Course Identification

Statistical analysis of research data using R
20213042

Lecturers and Teaching Assistants

Dr. Ron Rotkopf
N/A

Course Schedule and Location

2021
Second Semester
Tuesday, 11:15 - 13:00
06/04/2021
31/08/2021

Field of Study, Course Type and Credit Points

Life Sciences: Lecture; Elective; Regular; 2.00 points
Chemical Sciences: Lecture; Elective; Regular; 2.00 points
Life Sciences (Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Track): Lecture; Elective; Regular; 2.00 points
Life Sciences (Brain Sciences: Systems, Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience Track): Lecture; Elective; Regular; 2.00 points
Life Sciences (Computational and Systems Biology Track): Lecture; Elective; Regular; 2.00 points

Comments

All courses in the first semester will be held on-line via zoom.

This course aims to familiarize students with executing a variety of statistical tests: t-tests, ANOVA and its different variations, multiple linear regression and more. The final assignment will contain several datasets, for which you will have to determine the appropriate statistical tests, execute the tests and report the results.

Prerequisites

No

Restrictions

91

Language of Instruction

English

Registration by

15/03/2021

Attendance and participation

Expected and Recommended

Grade Type

Numerical (out of 100)

Grade Breakdown (in %)

100%
The exam will be given at 11.7.21 and you will have three weeks.

Evaluation Type

Take-home exam

Scheduled date 1

N/A
N/A
-
N/A

Estimated Weekly Independent Workload (in hours)

3

Syllabus

This course aims to familiarize students with executing a variety of statistical tests: t-tests, ANOVA and its different variations, multiple linear regression and more. The principle aim of the course is to enable students to understand which analysis is applicable for each type of data, and execute the proper analyses using R. The main focus will be on usability and application of statistical knowledge in answering research questions, and less on the mathematical background of the statistical methods. No background in programming is needed.
 
Topics by week:
  1. Introduction to R
  2. Descriptive statistics
  3. Comparing two populations: t-test.
  4. Comparing two populations - non-parametric tests
  5. One-way ANOVA
  6. Multiple comparisons and contrasts
  7. Two-way ANOVA
  8. Experimental design - randomized block, nested, split-plot
  9. Experimental design - repeated measures
  10. Data transformation, power calculations
  11. Linear regression
  12. Correlation + selected topics

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to:

  1. Determine the appropriate statistical analysis for a given experimental setting.
  2. Plan experiments while considering statistical power, sufficient sample size, and avoiding potential statistical "pitfalls".
  3. Execute a variety of common statistical tests (e.g., t-tests, ANOVA and its different variations, multiple linear regression, non-parametric analysis) using R (although the knowledge obtained will be applicable for commercial statistical software as well).
  4. Critically review statistical analyses conducted in published papers.

Reading List

  1. Sokal, Robert R. Biometry: the principles and practice of statistics in biological research.
  2. Jolicoeur, P. Introduction to Biometry (available as e-book).
  3. Software: The course will use R, which is freely accessible. Commercial statistics packages you can use on your own include Statistica, Systat, SPSS, JMP, and Stata. Less user-friendly options are SAS, which is available at Weizmann via a site license, and Matlab.

Website

N/A