Statistical

Software

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educational use by licensed users of LearningStats. It may not be copied or resold for profit.
 The “Right” Software?
All- purpose stand-alone software
“Packages” that you buy for your PC or license for your
organization. They are written in a language such as C, and
can handle a great variety of statistical tasks. Site licenses
often expensive, but there may be student versions. Choose the
“right” software
Add-ins that work with Excel for your needs
Purchase or install free from a textbook CD. These may be
powerful general purpose (higher priced) or limited to the
tasks taught in introductory statistics classes (cheap or free).
Usually written in VBA.

Special-purpose software
Optimized for specific tasks (e.g., data mining, geographic
information systems, structural equation modeling).
Generally expensive, but lower-priced Excel-based versions
or discounts may be available.
 General Statistics - I
MINITAB http://www.minitab.com
• affordable “rental” educational version http://www.e-academy.com
• on-line and phone support
• easy to use by novices
• very widely used in education

SAS http://www.sas.com
• high-end software that does everything
• used by high-end researchers
• powerful command language
• requires training
 General Statistics - II
SPSS http://www.spss.com
• affordable educational version
• powerful commercial version
• oriented toward social research
• high-end software that does everything

Stata http://www.stata.com
• powerful general purpose package (esp. non-parametric)
• command driven (must learn to type commands)
• reviewed in The American Statistician 56, 3, Aug. 2002, pp. 235-246.
 General Statistics - III
StatTools http://www.palisade.com/stattools/
• affordable educational version
• powerful commercial version
• spreadsheet-oriented

SYSTAT http://www.systat.com
• powerful general purpose package
• command driven (must learn to type commands)
• good for data visualization
 General Statistics - IV
JMP http://www.jmpdiscovery.com
• affordable educational version (by SAS)
• visual, graphical orientation
• somewhat oriented toward social research
• reviewed in The American Statistician 56, 1, Feb. 2002, pp. 72-75.

MPlus http://www.statmodel.com
• specialized

• advanced features (e.g., Structural Equation Modeling)

 General Statistics - V
S-Plus http://insightful.com
• powerful language with programming capability
• requires training to use effectively
• good reputation among statisticians in higher education

MegaStat http://blue.butler.edu/~orris/megastat/
• Excel-based add-in
• provided by textbook publisher
• no training required
 General Statistics - VI
Statistica http://www.statsoft.com
• data mining
• graphical orientation
• powerful

NCSS http://www.ncss.com
• does most basic tests
• design of experiments
• survival analysis
 General Statistics - VII
StatExact http://www.cytel.com
• common tests
• graphical orientation

• reviewed in The American Statistician 56, 3, Aug. 2002, pp. 235-246.

Resampling Stats http://www.resample.com

• student version available
• limited focus
• uses simulation methods
 Other Statistics
Sudaan http://www.rti.org/sudaan
• for correlated data
• consultants available

SCA http://www.scausa.com
• time series and econometrics
• training seminars offered

Visual Statistics http://www.mhhe.com/doane4e

• teaches concepts (not computation)
• included as an option for some textbooks
• learning exercises, examples, and help system
 Power and Sample Size
Biostat http://www.poweranalysis.com
• For specialized research design
• Report generation capabilities

Stat-Ease http://www.statease.com/
• For research design of experiments
• Many advanced features for specialists
 Data Mining
CART http://www.salford-systems.com
• Classification analysis
• Decision trees

MARS http://www.salford-systems.com
• Neural net
• Regression modeling

XLMiner http://www.resample.com/xlminer
• Excel-based yet powerful enough for many needs
• Relatively cheap with academic pricing

SPSS and SAS

• have full data-mining capabilities (see previous slides)
 Meta-Analysis
Biostat http://www.metaanalysis.com
• For research synthesis
• Report-generating capabilities
 Geographic
Information Systems

ArcGIS http://esri.com
• For displaying and analyzing geographic information
• Many different kinds of software for various tasks
• Hot area of statistics – displaying map info
 Simulation
@Risk http://www.palisade.com/
• Simulation using spreadsheet add-ins
• Report-generating capabilities
• Graphical summaries

Arena http://www.arenasimulation.com/
• Discrete event simulation
• Flowcharting in Microsoft Visio
• Import/export to Miscrosoft Excel or Access
• Includes Visual Basic for Applications

XLSim http://www.analycorp.com
• Excel-based
• Pedagogy is stressed
 Health Care Quality

Association for Benchmarking Health Care http://www.abhc.org

• benchmarking sharing
• individual or group membership

American Society for Quality http://www.asq.org/

• books and resources
• industry but also services
Health Care Management
National Institute for Health Care
Management Research and Educational
Foundation http://www.nihcm.org/
• non-profit, nor-partisan
• research, policy analysis

HCFA - Health Care Financial Management

Association http://www.hfma.org/
• 32,000 management professionals
• career assistance and job banks
 Things Change …

Statistical software evolves. Do your own

research. Ask professionals for advice.
Better things are coming …
WORK IN PROGRESS
THIS PRESENTATION IS EVOLVING

Disclaimer The web links listed here are not intended as endorsements, but
rather as sources of information. The commercial market evolves continually,
so any list is quickly outdated. But it may provide a place to start.