The Statistical Sleuth: A Course in Methods of Data Analysis [Hardcover]

Fred Ramsey (Author), Daniel Schafer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0534386709 | ISBN-13: 978-0534386702 | Publication Date: 2002 | Edition: 2

STATISTICAL SLEUTH is an innovative treatment of general statistical methods, taking full advantage of the computer, both as a computational and an analytical tool. The material is independent of any specific software package. In "The American Statistician" (February 2000, Vol. 54, No. 1), George Cobb commented, "What is new and different about Ramsey and Schafer's book, what makes it a 'larger contribution,' is that it gives much more prominence to modeling and interpretation of the sort that goes beyond the routine patterns." His students did "substantially better" on term papers based on the analysis of data. In the book, the focus is on a serious analysis of real case studies; on strategies and tools of modern statistical data analysis; on the interplay of statistics and scientific learning; and on the communication of results. With interesting examples, real data, and a variety of exercise types (conceptual, computational, and data problems), the authors get students excited about statistics.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Native Iowan, raised in Oregon. Undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon (1961); graduate degrees from Iowa State University (1963, 64); Post-doc at Johns Hopkins University (1965-66). On the faculty of the Department of Statistics at Oregon State University since 1966, with leaves for teaching/research positions at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark (1972-3), the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia (1985-6), Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon (1990-91), and Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia (1997-8). Principal research interest in applications of statistics to wildlife problems.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 816 pages
• Publisher: Duxbury Press; 2 edition (2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0534386709
• ISBN-13: 978-0534386702
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, more care needed with datasets, September 5, 2006

By 

Ashtoreth - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Statistical Sleuth: A Course in Methods of Data Analysis (Hardcover)

I have taught using this text 5 times now. I like the concept very much. My goals are to teach the students how to choose appropriate statistical tests and how to write up their results professionally. I very much like the concept of "project" exercises with real data sets.

Unfortunately, many of the datasets contain faulty data. I doubt that I have a full list of example, but Chapter 2, Problem 23 supposedly contains percent change in fatalities in states that retained and did not retain 55 mile per hour speed limits between 1995 and 1996. Unfortunately, the data reported have nothing in common with the real data. For instance, there were 87 fatalities in Alaska in 1995 and 81 in 1996 leading to a 7% decrease. The number used in the text is a 29% decrease. Other examples include Chapter 8, Problem 20 which is admittedly an approximation but the authors did not read the scale on the New York Times graphic correctly which places the supposed outlier rather differently than if the correct scale for the data is used. In Chapter 11, problem 24, there is an excessively heavy grasshopper mouse among other errant species weights.

The concept is great, a few data entry errors can be an effective learning tool, but too many blatantly incorrect datasets that lead to conclusions diametrically opposed to the real data seems sloppy to me.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent graduate-level text, May 24, 2000

By 

Eugene Gallagher (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Statistical Sleuth: A Course in Methods of Data Analysis (Hardcover)

This is a superb text for graduate students or advanced undergraduates. The case studies are excellent, and the approach is innovative. The strength of the book is its coverage of regression models (linear algebra not used - a weakness if you want to program in Matlab, but ok for SPSS). The examples are drawn from Ecology (esp. Island biogeography), Evolutionary biology, geochemistry, environmental policy, medicine and law. There is something of interest for even the most diverse audience.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for the non-specialist practitioner, November 3, 2004

By 

sweng "Sandor" (Hungary) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Statistical Sleuth: A Course in Methods of Data Analysis (Hardcover)

During my professional life I was several times in the situation of having to do statistical analysis of some data. I also saw other colleagues struggle with the same situation and it seems that for someone without a formal training in statistics and a lot of practical experience this is a strange mixture of technical know-how, guess-work and pure superstition.

This is the book I've been looking for for years now, to learn how to do the job with a reasonable understanding of the choices involved and the assumptions that are made when using this or that tool. It is a wonderfully practical and clear exposition of the methods that are likely to be used by a practitioner to answer practical questions with the help of data - and definitely helps to avoid the uneasy feeling of having to apply some tool without really knowing what is going on.