Introduction

Abstract

This chapter provides a high-level overview of key concepts and typical steps involved in statistical analysis of biological data. Understanding these concepts is essential for learning the topics provided in the remaining parts of this book. More specifically, we talk about hypothesis testing vs. prediction, defining the target population, sampling data, observational studies vs. experiments, and statistical inference. The high-level road map of simple statistical methods discussed in this chapter helps readers to keep the overall objectives of statistical methods and the steps involved in achieving those objectives in mind while moving from one chapter to another. We also introduce the main computational tools, namely R and R-Commander, that are employed to perform statistical analysis throughout this book.