What is a p-value anyway? 34 Stories to Help You Actually Understand Statistics

Andrew J. Vickers (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

What is a p-value Anyway? offers a fun introduction to the fundamental principles of statistics, presenting the essential concepts in thirty-four brief, enjoyable stories. Drawing on his experience as a medical researcher, Vickers blends insightful explanations and humor, with minimal math, to help readers understand and interpret the statistics they read every day.

 

Describing data; Data distributions; Variation of study results: confidence intervals; Hypothesis testing; Regression and decision making; Some common statistical errors, and what they teach us

 

For all readers interested in statistics.

About the Author

Andrew Vickers, PhD, is an Associate Attending Research Methodologist in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He is active in a variety of fields of cancer research, and also conducts original research in statistical methods, particularly with respect to the evaluation of prediction models. Dr. Vickers has been course leader for the biostatistics course at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center since 2001, and has taught biostatistics to medical students at Cornell Medical School since 2000. Dr. Vickers received a First Class BA in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; 1 edition (November 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321629302
• ISBN-13: 978-0321629302
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #500,686 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific teaching aid for reaching the math-phobic, January 31, 2010

By	J. Probst - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a teacher in a school of public health and formerly in a medical school, I've been a fan of Dr. Vickers' work for years, beginning with his columns published in Medscape--many of which I'm revisiting in the book. By way of revealing conflict of interest, I sent Dr. Vickers a fan email a few years ago asking "when will you write a book?" because I felt it would be a great supplemental read for my students.
"What is a p-value anyway" won't substitute for an introductory statistics textbook, but it makes a terrific companion piece. Some folks actually come to an understanding of statistics through equations. I once co-presented with a real biostatistician. All the other biostatisticians in the room followed her pointer through the equations like kittens watching a ball. Most of us, though, and definitely most students, need folksier explanations. Dr. Vickers excels at these. He uses simple, catchy examples to teach concepts ranging from the difference between the median and the mean ("So Bill Gates walks into a diner....") through the statistical consequences of multiple testing on the same data set ("Boy meets girls, girl rejects boy, boy starts multiple testing"). I particularly like the title of the last chapter, which echoes my own approach to analysis in health services research: "Statistics is about people, even if you can't see the tears."