A quick guide to other statistical software

Introduction Wide range of statistical programs available www.statistics.com – over 150 listed programs Differences in ease of use, types of analysis, popularity, and cost. Need to decide what sort of program would be most effective for your research needs. Brief overview of a range of different statistical programs available.

Statistical analysis and programs SAS R S-plus Stata Sigmastat Excel Minitab Stats Direct Graphpad Prism

SAS Software system for data analysis and report writing. Can store data values and retrieve them, modify data, compute simple statistics, and create reports all in one SAS session. Difference between SAS and most statistical packages is that SAS incorporates a data- base management system and a high-level programming language.

Also SAS software which provides graphics, forecasting, data entry, and sophisticated statistics. Designed for use by pharmaceutical statisticians, researchers, and engineers. Key features: analysis of variance, regression, categorical data analysis, multivariate analysis, survival analysis, psychometric analysis, cluster analysis, nonparametric analysis, survey data analysis. Cost – very expensive but University licence. http://www.sas.com/

R R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. R has its own syntax and can operate on any platform Windows, UNIX, etc. R provides a wide range of statistical and graphical techniques, and is highly extensible with many libraries.

R R is available as free software under the terms of the Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public License in source code form. Journals and extensive help and used by statisticians scientists across the world Developed by same individuals that created S-plus http://www.r-project.org/

Stata A complete, integrated statistical package that provides everything you need for data analysis, data management, and graphics. With a point-and-click interface, as well as intuitive command syntax and online help, Stata is easy to use, fast, and accurate. However programming language is required and this may take some time to learn. http://www.stata.com/

STATA Stata is particular useful to professionals working in the areas of medical research and economic research. GradPlan - ~£120 http://www.timberlake.co.uk

Minitab A computer program designed to perform basic and advanced statistical functions. It combines the user-friendliness of Microsoft Excel with the ability to perform complex statistical analysis. www.minitab.com

Extensive on-line help is available at any point of a MINITAB session Extensive on-line help is available at any point of a MINITAB session. Most tasks can be performed by using menus and selecting options in dialog boxes. However, MINITAB also offers a macro facility that allows you to write MINITAB routines to automate repetitive tasks.

Minitab is currently delivered through the Standard Operating Environment (SOE) in all ICS IT Suites and to some University Staff. It can be also used on other, non-SOE, University of Dundee computers located on University premises. Home or personal use is not permitted.

A licence is purchased annually with departments requiring to use it paying a share of the cost. Details of participating departments can be obtained from ICS Helpdesk. Contact your departmental IT support staff who will install it for you on your University computer.

SigmaStat 3.5 Walks you step by step through the analysis of your data You don’t need to know which test is right for your data Can do regression, ANOVA, non-parametric tests, correlations, power and sample size calculations, survival analysis etc.

SigmaStat 3.5 Automatically checks your data against assumptions Generates written report that interprets your analysis results in plain English Also SigmaPlot Single user $499 30 day trial www.systat.com

Excel Available on all university computers. Excel is a great program for storing and manipulating data. Commonly used statistics and methods are NOT available and it can perform only a few statistical analyses. Its lack of functionality makes it difficult to use for more than computing summary statistics and simple univariate regression.

StatsDirect Easy to use Technically advanced Comprehensive – broad coverage of methods. Biomedical/health focus with strong support for epidemiology

Workbooks (similar to Excel spreadsheet) Import any common spreadsheet data Import text based data (formatted or plain) Windows metafile scaleable graphics (can edit components in Word)

Affordable – single user licence (non- commercial) is £99. Low cost licenses for academic, students and the developing world. http://www.statsdirect.com/

Graphpad Prism Powerful combination of basic biostatistics, curve fitting, and scientific graphing in one comprehensive program. Ideally suited to data plotting and analysis applications in the life sciences. Designed for laboratory and clinical researchers.

Guides you through the analysis process and can provide guidance when choosing a test and interpretation of results. Useful for basic statistical comparisons (t-tests, ANOVA, nonparametric comparisons) but is not a replacement for a statistics program. http://www.graphpad.com/prism/Prism.htm 30 day free trial. Student single license - ~£250

Flow chart of what tests to use for various groups and types of data Note: ANOVA chart is over the page This flow chart has been taken from: SPSS 12 Made Simple, Paul R Kinnear, Colin D Gray, 2004, Psychology Press

Flow chart of which tests to use for comparing more than 2 groups This flow chart has been taken from: SPSS 12 Made Simple, Paul R Kinnear, Colin D Gray, 2004, Psychology Press