Experimental Design for the Life Sciences equips students with the skills they need to effectively design experiments, making this essential aspect of the research process readily understandable. With a refreshingly approachable and articulate style, the book walks students through the considerations that go into designing an experiment in clear, practical terms. Using examples drawn from across the life sciences - from ecology, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and health sciences - the authors illustrate how these concepts are applied within the broad context of real biological research.

This title is available as an eBook. Visit VitalSource for more information or to purchase.

1: Why you should care about design
2: Starting with a well-defined hypothesis
3: Selecting the broad design of your study
4: Between-individual variation, replication, and sampling
5: Pseudoreplication
6: Sample size, power, and efficient design
7: The simplest type of experimental design: completely randomized single-factor
8: Experiments with several factors (factorial designs)
9: Beyond complete randomization: blocking and covariates
10: Within-subject designs
11: Taking measurements

Graeme D. Ruxton - Professor, University of St Andrews.

Nick Colegrave - Lecturer in Biology, The University of Edinburgh.

• Self-test questions and answers
• Additional examples
• Supplementary sections discuss complex concepts and statistical issues in more depth
• Links to useful websites and free software

• Suggested course structures, complete with practical exercises
• Figures from the book, available to download

`Review from previous edition This is an excellent book for learning how to approach the design of experimental and, indeed, observational work. It avoids the usual inclusion of statistical detail that turns many students off while retaining all the key issues that are necessary for planning studies that produce good science. I commend this book to all those who struggle to get students to think seriously about designing good scientific studies.' Higher Education Academy, Bioscience e-Journal, June 2006

`I think it is splendid; it is the sort of short and concise text which students remember for a long time and which they hang on to long after the course is passed.' Bernt Walther, Department of Fisheries and Marine Biology, University of Bergen

`A well-presented, clearly argued, concise and witty introduction to one of the most important topics in the life sciences.' Nick Royle, School of Biosciences, Exeter University