Statistics Refreshers and Glossaries of Terms
Beware the procrastination monster. Statistical analysis takes time.
The help sections of the statistics packages are often helpful resources for refreshers on a concept you may have forgotten. In particular, the help sections of StatPlus:Mac LE and SPSS have useful information. The best resource available to you for a statistics refresher is Paula Lackie (x 5607, or email plackie). Helpful links to all-things-stats-related can be found (organized by category) at http://statlink.tripod.com/.
Additionally, there are online learning programs and tutorials available.
- Carnegie Mellon offers a free online program for learning statistics available here. It is extremely well done.
- ICPSR has many learning guides available in their online learning center. For guides organized by type of analysis, go here. ICPSR also has a help center with information on using data.
- http://www.teachingwithdata.org/
- http://statpages.org/javasta4.html
- UCLA has a beautiful table for choosing the appropriate statistical analysis .. including HOW TO DO IT in Stata & SPSS! It's slightly out of date, but useful nonetheless.
- What the heck is the difference between Categorical, Ordinal & Interval data? (psst: "categorical" is also called nominal and "interval" is like scale or continuous.)
Helpful online glossaries of terms:
- A glossary of social science data terms is available here.
- NSF glossary of statistical terminology
- Internet Glossary of Statistical Terms
- Glossary of Terms for Metadata, Taxonomies, and Digital Libraries
- More information about data formats and file types from ICPSR
Additionally, there are links to guidance on choosing the right analysis method available:
- StatPages provides some decision trees and other helpful information
- An explanation of parametric vs non-parametric data
For help with qualitative analysis, you can check out this website: