Statistical Methods for Research Workers

<h2 id="reviews">Reviews</h2>

<p>According to Denis Conniffe:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ronald A. Fisher was "interested in application and in the popularization
of statistical methods and his early book <i>Statistical Methods for Research Workers</i>, published in 1925, went through many editions and
motivated and influenced the practical use of statistics in many fields of
study. His <i>Design of Experiments</i> (1935)  [promoted] statistical technique and application. In that book he
emphasized examples and how to design experiments systematically from
a statistical point of view. The mathematical justification of the methods
described was not stressed and, indeed, proofs were often barely sketched
or omitted altogether ..., a fact which led <a href="/facts/Henry_Mann/fI3rXMyk">H. B. Mann</a> to fill the gaps with a rigorous mathematical treatment in his well-known treatise, Mann (1949)."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a>
</p>
</blockquote><p>According to <a href="/facts/Erich_Leo_Lehmann/hun7hqhM">Erich L. Lehmann</a>:</p><blockquote><p>Even reviewers who were not offended by Fisher's attack on traditional methods found much to criticize. In particular, they complained about Fisher's dogmatism, the lack of proofs, the emphasis on small samples, and the difficulty of the book. However, a review by <a href="/facts/Harold_Hotelling/gGTx0uY8">Harold Hotelling</a>, which was submitted to the <i><a href="/facts/Journal_of_the_American_Statistical_Association/H513IjxL">Journal of the American Statistical Association</a></i> in 1927, did justice to Fisher's achievement. Hotelling stated in his review that "most books on statistics consist of pedagogic rehashes of identical material. This comfortably orthodox subject matter is absent from the volume under review, which summarizes for the reader the author's independent codification of statistical theory and some of his brilliant constributions to the subject, not all of which have previosuly been published".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a></p></blockquote>
<h2 id="chapters">Chapters</h2>
<ul><li>Prefaces</li></ul>
<ol><li>Introduction</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Diagram/H0PKEUrI">Diagrams</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Probability_distribution/EpsKKVRu">Distributions</a></li>
<li>Tests of <a href="/facts/Goodness_of_fit/qlTfUIfS">Goodness of Fit</a>, <a href="/facts/Statistical_independence/NUzQtnUL">Independence</a> and <a href="/facts/Homoscedasticity/50v2qyEN">Homogeneity</a>; with table of χ2</li>
<li>Tests of <a href="/facts/Statistical_significance/PMxjdlAu">Significance</a> of Means, Difference of Means, and Regression Coefficients</li>
<li>The <a href="/facts/Pearson_product-moment_correlation_coefficient/Igf0xDPc">Correlation Coefficient</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Intraclass_correlation/GjhrGfUD">Intraclass Correlations</a> and the <a href="/facts/Analysis_of_variance/HHR2jkDk">Analysis of Variance</a></li>
<li>Further Applications of the Analysis of Variance</li></ol>
<ul><li>SOURCES USED FOR DATA AND METHODS INDEX</li></ul>
<p>In the second edition of 1928 a chapter 9 was added: The Principles of Statistical Estimation.
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><i><a href="/facts/The_Design_of_Experiments/mEw6nyuC">The Design of Experiments</a></i></li></ul>
<h2 id="notes">Notes</h2>

<ul><li><a href="/facts/Henry_Mann/fI3rXMyk">Mann, H. B.</a> (1949). <i>Analysis and design of experiments: Analysis of variance and analysis of variance designs</i>. New York, N. Y.: Dover Publications, Inc. pp. x+195. <a href="/facts/MR_(identifier)/uP137L11">MR</a> <a href="https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0032177">0032177</a>.</li></ul>

<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<ul><li>The March 1951 issue of the <i><a href="/facts/Journal_of_the_American_Statistical_Association/H513IjxL">Journal of the American Statistical Association</a></i> contains articles celebrating the 25th anniversary of the publication of the first edition.</li>
<li><a href="/facts/A.W.F._Edwards/Ut3t2dec">A.W.F. Edwards</a> (2005) "R. A. Fisher, Statistical Methods for Research Workers, 1925," in I. Grattan-Guinness (ed) <i>Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics: Case Studies, 1640-1940,</i> Amsterdam: Elsevier.</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Leonard_Jimmie_Savage/qlmq7Uaq">Savage, Leonard J.</a> (1976). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1214%2Faos%2F1176343456">"On Rereading R. A. Fisher"</a>. <i><a href="/facts/Annals_of_Statistics/frNL5W9E">Annals of Statistics</a></i>. 4 (3): 441–500. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1214%2Faos%2F1176343456">10.1214/aos/1176343456</a>.</li></ul>
<h3>Reviews</h3>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Nature_(journal)/XmlJXkFx">Nature</a> anonymous review of Fisher’s Statistical Methods <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210305005008/http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/fisherguide/Nature.htm">[1]</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/The_BMJ/cbFxIeyr">BMJ</a> anonymous review of Fisher’s Statistical Methods <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210305013530/http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/fisherguide/bmj.htm">[2]</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/William_Sealy_Gosset/5v21pjTh">Student</a>’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20211006230626/http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/fisherguide/Student.htm">review of Fisher’s Statistical Methods</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Egon_Pearson/GaTrAAo9">Egon Pearson</a>’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210305012455/http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/fisherguide/esp.htm">reviews of Fisher’s Statistical Methods</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Harold_Hotelling/gGTx0uY8">Harold Hotelling</a>’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210618153848/http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/fisherguide/Hotelling.htm">review of Fishers’ Statistical Methods</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Leon_Isserlis/3SY8WRUt">Leon Isserlis</a>’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20211130204429/http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/fisherguide/Isserlis.htm">review of Fishers’ Statistical Methods</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/William_Palin_Elderton/DMJcY2fQ">W. P. Elderton</a>’s<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190904093452/http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/fisherguide/wpe.htm">review of Fisher’s Statistical Methods</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Fisher/Methods/">Text of first edition</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0198522290">The 14th edition (prepared from notes left by Fisher when he died in 1962) is reprinted as the first part of Statistical Methods, Experimental Design and Scientific Inference</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Scanned version of Statistical Methods first edition <a href="http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Fisher/Methods/" target="_blank">http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Fisher/Methods/</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>Lehmann, Erich L. (2011). Fisher, Neyman, and the creation of classical statistics. New York, NY: Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-4419-9500-1. <a href="978-1-4419-9500-1" target="_blank">978-1-4419-9500-1</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Conniffe, Denis (1990–1991). "R. A. Fisher and the development of statistics—a view in his centenary year". Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland. Vol. XXVI, no. 3. Dublin: Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland. p. 87. hdl:2262/2764. ISSN 0081-4776. <a href="http://www.tara.tcd.ie/jspui/handle/2262/2764" target="_blank">http://www.tara.tcd.ie/jspui/handle/2262/2764</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Lehmann, Erich L. (2011). Fisher, Neyman, and the creation of classical statistics. New York, NY: Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-4419-9500-1. <a href="978-1-4419-9500-1" target="_blank">978-1-4419-9500-1</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

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Statistical Methods for Research Workers