COM 508
Basic Statistics for the Social Sciences

Note: If you run across any PDF documents, you will need to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view them (provided the software is not already installed on your machine)

Course essentials:

• Syllabus
• Assignments and Data Files
• ZforB
• Discussion area:

Help, tutorials, learning aids:

• About Student's T. Did you know that Student is really a pseudonym, and that "Student's" company would not allow him to publish under his real name?

  Actually, you can find information on all sorts of things mathematical from Eric Weisstein's Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics online. You can also look at such topics as variance & sample variance, the Central Limit Theorem, F-distribution, Chi-Square distribution, and other topics related to probability & statistics.

• Bill Trochim's Center for Social Research Methods. In particular, check out:

  Trochim, William M. The Research Methods Knowledge Base, 2nd Edition. Internet WWW page, at URL: http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/index.htm (version current as of April 09, 1999).

  Trochim, William M. [Guide to] Selecting Statistics. Internet WWW page, at URL: http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/selstat/ssstart.htm.

  Trochim, William M. Glossary of Statistical Terms. Internet WWW page, at URL: http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/selstat/glossary.htm.

• InStat Guide to Choosing and Interpreting Statistical Tests — Wonderful guide from GraphPad Software that assists you in choosing the appropriate statistical test and interpreting what the test means. You can also download a pdf version of the complete guide (154 pages) for printing and/or viewing locally.

• Statsoft Electronic Textbook — Covers elementary to highly advanced topics. You can even download the entire thing to your hard drive for viewing locally. Really amazing!

• Introductory Statistics: Concepts, Models, and Applications — Online intro stats book by David W. Stockburger, Southwest Missouri State University.

• Hyperstat Online — Introductory-level hypertext statistics book, by David M. Lane, Rice University.

• A New View of Statistics — A well-organized and easy-to-use online reference covering elementary to advanced statistical issues. The work was prepared by Will G. Hopkins of Sportscience, an electronic journal devoted to research on sports and sport performance. Go to their homepage and check out some of the interesting applications of statistics to the world of sports.

• DASL: Data And Storage Library — DASL (pronounced "dazzle") is an online library of datafiles and stories that illustrate the use of basic statistics methods. You can search the site for a particular topic or method or, if you prefer, you may go directly to a list of methods with illustrative examples by clicking here.

• Dr. B's Wild World of Web Data — Looking for a data set in order to do a statistical analysis project? Check out this listing (with links) of data sets in a variety of interest areas

• Chance Course — Course developed at Dartmouth designed to develop statistical and probabilistic literacy in an enjoyable way by using materials garnered from the popular press to illustrate basic ideas.

• VassarStats Online Statistical Calculator — Online statistical calculator from Richard Lowry (Dept. of Psych. at Vassar College) with nice summaries of techniques and ability to enter data online and compute statistical results. You may find this useful if you don't otherwise have access to statistical software. Go directly to the main menu for a list of procedures.

Advanced topics:

• Choice models and experimental economics — Game theory, rationality, judgement and decision making

• Dynamic Modeling — Nonlinear dynamics, complex systems, chaos, etc.

• Item Response Theory Models for Unfolding — Contemporary approach to measurement of latent constructs. This site, put together by Dr. James S. Roberts (Medicual University of South Carolina), includes background info, examples, and links to software (free and commercial).

• Principles of Information Display for Visualization Practitioners — A technical report by Al Globus (NAS, NASA) that reviews classical work by Edward Tufte regarding design and layout issues in the visual presentation of data. All in all, a very nice summary of Tufte's work, but you might also want to look at Tufte's actual books since they include a number of wonderful visual displays in high-quality glossy color.

• Neural Nets FAQ — Frequently-asked questions on neural nets from the comp.ai.neural-nets newsgroup. In particular, you may want to check out the discussion comparing neural nets to statistical methods.

Lighten up, already!

• Gary G. Ramseyer's Internet Gallery of Statistics Jokes