Research Methods Resources

Research Methods Resources

Back to Handling data

It was a trick of course. Statistics is all about taking into account variability. If you have only three numbers: 50, 45 and 40; you simply look at them to know which one is the largest. There is no need for a statistical test.

If you're involved in advanced research that develops new methods of analysis, the question "which statistical software is the best?" is a valid question.

In all other cases, a better question would be "what is the right tool for the right job?" If you find it easier to make your summaries and descriptive statistics in MS Excel, use MS Excel. If you have to perform a regression or ANOVA, choose the software you can afford and find easy to use.

It is more important to understand concepts and principles and to place your statistical analysis within the context of the whole research process. No software can do this for you. As you can see in the example on the left, entering three numbers in a software package will give you a lot of statistics, none of them useful.

Use the right tool for the right job, and do not as illustrated below.

Using MS Excel for regression, ANOVA and many other statistical analyses.

Using some of the commonly used statistical software packages for data exploration and descriptive statistics.

Click here to go to the source URL of the picture on the left and here to the one on the right.

Research Methods Resources

GenStat Discovery Edition