Statistical analysis allows us to attach meaning to data that we have collected; it helps us to understand what experimental results really mean, and to assess whether we can trust what experiments seem to be telling us. Yet, despite being a collection of the most valuable and important tools available to bioscientists, statistics is often the aspect of study most feared by students.

Biomeasurement offers a refreshing, student-focused introduction to the use of statistics in the study of the biosciences. With an emphasis on why statistical techniques are essential tools for bioscientists, the book develops students' confidence to use and further explore the key techniques for themselves.

Beginning by placing the role of data analysis in the context of the wider scientific method and introducing the student to the key terms and concepts common to all statistical tools, the book then guides the student through descriptive statistics, and on to inferential statistics, explaining how and why each type of technique is used, and what each can tell us in order to better understand our data. It goes on to present the key statistical tests, walking the student step-wise through the use of each, with carefully-integrated examples and plentiful opportunities for hands-on practice. The book closes with an overview of choosing the right test to suit your data, and tools for presenting data and their statistical analyses.

Written by a talented educator, whose teaching has won praise from the UK's Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Biomeasurement is sure to engage even the most wary of students, demonstrating the power and importance of statistics throughout the study of bioscience.

The eBook offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features and links that offer extra learning support: Find the eBook on VitalSource.

Key Features

• Includes the best online resources and software support for bioscience students needing to integrate statistics into their studies and apply it in their research
• Explains why statistics are needed, how to choose and carry out statistical analyses, and how their results can be interpreted.
• Focuses on the application of statistics as a valuable research tool, avoiding detailed treatment of the mathematical basis of statistics
• Emphasises explanations so that students are guided through the key concepts and techniques in a steady, progressive way
• Enables students to build confidence in handling actual data through the use of real datasets
• Illustrates the use of the techniques in published research work through 'Literature Links', which highlight the importance of statistics in real-world science and demonstrate how to report results in a professional manner
• Comes with a strong suite of accompanying online resources for students and teachers including helpsheets and screencasts for using SPSS and R, as well as datasets, and interactive calculation sheets.

New to This Edition

• New sections giving guidance on sample size choices and their consequences
• An additional 'Choosing Chart' for graphs to help explore and communicate data
• A new checklist for reporting results in tables and figures
• Fuller treatment of frequency data and their handling in chi-square tests using SPSS
• Expanded online support for R and SPSS, including additional example datasets.

1: Why am I reading this book?
2: Getting to grips with the basics
3: Describing a single sample
4: Inferring and estimating
5: Choosing the right test and graph
6: Overview of null hypothesis significance testing
7: Tests on frequencies
8: Tests of difference: two unrelated samples
9: Tests of difference: two related samples
10: Tests of difference: more than two samples
11: Tests of relationship: regression
12: Tests of relationship: correlation
13: Introducing the generalized linear model: general linear model
14: More on the generalized linear model: logistic and loglinear models
Appendix I How to enter data into SPSS
Appendix II Statistical tables of critical values
Appendix III Summary guidance on reporting statistical results
Appendix IV Statistics and experimental design
Related Titles

Dawn Hawkins, Reader, Department of Life Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University

Dr Dawn Hawkins is Reader in the School of Life Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University. She has over 20 years' experience in curriculum development and teaching whole organism biology and statistics in higher education. Her textbook is based on the quantitative modules that she teaches to undergraduate and postgraduate bioscientists. As well as the use of statistics in the biosciences, her research interests also include the behaviour, ecology and conservation of animals in East African ecosystems.

This book is accompanied by a student resources website that includes:

• Screencast walkthroughs for SPSS and R
• Online glossary and flashcard glossary
• Datasets, for use in statistical analysis software packages
• Help sheets offering concise guidance on key techniques and the use of statistical analysis software packages
• Interactive calculation sheets to help students carry out key statistical tests quickly and easily in Excel, without the need for other software
• Full-text versions of Literature Link articles from OUP Journals.

Click here to access the full list of student resources

For registered adopters of the text, the instructor resource website includes:

• Additional exercises, to supplement those in the book, and suggested tutorial assignments
• Figures from the book, available for download
• PowerPoint presentation outlines for each chapter.

Click here to access the full list of lecturer resources

Review from previous edition: "Biomeasurement does a wonderful job of keeping the biology the focus of analysis, and highlighting the fact that statistics is simply another useful tool to help biological understanding." - Dr Shane Richards, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Durham, UK

"This book represents the best I have seen for teaching undergraduate biologists statistics." - Dr Chris Venditti, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Hull, UK

"It demystifies and clarifies topics that students can normally find confusing and challenging. It is a must for biologists!" - Dr Maria G. Tuohy, School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway

"This book was a blessing when I got it for my first year, and I'm still finding it helpful in my second year! It is so easy to navigate; you can read it cover to cover if you are very confused, or just dip into the topics you need. I would definitely recommend it to any students doing a bioscience degree which involves statistical elements." - Bethany Richmond, student at the University of Warwick

"As a student with limited mathematical ability, new to statistics who believed I would not be able to pass this module, I read this book chapter by chapter prior to my weekly lectures and everything fell into place without a struggle. A 100% necessary purchase. A 100% necessary read. The book is appealing and very easy to navigate. I have tried to read other statistics books aimed at beginners but this was the only book which I clearly understood." - Julie Carter, student at Anglia Ruskin University