The reference books below have proven to be helpful in statistical consulting. As a rule, they are written in such a way that relevant sections can be shared between statistician and scientist. More advanced texts may be separated and placed toward the end of a section.
This list is not meant to be exhaustive; many other books could serve as excellent references. Suggestions and/or comments can be sent by email to allenie@babson.edu.
- Journals
- General
- Experimental Design
- Linear Models (Regression & Analysis of Variance)
- Data Analytical Topics
- Statistical Graphics
- Nonparametric Techniques
- Categorical Data
- Multivariate Analysis
- Repeated Measures
- Biostatistics
- Quality
- Miscellaneous
These are journals every practicing statistical consultant should know about. In addition, the statistical journals are mostly accessible to scientists who seek statistical consulting advice.
- British Medical Journal
- Science News
- PO Box 1925, Marion, OH 43305, ph: 1-800-247-2160
- Discover
- PO Box 420105, Palm Coast, FL 32142-1015, ph: 1-800-829-9132
- American Scientist Magazine of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
- Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society PO Box 13975, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. ph: 1-919-549-4691
- Nature
- UK
- Science
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Scientific American
- The Scientist
- "When You Consult a Statistician... What to Expect"
- Berman N, Gansky S, Guillon C, Loughin T, Sanchez M (2003). American Statistical Association Section on Statistical Consulting Brochure.
- American Statistician
- American Statistical Association, 732 North Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314-1943, ph: 1-508-750-8400 (asainfo@amstat.org)
- Statistical Science
- Institute of Mathematical Statistics, 3401 Investment Boulevard #7, Hayward, CA 94545-3819-18
- Stats: The Magazine for Students of Statistics
- American Statistical Association, 732 North Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314-1943, ph: 1-508-750-8400 (asainfo@amstat.org)
- Applied Statistics (JRSSC)
- Royal Statistical Society (RSS), Journals Marketing Manager, Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK, ph/fax: 011-44-0865-722-964
- Biometrics
- International Biometric Society (IBS) , 808 17th Street, NW #200, Washington, DC 20006-3910
- Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics (JABES),
- ASA & IBS
- Statistics in Medicine
- Technometrics
- American Society for Quality (ASQ) and ASA
Snedecor and Cochran remains the best single text for a practicing statistician or scientist. There are many introductory texts, of which two very readable ones are mentioned.
- D Freedman, R Pisani, R Purves & A Adhikari (1991)
- Statistics, 2nd ed, WW Norton. [See review in The Statistician (JRSSD) 42, 74-75.]
- RL Wardrop (1995)
- Statistics: Learning in the Presence of Variation, Wm. C. Brown. [See review in American Statistician 49, 237-238.] Note: Although Brown has dropped all their statistics textbooks, rumors are that copies of this one are still available from the author.
- L Gonick and S Woollcott (1993)
- The Cartoon Guide to Statistics, HarperPerennial.
- Snedecor & Cochran (1989)
- Statistical Methods, 8th ed, Blackwell Publishing [See reviews in J Quality Technology 22, 252-253, and J American Statistical Association (JASA) 86, 834.]
Many books in other sections contain major sections on design. The books listed here are classics, and still valuable.
- Box, Hunter and Hunter (1978)
- Statistics for Experimenters, Wiley
- Cochran (1977)
- Sampling Techniques, 3rd ed, Wiley
- Cochran and Cox (1950)
- Experimental Designs, 2nd ed, Wiley
- Cox (1958)
- Planning of Experiments, Wiley
- Fisher (1971)
- The Design of Experiments, Hafner Press,
Linear models comprises the subjects of regression and analysis of variance, as well as the hybrid analysis of covariance. This listed is divided roughly into accessible and more advanced. See also titles under data analysis.
- Box and Draper (1987)
- Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces, Wiley
- Chatterjee and Price (1977)
- Regression Analysis by Example, Wiley
- Draper and Smith (1981)
- Applied Regression Analysis, 2nd ed, Wiley
- Frees (1996)
- Data Analysis Using Regression Models: The Business Perspective, Prentice-Hall
- Hocking (1985)
- The Analysis of Linear Models, Brooks/Cole
- Miller (1980)
- Simultaneous Statistical Inference, 2nd ed, Springer-Verlag
- Neter, Wasserman and Kutner (1985)
- Applied Linear Statistical Models, 2nd ed, Irwin
- Scheffe (1959)
- The Analysis of Variance, Wiley
- Searle (1971)
- Linear Models, Wiley
- Searle (1987)
- Linear Models for Unbalanced Data, Wiley
- Seber (1977)
- Linear Regression Analysis, Wiley
These books are largely problem oriented, with attention to design, analysis and graphics. However, most books on this page deal with data analysis.
