„Uniquely accessible and abounding in modern-day tools, tricks, andadvice, the text successfully bridges the gap between the currentlevel of social science methodology and the more sophisticatedtechnical coverage.“ (Zentralblatt Math 1130, May 2008)
„Clarity of presentations is excellent. Applied statisticiansand computer scientists will like this book and find it veryuseful.“ (Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, November 2005)
„[The authors] ... have succeeded in providing... a goodunderstanding of the potential pitfalls involved in theimplementation of methodology computationally, and... good advice ondealing with the problems that can arise.“ (Statistics inMedical Research, June 2005)
„This book provides the researcher with an overview of theissues involved in the implementation and computation of commonstatistical procedures....“ (Statistical Methods inMedical Research, Vol. 14, 2005)
„... this book is a good reference for social scientists thatare involved in computational statistics.“ (Journal ofStatistical Software, April 2005)
„... timely and interesting, and on the whole provides a goodbalance of theory, application, and computation.“(Technometrics, May 2005)
„... an excellent text. It has the potential to be enormouslyinfluential across the social sciences... It should be requiredreading for everyone who performs statistical computing at theadvanced level...“ (Journal of the American StatisticalAssociation, June 2005)
„... a compact guide to the voluminous literature onoptimisation, numerical analysis, and computational statistics. This is no small achievement.“ (Statistical SoftwareNewsletter in Computational Statistics and Data Analysis)
„... a very important one for researchers, social scientists, and... graduate and post-graduate students in variousdisciplines...“ (Computing Reviews. com, July 6, 2004)
„This comprehensive research and guidebook by Altman, Gill, andMcDonald offers to social scientists modern tools and trickspreviously lacking in other works.“ (Choice, June2004, Vol. 41 No. 10)
Numerical Issues in Statistical Computing for the Social Scientist
von Micah Altman, Jeff Gill und Michael P. McDonaldAddressing the current deficiency in the literature onstatistical methods as they apply to the social and behavioralsciences, Numerical Issues in Statistical Computing for the SocialScientist seeks to provide readers with a unique practicalguidebook to the numerical methods underlying computerizedstatistical calculations specific to these fields. The authorsdemonstrate that knowledge of these numerical methods and how theyare used in statistical packages is essential for making accurateinferences. With the aid of key contributors from both the socialand behavioral sciences, the authors have assembled a rich set ofinterrelated chapters designed to guide empirical social scientiststhrough the potential minefield of modern statisticalcomputing.
Uniquely accessible and abounding in modern-day tools, tricks, and advice, the text successfully bridges the gap between thecurrent level of social science methodology and the moresophisticated technical coverage usually associated with thestatistical field.
Highlights include:
* A focus on problems occurring in maximum likelihoodestimation
* Integrated examples of statistical computing (using softwarepackages such as the SAS, Gauss, Splus, R, Stata, LIMDEP, SPSS, WinBUGS, and MATLAB¯®)
* A guide to choosing accurate statistical packages
* Discussions of a multitude of computationally intensivestatistical approaches such as ecological inference, Markov chainMonte Carlo, and spatial regression analysis
* Emphasis on specific numerical problems, statisticalprocedures, and their applications in the field
* Replications and re-analysis of published social scienceresearch, using innovative numerical methods
* Key numerical estimation issues along with the means ofavoiding common pitfalls
* A related Web site includes test data for use in demonstratingnumerical problems, code for applying the original methodsdescribed in the book, and an online bibliography of Web resourcesfor the statistical computation
Designed as an independent research tool, a professionalreference, or a classroom supplement, the book presents awell-thought-out treatment of a complex and multifaceted field.
