textbook made learning to use R a cinch, and as you mentioned, the applied stats side was also really well-written - I learned more about statistical methods from that course than I had from any other course or lecture on stats. I loved it. For those far more advanced in statistics and R another textbook could well be better - but for a graduate student needing to brush the cobwebs off their undergrad stats and just beginning to learn R it was perfect! Best, Stef MS Student University of Zürich Dept. of Evolutionary Biology & Environmental Studies Am 27.11.2016 17:43 schrieb "Nathan Brouwer" <[email protected]>: > The books “Discovering Statistics Using R” and “Discovering Statistics > Using SPSS” are social-science applied statistics textbooks that are > generally positively reviewed on Amazon. I am wondering if anyone has > opinions on whether they would be appropriate for an applied graduate > biostatistics course. It looks like they are oriented towards undergrads > but some reviews imply that they are not entry-level texts. (They also > appear to rely on rather low-brow humor - which could be a plus or a minus). > > > > Any comments would be appreciated. > > > > > > My context, in case you are curious: > > I am teaching an applied, project-based biostats/R course. Students will > be from an array of biological and environmental sciences disciplines, > including ecology, physiology, cell bio, and genomics. Most students will > not have taken a stats course since they were undergrads, and few will have > experience with R. The book seems to have a very attractive combination of > applied stats + basic R. Most R books in my experience are rather terse > when it comes to the stats -- as well as often with regards to the R. I > think I’d rather have a non-biology focused book that integrates stats and > R than to use a more standard biostats and either a) use a separate R book, > or b)come up with all of the R stuff myself. A few labs in the department > use SPSS and so referring to the SPSS version of the book could be useful > at times. I would supplement the book heavily with readings from journals > and probably use Motulsky’s “Intutive Biostatistics” as a supplmental text. > > > > > > Nathan L. Brouwer, PhD > > Research Associate | National Aviary, Dept. of > Conservation & Field Research > > Adjunct Assistant Professor | Department of Biology, > California University of Pennsylvania > > [email protected] | www.researchgate. > net/profile/Nathan_Brouwer > > *http://rpubs.com/brouwern <http://rpubs.com/brouwern>* > > > > >