- Cox and Snell (1981)
- Applied Statistics, Principles and Examples, Chapman & Hall
- Milliken and Johnson (1992)
- Analysis of Messy Data 1: Designed Experiments, 2nd ed. Chapman & Hall
- Milliken and Johnson (1989)
- Analysis of Messy Data 2: Nonreplicated Experiments, Chapman & Hall
- Yandell (1997)
- Practical Data Analysis for Designed Experiments, Chapman & Hall
- Bates and Watts (1988)
- Nonlinear Regression Analysis and Its Applications, Wiley
- Mosteller and Tukey (1977)
- Data Analysis and Regression, Addison-Wesley
- Tukey (1977)
- Exploratory Data Analysis, Addison-Wesley
There are some very clever ideas about graphics in these books.
- Chambers, Cleveland, Kleiner and Tukey (1983)
- Graphical Methods for Data Analysis, Wadsworth
- Tufte (1983)
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Graphics Press, Chesire, Conn.
- Cleveland (1985)
- The Elements of Graphing Data, Wadsworth
- Cleveland (1993)
- Visualizing Data, AT&T Bell Labs
- Michael Friendly's Graphical Methods
- ASA Statistical Graphics Section
Both of these books have lots of examples and avoid heavy math.
- Conover (1980)
- Practical Nonparametric Statistics, 2nd ed, Wiley
- Lehmann (1975)
- Nonparametrics, Holden-Day
This area typically has more involved notation and is trickier to use than linear models. However, the accessible books do a nice job of developing main ideas. The latter books are helpfull for a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
- Cox and Snell (1989)
- Analysis of Binary Data, 2nd ed, Chapman & Hall
- Everitt (1977)
- The Analysis of Contingency Tables, Halsted
- Fienberg (1980)
- The Analysis of Cross-Classified Categorical Data, 2nd ed, MA Inst Tech (MIT) Press
- Fahrmeir and Tutz (1994)
- Multivariate Statistical Modelling Based on Generalized Linear Models, Springer-Verlag
- Hastie and Tibshirani (1990)
- Generalized Additive Models, Chapman & Hall
- McCullagh and Nelder (1989)
- Generalized Linear Models, 2nd ed, Chapman & Hall
Multivariate analysis is by nature a more advanced topic. All of these books have merit. At present, I prefer Krzanowski and the SAGE series.
- Krzanowski (1988)
- Principles of Multivariate Analysis: A User's Perspective, Oxford
- Morrison (1976)
- Multivariate Statistical Methods, McGraw-Hill
- SAGE Series: Quantitiative Applications in the Social Sciences
- has several short books on multivariate analysis topics
- Anderson (1984)
- An Introduction to Multivariate Statistical Analysis, 2nd ed, Wiley
- Gnanadesikan (1977)
- Methods for Statistical Data Analysis of Multivariate Observations, Wiley
- Seber (1984)
- Multivariate Observations, Wiley
Repeated measures, longitudinal analysis and time series are all interrelated. These topics are also addressed in some books in the linear models and multivariate analysis sections.
- Box, Jenkins and Reinsel (1977)
- Time Series Analysis: Forecasting and Control, 3rd ed, Prentice-Hall
- Crowder and Hand (1990)
- Analysis of Repeated Measures, Chapman & Hall
- Diggle, Liang and Zeger (1994)
- Analysis of Longitudinal Data, Clarendon Press.
- Rovine and von Eye (1991)
- Applied Computational Statistics in Longitudinal Research, Academic Press
- Winer (1971)
- Statistical Principles in Experimental Design, McGraw-Hill
Biostatistics comprises medical and/or biological statistics, largely focussed on human biological systems. It generally includes the topics of clinical trials, survival analysis and epidemiology. Zar is very popular among practicioners. Kalbfleisch and Prentice is a standard, advanced reference.
- D Collett (1994)
- Modelling Survival Data in Medical Research, Chapman & Hall
- Fleiss (1986)
- The Design and Analysis of Clinical Experiment, Wiley
- Woolson (1987)
- Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Biomedical Data
- JH Zar (1984)
- Biostatistical Analysis (2nd ed) Prentice-Hall
- Fisher and van Belle (1993)
- Biostatistics: A Methodology for the Health Sciences, Wiley
- Kalbfleisch and Prentice (1980)
- The Statistical Analysis of Failure Time Data, Wiley
This includes some books on quality.
This includes some books of general interest about consulting, as well as references on distributions and statistical topics in general.
Applied Stat Discussion List - its focus is discussion issues of applied statisticians
Another good site for information can be found here.
- Christopher Chatfield (1988)
- Problem solving: A statistician's guide, Chapman & Hall
- J Derr (2000)
- Statistical Consulting: A Guide to Effective Communication, Duxbury Press
- Huff (1954)
- How to Lie with Statistics, WW Norton
- Johnson and Kotz (1969-1972)
- four volumes on Distributions in Statistics, Wiley
- Kotz and Johnson (1982)
- Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Wiley
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