Cause and Correlation in Biology: Second Edition
A User's Guide to Path Analysis, Structural Equations and Causal Inference with R
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $64.99
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- $64.99
Publisher Description
Many problems in biology require an understanding of the relationships among variables in a multivariate causal context. Exploring such cause-effect relationships through a series of statistical methods, this book explains how to test causal hypotheses when randomised experiments cannot be performed. This completely revised and updated edition features detailed explanations for carrying out statistical methods using the popular and freely available R statistical language. Sections on d-sep tests, latent constructs that are common in biology, missing values, phylogenetic constraints, and multilevel models are also an important feature of this new edition. Written for biologists and using a minimum of statistical jargon, the concept of testing multivariate causal hypotheses using structural equations and path analysis is demystified. Assuming only a basic understanding of statistical analysis, this new edition is a valuable resource for both students and practising biologists.
Customer Reviews
Content good, ebook layout gets an F
This book gives practical exercises in Causal Reasoning and along with giving simple programs in R, allows one to needed experience.
A strong downside is its failing grade to render the material as an ebook. There are many areas where equations and mathematical and R programs are expressed, and most, at least in first few chapters are mostly unintelligible. I’ve been able to guess reasonably well so far as to what the content should have been, and I suppose that makes for added experience in understanding the material — it forces me to understand the material to make sense of it.
Normally I find Amazon’s Kindle version of an ebook to be inferior to the version produced for an Apple ebook, and it might be the case here also, since I didn’t buy the Amazon version so I don’t have that to compare to. But I did download a sample from Amazon; it also is fatally flawed. Some equations (math notations) are wholly absent and with black box in the area where content should have been. In that sense, it is actually worse than the Apple ebook.
I hope the publisher will be issuing corrections to this ebook, as I expect as I get deeper into the book, I simply won’t have the capacity to fathom what should have been rendered.