Publisher: John Wiley (2008)Details: 599 pages, Hardcover
Price: $100.00
ISBN: 9780470758052
Category: Textbook
Topics: Data Analysis, Statistical Software, Statistics
Yosef Cohen and Jeremiah Y. Cohen
Publisher: John Wiley (2008)
Details: 599 pages, Hardcover
Price: $100.00
ISBN: 9780470758052
Category: Textbook
Topics: Data Analysis, Statistical Software, Statistics
[Reviewed by Ita Cirovic Donev, on 04/20/2009]
Statistics and Data with R is a serious competitor to current books about using R in statistics. It is also a good example of what an introductory applied software book should look like. It is certainly not for an expert or even experienced R user, but it will still fill a gap in many classrooms and be of great help in homework assignments. The table of contents is detailed and quite long. My first thought was that it was too much and that it probably would not be covered in enough detail. Luckily, I was wrong.
The authors really do a great job of balancing the theory, the R code and the presentation. A novice will get an introduction to statistics and data analysis using the software. For a reader already acquainted with R this book will be still than useful, since the presentation does not decrease in substance as we go along. As a result, the book can easily serve as a reference.
As far as the theory goes, results are presented with quite a narrative discussion which serves the purpose of initial understanding of the concepts presented. The most important part, the R code, is presented in a lot of detail, along with appropriate illustrations and figures. Furthermore, there are numerous theoretical and applied examples provided with a step-by-step analysis. Examples are the backbone of the applied chapters, which deal with logistic regression and the like.
This book will most certainly be of great use to upper undergraduate and first-year graduate students or anyone starting to use R for some applied project.
Ita Cirovic Donev holds a Masters degree in statistics from Rice University. Her main research areas are in mathematical finance; more precisely, statistical methods for credit and market risk. Apart from the academic work she does statistical consulting work for financial institutions in the area of risk management.